So my Mom arrived at the end of November. I thought since I just came back from Peru on Friday, that taking the bus on Sunday up to Quito would be no problem. There are no sleeper buses in Ecuador but all are considered "executive" and do give you more space then regular buses. My friends in Loja said it would be about 12-14 hours up to Quito so I got the 8am bus and hoped to arrive by 8pm, 10pm latest. But knowing me and buses in this Country, something was bound to happen. When we left from Loja there were about 15 people standing in the isle along with every seat being full. I couldn't believe that people were going to stand the whole way but not surprisingly, we dropped people off randomly along the way and then after an hour and a half we were in Sereguro which has a huge indigenous population and where lots of people got off and on. The ride through Ecuador was definitely beautiful. We changed elevation along the way, sometimes drastically as my ears wouldn't pop fast enough and would hurt. The highway, shall we call it, is only two lanes with no line down the middle and mountain on one side and a drop on the other. It's hard to sleep and even reading a book made me a little ill since it was so winding. At one point (hour 19) we were headed up a mountain and when we came to the top there was an unexpected roadblock. Some of the people got out and wandered around and our bus driver got out and went up and talked to the truck driver ahead of us. When he returned it was announced that we would back the bus up down the mountain and then cut through the last city we just passed-by. I weighed my options of getting out and walking down the mountain as some were doing or staying in the bus and taking the risk of potentially backing-up down the mountain. I opted to stay in the bus . . . it was definitely interesting. We backed up down the other side of the road (mountain side) and one guy was directing the bus but at every turn there were more transport trucks, buses and a few cars that were coming at full speed towards us. The guy would let them know and then they would turn around around us. Crazy!! When we finally made it to the bottom, we were able to do a full turn around and be on our way. Taking a bus for that long really tests your mental stability and at hour 12 I started to loose it but by hour 13 I was okay. We arrived in Riobamba at hour 13 so by then I knew we had 3 more hours to go until we got there. In Riobamba I changed seat mates and got this other who who asked me why as a foreigner I would ever take the bus from Loja (ya thanks!) but then since it was getting really cold, he gave me his jacket so I was able to sleep the last few hours into Quito. I arrived at midnight and fortunately my bag was one of the first off so I jumped in a taxi and headed into the central, swearing I would never return to that bus. Quito was having an unusually cold spell while we were there and it was freezing!! On Monday night mom and my friend were due to arrive. My friend at 9:30pm and my mom at 11pm. My friend ended up being delayed until 10pm and my mom's flight arrived early at 10:20 . . . I waited for my mom at the one and only gate in Quito until midnight when finally I was very concerned and had to figure out what was going on. I wandered around to the military office (lots of military in Ecuador). They took her info and flight info, made a few calls and then finally told me to check with Delta, who she flied with. I wandered around and found 2 Delta offices but because the flight had come in 2 hours ago, everything was closed. I went back to the internet cafe in the airport but that was also closed at this hour. When I went back to the arrivals terminal, it had emptied out a bit and I was able to get up to the guards so I let them know I was looking for my mother, what flight she came in on and her age but that she didn't require assistance. The guy went back to look for her and after 20 minutes returned and said she never entered the country. All the flights had landed for the night and the flight from Columbia had landed last so all that were coming out were spanish people, so we decided to head back to our hostel since there was nothing more we could do. We arrived back at 1:30, I sent a few emails to see if anyone had heard from her and then went up to bed. At 2am I got a call on my cell phone and it was my mom. She was at the airport in Ecuador and needed to know where we were staying. She put a spanish woman on the phone so I gave her directions and then went out front the hostel to wait for her. She arrived just before 2:30am. I guess when her flight had landed, 3 huge planes had arrived at the same time. Quito is a tiny airport, 3 baggage carousels only and when she came through customs, it was caotic. Mom said people were crawling over the belts and baggage to find their bags. She couldn't find her bags so she lined up in a line that she said was over 100 people and when she got to the front they told her they didn't deal with Delta people and she had to go to a different counter. She decided to just find someone who worked there who spoke english. When she did he found out that Delta had her bags but they were locked up for the night. They told her to come back the next morning but she said no and demanded they get them for her. She didn't end up coming out of the airport until after 1am and fortunately there was a local man there with his nephew, waiting to take off to go to Brazil (planes arrive at night and take off 2-3 hours later). It took him and his nephew to carry my mom's backpack (love it!) but they helped her make the call and then get a taxi. Mom said the taxi driver was asleep in his car waiting for the morning but he gladly woke up and brought her to the hostel. Such craziness!! The next day, we slept in and then started a walking tour of Quito. I loved Quito just as much the second time as the first time. In the afternoon we wandered across the street to a Turkish bath that is a little piece of heaven!!
