It is early morning on this, day one of our South American adventure. We headed out at 3:00AM so we could drive down to Seattle for our 8:30AM flight to Miami, via Chicago. With a stop for breakfast at Jack in the Box just north of Bellingham, the drive to Seattle was a piece of cake and we arrived on time, checked in and hung around until departure.
It was a grey day, but our flight was on time. We were slightly dismayed by the aircraft though. The seats we were assigned had a window held in with “fancy” duct tape! Shame on you, Alaska Air!
We took off on time and were able to get a great aerial view of Mount Rainier as we popped up above the clouds.
The flights were uneventful, with a short layover in Chicago. We arrived in Miami at 7:30. We had time for a nice dinner and a drink before our 11:55PM flight to Quito, Ecuador.
LAN airways services much of South America. We found the staff very attentive and professional. We were served a nice meal on board, complete with real knives and forks! Even the wine was complimentary.
We arrived at the airport in Quito at 3:30AM. We were met by a Gate 1 representative and ushered to a bus which took us to our hotel – the Colon Hilton, in downtown Quito. We were checked in quickly and were settled in our room by about 5:00AM. The following day was ours to do as we please before the official tour began.
A very long day, indeed!