Upon Arrival

I arrived in Quito at close to midnight. Quite to my surprise, the airport was quite modern and organized. Customs was fast and the agents so polite (quite unlike home). The airport is about an hour from Quito by car so I stayed near the airport the first night at the recommendation of Ashley at Traverse Journeys. She recommended Posado Mirolindo and it was perfect for landing!

I knew I was pretty worn out from getting everything in order and ready to go before the trip so I decided to stay the first and second night at Posado Mirolindo so I could just take it easy rather than hit the streets and it was an unexpected great decision. As soon as I woke up Sunday morning I felt a pretty strong cold coming on so I stayed in bed most of the day. Thankfully Posado Mirolindo has a wonderful kitchen and made my meals so I didn’t need to travel anywhere. The room was fantastic and private and the grounds were beautiful. The hotel is also a working farm and there were beautiful flowers, sweet pups and friendly chickens to make me feel at home. I only needed 24 hours to recover and was ready to head to Quito on Monday.

One side note is that much of my stay in Quito was focused on booking a ‘last minute’ Galapagos cruise. I read quite a few articles before leaving that significant discounts were often available if you booked once in the country and had some flexibility so I delayed this booking until in Ecuador. While I was bed bound the first day I found a few references in Lonely Planet and reached out to a few operators. Both Happy Gringo and Trips and Dreams were extremely helpful. I ended up booking with Trips and Dreams because I got a little anxious but Happy Gringo was fantastic and offered more options than I expected. In any case, I am happy with the price for the 8-day cruise and the flexibility in booking saved me about 50%! Galapagos here I come.

Spanish learned: ?Me prestas el secador? – May I borrow the hairdryer? (Seriously, this is pretty mission critical lol).

Traveling lesson learned: Always plan a slow day on arrival.