Ecuador 8/16/2025 |
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PrologueWhen we visited Ecuador last year, the family asked us to be godparents to the youngest kids - Nena and Kuri. Of course we were honored. Yupanki and Shina also wanted us to be the godparents for their Confirmation. So Antonio arranged with the church to have a private Mass which would serve as both a double baptism and double Confirmation.Shortly before our visit, they informed us that they had legally changed Nena's name from Adelis Dashel to Eralith Kailani. As she will be baptized and will be starting kindergarten in September, if they want to change her name, it was the right time to do it. Of course, Aida told us that Nena was upset because the custom dinner plate that we gave her with her photo and name on it was no longer accurate. So we created a plate with her new name and ordered it from Shutterfly. Saturday, August 16, 2025 - ArrivalWe had a difficult time finding decent flight schedules to visit Ecuador this year. We wanted to fly business class, and decided on flying through Houston on the way there and Bogota on the way home. Unfortunately, we had to get up really early to fly to Ecuador, and would need to fly overnight to get home.We woke up at 3 a.m., showered, and, most importantly, had our coffee. Logan Way car service picked us up as scheduled at 5 a.m. Once we had checked in and gone through security at Logan airport, we waited in the lounge. Craig had eggs and home fries to eat, and we both had some orange juice. We watched the sunrise. Our flight took off on time at 7:45 a.m. We had ordered our business class breakfast online ahead of time. I had peach cobbler crepes, and Craig had eggs, bacon, hash browns, and spinach. Breakfast was served with fruit, yogurt, and orange juice. We arrived in Houston and transferred to the lounge there. They had some free drinks on tap (we got Craig a Sam Adams), but I had to pay for a glass of Bailey's. I had some mini sandwiches and Craig had some Mexican food. When we went to the gate, there was a very cool Q Texas BBQ Smokehouse that was made of copper and looked like a still. It smelled amazing. If we hadn't already eaten so much today, we would have definitely given it a try. Our 4:30 p.m. flight was delayed until 5 o'clock because of storms (and our plane hadn't arrived yet). Then things were delayed a bit longer. It was nearly 6 p.m. by the time we took off. I had ravioli for dinner and Craig had beef short ribs. It was served with salad and lemon cake. We arrived in Quito at 10:30 p.m. instead of the scheduled 9:50 p.m. arrival we had anticipated. After going through immigration and collecting our luggage, we met the family. The whole family had come to greet us. They gave us each a small bottle of water and a cute heart-shaped teddy bear flower arrangement. Three-year-old Kuri wouldn't hug us and started to cry. It was our first time seeing Antonio in person since he was hit by a drunk driver while on his motorcycle in March. He is still recovering and in a lot of pain, but we were happy to see that he is in better shape than we expected, knowing the circumstances. Yupanki, now 14, had grown very tall in the year since we last saw him, and his voice has really deepened. We walked to where the van was parked, and as soon as we arrived at the van, Kuri needed to go to the bathroom. So Aida walked him all the way back to the airport terminal. They eventually returned, and driver Jimmy drove us back to Morochos. Kuri got over his initial hesitancy and sat right next to Craig, eventually climbing on him. The whole family fell asleep in the van. We finally arrived at the house ay 1:30 a.m. New dog Max (named after the dog that they had when we first met the family in 2010) greeted us. We said goodnight to the family and went into our casita. We pulled down a couple of Rubbermaid containers and unpacked the few essentials that we needed for the night in our home away from home. Then we went straight to sleep after neary 24 hours awake. |
 Sunrise over Logan Airport  Business class  Yupanki, Steph, Nena, Kuri, Aida, Craig, Sisa, Antonio, Shina  Floral arrangements given to us by the kids Photo Gallery August 16 |
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