Ecuador 9/1/2025 - 9/2/2025

Monday, September 1, 2025 - Departure

Today was Labor Day, so I didn't have to work. We woke up and ate breakfast with the family (scrambled eggs, ham and cheese on a roll, and coffee). Our stomachs hadn't been well, so we appreciated the fact that it wasn't a greasy breakfast.

We then went back to the room to do our last minute packing. I tweaked my back just putting clothing into my duffel bag. What more could go wrong? I had almost 24 hours until I reached home. My stomach was finally feeling better, but now my back was messed up. Craig stepped up and took care of a lot of the packing, since I was trying to rest my back.

Antonio gave me some muscle oil, and Sisa applied it onto my lower back. It seemed to help a bit. We finished packing, and then played Uno with the kids.

The car came right on time (12:30 p.m.) The family said goodbye to us out at the road in front of the house. Kuri was crying and Nena was trying to be brave, but you could see tears in her eyes as she smiled. They waved as we pulled away.

I babied my back on the ride, and it hurt as we hit potholes in the dirt road on the way to the Panamerican highway. I loaded up on Advil and hoped that it wouldn't get worse.

The ride took an hour and forty minutes. When we got to the airport, there was a funny giant alien perched atop a building as an ad for internet. I had to get a photo.

We checked in and went through security. We didn't have a gate assigned yet, so we sat in the food court. We got lunch from Johnny Rockets: we had vanilla shakes, I had chicken fingers, Craig had a grilled chicken sandwich, and we got an order of 1/2 fries and 1/2 onion rings (which we didn't actually need because it turns out that the meals came with fries). I went to Republica del Cacao to buy our standard chocolate bars to bring home. Of course, the size of the bars has gone down and the price has gone up. Entropy prevails.

Then we went to the gate and sat, waiting to board. It was a 6:15 p.m. flight to Bogota. Although we had purchased business class seats for the whole round trip, they had not been available on this leg of the journey. We had used frequent flyer miles to pay for the business class seats, and had had to pay extra cash for the economy seats on this leg because apparently only "Plus" class economy seats were available. Theoretically, this should have been ok...it was a short flight and "Plus" should have extra legroom...except it didn't. The seats were tiny and there was next to zero legroom. They gave us chips and 3 ounces of water to drink, and that was it. Air travel just gets worse and worse. Entropy prevails.

We arrived in Bogota at 7:50 p.m. We had a couple of hours before our redeye flight to Boston. After we deplaned, we stood in the hallway waiting for the wheelchair attendant. There was also a group of elderly people from England (a man in a wheelchair, and what we would eventually realize was his wife and sister) waiting there. We tried to be pleasant and speak to them, but they were snotty and the sister gave us a death stare. When a wheelchair attendant arrived, we pleasantly said that the British group had been there first. Since we had plenty of time for our connection, we suggested that they be taken first. There was no acknowledgement from them whatsoever, no thank you, no smile.

By now, a third wheelchair patron had arrived, a very nice older woman who spoke both English and Spanish. So there was a single wheelchair attendant for three wheelchair passengers. The attendant was very apologetic, and asked if we able-bodied travel companions could push the wheelchairs while she pushed the woman who was alone. Although my back had been tweaked this morning, I was hopped up on Advil, so I cheerfully agreed. We understood that it wasn't this woman's fault that noone else had showed up for us; she was doing her job. But the British sister was not pleased at all to have to push her brother.

The wheelchair attendant ushered all of us through security. Then it turned out that we were all going to the Diamond Lounge. In the elevator up to the lounge, the British guy's wife (who had been carrying her husband's cane) gave the cane back to him and said that if she kept it there "might be mischief." So, a vague threat of violence because they were so upset at having to push the wheelchair? Pleasant folks!

We checked in at the lounge desk, and asked if someone would come to pick Craig up before our connection. The lady at the desk said to come back to the desk at 10:30 (our boarding time was 10:55 p.m.), and she would call for a wheelchair attendant to bring us to the gate. We thanked her and entered the lounge.

We found a nice dark quiet spot to relax, far away from the cantankerous Brits. There was a free self-service bar. We had ginger ales and Bailey's, and Craig had a Corona (the only beer on offer). Craig had pork and chicken, a chocolate and peanut butter cookie,and he got us both chocolate mousse squares. I wasn't all that hungry following my Johnny Rockets lunch and shake. I checked the status of our Airtags on our luggage. Three of them said that they were in Bogota at the airport, but the one in Craig's duffel bag said it was last seen in Quito. That was a bit concerning. But hopefully it just hadn't updated itself and was actually with the rest of the luggage here in Bogota.

