Ecuador Blitz June 2-5th

Wow!!! What a whirlwind of a weekend! After my flight being canceled out Nassau and missing my connecting flight in Miami, I finally arrived in Ecuador on friday June 2nd! It was an eventful day, that is for sure. Once I was on the plane heading to Ecuador, the pilot came over the speaker and said that the co-pilot had not arrived yet because he had a flat tire on the way to work (i.e. our flight). So we sat at the terminal for an hour waiting for him. Then my seat buddy, good old Carlos Eduardo, wearing a bright orange striped shirt, was friendly as ever and made for an interesting conversation for the first 45 minutes...until he tried to move into the vacant seat next to me when I discovered the alcohol on his breathe. So you can imagine a VERY drunk Ecuadorian gentlemen trying to speak English and singing his little heart out the ENTIRE flight. Luckily, on the other side of me was a young gal, bless her heart, who made the very unfortunate mistake of telling the Ecuadarian drunk her name. He proceeded to try and distract us when watching the movie with sudden outbursts of "Al-lee-son....halllo Al-lee-sooon...i love you Al-lee-son." At that moment, i was thanking my lucky stars that he couldn't remember my name. Finally, i told the flight attendant what was going on and they began watering down his drinks...unforutnately i think we were a little late. The flight was full and of course the 1 of 2 empty seats was right next to me! Buggar! Needless to say, I have Carlos Eduardo to thank for the comic relief after a VERY stressful day, and that I arrived in one piece( physically; mentally i think i'm still recovering) to my good friend Camille.

Anyway, Camille and I had a great time together. We spent saturday going around to different sights in the buzzing metropolis of Guayaquil, followed by attending Blaine's (camille's boyfriend) rugby game and dinner out with the team. Then sunday we went up to the Andes Mountains to Cuenca, and walked around the quaint city taking photographs, eating and talking. The car ride was 6 hours round trip (3 hours each way--70% of the road paved, the unpaved 30% of course being at the summit where it was also VERY VERY FOGGY and you couldn't see more than 10 feet or so infront of you...we made it alive...:) All in all, It was so wonderful to be in the cool of the mountains, much like a fabulous spring day in Seattle! I hope you enjoy the photos. I'm curious to know what you think of the photos as i really enjoyed talking them...almost 200 in 2 short days! Can you believe it?

To top the weekend off, I celebrated my 28th birthday on June 5th, flying the friendly skies of our wonderful globe. I don't exactly recommend celebrating with perfect strangers, but it was definitely worth the trip to Ecuador and to spend quality time with a good life long friend. Carpe Diem!!! I give Ecuador 2 thumbs up!