'April 19, 2010
So things have already taken quite a turn and we've barely embarked. We're now on a flight to Ft. Lauderdale because Andrea was held up in security just long enough for us to miss the Miami flight. So now we land at about 1pm and we're going to take a cab to the Miami airport to catch our flight to Bogota at 5pm. I think we'll make it and get back on track to arrive in Quito. All things considered things are okay and we're both in good spirits and embracing the adventure. So we continue on.
8pm local time here in Bogota. Flight #2 was not comfortable at all and that combined with our general fatigue made it quite trying. Getting from Ft. Lauderdale to Miami went smoothly and we had plenty of time to grab a bite and chill out. I'm so tired that I'm blanking mid thought and constantly having to reset where my mind is at. It's a scattered mess right now. The area of El Dorado airport where we're waiting is drab and offers little in the way of food and drinks. Technically I'm in country #3 today but it's pitch black and I'm sitting in an airport. It looks like we might be stuck here during our layover on the way home which would suck. We both really need to lie down. One more flight to go...'
it was definitely an auspicious start to our trip. all things considered it worked out just fine and other than the cost of the shuttle between the ft. lauderdale and miami airport it didn't affect us at all negatively. in fact, i was kind of glad to have a 40 minute drive thrown in there amidst the long day of airports. the flight from miami to bogota was super bumpy and generally not comfortable. then there was another wait of maybe 90 minutes before the 1 hour flight to quito. by the time we were in our pre-arranged cab to our hotel in quito it was nearly midnight and closer to 1am by the time we got to our room, after 3 flights, 4 countries and 18 hours of travel.
i spent the better part of my time down there trying to figure out what the time zone was relative to home and i could never quite figure it out. since i've come home i've ascertained that both columbia and ecuador are in the same time zone as home, however they don't have daylight savings. so same time zone except for the fact that it's not the same for 50% of the time. being so close to the equator also means that daylight is pretty much constant throughout the year so i found that it was getting dark by 6 or 6:30pm in ecuador and i'd come home to find it light out until almost 8:30pm.
the hotel was had in quito for that first night was nice, though the bed was a little stiff. we were only there for maybe 10 hours before leaving to catch a bus down to the park. we would soon come to regret being so hasty. more on that in the next entry.
also, in an odd twist the hostel we ended up staying at on our subsequent stays in quito ended up being on the exact same street as this hotel.
