Friday, December 9, 2011

Quito - Amsterdam

07 Dec 2011

Fantastic news, Lynn is feeling considerably better than yesterday, so, following breakfast, the first job was to pack our bags for home.were getting good at packing now, so it didn't take long to fill all three bags.  That done, we decided to take a taxi up to the Mariscal area of the city.  The Mariscal, the shopping centre of the newer part of the city, straddles a road called Amazonas and is full of small shops and an artisan market.  It took the taxi driver some while to get us there, but the fare was still less than $2!

We wandered around the shops and then the artisan market before stopping for a coffee.  The coffee in Ecuador is very good, which is hardly suprising as it is grown and processed in the country.  A good cup will set you back about a dollar.  Chocolate, another Ecuadorian export, is also very, very good!

We were back in the taxi to the hotel by 12.00 and I then popped out for some cash, last minute shopping and lunch from Subway!

We checked out sometime after 2.00 and sat in the hotel lobby and waited for our transport to the airport.  It was somewhat delayed as traffic was particularly heavy.

Quito airport was a revelation today as we were at International departures!  This was an area of calm compared with our previous encounters at the Domestic part of the airport and we quickly checked in and made our way through security.  There were lots of shops to browse, but all very really very expensive.

Our aircraft arrived from Amsterdam on time and we boarded quite quickly onto a half empty aircraft.  Soon we were leaving Quito and heading in the opposite direct to Amsterdam to the Pacific coast city of Guayaquil.  Here the remaining passengers left the flight whilst we remained on board.

An army of cleaners then descended on the aircraft and started tidying up from the flight from Amsterdam.  Meanwhile, the aircraft was refuelled for the flight home.  With the aircraft doors all open, it was easy to feel how warm it was, 85 degrees at 6.00 in the evening!

The aircraft left on time, at around 8.00 in the evening local time, and we started heading back towards Amsterdam.  Our route was to take us up the Ecuadorian Coast, then across Columbia and Venezuela, over the Dutch Antilles and out in the Atlantic Ocean.  Later it would next cross land in West Wales, overfly London and finally descend into Amsterdam with a flight time of 10 hours 45 minutes.

The flight was fairly empty, so we occupied two rows of seats at the back of the aircraft, in order to be able to stretch out overnight!

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