A bus tour of downtown Guayaquil, Ecuador just after midnight and then again at 4.30 am was not exactly on my itinerary of South America.

Had yesterday a rest day inside Hotel Quito uploading as much photos as I could, as outside it was foggy and then raining for most of the day anyway.

Left the hotel at 6 pm and after a US$5 taxi ride in the heavy commute traffic, got to the airport at 6.30 pm and to the boarding area just after 7 pm, well in time for my 8.40 pm flight to Lima. But 8.40 pm came and went. Then just before 9 pm the flight was notified as cancelled. Thank goodness I had e-mail connection just available in the departure area so that Eve back at her Auckland office was able to notify my Lima hotel of me being a ‘No Show‘ tonight.



Outcome … LAN flew those of us who wanted to at 11 pm on the 35 min flight south to Guayaquil, put us up in the not so grand Grand Hotel Guayaquil and were given two vouchers: dinner (OJ, chicken, rice and chips) and breakfast (coffee, 2 pieces of white bread, butter and a jam PCU but no knife!). Then told to be back at reception at 4.30 am for the 10 minute transfer back to the airport. Being that early I had expected to be in Lima about 8 am.

Well at 5.20 am and I was already at the boarding area in time for my 7.55 am flight to Lima and hopefully make it for my connecting 11.25 am flight to Cusco. When checking in, I asked the ticketing agent what time does the plane arrive in Lima and she said 8 am. Obviously she didn’t understand me. I asked another Lan Airline staff and she informed me that there was no time zone change as I had thought there was between Ecuador and Peru and we will be in Lima at 9.30 am, 2 hours should be more than enough to make the transfer.

This is the 4^th time that I have been to this airport (twice inside though) and thank goodness for power in the boarding area so that I can upload my missing 31 Dec Galapagos entry photos by breaking it into smaller uploads.

How much sleep did I get? Not much!

Will I get to Cusco on time? Will let you know in my next entry.

This is what is known as a pin set entry … so that I can put a pin on the map at Guayaquil.