Day 1-2 AKL to UIO

 A few months ago now, my erstwhile Roomie and Icelandic Vannie  Belinda alerted me to a trip being run by a UK photographer called Guy Edwards, in Ecuador.  Photographing birds, frogs, insects and other critters in the rain forests, with a bit of scenery thrown in for good measure.  I had been following Guy on Insta and love his work, so it didn't take much persuasion to book. 

I had made an assumption that Ecuador was reasonably close to NZ and it would therefore be an easy hop to join the tour. Not so. There are no direct flights, and only LATAM airlines seem to do this route from NZ.  

Then the flights I originally booked were rescheduled, and 36 hours later, here I am in Quito.  I had a brief and expensive stay in the airport hotel in Lima, as my flight from Santiago got in at 11.45pm and Lima to Quito didn't leave til 10am the next morning. But it was good to have a room and to be able to lie down to sleep, even if it was only a 7 hour stay in total.

I'd decided fairly last minute to upgrade to a selected seat on AKL to Santiago leg, and it was a good move, so much extra legroom and as luck would have it, an empty seat between me and the other person in my row.  I managed to doze for brief periods and arrived feeling ok. Then there was about 5 hours to wait for the next leg to Lima, which passed very quickly while reading Water by John Boyne (recommend).

The Lima to Quito leg was late leaving with a long queue of planes waiting to use the runway. One of the few airports that still uses buses to transport passengers to the aircraft. They boarded from both ends of the plane with no direction as to who should use which entrance and predictably, there was a scrum as passengers tried to cross in the very narrow aisles. Eventually we were airborne. Not too much to see as Lima was covered in cloud,  but as we descended below the cloud, Quito proved to be very green with very steep hilly terrain.  

Leaving Lima

Arriving Quito

I'm staying at the Wyndham Airport hotel, which is a short drive with a free shuttle, this is where I will meet the rest of the group tomorrow evening. 

Not bad digs

View from my window

Feeling pretty tired so I have pottered about enjoying the pleasure of having my shoes off, and not having to wrangle luggage. The plan is to order room service and then have an early night.