We woke up before our alarm once again. The humidity seemed quite strong today and the air heavy. Check out was early, 930am to be exact, so we had to get breakfast and have our suitcases and everything out of the room. Afterward, we took a stroll along the trails and saw some more giant tortoises. For the remainder of our time, we lounged in the “sala” of the Semilla Verde while we did a bit of research on hotels and flights should we be able to get seats on a flight to Quito.
Because of all the transfer issues with getting to Seymour Airport on Baltra, they recommended we leave three hours before our flight. At 1025, a familiar white Toyota Hilux pulled up to load our bags. We went to the dock, got on a ferry, transferred to a bus, checked in at the Avianca counter, bought an ornament featuring a frigatebird, and found that we still had well over two hours.
Nicole used her priority pass (thanks in part to her Hilton Honors Diamond status) to get us into a club. It was somewhat surprising to have a lounge at this tiny airport. We both actually enjoyed it. It was open-air, yet covered so when a downpour came and lasted for a good 30 minutes, we were cozy away from all the regular folks who had to deal with being on top of each other in a muggy terminal. In all fairness, even the real terminal wasn’t that bad. There was enough room to spread out away from people — not like Orlando or Atlanta.
As is pretty standard procedure, we slowly ambled up to the desk after everyone else had boarded. They didn’t issue us paper tickets, just a verbal pronouncement of our seat locations. “Ah staff, 15 E & K!” “15 E & K?” I repeated. “16!” “16?” “No no, 18 E & K!” Ok. Shockingly seats 18 E & K were unoccupied when we arrived and we took our spots in a row by itself. This time there was no seat mate listening to music without their headphones, but there was a screaming baby directly behind us. There are really so few scenarios on planes that are favorable to us these days.
The flight from Baltra to Quito took just under two hours. Nicole booked our hotel after we landed. Exiting the airport was seamless, presumably because we were on a domestic flight. It was a short ride in the shuttle to the eb Eurobuilding Hotel. Because of her Level 3 status on booking.com, Nicole got upgraded to an executive suite.
It was certainly good value for money. We were already feeling the effects of the altitude. Quito is over 9000 ft, making it more than 1000 ft higher than Machu Picchu. A short walk around the hotel had our hearts beating rapidly.
We treated ourselves to a nice dinner at the hotel’s restaurant, which was also good value for money. We washed it down with some local brews and followed it up with a brownie. We chose to be closer to the airport to give ourselves more flexibility. Central Quito is a 45 minute drive and if we end up getting on a 7am flight to leave here, it’s better to be close to the airport we figured. Tomorrow we plan to go into the city and check out the old town, and reevaluate from there. Buenas Noches.
passports & pepto bismol 