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| Moments before leaving US soil for a long time! |
Well, the Arrowsmiths really are in Ecuador now! It has been a long, but eventful, 48 hours. We started yesterday morning in Palm Bay, FL, with an hour-long drive to Orlando to catch our first flight of the day to Miami. The layover gave us plenty of time for some lunch and entertainment.
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| tempting... |
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| Gracie has adapted very well to air travel |
The ride to Quito was a bit bumpy (both due to turbulence and some antsy kids), but essentially uneventful. Truth is, our girls are very good travelers,
considering they are 2 and 5. Customs and immigration were the most efficient I've ever experienced and we made it from the last row of the airplane to the comfort of our shuttle bus in less than an hour.
After 13 hours of travel, we finally arrived at our hotel for the night, the Quito Airport Suites. It was a very quick stay (arrived at 9:00pm, left at 5:15am) and, in our younger, pre-kid days, Craig and I would have probably just slept at the airport, but it was worth it for the kids to have a bed to sleep in. Plus, we met a very nice Canadian couple with whom we shared a few drinks and stories.
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| The girls' perspective of our 8-hour stay in Quito. This is how they fell asleep. By the morning, they had switched sides and neither of them remembered how that happened. |
Our early morning flight afforded us the opportunity to arrive at our short-term rental here in Cuenca and have a rather productive 1st day. We managed to eat breakfast, unpack, re-arrange the furniture, take a 3-hour nap, find a taxi, go grocery shopping, make dinner, figure out how to make free phone calls to the US using our computer, put kids to bed, play a game of cribbage and finish a blog post! Tomorrow, we will tackle a walk through the historic center of the city and begin the search for our permanent home. Enjoy the photos below from our first day, thanks for reading and let me know what you think so far!
-- Ileana
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| our first glimpse of Cuenca |
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| Beautiful garden courtyard in the center of the premises |
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| The little cafe associated with our apartment |
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Our sweet girl making the best of a sparsely-furnished home
and no other kids by playing a matching game |
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| The front door |
Cuanto me alegro que ya están en Cuenca y que podemos seguirles a través del blog. Cariños, Papá.
ReplyDeleteGreat talking with you tonight! Happy to feel as part of yur life there. Un beso para todos, Mamá
ReplyDeleteHey family, Your photos and description make us feel as if we are there. We look forward to reading this as much as we look forward to the "Sons" and you know how much we enjoy that! Take care and have fun. Love mom
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