Last Night = Haute Mess

I'm in Ecuador, but not Quito just yet. The flight is changing planes in Guyaquil, a city about an hour's plane ride away from Quito. The internet is FREE so I wanted to jump on and let everyone know that I made it into the country safely.

Last night was SUCH a mess! The flight was originally supposed to leave at 9pm but we didn't make it out of here until 4AM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Apparently there were some mechanical troubles with the plane that they were trying to get worked out, but everyone was SO pissed because they weren't telling us what was going on. The only way I found out what was happening is by asking some people that I over heard speaking English. The only reason they knew what was going on is because other passengers came and told them the drama. Yes, everything was in Spanish. Needless to say, my listening/deductive reasoning skills are kicking into high gear.

I met a guy that was from Ecuador and he was really nice. We ended up eating a late dinner at Sbarro (the airline did give us a $12 meal voucher for our inconvienence), talking and sitting next to each other until we boarded a plane. There were also a group of teenagers that were headed to Guyaquil for a month to visit their family. They hadn't been since they were little and they were from the Miami area. It was good to have some people around my age to talk to and translate for me.

At 3AM, they called the police over to our gate because all of the passengers were yelling (in Spanish) to the flight representative demanding that they know what was going on, that this is ridiculous, their were children and elderly people sleeping on the floor, etc. I guess she got scared that everyone was going to riot. It looked like they would! I found the whole experience to be interesting and irritating.

When we finally got on the plane, I went STRAIGHT to sleep. Now that my traveling companions are gone, I'm relying on street smarts to get me where I need to go.

There is WAY more that happened, but I am SO beyond tired. I will update more later!