Ecuador Trip, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly!

This summer we had decided to visit our granddaughter who is currently studying in Quito, the capital of Ecuador.  We’d be going during her autumn break and planned accordingly.  We found out that we both needed Hepatitis A shots and Malaria pills, plus Travelan pills for prevention of diarrhea.    In addition, Don had to get a tetanus shot.  Heidi needed typhoid, tetanus, diphtheria and hepatitis shots!

We researched places to go, one of them being a side trip to one of the Galapagos Islands and another to the equator!   We bought a huge bottle of sunscreen since Quito sits at 9350 feet above sea level at the equator.  We bought rain jackets since it would be the start of the rainy season when we got there.  This would be our first trip to South America.  We were definitely looking forward to an exciting vacation.  We were PREPARED.  Or at least we thought so.

We got much more than we bargained for in the way of excitement.  As the old saying goes, “Man proposes, but God Disposes” (Proverbs 19:21 The Living Bible).  Yep, we had it all figured out.  God had other plans for us.

Our plans: Fly Denver to Miami and on to Quito on October 3^rd.

God’s plans:  Fly to Miami and find out our flight was cancelled.  There were riots in Quito.  Trucks and Taxis blocked the only road to the airport.  They were taking the tires off the taxis and burning them, and more protests were scheduled after the President decided to strip away a $1.3 billion dollar fuel subsidy.  Yowza!  That took us by surprise!  Even the ticketing agents at American Airlines had no idea of what was going on in Quito.

Heidi and Glen had gotten to Miami the night before, so they were able to get a picture of us disembarking the plane!  Remember the “olden” days (before security checks) when you could do that?!  Seems like eons ago.

Follow us on our journey to a third world country in the 8 different posts below.  God was definitely in the lead.