Going Home

Day 14:

This morning we woke up at 4 am to catch our flight at 7:30 am. We arrived at the airport at 5:20 am and it was a mad house. We waited 1 1/2 hours in line at the ticket counter because they were still trying to get everyone out which was caused by the delay due to the accident. We saw a few familiar faces from the last time we were at the airport. We chatted about our extended stay and the airplane accident.

Apparently, the airplane was still at the end of the runway. Rumor has it that they might have to take the plane apart to move it because Quito Airport doesn't have the equipment to haul it off the runway. We didn't feel comfortable about taking off on a runway with a damaged airplane sitting at the end of it.

When we boarded the plane we noticed that there were a lot of seats available. We were going to make a fuel stop in Panama City before heading to Houston. This wasn't on the schedule. We later found out that the purpose for of light load and fuel stop was to keep the plane as light as possible in order to clear the airplane at the end of the runway. Nice - the adventure never ends. Luckily, we made it and we were finally on our way home.

Looking out the airplane window we noticed something in the near distance - Cotopaxi. The entire time we were in Ecuador we couldn't see Cotopaxi Volcano because of the fog and low lying clouds. The sight of Cotopaxi was the cherry on the cake as we headed home.

We arrived Portland at 9 pm exhausted and cold. We will do a final recap of our Ecuador adventure in the next couple of days. But, it's official - this was the best vacation ever!