Ayampe to Quito to Madrid to London - 18th Feb 2018
So this is it. D-Day. The official end of not only Ecuador and Peru travels, but of My Big Adventure, and of this blog-diary. Four and a half months of world travel, coming to its final close.
It's not terribly exciting to write about long transit journeys, and definitely not worth taking pictures of airports (at least not unless you're wearing an anorak), but this was quite an epic final leg, and so deserves a short mention.
We set off in the dark, at 4am, with a taxi showing up as planned (we had had our doubts that it would) and driving us down the middle of the road all the way back to Puerto Lopez where we were catching the 5am bus to Quito.
That all went according to plan, and we heeded the advice to keep our hand luggage on our laps, to deter thieves stealing from overhead or under the seats. Our 'executive' bus was fully booked, but not crazy like the one we'd taken a week earlier. No vendors hopping on and off at random intervals, but bizarrely we were treated to a stream of violent/immoral/overly sexual movies - particularly odd given the high number of children on board! Clearly no age censorship here... As daylight came, we preferred to look out of the window at the dramatic mountain scenery - endless green Andean foothills, for miles and miles. It was a 10 hour journey although in the event it actually took 12, for no good reason other than it's a long ride through winding mountain roads. Good thing we'd left plenty of time - it was pretty apparent that no-one was worried or annoyed by the 2 hour over-run, but they probably weren't catching a trans-continental flight! We finally arrived at Quito's bus terminal at 5pm, 4 hours before our flight. Loads of time...
An hour to the airport, checked in and security cleared, we thought we were good to go, had a leisurely bite to eat and strolled over to our gate. But no. Our checked bags had both been 'randomly' selected for secondary inspection. Led through the bowels of the airport, we both had to wait while everything was taken out of our carefully over-packed bags - and then had to repack it all. Thank you very much Mr Security. A nice farewell gift from South America.
Seated in the very last row in Economy, next to the toilets and the galley, it wasn't the best 10 hours to Madrid. (And as an addendum, one of my bags didn't make the flight.) But we had the memories of 3 fabulous weeks in Ecuador to get us through. We've had such fun, and done so much that even my stint in hospital seems blurry now. I have very mixed feelings about leaving - I've had such an incredible journey in South America, and with Duncan before that, but my travels are over, and soon enough I'll be returning to work. But one very important thing I'm taking back with me is that while I love the adventure, I also love the UK, my family, my Duncan, my friends, my home and my life. And I'm looking forward to going back.
Over and out.
It's not terribly exciting to write about long transit journeys, and definitely not worth taking pictures of airports (at least not unless you're wearing an anorak), but this was quite an epic final leg, and so deserves a short mention.
We set off in the dark, at 4am, with a taxi showing up as planned (we had had our doubts that it would) and driving us down the middle of the road all the way back to Puerto Lopez where we were catching the 5am bus to Quito.
That all went according to plan, and we heeded the advice to keep our hand luggage on our laps, to deter thieves stealing from overhead or under the seats. Our 'executive' bus was fully booked, but not crazy like the one we'd taken a week earlier. No vendors hopping on and off at random intervals, but bizarrely we were treated to a stream of violent/immoral/overly sexual movies - particularly odd given the high number of children on board! Clearly no age censorship here... As daylight came, we preferred to look out of the window at the dramatic mountain scenery - endless green Andean foothills, for miles and miles. It was a 10 hour journey although in the event it actually took 12, for no good reason other than it's a long ride through winding mountain roads. Good thing we'd left plenty of time - it was pretty apparent that no-one was worried or annoyed by the 2 hour over-run, but they probably weren't catching a trans-continental flight! We finally arrived at Quito's bus terminal at 5pm, 4 hours before our flight. Loads of time...
An hour to the airport, checked in and security cleared, we thought we were good to go, had a leisurely bite to eat and strolled over to our gate. But no. Our checked bags had both been 'randomly' selected for secondary inspection. Led through the bowels of the airport, we both had to wait while everything was taken out of our carefully over-packed bags - and then had to repack it all. Thank you very much Mr Security. A nice farewell gift from South America.
Seated in the very last row in Economy, next to the toilets and the galley, it wasn't the best 10 hours to Madrid. (And as an addendum, one of my bags didn't make the flight.) But we had the memories of 3 fabulous weeks in Ecuador to get us through. We've had such fun, and done so much that even my stint in hospital seems blurry now. I have very mixed feelings about leaving - I've had such an incredible journey in South America, and with Duncan before that, but my travels are over, and soon enough I'll be returning to work. But one very important thing I'm taking back with me is that while I love the adventure, I also love the UK, my family, my Duncan, my friends, my home and my life. And I'm looking forward to going back.
Over and out.
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