Journey to the Center of the Earth (sorta…)

Hello and welcome back to the blog everyone!

The last week has been quite eventful and after what seemed like a neverending series of flights and waiting ( in reality it was only 23 hours and 43 minutes, give or take), we are finally settling into our new home here in the heart of Quito, Ecuador.

We began our journey in Otter Rock, Oregon, running around like chickens with our heads cut off. We had many last minute errands to run and I’m surprised we got them all done in time but soon enough we were leaving Newport and heading towards Salem. There we had dinner with our cousins and we left for the airport around 8 pm. Our flight wasn’t until a couple hours later so we had some time to relax before we left for the JFK airport at midnight.

The flight there was about 5 and a half hours too long and sleeping was nigh impossible. We groggily stumbled out into the airport around 8 in the morning eastern time and soon enough we were off to our next flight.

One of the few photos taken at the JFK Airport, Andrés looks surprisingly chipper for only having slept a couple hours.

I think I recall telling most people that were going to the airport in Miami for the next part of our journey but it was actually the Ft. Lauderdale airport and that’s where we spent the most time on our journey. It was very, very muggy when we arrived at the airport and very, very crowded. They seem to be in the middle of renovating the airport itself and there are all sorts of nooks and crannies to relax and get a bit of shut eye. We explored the airport, on the quest for our next meal, and found the already renovated wing of the airport to be much more roomy and not as hot. We took this downtime as an opportunity to explore the wing and to do some photo shoots while we were at it.

Our flight was delayed and took off about an hour behind schedule due to a thunder storm. It was a little bit scary but the sunset was amazing and when we took off you could see the clouds being lit up by the lightning that was flashing within them.

The last sunset we’ll see in the US for a while…

Finally, we arrived at our destination: Quito! A group of some twenty-odd family members were there to greet us and it was like a mini family reunion. We arrived home and after climbing several flights of stairs (leaving us breathless and quite dizzy) we stepped into our floor of the family apartment complex. Its been less than 48 hours since we have arrived but its already starting to feel like home and pretty soon we’ll be settled into our new daily routine.

The view from our rooftop terrace is quite nice. The forest that you see in the background is ‘El Metropolitano’, a big park filled with eucalyptus trees.

I better get back to helping around the house now since there’s still so much left to unpack. The next post should be coming soon and I’ll do a house tour of sorts and talk more about the family. We miss our home on the Oregon coast but this adventure is already proving to be amazing already and we are happy to be here.

– Korayma