Flying to Quito

Our trip to the Galapagos began very early Friday morning with a 3am wake-up call and a drive to the Orlando airport. We parked the car at FastPark and took the shuttle. Our first flight to Miami departed a little late because of some kind of argument in the back of the plane where a party of six tried to sit in other peoples' seats and the Captain had to come online and ask everyone to sit in their assigned seats. We had a few hours to kill in Miami. We walked to a Starbucks and then waited for our flight. The incoming flight was delayed so we left Miami about 45 minutes late. Four hours later, we landed in Quito.

Quito Airport

We each got the third degree from immigration and then waited for our bags. Despite having "priority" luggage service, it took a long time for our second bag to come out. Then we passed through customs and met our Celebrity Cruises representative and two other couples, one from Toronto and one from Naples, FL. We boarded a van for the 40 minute ride to Quito.

JW Marriott Quito

At the JW Marriott Quito, we checked in and got our itinerary and water bottles and went to our room. Our driver from the airport discouraged us from wandering from the hotel due to recent civil unrest in the country, although we saw no protests. This might also have been a way to make us patronize the hotel restaurants since we were on our own for dinner tonight. We were planning to go to the hotel steakhouse for dinner but it did not open until much later so we opted for dinner at the hotel sushi restaurant. The two sushi rolls were good but the snack platter was bland. Service was very slow and disjointed with two different waiters serving us and asking the same questions the other already had.

We headed to the room after dinner to relax with a tour of Quito planned for tomorrow and turned in early after a long day.