The Flight to Quito

Frozen lake with Manhattan
Well, I have arrived safely in Quito, the capital city of Ecuador. My journey started off in a freezing New York. Weather prediction was for more snow in New York. Looks like the airport just opened up for my stopover! You could get some idea of just how cold it must have been. There was a guy on the apron of the runway at JFK trying to remove the last bit of snow. It was not the nice fluffy stuff that we think about. It has obviously frozen rock solid and he was having a hell of job getting it loose. The water around JFK had also frozen solid.
In my last post I was waxing lyrically about the great App (TripCase) which had notified me that my flight had been delayed. Well, the airline knew nothing of that! Now I see that the App has changed its story and now says the flight was 2 mins late. Great after the flight had left! Technology is great, but trust your gut when you travel. My gut told me not to change my plans and head out to the airport as if my flight was on time. Rather spend time at the airport then miss your flight! My good old trusty gut was correct! Would be very interesting to find out what the legal implications would be if you miss your flight because of a message from an App. I guess that you will be in the poof.
Weather closing in at JFK

In my last post, I was also saying how I enjoy the flying. Well, I want to change that a bit. I enjoy flying on Emirates (even in cattle class). The flight from New York to Quito was on Tame airlines. Nothing wrong with the flight, the plane or the crew, but a 6 and a half hour flight gets pretty long when there is no music and no movies! We were served a lunch, which was nice, but this was pretty much the only time we saw the crew. I guess I have been spoiled by the excellent service on Emirates. Their crew move around the flight the whole time with trays water or juice!
The sorry look after 6 hours with no music
When the captain announced that we had started our descent into Quito, we pretty soon moved into a cloud bank. I now know why we are not getting rain in South Africa. There must have been some sort of "cloud conference" over Ecuador as every cloud on the plant must have been there! I have never seen such thick cloud cover. No chance of seeing Mt Cotopaxi! When I heard the wheels coming out and you could not see the tip of the wing because of the clouds, I started to get a little bit worried. This was going to be a full on instrument landing with no visibility. This was not the first time I have landed at Quito's new airport. Quito sits at 2850 meters above sea level. Not sure where they took this reading. Could have been in the old town which is in a valley and at least 500 m lower then most of Quito. The point I am trying to make is that Quito sits on a bunch of active volcanoes in the middle of the Andes mountains. The airport at Quito is the only "flat" piece of land for miles around. It is basically a little flat topped mountain surrounded by other mountains. Here we are coming in for a landing with no visibility in a mountain range. Nice!  Oh well, we landed safely, or you would not be reading this blog, but would have followed the terrible plane crash in Quito! We did break through the clouds just before we landed.
Coming in to land
I had arrange transport with the hotel. First time ever that there was not anyone at the airport with a sign with my name on. The airport was very busy, and I spent quite a bit of time looking for my name. Fortunately, as a result of my last very unfortunate stay in Quito when my passport was stolen, I knew how to get to my hotel. Take the airport bus to the old airport in down town Quito and get a taxi to my hotel. When the taxi driver did not know the name of my hotel, I got a bit worried. No need. It is a great hotel in the old city.
I love travelling to South America, but it is not a travel destination for sissies! On my first trip to South America, my flight was cancelled and I was stuck in the Amazon basin in Peru! On my second trip to South America, Varig airlines went  bankrupt right in the middle of our trip. Cost quite a few rand to get replacement tickets. On my last trip to South America, I thought that I had broken the curse, but just hours before leaving for the airport, my passport was stolen. Let's hope that being stranded at the airport was the glitch on this trip!
I will be off to look for hummingbirds today, so let's hope my next post will be filled with humming bird photos. I will also post photos of the hotel I am staying at in the old city. Beautiful!

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