b - Hello Ecuador!

I am here and ok and very very tired and cant wipe the smile off my face
and Gypsey (my camera) has been chaffing at her lens cover to get out
and play! Unfortunately the Mariscal Sucre airport in Quito had an
issue with power right after the plane landed - well, that stopped and
backed up all the customs for multiple flights. In addition to that,
being the way I am Kate got me to the airport really early this morning
and my bags went on the airplane first, so guess what - yup, they came
off on this side stone cold last. I am going to have to rethink getting
to an airport so early.

During the day I had written thoughts and things as the day sauntered
along - so here they are............ I am not sure that I even slept
much at all last night - always worrying about the alarm not waking me
up or switching it off in my sleep - yup, that's happened before. But
not today - I was up and Kate did not waste much time at all - when I
looked around she had all my bags out in her truck already. I was still
trying to break away from those two sets of little dog eyes looking
forlornly at me as I moved to the back door, making a last sweep over to
see if I had missed anything.

The Check In Chappie at Chattanooga airport had a wicked sense of humor
which helped ease my soul awake while it was still dark outside. There
was nowhere open to sit and have a cuppa coffee, so Katie left me to my
own devices. Thanks sis - I owe you a 5am-er!

Time to board and I was fine. We had to walk down some really narrow
little stairs and across the tarmac to an even steeper ladder of
stairs. I found myself almost laughing out loud at the the thought of
what I am doing, where I am going - THAT I am going!! What a wonderful
feeling that short walk was.

I had often sat outside looking at those airplane trails made high in
the sky and hoped, wished and dreamed that I would be on one of them
again sometime soon.............. and here it was today! The taxi-ing
trip to the take off position took so long that I thought the pilot had
decided to drive to North Carolina instead of flying!! FInally we got
off the ground as the sun was rising, throwing a light pink brushing on
the tops of the fluffy clouds that dotted the sky, while the ground
seemed to still be in sleep-shadow. We flew right along the path of the
Tennessee River for a good long way, then hopped over the mountains and
down into Charlotte, NC. While waiting outside for our carry on
luggage, the pilot stepped out as well - Bea, he was a duplicate of
Sean! I must have looked stupid with my mouth hanging open in shock.
Fortunately I did not say anything stupid.

Walking for what seemed like miles through that airport, I wondered
again at all the stories cramming that place..... I know an airport
becomes just a 'holding place' when you get used to flying a bit, but
there is so much going on, hello's and goodbyes, sad stories and love
stories and everything in between - its really all walks of life crammed
into a small space - and fascinating to watch........ especially from
one of the white rocking chairs that were found all over the place -
thanks Wendy!

It was a small-child-sticky-hands-free flight to Miami - I was at the
window again, and the middle seat was open which made it really
comfortable and that lady and I got to chat for a while. Airplanes
were lined up as if in a traffic jam, waiting to take off and I smiled a
bit when I realized that I had two very sweaty palms again, but decided
to ignore that issue and just enjoy - and I did. Its funny how the
airplane seems to get up on her tippy toes when they rev those engines
before takeoff - its like its just rearing to go and then the brakes
come off and boy do they get up speed fast!

Miami came up fast while watching the clouds scud by, the occasional
airplane flying below us looking like lurking sharks and the beautiful
coastline, dotted with islands everywhere and plenty little and big
boats having fun out on the water, all the way down. The patchwork of
earth slipped away under the wings of the plane with no apparent sense
to its layout and it got me wondering about life and stuff. Often
whatever is happening does not seem to make sense from a distance, but
when up close, that's when what can look chaotic from afar, becomes
clear. Sort of like this adventure of mine - it seems to make little
sense to some who are not close to me, but others know that I need this,
that ............. well, its my patchwork that somehow feels so
absolutely right in all ways. Ok 'serious' thought done for the day :)
Wait, one more - we were flying so low that I thought that if the plane
were to crash right then, at least it would not take long. Ok -done now :)

Miami arrived and I only had two gates to walk to get to the next
departure point! And there was a cute little restaurant there that
served me a great hamburger and fries while I people watched and waited
for an hour to tick tock by till take off time again. I was starting to
feel tired at this point too. When we boarded the plan, there was a
woman with a small child sitting in my window seat............. oh no no
no!! Fortunately she found another window seat for herself on the other
side of the plane - I could not sit with no window all the way to Quito!

Everything is in Spanish already - I listen and try to figure out the
gist of what they are saying and then confirm it or hang my head in
frustration when the English translation comes on. This trip is going
to be reeeaaalllly interesting! I really hope I can get to learn the
language at least a little bit while I am here. Having 4 hours of
lessons a day should help a lot - hopefully!

Anyway - I kicked off my shoes, drew the blanket around me and snuggled
into the pillow, watching Cuba slip on by and then some other gloriously
blue waters and eventually nothing but the clouds.. But they were also
interesting for a bit. The sea had multiple different shades of blue
and the clouds were almost brilliant white but all different shapes and
formations. There were huge almost gentle swirls, pop corn clouds,
rolling waves of air and some clouds were laid out in straight lines -
all doing their own thing for no apparent reason. And the hours moved
on and suddenly there was the moon right at the wing tip, with the sky
darkening to a lovely hue of blue and yes, Gypsey played and caught a
bunch of photos. At times it almost looked like a snow scene, with the
clouds solidly hiding earth from us all, but creating such a spectacular
landscape at the same time. As one of my daughters said many many years
ago - "its where the Angels live, mom". Maybe it is - its sure
beautiful. The late sun decorated many of the clouds with a gold splash
as it slid down giving way to the moon. Every here and there was a
greay spot, all dark and angry looking......I will spare you my thoughts
on that and just say one word... "Balance". :)

When lunch arrived I saw a bottle on the cart that looked interesting
-white wine to go with the chicken - oh yeah!! It was just a small
glass but I could feel the wine pulling on my eyelids and after I was
offered a top up, and I accepted, I found that pillow again, snuggled
down and dozed off for a bit. We flew right over the Panama Canal, but
it was totally clouded over with no chance of a sighting.... maybe on
the way back.

Landing at Quito is beautiful - the lights on the ground look mostly
beautiful gold in color and so warm and welcoming and jus I just loved
squishing my nose to the window to stop the inside reflections and watch
the beautiful display playing out below me. When we landed, I found
myself quite emotional........ it was such a good feeling to be here
again - so many really good and happy feelings about the next two weeks
got me all teary eyed for a second or 4.

Then the power went out in the airport and my luggage arrived stone cold
last, but Tavo waited for me for the almost two hours it took to get out
of there! Driving through Quito just took my breath away - its
beautiful, old, quaint, awesome, amazing - just lovely on so many
levels. I am SO happy to be here and cant wait to spend a weekend
around here after my time in the Jungle.

And so here I sit, the hotel's internet crashed this afternoon, I have
no phone either and there is a huge big gate on the front hotel door
that clearly spells to me not to go out. So its off to bed with me
after a really long, lovely, happy day. Tomorrow I head into the jungle
by bus and will spend the night at Tena - hopefully they have internet -
and food! I am sooo hungry.

Love and light
Annie
ps - I will leave you with the minor tidbit that I was robbed of my
money, credit cards and some camera stuff (small stuff) and a few other
things - but was not hurt in any way....... and it was me just not being
smart :( All is well. Today was amazing too - beautiful countryside
and all - but that is also for the next email.

Sorry about the worry the lack of contact created :(


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