Baños

“We have a problem”, the woman at the Marseille Iberia counter explained to me.  “There are two tickets issued in Sara’s name but we don’t have one for Sadie.”

I didn’t understand. 

“We need to be on this flight!  It’s my birthday and we are meeting my husband in Quito.  Is there anything I can do?’

The French woman politely responded,  “No.  We have to wait to talk to American Airlines.”

A year ago, my dad bought tickets from Marseille to Quito using American Airlines miles. The Fuller Family holiday adventure to the  Galapagos had been planned for a long time.; even before our semester in France had been confirmed.

I panicked.  It was 5:30am and we had fifteen minutes before Iberia closed the baggage for the 6:25am flight.  Brewster sweetly touched my arm.  I was nervous and pushed him away. 

Ten minutes later.  “Any luck?”   She shook her head.  “No.”

“Ah!  I need to buy a ticket.  I’ll do anything!” I handed her my credit card.  She told me that I needed to go downstairs to another terminal to the partner desk in order to purchase a ticket.  I took off running.    “Brewster, Sadie, stay with the bags. This will work out.  It’s OK.”  My optimism kicked in.

I sprinted.  I prayed.  I really did believe. I knew that we were going to be on that flight, but I had to hurry.  Breathless, I arrived at the desk and handed the man my credit card.  Frazzled, he explained that he it would be an hour before he could talk to American.  I said, “I don’t care. I need a ticket to Madrid!”  He pounded frantically on the computer.  He looked up.  “The flight is closed.”

“No. Please.  I need a ticket.” I felt oddly calm.  And then boom, the flight was open.  He took my credit card and entered Sadie’s information into the computer. I had no idea if the ticket would be 100 or 500 euro.  I didn’t care but was pleased when I later saw it was 160 euro.  I scribbled my signature, sprinted back to the kids and my bags at the counter and continued check-in.

I nearly cried at this point.  Brewster was ashen.  Sadie was oblivious to the stress.  The woman printed out six luggage tags, weighed our bags and rushed us off to security.  The last to board the plane, the three of us sat down and it hit us.  We were leaving France.   

Sadie said, “What happened?”  Ignorance was bliss.

What did happen??  I thought my dad made a mistake when booking the tickets.   I sent him a frantic email from Marseille, cc’ing my sister Mara.  “Help!” was the subject. But really they couldn’t do anything.  My dad woke up in the middle of the night, checked his email and immediately started dealing.  He is amazing like that.  He was on hold with American when we finally connected.    I was in Madrid so I told him not to bother and go back to bed.  We left the Madrid security and went to the American Airlines desk.  We learned American reissued the tickets in May they duplicated my ticket.  It was the airline’s fault.  Oh well.  I am confident they will reimburse me for their mistake and I felt grateful that we were in Madrid and not stuck in Marseille.  I thanked my angels.  We couldn’t wait to see Matt!

The four of us reunited in Quito about 7pm Ecuador time.  I didn’t let the kids calculate what time it was in France, but we all knew it was close to twenty-four hours of travel.  Fortunately, our first night, we stayed at a nice hotel near the airport.   The kids ordered room service and Matt and I celebrated the last of my 30-hour birthday over dinner downstairs.   I was happy and so very tired.

I had planned a few days at a resort to reconnect and relax before our Galapagos trip.   It was a good call.   I read about Baños, a town three hours away from Quito and booked two rooms at a Spa Hotel. The hotel coordinated a driver to pick us up in Quito and about 10am on  the 22nd we were in a car driving up out of the crowded city of Quito.  Quito was a basin and the green covered hills leading to the Andes lined the city along with urban sprawl.  We drove on a nice highway funded by the Chinese government around the rim of the city and headed south towards the Samari Spa in Baños.

Clearly, we were not in Europe anymore.  The vegetation was different than anything the kids had ever seen.  There must have been ten different shades of green in the lush trees and grass.  Our drive took us through a sprawl of ramshackle houses and endless mangos and banana stands.  Stray dogs lined the streets.  Women with babies tied to their back stood on the side of the road with a hand out hoping for a car to slow down and give them some spare change.  Restaurants roasted chickens, pigs and other South American cuisine. Their marketing strategy is to plant someone outside their restaurant with an orange street-crossing flag and wave down cars.  

