From Purgatory to Heaven

As the old saying goes, if you're going to heaven or hell and your flying on Delta, you must go to Atlanta first. If this is true, then purgaroey is sitting on the tarmac for an hour or more. Yesterday, we departed Charlotte for Quito for the dreaded connection in Atlanta. History repeated itself. For the Charlotte to Atlanta segment, somehow the bulk head seat assignments that we had selected had been changed to the very LAST row, row 38, surrounded by very, very tired children. We had less than an hour to make our connection. Although we arrived at Harsfield about 20 minutes early, we had to sit on the tarmac because we didn't have a gate.

By the time we actually parked and deplaned, we had 40 minutes to get to our connecting gate. If you've ever connected through Atlanta, sometimes 40 minutes is not enough. We made our flight with a few seconds to spare, the last to board. So we were all boarded and we waited. The time passed. The captain announced that we were waiting on luggage, probably ours. We continued waiting. Another announcemenet was made saying that they had luggage for passengers that had not arrived and therefore, their luggage had to be located and removed. It's mind boggling that the luggage arrived, but the passengers did not.

The baggage workers had to take the luggage off the plane. It seemed to be the needle in a haystack scenario, but that should be something left for Hell, instead of Purgatory. We continued waiting. The luggage of the missing owners was finally found and removed. After 1 hour and 40 minutes, we were prayed out of Purgatory to find our position in heaven.

By the time we cleared immigration, baggage, and arrived at the hotel, it was 1 AM. We're staying at the J.W. Marriott and we highly recommend it. The people are so accommodating and the facilities are so inviting. The bed was wonderful!!

Here's Mick all calm, casual, and relaxing, at last!

These are some more pictures of the hotel.

This morning we had an agenda. We met with our attorney, Gabriella Espinosa. The process has begun for our residency visa. Gabriella's English is great! She has contacts for everything. Her contact, Marco, at the Ecuadorian Consulate in Wasington forwarded our documents to her. She passed on the name of the gentleman at the back in Cuenca who will assist in setting up our bank accounts.

Here's a Kodak moment with Gabriella and Kathy. Mick was the photographer.

Another item on our "to do list" was to get a cell phone. Gabriella had one of her assistants to accompany us to Porta, apparently the best cell company, (also recommended by our friend, Brian) to help with our phone purchase. So now we have our first Ecuadorian phone number.
The young man that waited on us at Porta was Danny Torres, he's in the picture above. Gabriella's assistant that was so helpful was Juan, he and Mick are standing outside the Porta store.

Juan and Mick

Here's Mick at lunch by the pool, showing his new cell phone.

We had one last important issue that had to be decided in Quito: How are we getting to Cuenca? Originally we had planned to take a van, which means that we would be traveling for hours and hours. Domestic airfare is extremely inexpensive; however, we knew nothing about luggage requirements. We asked the concierge to check on the luggage costs for us. She informed us that the domestic carriers charge $.81 per kilo for everything over 20Kg per passenger. After receiving this
information, we decided to take a TAME flight tomorrow afternoon. For all the additional baggage, the price will be minimal. (Delta charged us $400 for 2 extra bags.) The tickets from Quito to Cuenca cost $74 each. So we're flying with ALL our luggage for less than the price of a van.

This morning when we awoke, light clouds were rolling in, but by afternoon, the clouds began to darken and thicken. By two o'clock, it began to pour, accompanied by thunder and lightening. It was short lived and then the sun returned.

We just came in from our balcony. There are only a few clouds in the sky now and suspended in all its beauty is the Southern Cross. This is Mick's favorite constellation; he is always searching the night sky for it when we're in South America. The Southern Cross is not visible in North America, you must be south of Cuba in order to enjoy its splendor.

Everyone that we have encountered has been so helpful. Everything has gone according to plan. We're just tickled pink to be here! Tomorrow, Cuenca!

Until next time,

Mick and Kathy