20 March 2011

[Tortoiseland] Day 1: Quito

For studio, we're voyaging to Quito, Ecuador, and then to the Galapagos Islands for an investigative research trip to include a presentation of our project ideas, field reconnaissance, meeting tortoises and finches, and mixing in some tourist experience (as "required" by our university host).

Tonight we got in around 10pm, and my friend Nadya and I discovered that our bags were suspicious missing from the vast sea of luggage.  We soon found that they never made it out of the States and are now chilling in Atlanta (our layover spot).  After a mini Spanish lesson from the Delta rep dealing with our claim, in which I cobbled together my lamely sporadic (read: nonexistent) vocab to decipher what he meant, we came to grips with the fact that we wouldn't have clothes for tomorrow and then headed off to settle in and see a bit of the city.

I don't have enough energy at the moment to detail out our first hours in Ecuador, but I feel very foreign to say the least.  But it's cool.  Out of all my blessed excursions thanks to architecture school, this is probably the most surreal in terms of locale.  Tomorrow we tour around Quito and do some presentations, and then the next day... off to Isla Santa Cruz on the Galapagos!

1 comment:

  1. dios mio! this is the worse.
    Though i have to say that when i came to Ecuador, we had to be rerouted to Guayaquil because Quito was too foggy to land. then we waited 3 hours in the aircraft on the tarmac, thinking we'd take off and go to quito until they told us that, nope, we would have to stay in town overnight, the luggage had to stay in the plane. we experienced the whole bus-hotel-voucher thing and the next day we took a flight back to Quito.
    so i guess you'll be able to tell a similar story. And i'm glad Nads and you are in the same boat; couldn't dream of a better person to share this experience with.
    keep on posting. i like it.
    have fun! take loads of pix!
    flo

    ps: i now remember that i was smart enough to NOT check my luggage... also saved me on the return flight. but that's another story.

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