Ecuador 2/22/2022 - 3/8/2022 |
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ProloguePrior to this trip, the last time we had been on a plane was March 21, 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic was kicking into high gear. We got the last plane out of East Greenland, and one of the last out of Iceland before the U.S. restricted flights coming in from Europe. We were thankful to get home safely, where we would basically quarantine ourselves until we were vaccinated.Once vaccinated, we got out of the house a bit more, but were still quite cautious. We desperately wanted to visit our compadres in Ecuador and Guatemala, but were not comfortable doing so until they were vaccinated as well. The last thing we wanted was to inadvertently spread COVID in a non-vaccinated community. We will be going to Guatemala for the eldest daughter's wedding over the summer, but realized that the time is finally right for us to go to Ecuador. It's been almost two and a half years since we have seen our godchildren. A new baby (Adeliz Dashel) has even been born in the meantime! She's almost two years old and we haven't even met her yet! Of course, the US government still has Ecuador listed as "Do Not Travel" due to the COVID situation there, but we have to take our chances. In 2019, we traveled by air every 2 months. Now we are woefully out of practice, and of course there are the COVID restrictions to deal with. Nonetheless, we decided to bite the bullet. On February 6, we bought our tickets and I started to research the COVID requirements. We would need a negative PCR or antigen test 72 hours prior to boarding our flight to Ecuador, and we would need our vaccine certificates. I researched where we could get our test, and made appointments at a nearby CVS Minute Clinic. I read something that said that Ecuador required QR codes for vaccine certificates. So I created a digital health passports for each of us, which were then accessible via QR code. Testing to come home would be a bit more complicated. You need a test within a day of departure, and we have no idea how easy it is to find a place to get tested in the Otavalo area that would get the results back quickly enough. There is always the airport, but what if you are at the airport and test positive? We would need to get a ride back to the family's home and then isolate in our casita. I did some more research and found home tests that you can bring on the trip with you with you. I bought them from a company called EMed. You are guided through taking the test by EMed staff via video call, and you get results within 15 minutes. If positive, we would not even go to the airport. This seemed better all around. The tests came overnight FedEx, a 6-pack for $150. On Feb 11, we learned that three days prior, Ecuador had lifted the testing requirement for entry. So I canceled our Minute Clinic testing appointments. Yay, one less hoop to jump through! Ecuador also requires an online health assessment to be filled out to ensure that you have no symptoms. The day before our trip, we got email from American Airlines saying that we were eligible to check in online. We tried to do so, and then were told that they couldn't complete our check-in because our COVID information was not updated. There was no way within American's site to do so. You have to either do it through the veriFLY app, or submit your documents in person at the airport. So I downloaded veriFLY. I was counting on the fact that it was easier to do all of these things up front, to make things easier at run-time at the airport. I created my profile. I had to take a photo of myself and enter my personal information as well as my flight information. I could create a profile for Craig as a "companion." He also required a photo. When I seleced Ecuador as our destination, it brought up Ecuador-specific COVID protocols. |
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The app told me to scan your digital health QR code. I had one of those! So I scanned it. But it said it wasn't from a recognized provider, though it was from the official Massachusetts site. The workaround was ri take photos of our vaccine cards and upload them to the app. Since it couldn't be automatically authorized like a QR code, it had to go for manual review, which they said could take several hours. Of course you can pay $8 or $15 for expedited service. Luckily, we were doing this an entire day ahead of time, so we didn't have to pay to expedite service. We could wait.
