Travel Woes January 12, 2017

Well, I don't even know where to start! We have arrived in Ecuador and as I write this, I am sitting on the balcony of our room at Villa Ana listening to the sound of the waves rolling in, and the birds chirping. Other sounds in the small village of Same include dogs barking, roosters crowing and music playing from the garbage truck.
To say that getting here did not go smoothly is a huge understatement! As my husband said during our travel delays, Charles Lindbergh would be rolling in his grave at the inefficiencies.  We arrived at the Ottawa airport in good time, and boarded an early 8 am flight to Toronto. When we got to Toronto we saw that our Air Canada flight to Houston was delayed. We originally had a 2.5 hour layover in Houston, but as we sat in the departure lounge, the delays on our Toronto to Houston flight got longer and longer. We were told this was because the plane was coming from Chicago and there was a ground delay in Chicago (weather? maintenance? we never got a straight answer).
When it started to appear as though we would miss our flight, I made several trips to the Air Canada customer service desk. I was told that we would probably miss our connection and that the next United Airlines flight to Ecuador was a full 24 hours later. We really did not want to waste one full day in Houston (no offence to any Texans). I returned to the departure lounge and spoke to an employee named John at the gate. The first option he found ended up not happening because the flight was full. Then another passenger found a flight to Houston that would connect us to AeroMexico to Quito. When we told John at the gate about this option, he was able to book my husband and I plus our two new friends Rick and Arielle (also headed to Quito) on the same change of flight plans. Unfortunately, when we arrived in Houston, the Air Canada desk was very very slow to handle everyone's change in plans. Although Ron tried, he was overwhelmed with weary travelers needing vouchers for hotel and food.
Mike and I did not have boarding passes for the Mexico City to Quito flight, but we bravely boarded the flight from Houston to Mexico City hoping to sort it out. It is worth noting that the United flight and the AeroMexico flight were both on time, and service from all employees was excellent. We also had very helpful staff in the airports of Houston, Mexico City and Quito. No difficulties with customs and no further delays, thankfully.

Tomorrow's post continues our travels to the coast!