Seven months in South America

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Hightailing It Back East

Peru...Bolivia...Argentina...Ecuador?? Currently in Quito, after a "character building" trek cross continent over the past few days.

My parents are flying in tomorrow night to Quito, Ecuador. Which means I need to be there to meet them. The issue with that is, I was in Córdoba, Argentina: 4 time zones and a lot (a lot) of miles away. And for some unforseen reason, it is ridiculously expensive to catch a flight from Córdoba to Quito. $1200 round trip expensive. Whoops! Didn´t see that coming. Luckily, I found this out about 5 days before I had to be in Ecuador, so I had some time to recalculate. I spent one afternoon and most of an evening trying to find a less expensive alternative to the flight. After exploring the option of Bus from Córoba to Lima (3.5 days, $500 r/t) and dismissing it as A) Masichistic, and B) impossible, since it only leaves twice a week and I had missed the it by about 12 hours. so, after quite a bit of sweet talking the online airfare search websites, I found a flight from Buenos Aires to Lima for $450 round trip. Sold. Flight out the 18th, purchased the 16th. Night of the 17th I caught a 12 hour bus that brought me into BA around 830 the next morning. At 3pm (11am Eastern time) I had a flight out of there, connection through Sao Paulo, and landed in Lima at 9pm Eastern Time. From the Lima airport (where again I was disappointed to find that a round trip flight to Quito was $800), it was straight to the only bus company in Lima that I knew of that had a bus running all the way to Quito. No buses that night, but there was one leaving for Quito the next day at 5pm (lucky, lucky, apparently these long (real long) buses only leave twice a week, and I had hit it perfectly). After a quick 3.5 hour delay of departure (during which I was unwillingly engaged in conversation with a certifiable paranoid schizophrenic American who had been traveling around SA on false documents trying to avoid the Ecuadorian government agents who had been tapping on his windows and knocking on his door at night), it was a short 38 hour jaunt from Lima to Quito, and after about 26 uncomfortable sleeping positions and one 300some page book, I was in Quito before I knew it. The bus was continuing on to Columbia. They had another 14 hours or so until they reached their destination. I guess I can´t complain too loudly...someone always has it worse than you, right?

But, don´t worry about me, I´m sure I´ll find a little time to unwind on the 8 day galapagos cruise. 8-)

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