Back in Ecuador for X-mas

Once done with my finals, I traveled to Ecuador for the holidays. Since TLH is a really small airport, most of the flights going from there tend to be really expensive, I decided to avoid flying out of TLH and just got a ride with some friends who were driving down to Miami. The ride was fun, but very long, we had to get out of the road a couple times to drop off two of my friends, plus stops for gas/eat/rest. We left from Tally around 530am and got to Miami around 530 in the afternoon, that gave us enough time to rest for some time and go to a mall and get those last season shopping done (me and one of my friends were going home).

The next day I flew out of MIA around 800am. The flight was packed, so I had to wait in line for about an hour and a half to check in, just in time for boarding the plane on time. Once in the plane, we had to wait for TSA to authorize us to leave, meanwhile, I took the time to get a couple of shots of the neighboring planes.



The flight was pleasant and not too long, only three hours and thirty five minutes, and the weather was really nice (although I slept through good part of it since I was tired as hell). Landing into UIO can be an interesting experience for many people, in fact, there were some people two rows behind me talking about how much they didn't like the airport because it is in the middle of the city. I personally like landing into Mariscal Sucre Int. Airport because I do like to see the city (I'm in love with my country and my city as many people know). I got to take a few pictures, sadly, we were coming from the north, that means I didn't get to see many of the nicer peaks that are located south of Quito (like Cotopaxi or Chimborazo). Here are some of the shots I got.





Once in Quito, was really nice to see the second half of the final game of my team, El Nacional, in which we won the national tournament for the thirteenth time in their history, making them the team with most number of titles, same as Barcelona Sporting Club, in Ecuador. Now I will have about three weeks to enjoy here at home, and I will continue writing as things come along :)

Thank you TSA!

I went to Washington D.C. this weekend, when I got to the TLH regional airport, I realized that I packed everything except my passport. I was running kinda late for my flight, or at least right on time. Luckily I had with me my ID from Ecuador, and that being my only picture ID I had at the moment thought I was going to miss my flight. But no, it turns out that you can travel with any ID as long as it has a picture, your name and an expiration date. And that I think is one of the ironies regarding "security", since it is perfectly accepted the ID to get into a plane, but is not a valid document to verify that I am over 21 to get into a bar (or at least to some bars).

On the way back, of course, I didn't had my passport either, but I wasn't so worried about it since I knew wasn't a problem. In fact, the only problem I had on check-in was that the lady at the counter couldn't figure what was my first name and what was my last name, once that was clear, she found my reservation and I was good to go. Pass the security check, where you have to leave all the scissors, razor blades, and all those dangerous liquids like gatorade. As anybody who has been in airplanes after 9-11-2001 has seen those big boxes at that screening area where all these hazardous devices are kindly taken for everybody's security... but... to my surprised, I went to buy a bottle of water in one of the gift shops and to my surprise... you can carry scissors and needles that you buy on the "secure area".

For all that, THANK YOU TSA!