I made it!
And Quito rocks! It´s a busy, vibrant, slightly shabby kind of place surrounded by these gorgeous looking mountains that I have a distinct urge to climb (or at least to take the cable car up, because actually, they´re epically huge). I can´t even begin to put its coolness into words. I still can´t quite believe i´m actually here. Plus, the weather´s pretty gorgeous.
Flight was okay--I left at midnight, Madrid time, arrived at 8 AM Ecuador time. Was a little confused by the fact that they had to fly past Quito, land at Guayaquil, refuel there and then fly back to Quito, though I´m told that´s a high altitude thing--Quito´s too high to refuel at or something. Not much sleep was had, though, partly due to the eternal uncomfortableness of plane seats (with particular reference to leg room) and partly due to the number of unhappy, uncomfortable young children on the flight who were also failing to sleep.
I had an awkward moment at the immigration desk where I´d just not filled in my immigration form largely because if there was an announcement about it it was made in Spanish and used more than my rather limited vocabulary of words. We sorted it out eventually, though I´ll reserve judgment on that until I try to leave the country.
Flight was okay--I left at midnight, Madrid time, arrived at 8 AM Ecuador time. Was a little confused by the fact that they had to fly past Quito, land at Guayaquil, refuel there and then fly back to Quito, though I´m told that´s a high altitude thing--Quito´s too high to refuel at or something. Not much sleep was had, though, partly due to the eternal uncomfortableness of plane seats (with particular reference to leg room) and partly due to the number of unhappy, uncomfortable young children on the flight who were also failing to sleep.
I had an awkward moment at the immigration desk where I´d just not filled in my immigration form largely because if there was an announcement about it it was made in Spanish and used more than my rather limited vocabulary of words. We sorted it out eventually, though I´ll reserve judgment on that until I try to leave the country.