And so it begins…a bit of “adventure” and a bonus country to boot!

After a 9-day trip from Denver to New York with some stops along the way to spend time with our kids and visit other relatives, we finally were ready to leave the country and begin our South American adventure. First stop Quito, Ecuador.

But before we even left the United States, the travel gods played their first joke on us, as our already-delayed plane sat on the tarmac long past the moment when there was any hope of making our connecting flight in Panama City. United Airlines took care of our hotel, transportation, and food during the delay, which was nice, but unfortunately they teamed up with the travel gods for the second joke of the trip. Our bags were missing.

We gained many “bonus” hours of travel time, but we also had a real bonus—a couple hours to walk along the water in Panama City. The skyline was intriguing, the marina beautiful and our clothing stinky!

• 

• 

• 

We finally made it to Quito Saturday evening. My bag decided to join us but, courtesy of some prankster at United, Peter’s bag took a little trip through Houston and didn’t make it to Quito until 7 hours after we did. Then Copa Airlines, which was charged with cleaning up United’s mess because our final leg of the trip was with them, took a good 40 hours to deliver the bag to us.

Other than those little glitches, though, our first couple days in Quito have been lovely. On Sunday, we headed out for Ciclovía, a weekly event during which Quito closes down multiple streets for cyclists, joggers and pedestrians. We rented bikes and enjoyed the striking beauty of (parts of) the city and (all of) its surroundings.

Today (Monday) was the big event—the first day of our first week of Spanish classes. I learned a word to describe this auspicious moment—it was our “estreno” (debut/premiere). We are attending Vida Verde Spanish School, which is just a couple blocks from our Airbnb, and so far, so good. And just across the street I found a gym with interval training. All is well in Quito!