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Traveling to Ecuador

Lora Walters

Packed and ready to go. The cab, Jennifer Beeler and Rebecca Millan arrived at my house around 3:15 am Sunday morning. (Or is that still Saturday night?) We loaded up and headed to Hillaire Clark’s house, whose husband had generously offered to drive all of us to Dulles. At Dulles we found a small band of merry travelers, but we were missing the blue shuttle group that left from Ebenezers—which included Christina and Dairo, our fearless leaders. We were milling about trying to figure out what to do as the Copa Airline guy is imploring us to start checking in, which we hesitate to do because everyone is checking a second bag or box of team supplies an they are currently in the blue shuttle van somewhere on I-66. The shuttle finally arrived, Christina has a scuttle with the airline about the size of the boxes (turns out she knows their policies better than they do!), on to security, then we were on our way.

Flight number one is a five-hour flight to Panama City, Panama. We were all seated together, which was nice. Copa served a hot breakfast! While not high cuisine, it is more food than I’ve received on a flight in a very long time. Every leg of every flight we were on included a meal, which was pretty shocking to a traveler used getting a Diet Coke and an occasional small bag of pretzels. After the Panama City stop, we had a quick flight to Quito, Ecuador. 

All of our bags made it! Praise the Lord. Unfortunately, were not able to get the medical supplies through customs. Apparently the manager who can approve their release doesn’t work on Sunday, so they suggested that we come back tomorrow. Ha! On Monday we were half way to the jungle.

Thus began the first of many bus rides. At some point, we made our first “rest stop”—i.e., find a bush and bring your own TP. Nothing bonds a group like squatting in the bushes together for many days in a row! Dinner was yummy fried chicken, rice and French fries. Around 10:00 pm we made it to Hostel Germany in Shell, Ecuador. For those familiar with Jim Elliott and the other missionaries killed in the 50s, Shell was their flight home base. The next morning I got to experience God’s natural alarm clock, the rooster. Helpful roosters welcomed us to the morning every day of the trip.

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