In Quito, Ecuador

I´m in Quito, Ecuador now. Yesterday, I travelled from Tampa to go to Shell for the flight evaluation among other items of business for our eventual move to here.

The trip was absolutely flawless. I had picked up the rental car the night before and had no difficulties with that. It is cheaper to rent a car one way and drop it off than drive a car and pay for parking at the Miami airport. Plus I am not a big fan of leaving a car in Miami for two weeks! The drive down was very nice. There were no accidents from Tampa to Miami and very little traffic in Miami for a Friday afternoon!

After dropping the car off, I caught the shuttle to the airport. There was no line at check in and they took my 2 bags even though they were overweight by about a pound or two and asked me to weigh my carry on. After putting it on the scale, the guy said, "That is WAY over what we allow for carry on!" (Pilots really know how to pack effeciently!) Thinking I would have to pay extra to check it, the guy came back and said that LAN was having a special and allowed a third bag to be checked for free!

Even security was a breeze. The TSA people were all in good spirits and even smiled at me! There were only 3 people ahead of me in the line for security. (I have waited up to an hour to get through security at the Miami airport.)

I got to my gate way ahead of time and was able to relax and have a bite to eat. The flight was only about half sold, so I had a window seat and no one next to me. The plane had personal TVs in all the seats so I had a great time watching Transformers 2, which ended right before landing. The flight was 20 min ahead of schedule and the pilot made a beautiful approach and landing.

Immigration and baggage was quick and there was even one of the guys from MAF to meet me and drive me to the place I was staying.

I think that was the best trip I have ever had! Especially on top of it being a free plane ticket! God is so good to take care of even the small details.

This afternoon we will head out to Shell after picking up another family flying in.