At 10:30, as instructed, we went to the desk and the woman called for a wheelchair attendant for us. The Brits were also exiting the lounge at the same time. The wife dourly said to us, "So are you going to just wait for someone who may never come?" I cheerfully told them that we had just checked with the desk and the lady had called for a wheelchair attendant for us. I suggested that they do the same thing. They bitched and said that they would do no such thing. But the sister wouldn't push the wheelchair herself, either. The sister complained to her brother, "You're heavier than daddy and I had a hard time pushing daddy." The man got up out of the wheelchair and left it behind. They walked onto the elevator, apparently planning to walk to the gate. Craig predicted that they would in fact steal the attendant who was on the way to get us.

A wheelchair attendant arrived to get Craig. She pushed his wheelchair toward the elevator, and then asked me to push the empty wheelchair vacated by the Brits. I was confused, but Craig had an inkling of what was going on. He said to me, "Are they going to ask you to push the Brit guy?"

He asked the wheelchair attendant whom she was here to get, and she dodged the question. We got down the elevator, and there were the Brits standing there. The guy sat in the wheelchair that I had pushed, and the attendant started pushing him, leaving Craig behind! Craig said to the Brits, "So are you seriously going to steal the woman that was called specifically for us?" "Fraid so." said the wife. We were fit to be tied. We had done nothing but try to help them, and they turned around and screwed us over.

Craig lit into them, saying this woman was called for us. We had checked in at the desk and the woman called her for us. They did no such thing; even when we had suggested it to them, they were too lazy and had decided to walk. Then they ambushed the lady before she got to us. Craig calculatedly said, "And you think Americans are rude. You are f#@^ing rude! My wife hurt her back this morning and she is not going to push me any more." They cowered, shocked not just by his language but by the fact that he would confront them at all. The man seemed embarrassed. The women wouldn't look at us or respond.

The wheelchair attendant lady acted like we were flying off the handle for no reason, and told us to wait while she pushed the Brit guy to his gate. She was clueless as to what had gone on. We tried to explain that we were the ones who had called for her and they hadn't, but she waved us off.

Another woman came to get us and we ended up giving her a big tip. She was very attentive and waited at the gate with us until it was time to board.

While waiting, we noticed that the Brits' gate was right next to ours. I was so angry I felt like I needed to do something. I said I wish I had a photo of them to post as retribution. Craig said "Just walk over there and get a photo of them!" So I did. They didn't see me do it, but I sure felt like a badass walking back to our gate with the photo on my phone.

The wheelchair attendant brought us and the other pre-boarding folks down the jetbridge and lined us up. Some entitled lady with 2 toddlers squeaked her way to the front and said that she was just gate checking her stroller. But she didn't go back to her spot in line. She stood in the front and asked if she could get on frst because her infant was sleeping. The infant wasn't even with her, it was with her sister further back in line. Craig was fired up and started telling her off. She told us a sob story of their travel woes and how hard it is to travel with three young kids and Craig wasn't having it. But lo and behold, she got to board first, somehow.

These seats, although technically business class, weren't super comfy, but they were at least two to a side (instead of three) and had decent legroom. We got pouches of goodies and a blanket and pillow. The meal was crappy pasta or fish (we had the pasta in mushroom cream sauce), and they didn't have Bailey's. We just had water and then zoned out and tried to sleep. We had used so many United frequent flyer miles to get business class tickets on their partner airlines, and the experience just wasn't what we had hoped.

Tuesday, September 2, 2025 - Arrival at Home

We landed in Boston at 7 a.m. There was one lady for 2 wheelchairs, and she took the other wheelchair passenger through the line first, even though we had Global Entry (which now works super fast via retinal scan) and she didn't. But, luckily, another woman came to get us, and helped get our luggage (the Airtag was still saying Craig's bag was in Quito, but luckily it was just a refresh problem, and the bag was actually here). We had a sketchy cab driver, but he got us safely home in 30 minutes. We were home at 8:10 a.m. I had decided to take the day off work as of Friday, so that worked out very well!