Up and out of our room by 6:20. The breakfast selections were better than most: quinoa/kale scrambled eggs, French toast, bacon, etc. 

We made the 7:00am shuttle bus to the airport and were in the check-in line by 7:15. We were offered a $500 voucher each if we took the next flight at 3:00pm, but our itinerary is tight so we declined. Got checked in quickly, but then saw the L-O-N-G security lines. Luckily, they moved fast and we got a bit of a bump by being a family with a minor. We actually had plenty of time so checked out a couple of gift shops and a duty free. 

We boarded our five-hour flight to Panama City on time.  Two of our three screen monitors malfunctioned so we played "musical seats".  Guess we are hobbits today because we had our second breakfast! 

Things were going very well until we approached Panama City. Without warning, we began circling, and circling and circling. Finally, after nearly a half hour of going nowhere, the pilot said that we would be landing in a different airport (no explanation). We asked a flight attendant for some details and found out that there was bad weather in Panama City and we would be flying into an airport about 15 minutes away. We finally landed in a tiny airport, Panama Pacific, about 3:05pm (an hour late). We stayed on the plane while it was re-fueled and until the pilot was given clearance to fly back to Panama City. Our connecting flight to Quito was scheduled to take off at 3:24 and we left Panama Pacific at 3:55.  We were hoping our connecting flight was delayed as well.  No such luck!

When we arrived into Panama City International Airport, we were told that our flight had left and we needed to go to the Copa Service Center. Obviously, there were many connecting flights that were not made because the line wound around forever. We got in the line, but also tried a few other gates to see if anyone would take pity on us. We ended up waiting for about an hour before we were given boarding passes for a flight that departed at 6:54.  We were evidently the last ones to get on this flight which translated into sitting separate from one another. At this point, we just wanted to get out of Panama (although had we not been so stressed out, we probably would have enjoyed a little shopping!) We rushed to the gate only to find out there was another delay. We finally were boarded, but had not been able to relay this to our hotel who had sent a driver to pick us up. We had not had lunch or dinner. We were served a sandwich and chips on the flight to Quito, we needed that. The sandwich choices were a hamburger or chicken empanada. Sue thought they said "pollo and banana". She went with the hamburger, as did Brennan, they made the better choice! 

Uneventful until we went to baggage claim, no bag!!! After another long line, completing the lost-luggage paperwork, and going through Customs, it was after 10:00 when we got a taxi to get us the 35 kilometers into the city.

The Hotel Finlandia was new, clean and staff very helpful. However, our travel day from hell had one more surprise for us; when we got to the room it has one queen bed. We had reserved a triple, but that room was gone, so they put us in two rooms across the hall from one another. They promised getting us into our triple for our 2nd and 3rd nights. It was probably 11:30 when our heads finally hit our pillows.