Airport Monday Morning

Trip Start Nov 08, 2009

Trip End Feb 26, 2010

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Flag of Ecuador Quito, Pichincha, Ecuador
Monday, November 9, 2009

All we have done is sit on aeroplanes and sit around international transit lounges, but this trip is off to an awesome start. Other than one unfortunate incident involving a mushroom, I couldnt have hoped for it to go better. We have finally arrived in the capital of Ecuador, Quito, and will be calling The Secret Garden home for the next few days.

We were at Melbourne Airport by 3:45am on Monday morning and everything went fine there, then when we get our seats on the plane I became like a little kid in a candy store - the in-flight entertainment package was amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was giddy with excitement at the options.

Leaving Melbourne @ 6am

Highlights: There were 10 movies, Flight Of The Conchords, 30 Rock, How I Met Your Mother, Family Guy, etc etc - all for a 3-5hr flight to Auckland. Rad!

Kaela and I watched The Brothers Bloom together (it was okay, not great) then Kaela bailed to sleepsville whilst I polished off an episode of Flight Of The Conchords and 4 episodes of 30 Rock! Pretty happy with myself.

Then 4 hours in the transit lounge at Auckland blah blah blah it was boring and uneventful blah blah blah...

Then the big one! The flight from Auckland to Santiago.
Again, I was blown away by the entertainment options. Soooo many movies.

I watched 500 Days Of Summer, Julie And Julia, Die Hard 4.0 and The Usual Suspects. 500 Days Of Summer was the most hyped and award-winning but was definitely the least enjoyable.

Kaela watched 500 Days Of Summer, Julie And Julia and Office Space. She also continued her attempts to sleep, with mixed results. I tried to get her to take a sleeping pill when we left Auckland but foolishly she resisted. So she spent all our flights with moderate neck-pain, kinda groggy from being half asleep and kinda grumpy from being half awake. Great company.

Tofu Surprise!

The airline food is also bringing me much joy. I have been very pleased with the meals given to us (and on the first flight we were served a good 30 minutes before anyone else on the plane - vegans for the win!). Each time the meals come around I feel like I´m getting a xmas present - cant wait to open it![

Our 4 hours in the Santiago transit lounge was also pretty uneventful (Kaela slept most of it) - except they have Boost Juice! Crazy! I was so excited. I didnt know there were Boosts outside of Australia, but apparently they thought Santiago Airport would be a good place to start breaking the international market. So for a taste of home (and to support an Aussie business trying to make it overseas) Kaela and I each ponied up some US Dollars for some fruity goodness. Mmmmmmmm. Tasted like globalisation.

Embracing South American Culture

I hadnt slept yet (had been too excited by all the movies and television), and we´d been on the go for about a day now, so we both spent the last flight (Santiago, Chile - Quito, Ecuador) catching some Zs.

At around 9pm local time we landed in Quito, where thanks to power blackouts there were no traffic lights - so the fast-paced shuttle drive from the airport was very interesting to say the least.

The Secret Garden is an amazing looking hostel. I´ve never seen anything like it. It´s in the Old Town of Quito where everything is built into the traditional ancient architecture. We will hopefully get some photos/videos happening soon, but for now it is most definitely bed time!

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Damon

p.s
It´s Kaela here - for anyone who read that whole blog, I applaud you.
Unlike Damon, I think I´ll wait until we actually see some of South America before I start boring people with the details.