The radio in our car played Lite FM singles from the ’80’s: Lionel Richie, Kenny Rogers, Air Supply.  Our driver hummed along with the music.  Matt rode shotgun and the three of us tired travelers snuggled in the back.   We talked the whole way to Baños swapping stories and sharing tidbits about what we knew about Ecuador.  We looked outside and watched the countryside.  The Hutchinsons were so happy to be back together.

We were excited when the car pulled into our resort  It looked more like Bali than Ecuador (although not having been to either, it’s just my guess.) We suspected the resort used to be a monastery because we spotted stain glass windows on some of the wooden buildings.  The  courtyards and fountains contributed to an overall meditative vibe.  It was perfect.

The weather in Baños was cloudy but dry.  We walked around the grounds and soaking in the beautiful landscape.  Pink, purple and red  flowers accentuated the green grass.  Brewster ran on the soccer field and Sadie cartwheeled on the lawn. We checked out the pool and spa and ate lunch.

The next few days, we relaxed.  We planned an outing a day.  On Sunday the 23rd, we river rafted down the Pastaza River.  The trip was not expensive and it included transportation and lunch.   I remember booking it and almost wishing that they'd charge us a little more.  Rafting in a developing country.  What could go wrong?

 Looking back, Matt and I realized that in their safety talk they didn’t say “If you fall into the river” but instead, “when you fall into the river” and we didn’t sign a waiver.   Our Geotour guides seemed professional, but a little loose.

We rafted sixteen class three or four rapids over a few mile stretch.  Luckily we had two strong backpackers in the front paddling hard.   Our scene became hectic quick. On the third rapid, both dudes up front fell out and so did Brewster!  Sadie freaked out when our raft spun around and around on one rapid. We were stuck.  I lost my paddle, grabbed Sadie’s leg as well as her paddle and listened to our guide for instructions praying the boat didn't flip.  It was SO scary!  Matt looked nervous.  Finally, when we passed through the rapid, I saw that Brewster was rescued by the safety kayak and was safe in another raft.  Moments later we were reunited.  Paddles hit paddles signifying a high five.  No way out but through.  I needed to be brave.

Shortly we reached another gnarly rapid.  This time the guide gave us an option to hop out of the boat, walk on the rocks and swim through the rapid.   It sounded great to all six of us gringos.  First Brewster leapt into the raging river fearlessly.   Sadie followed.  I watched them float on their backs,  knees tucked into their chest as they navigated big river rocks.  Sensational!  “Hello fear.  I feel you.”  I said to myself as I took a deep breath.  I trusted that we’d make it off the river safely and we did.

The only consequence from our rafting adventure was Brewster gulped some river water which may have caused his upset stomach.  We'll never know.  But that Sunday afternoon, we were all still feeling strong and happy to be off the river.  What an adventure!

After rafting, we lunched with our group at a local restaurant (maybe Brewster picked up something there?).   I loved hearing about the travels of others in our group.  The extended South American hostel adventures were new to the kids.  We returned to our resort, relaxed and later went into Baños for dinner.  The town was bustling with vendors on the square and children in the park.  We walked a few blocks looking for our dinner spot and figured out pretty quickly that we were lost. Not having wifi nor speaking Spanish made it difficult to find our spot but we did.  We ate a quick dinner and headed home in a taxi feeling our jet lag and excited for bed.  I love that our taxi cost $1.50 (Did you know that Ecuador is uses American currency?)

The next day, we hired a cab to take us on a waterfall tour.  We stopped at five spectacular  gushing waterfalls.   Along the way there were multiple options to swing from homemade suspension bridges, or zip line over the 500 foot canyon.  “No gracias” was our repeated answer.  At one point, Matt asked me if I thought our cab driver was disappointed that we weren’t taking the opportunity to ride one of these crazy contraptions.  “Maybe but I don’t really care.  You're right.  I am sure these people are his cousins or friends. I'm all set though.  I had enough action yesterday on the river!”  A quiet taxi was just my speed.