12 Hours in Quayaquil

Our flight out of the Galapagos was delayed, so even though our trek to the airport began at 9am we didn't actually take off until about 3:40. This was already one of our more hairy connections because it involved 3 flights, customs and a semi-overnight stay.

We felt God's hand of protection on us as when we landed, we were greeted and picked up by a stranger who agreed to show us the city. This friend was named Aldo, and he was the friend of our friend Emily's brother in law (yeah, ponder that for a second). He proved to be a wonderful connection for us though. One blessing was that the accommodations that we thought we had did not actually exist. Aldo had generously taken the liberty of checking on them for us prior to our arrival and learned they had no record of our reservation. I wasn't worried because I realized on the flight that I had told him the wrong place as I had been talking to two different hostels several months ago. So we called what I thought was the right one but they had nothing either - ugg. This was the first logistical snag we have encountered. Realizing that had Aldo not picked us up, we would have taken a taxi from the airport to the hostel, been turned away and had to figure out what to do, we were incredible grateful for our new friend. He also informed us that the hostels we'd mentioned staying at, were not in the safest areas of town, so we ended booking a room at a Holiday Inn right next to the airport (the kids were so thrilled to be in a Holiday Inn)! This worked out extremely well because it meant we could just walk to the airport at 3:30AM - yeah quite a sight we were!

After finalizing accommodations, we headed out to explore under our new friends direction. Also showed us various parts of the city and explained some of the history. We even ate amazing seafood at a restaurant called Manny's of all things!

So what we planned on being a quick and quiet layover in a hostel room, turned into a real adventure and a great time! We returned to the hotel after 11PM (stuffed with much garlic and seafood), which made 3:30 come mighty quick. Thanks Aldo (and Emily) for putting together a great night and new friendship!