Almost Home to Cuenca - Back Where I Belong!

Dear Family and Friends,

Matt and I left on Wednesday, April 27th, for a long trip back to Washington state. It was the worst connections I have ever experienced between Cuenca, Ecuador and Richland, WA. We left our condo in Cuenca at 6:00 pm for the airport. We flew to a 45 minute flight to Guayaquil and had to wait until after 11:00pm to start our flight from Guayaquil to Atlanta, GA. After we arrived in Atlanta, we had over 6 hours to wait until our flight departed to Salt Lake City. From Salt Lake City we flew to Seattle and from Seattle we flew to Pasco (our airport). We arrived on Thursday night about 7:30 pm (9:30 Cuenca time), that is over 24 hours of travel.

We were so tired as we waited for our luggage. Matt's suitcase showed up right away. Mine never showed. So we walked down to the desk and learned that we had to wait until after the flight that was boarding had left because due to monetary cutbacks, the desk people also service the airplane.

We waited in a stupor until someone showed up and took the information for locating my lost luggage.

We still had to secure a rental car. I drove Matt to his place and then I finally drove to Glenda's house....arriving there about 9:30pm. I told her that I was just too tired to be social, I did send a quick email to Chuck letting him know we made it safely.


Glenda lives in the house that we used to live in. Glenda is renting the house from us and she is maintaining the house and yard. We have one bedroom that is for Chuck and me. So when we return to Richland we always have a nice bed in familiar surroundings.

I took this picture of our front porch. Glenda has made it so welcoming. She is so creative. She even has the flowers set up on a drip system so they will be beautiful all summer.

While back in town, I had a nice Sunday with Kathie, Heidi and Cannon. We went to Red Robin for lunch and then headed to the park.



I also spent time with friends, mostly eating and doing some shopping. Here is a breakfast meet-up with Karen and Randy (they are moving to Cuenca in just a few weeks from now), Glenda and Chris.


I had a nice week but I was so ready to head back home by the time I left. I really like it better when Chuck and I can travel together.

My flight back to Quito was so much more sane. I left the Pasco airport at 5:15am and arrived in Quito at 10:15pm the same day. A long day, but doable.

While I was waiting in Atlanta for the flight to Quito, I went online to check my email. The first thing I opened was an invite to lunch in Cuenca to welcome a couple of new folks moving down. The email said they would be flying from Atlanta to Quito on Wednesday. Hey, it was Wednesday. We were on the same flight. I looked around the waiting area and sure enough, I found Tom and George. We had a great chat while waiting for the boarding to begin.


Chuck flew up to Quito. He met me at the airport and and also got to meet Tom and George.
We are spending a few days here in Quito. We have had back to back house guests since February, so we are taking a little mini vacation.

We fly home to Cuenca on Sunday.

I am so looking forward to getting back to where I belong!!

Love,
Nancy