We completed our Ecuador health assessments, which also yielded a QR code to be scanned when we arrive in Ecuador. It asked for flight info (seat numbers) as well as contact information for our stay in Ecuador. It asked 6 basic health screening questions. I printed it out to have a hard copy with us, just in case the QR code thing didn't work for some reason. Two hours after attempting to check in online, we were all done except for waiting for the verification of our documents from veriFLY. It is a good thing that I didn't wait until the last minute to try to do this stuff. Of course, there is still the option to show/fill out documents in person at the airport, but we sure hoped that this would prove easier in the end. It took a little over an hour to get a confirmation from veriFLY that our vax cards were accepted. Then we had to answer questions about health and the fact that we had filled out our Ecuador health declaration. Then we had to say that we had not traveled to certain African countries in the past 14 days (first time we heard about that restriction...luckily we haven't been anywhere!) Three hours after starting this whole process, we were finally able to check in online. Tuesday, February 22, 2022 - ArrivalLogan Way car service picked us up at 9:30 a.m. We had a nice ride in to the airport. When we arrived, we tried to check in with a skycap. It was not allowed for international flights. So we tried a kiosk to do bag drop. After all, we had already checked in online. Again, not available for international.There was a long check-in line, but we noticed that there was also a line designated solely for veriFLY. We got into that line, which had nobody else in it. We showed the desk agent the app on my phone, which proclaimed us each as "ready to fly". We didn't need to show anything other than the app and our passports. I was glad that I put i the effort to configure everything on the app yesterday. It certainly made things very smooth today! They checked our bags, and then it was on to security. Masks are required at all times in the airport and on planes except for when actively eating and drinking. We had to pull our masks down for a moment so that the TSA agent could check our faces against our passport photos. We went through the TSA Precheck line and then headed to our gate. We got lunch at Kelly's Roast Beef (roast beef sandwiches with mayo). Our flight was ontime at 1:08 p.m. It was a flight where there were no seatback TV's. Instead you could use their app for entertainment via wi-fi. Except the wi-fi wasn't working. Throughout the entire duration of the flight, flight attendants had to act as mask police. People just don't want to comply with rules. We enjoyed soft drinks and Biscoff cookies. We arrived in Miami, where Craig got a wheelchair. The attendant wheeled him to our gate. We had dinner at Cafe Versailles: turkey swiss baguettes. Our flight took off ontime at 6:42 p.m. The wi-fi was working on this flight, which we soon came to resent. Everyone was watching entertainment on their phones with no headphones. Since when was this a thing? We longed for the first flight when there was no wi-fi. We got out our iPod and listened to Bob Dylan. It was very hot on the plane. Again, we had soft drinks and Biscoff cookies. We arrived at Quito ontime at 10:50 pm. We had to submit a hard copy of the health declaration that we filled out online (luckily, I had printed it out, just in case) and show our vax cards at immigration. We collected our luggage and used the rest room. On our way out of the airport, we didn't have to put bags through the customs scanner, but they did need to scan our passports again. Antonio, Aida, and the four children were there to greet us. The kids gave us flowers. Sisa, Yupanqui, and Shina had grown very tall in the past 2.5 years. And we met toddler Adeliz Dashel for the first time! Adeliz Dashel helped Antonio push the luggage cart out to the van. We were sad to note that Rosa was not with the rest of the family. Over the course of the pandemic, we had received various reports from the family that things weren't right, and that Rosa and Antonio were having problems in their relationship. We didn't know the extent of the situation, though...the kids still talked about seeing Rosa and her being at the house at times, so we hadn't known whether she would be with them when they came to pick us up. Not seeing her at the airport for the first time in 11 years was disheartening, and led us to realize that the situation was worse than we thought. We got into the van and were delighted that Adeliz Dashel didn't seem to experience much stranger anxiety. She was curious about us and chose to sit between us, not scared of us at all. After a short while, everyone in the van was asleep except for the driver, Antonio, Craig, and myself. This gave Craig and me a chance to ruminate on the situation with Rosa. She had traditionally been the glue that held the family together. She always did the cooking, cleaning, and washing for the family. We always praised "Saint Rosa" for all the work that she did around the homestead. It was a lot, and we understand that it could have become overwhelming. Who would do these things now? Was Aida still working outside the house? Would it fall to Antonio and the kids? We just weren't sure. But the fact that Aida was here at the airport was reassuring. We got to the family homestead in Morochos at 1:15 a.m. We said goodnight to the family, and quickly got settled into our casita. We were relieved to see that the casita was in good shape. We had heard that there were some roof leak issues in the casitas, and we hadn't been sure if our casita had been one of the damaged ones. But everything was fine. We went straight to bed. We felt badly because tomorrow would be a school day for the kids, and it was very late. But they had managed to get at least some sleep in the van. We ourselves were exhausted, having had a long travel day and arriving at high altitude. I had decided to take tomorrow off from work so that I didn't have to get up early and could ease into things a little more. |
 At Logan Airport  On the flight to Miami  Achi Taita and Yupanqui  Aida, Adeliz Dashel, Shina, Sisa, Antonio, Achi Taita, Yupanqui  Aida, Adeliz Dashel, Sisa, Achi Mama, Achi Taita, Shina, Yupanqui See all photos from February 22 |
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