Buen viaje y bienvenidos en Guayaquil!



Frankfort, it's 3AM and I get up after having slept for two hours max. The night before some friends of my family came over and my godmother too. So it got late, damn.

At 5AM I somehow managed to get to the airport, standing there with all my luggage I still can't realize that I will leave Germany for 4 months. And it will take me 17 hours more to do so.

My first flight is headed to Amsterdam. I get talking with my rowmates, and surprise one is going to Ecuador too. I mean, who else is crazy enough to take the plane to Amsterdam when just stepping into a train would be so much faster and easier.


We change planes in Amsterdam together, which has a really nice airport by the way.
Now the real voyage starts. Fifteen hour movie marathon here we go.
I don't even remember them all anymore, but I really liked the first one. I even watched it in Spanish Ocho apellidos vascos (Spanish affair). It's very cheesy, and full of stereotypes. Basques vs. Sevillians.

Airplane Food - KLM offered glutenfree 

After 17 hours and a stop over in Quito, I finally arrive in Guayaquil. With my broken close to non existent Spanish I make it trough the passport control. It must have been my blue eyes that got me trough :P

Quito

I gathered my bags walked trough the exit, looking hopefully for someone holding up my name. But there was none, I doubled back and looked again, but no chance. Damn... The sentence "Under no circumstances leave the airport building" from the briefing I got before burned vividly in my mind.
What was I supposed to do? I waited another hour or more. It was already getting late and long dark outside. My phone didn't work, the internet at the airport was not working that day either and I was close to just taking a taxi to the next hotel, when the two elderly ladies that sat next to me on my oversea flight approached me.

They were so sweet, worrying about me being alone in a foreign country. They called every number I had from the people from Projects Abroad here and finally I was told that someone was coming to pick me up. Then they even waited until I was safe with someone from the project's staff.
And that was my first encounter with the Ecuadorian culture, a very warm and welcoming one.

A woman from my temporary host family picked me up and we drove to her house.
I was so happy to finally have a bed, my first instinct was to go to sleep. But then I remembered, I had to get a message trough to my parents, telling them that I was safe in sound. Since my phone wasn't working and they did not have any internet at her house, I had to push my tiredness away.

It was around 10pm when we left the gated community to find an internet cafe. I felt a little out of place, and my blond hair got me some stares, but she was very nice and we managed to have a fun conversation in Spanglish. Even without the translator app, because I didn't dare to take out my phone that night.
I did send my Email to my parents, and was awfully glad that I remembered to password for one of my Email accounts.

Later the sound of strong latin american beats and some cats yowling on the roof seemed like the sweetest lullaby and with the realization that I had made it to Ecuador, I  finally could get some rest.....

First breakfast with verdes (green bananas)












No comments:

Post a Comment