An End of Summer Trip to Quito

After a year in New York, we had about a month before needing to be back in Knoxville. We decided to ease the transition by taking a trip to Quito, Ecuador. The purpose of the trip was, first and foremost, to catch up with some friends who had been living in Knoxville before we left for New York and are now back in Ecuador. Their son and our Little Lady are good friends and they were both excited to see each other. The time in Ecuador would also give the LL a chance to be immersed in a Spanish language environment for a few weeks to bolster her bilingualism. It was also a chance for another adventure.

We flew round trip from the Philadelphia area so that we could leave our car parked at the in-laws' place in Allentown. It was an annoying itinerary, starting in Allentown with a 4 hour layover in Philadelphia then to Miami and arrival at around 10 PM in Quito, but alternatives were WAY more expensive. I usually follow the rule of choosing convenience over price, but the price differential for other options was just too much to justify this time.

The silver lining was the Centurion Lounge in the Philadelphia airport, which we have access to through one of our credit cards. I highly recommend paying the substantial annual fee for a premium credit card if you do much traveling, especially with kids. Four hours, that actually became 6 or 7 hours, in that lounge with great food, free drinks, and a quiet place for the LL to relax made all the difference on what would have been an otherwise very challenging layover. And our lounge access kept coming in handy through the whole trip. Our flight from Philadelphia to Miami was substantially delayed, due to a maintenance issue. So we thought we were going to miss our flight to Quito. But that flight was also delayed, so we ran through the Miami airport to make that connection, only to sit on the plane for 2 hours while we waited for the pilot to show up, with no explanation as to why the pilot was missing. Ugh. Finally, we left for Quito, and we arrived well after 1 AM. We were thankful to have planned to stay near the airport that first night. The hotel shuttle driver was waiting dutifully for us when we arrived and whisked us to the hotel quickly. But the LL was spent, and was sick to the stomach on top of that. But we made it.

The next morning we left for a couple days at a hacienda riding horses (more on that some other time), and then we got to Quito where we did our usual thing and rented an apartment. The apartment was very nice in many ways. It was close to Parque La Carolina, which is a great urban green space with lots to do. It was close to a supermarket, which is a key factor in judging location. It had a great view of the mountains. It was modern. The facilities in the complex were great, including a warm indoor pool and gym. The downside was that the apartment was not well equipped. In particular, there were few pots and pans which made doing any cooking at home next to impossible.

Fortunately, restaurants are not that expensive in Quito, and we had a number of great meals. There was a great sushi place at the bottom of our apartment building. We also had a found a very good Spanish place, several traditional Ecuadorean restaurants, a few good bakeries, and an outstanding coffee cart. There really wasn't much to complain about.

The LL attended school with her old friend from Knoxville. The school was within walking distance, which was nice. And it also gave her a good chance to pose by the pet mural in front of the vet on the way home:

We were also able to enjoy the great architecture in the center of Quito:

Took a trip a couple hours outside of Quito to see some ruins where we also met some friendly animals and saw some nice views:

Ate fried empanadas as big as our heads:

And traveled high above the city for a beautiful overview of the place:

On the way home, we had additional travel issues. Our departure from Quito was delayed about half an hour initially. Then the pilot "improperly positioned the aircraft" while taxiing for takeoff. I think that's code for made a wrong turn on the way to Quito airport's one runway. We had to be towed back to the right path. That added up to enough of a delay that we were worried we would miss our connection in Miami on our way back to Newark. We ended up making it in time and breezed through immigration. But then there was a baggage delay sufficient to make us miss our connecting flight. Thank goodness once again for lounge access as we waited to get a flight back to the north. We ended up standby on a flight to Philadelphia, and made it back about 6 hours later than planned. But our bags did not make it.

This, again, is where a premium credit card comes in handy. For each day our bags are delayed, we get a set amount of coverage for clothes and toiletries. We made good use of this insurance by purchasing a substantial amount of clothing for each of us. Our delay turned into a several hundred dollar shopping spree. It was still a pain in the neck. But we certainly made the best of it. We got back to Allentown on Wednesday. Our bags rejoined us Friday evening in Knoxville after we drove home.

All in all, it was a good trip. But there were plenty of bumps along the way. We are used to dealing with bumps and everyone rolled with the punches pretty well.