This is one of the first times we've left Burlington International Airport at 1:00 PM instead of 6:00 AM. After a leisurely morning of closing up the house, Jessica picked us up and delivered us to the airport around 11:15. We boarded the plane around 12:45 and as we taxied down the runway the pilot informed us that we had a 20 minute wait on the runway due to heavy air traffic at JFK. Finally, we are in the air and arrive in JFK airspace, only to find ourselves flying out over the ocean. After a leisurely ocean tour the pilot informed us that we had been on a holding pattern and would be starting our descent into Kennedy.
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| Burlington VT |
We landed, got our luggage and took the air train to terminal 8 to get our tickets on LAN airlines for Ecuador. We found ourselves at the front of the ticket check in line, again a first for us. It is now around 4:00 and our flight leaves at 10:00 PM!! It was an interesting wait. A family of 4 (2 adults & 2 toddlers) and 8 bags to check, 4 carry on's, plus stroller and assorted bags, headed to Peru. A man from Willsboro Bay (NY) & his friend from Montreal headed to Chile and us, headed to Ecuador. Lots of good chatting going on between everyone.
Our wait in the airport found us eating the lunch we had brought with us in the food court, drinking our fortified orange juice, having a glass of wine in a wine bar (where we ran into the couple headed for Chile, who assured us they would read our blog) and sitting at Gate 6 reading and waiting for our flight.
Flying on LAN airlines was really great. They gave us a seat packet containing a blanket, ear plugs, head phones and eye mask and a great movie selection. We had a vegetarian meal, wine, and an after dinner whiskey. The service was great and we would fly again on LAN.
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| Dinner on LAN Airlines |
We landed in Guayaquil at 4:30 AM. We had to get our bags inspected for fruits and vegetables and pay a $10.00 tax fee before we could get our tickets to San Cristobal. In line we met a lot of surfers. The Galápagos Islands are known for good surfing waters.
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| Koi fish pond in front of Guayaquil Airport |
We are getting ready to board our flight to the Galápagos Islands at 8:45AM.
Now aren't you glad you switched to the vegetarian meal. :) Can't wait to see some photos of the islands!
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