I have arrived- and it has all ready been quite an adventure. At 8pm the night prior to departure my computer decided to crash while downloading ArcGIS for my research down here in Ecuador. Thankfully I have a loving partner that let me take his brand new computer (purchased so that he could Skype with me while I am down here). He also worked fervently to get mine fixed in 1 day in attempt of having a UI professor that is traveling down here deliver it to me. Unfortunately though, even after the overnight repair fees, the professor did not have room and thus Greg is stuck with the now partially functioning computer. Not the most pleasant way to start out a trip!
Greg dropped me off for our bus to the Spokane Airport at 2:45am on the morning of the 14th. I will have to admit that this time has been the hardest goodbye that I have ever had. Leaving the boys and my 4 legged furball Talus has been much more difficult than I anticipated. Either way, we made it to Spokane only to be faced with more complications. I was asked to check one of the aquatic research team's equipment bags as it was believed that we were each allotted two checked bags. Thus, I stuffed my one bag to the gills. Upon arrival we found out that we had to pay for the second checked bag, plus any baggage that was overweight. All in all the baggage dilemma cost me $350, which the program director "hopes" will get reimbursed to us. I sure hope so too! We then boarded a few planes and flew from Spokane to Salt Lake to Atlanta and finally in to Quito. We arrived at La Pasada del Mapel at around midnight, but we had finally arrived!