Day 1: Travel, Travel, Travel January 1st, 2018
THIS DAY!!!! This day was probably the longest day of my entire life. I have never been more happy/excited/exhausted/annoyed in my entire life than this day!
To Begin, the day started with Haley, Greg & I waking up at 2:30 am in our Hilton suite. We ran around and made sure all of our stuff was packed, ate a little bit of breakfast and headed downstairs to catch the shuttle. You see we had to wake with enough time to catch a shuttle and be at the airport by 4 am. This would be our first flight of the day: JFK in NYC to Bogota, Colombia. By the time the shuttle got to the hotel it was about 3:15am and luckily mostly everyone was in the lobby. Before we knew it, we were on the shuttle to the airport, in the pitch black of morning. Immediately after arriving at the airport we all got in line to go through baggage check and then security. Luckily, it was so early in the morning that there was no line virtually anywhere, to wait in. By the time we all got to our terminal it was about 4:30 am. An hour and a half to go till we would be on our flight! Or so we thought…… Turns out our plane had got unexpectedly delayed, by 45 mins. This first flight was supposed to be around six hours long. We were supposed to be land in Colombia by 12:30pm. Instead, once we got on the plane, there ended up being a two hour delay due to the baggage machines being frozen due to the weather in NYC. You could say that by the time the plane actually took off, we were somewhat worried about missing our next plane. Luckily I was seated to Haley so I had someone to talk to the entire time. Honestly, over those six hours that was the last thing on my mind. I talked, slept and mainly watched movies on the little tv set provided, the entirety of the flight. There were a lot of ‘firsts’ that happened on that flight for me. It was the first time I had ever traveled for six hours straight on a plane, my first time sleeping on a plane and my first time getting a meal on a flight! Overall Avianca Airline definitely knew how to treat people well, I would say. |
Ecuador, Here I Come |
Once we landed in Borgata, Colombia it was just about 2:30 pm. So we all basically ran off the plane to our next terminal. The Colombian airport was by the nicest, largest, most beautiful airport I have ever been too. Unlucky or maybe luckily we ended up seeing a lot of El Dorado International Airport. For as we all approached the terminal for our next flight, we found out that too had been delayed. You see, we were supposed to board the plane from Bogota to Guayaquil, by 2:30 pm the latest. But in fact, this flight had be delayed for about another 2-3 hours as well. So, we all decided to make the best we could with all the time we had before our flight!
Myself, as well as some other students each took turns walking around the airport, checking out all the stores, getting snacks and bonding over our boredom. Eventually the plane arrived around 4-5 pm. This plane was the last plane of the day before we would have to take before we landed in Ecuador! Another bonus was that we got free food on the plane, even though the flight to Guayaquil was only about two hours long! |
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, we landed in Guayaquil! We were finally in Ecuador!!! After spending an entire day of being exhausted by travel, we all just wanted to go back to the hotel and see the city a little bit. As we left the airport with our bags, we all got on the bus we’d be taking to our hotel. It was on this bus that we would meet Diego, our local tour guide for the entirely of our stay in Ecuador. A close friend of Tait’s, Diego would by far be one of my favorite people I would meet on the trip!!!
Once we all got situated on the bus, we took the short ride from the airport to hotel (Hotel Continental). Along the way Diego let us know about some quick facts about Guayaquil.
My roommate for the entirety of the trip was Victoria. She was by far the best roommate I could really ever ask for. Once we were all settled, we all met up in the lobby. Diego then finished briefing us about the plans for the next few days of our trip. Diego recommended previously to not leave the hotel at all, for the streets of Guayaquil were really unsafe. So instead of going out, most of us went and got dinner at restaurant connected to the hotel. It was here that I tried to order my first meal in spanish and let me tell you it was not easy! Luckily, most of the menu (like most restaurants in Ecuador) had an english description of the meal and there were pictures to point to. Since this is how we would typically order meals, it was as if every meal was an adventure. I,got these yuca cheese ball things that was actually quite delicious,along with some fruit juice and bread. This entire meal cost about $14,which honestly, was not too bad. After dinner, everyone seemed pretty much at the same state: exhausted. So, Victoria and I went back to our room and tried to get any amount of sleep we could! |
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References:
World Population Review. (2017). Population of Cities in Ecuador .(2018). Retrieved from: http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/ecuador-population/cities/