Travel and other junk

I know it’s so cliche to say that I don’t know where the time went, but I’m going to say it anyway; I don’t know where the time went! I swear just yesterday I was losing my mind with a bunch of terrible toddlers terrorizing me and then I blinked and my babies became kids. Today, my very last baby graduated from preschool. The graduation was done parade style, except the spectators remained in their vehicles, as well. At the end, my family got together for a few hugs, congrats and photos! It was the perfect covid-style graduation!

I’m so proud of the sweet little person this daughter of mine has become. She has a heart of gold and lights up the whole room when she walks in. Her excitement and gratitude for her special day today could have made even the grumpiest person, which is actually myself, turn that frown upside down! Happy graduation, baby girl. I can’t wait to see the amazing things you accomplish in life.

I SUCK at blogging. I’ve been meaning to do this post for over a month now. *facepalm. Oh well. Better late than never, I guess.

Anyway…I knew I would love Ecuador. There was never any doubt about that. I’ve had this intense desire to visit for years. Any country with an incredible history, natural wonders, read: volcanoes, and an ancient culture that’s still very present today, like Ecuador, is bound to be amazing! So, when I started playing around with our United miles and saw Ecuador as an option, I jumped on the opportunity as fast as my crappy internet would let me.

Let me back track a bit and explain this trip. This was our summer of 2018 trip. We had started out in Guatemala, surprise. I used 12.5k AA miles and about $5.00 per person to get there from SLC. We stayed around 2 weeks there. Dropped a few points at the Hyatt Centric in GUA and then explored more of the country, staying in AirBnbs. Nathan joined us sometime during week 1, stayed for a week and then we all flew out of Guatemala City and went our separate ways.

I used United miles to get us out of Guate and onto our next destinations. First stop, which was actually just a super long layover, was Panama City. Unfortunately, due to some delays, we weren’t able to do any exploring. We just got to the airport, left the airport, hopped in an Uber, which was free since I had a ton of Uber credits and since Panama uses USD, I was able to use the credits there, and headed to the Hyatt Place downtown. 5k World of Hyatt points a night for any Hyatt hotel is an absolute steal, by the way. Sometimes I can’t believe so many of their properties exist that are only 5k points a night AND they give you free breakfast.

We headed out early the next morning and took a quick flight to Quito. The Quito airport is soooo far from the city, fyi. Probably the furthest out airport I’ve ever been to. We hopped in an Uber, once again using my credits because Ecuador also uses USD, and made the incredible drive over to our hotel in downtown Quito.

We opted for a Hilton property, the Hilton Quito Colon, this time since it was “cheap” and there are no Hyatts in Ecuador. The breakfast was very mediocre, but we really enjoyed the property overall. Side note, they are very strict about you either being the account owner or the owner actually staying to receive their status benefits at this Hilton. 5 stayed roughly days in Quito. Quito and the surrounding area is jam pack with amazing things to do. The historic city center is a must see. It’s one of the prettiest old towns I have ever seen. We spent another day riding the teleferico to the top of Quito and riding horses around the volcano overlooking the city. That was also such a fun experience, despite the horse running off with Carter. We took another day trip to explore the famous markets in Otavalo! Finally, we spent a day at the center of the world!

After 5 days, we rented a car and made our way to Banos, which means bath, not bathroom! We stopped at Cotopaxi, where we had a couple of strangers join us as we drove around the national park. We tried to drive up the mountain but our gutless wonder of a car stalled out and we had to have everyone jump out and push it to turn it around and drive back down. Good times. Good times!

Our 5 days in Banos were absolutely dreamy. We pulled in late that night and I accidentally walked into the wrong hotel, which ended up being a very fortunate mistake. We ended up staying there instead. Nicest staff in the world, by the way. I’ve been trying to find the name of the hotel, and as soon as I do, I’ll update this post with it.

In Banos, we adventured to our heart’s desire. The entire town is just one big adrenaline rush. Jump off a bridge for $20? They’ve got that. Ride a gigantic spinning ball over a massive canyon? They’ve got that too. Crazy swings of death. Yup! And it’s also the gateway to the Amazon rainforest, so just another bonus for this amazing little town.

When our 5 days ended, we hoped back into the car and headed back to Quito where we dropped off our ride and flew out to Colombia.

On a side note, driving in Ecuador was surprisingly easy. I found the roads very well maintained and easy to navigate. My maps were also very accurate, which was fortunate. The one thing that drove me crazy was the night driving. If a car thinks you are driving too slow, they will turn on their brights and get as close to you as possible until either you speed up or they pass.

I want to delve more into the points and miles we used for this portion of the trip. United did away with free stopovers and open jaws a few years ago, but they replaced it with their “excursionist perk.” You can read more about it and how to maximize it all in this article here written by my good amigo!

We used the perk to get us a round trip, Guatemala to Belize, with a nice jaunt throughout South America. Our flight originated in GUA, which took us to Quito, the free segment was Quito to Colombia, and the flight terminated in Belize. It “cost” 25k UA miles and some taxes and fees per person.

Looking back, I don’t know if it was the best use of miles ever, and the taxes and fees can add up fast when flying out of countries in Central America, but it was all worth it, that’s for sure.

Also, after I started going through my pictures, I realized I’m going to need to break this into two posts, so stayed tuned for part dos!