Uncertainty, Overwhelmed Systems, Surrender and Elation

Dallas to Houston to Quito...finally!

We needed to get up just after 2 AM in Dallas to get our rental car returned and make it to the airport 4 hours early as recommended these days for an international flight. We had been emailing the officials in Texas to try to get our Covid test results which are required to enter Ecuador. There was nothing in my email as we sat waiting for the United desk to open.

It was 5:30 when the United kiosk opened and our check in was simple. We headed to security where - as usual - I went through without issue while Pam got more personal attention than she wanted. Once through we still had about an hour before boarding. It was before government business hours so our last hope for our test results was coming at the Houston airport where we had a two hour layover.

The system in Texas is overwhelmed with testing mainly because they chose to open back up while the cases were still going up. Our only option since we are not Texas residents was pop up testing sites they had near San Antonio. We chose the firehouse in Adkins since they began at 8 AM and went to 4 PM where the other two sites were taking the first 175 people only and not starting until 10AM.

We arrived before 8 and there was about 100 people ahead of us. We were done before 11 AM and headed off to Austin to finish some items on our check list.

Back to Houston, we didn't get our results and the chances of them coming before we arrived in Quito was slim so we had a sense of resignation and surrender as we took our seats in the waiting area where our temperatures were taken and we were asked if we had our results and where we were heading. When we told them we were tested but had no results we were taken to the testing area to wait for a test. Our tests were easier than the initial tests in Texas and our results were done in 15 minutes.

We both were negative and elated to be so, but still unsure of what that meant for us as the official government position was that if you were non residents you would be required a 14 day quarantine in a hotel where you entered the country where you would not be allowed to leave the room the entire time. There was an option for an additional test after 7 days, but I won't explain that process here.

What did happen was that they asked us if we were planning to quarantine in a hotel or at home and we quickly answered home. They stamped our paperwork and we gathered our pile of luggage and headed to the hotel for the night and let our arranged driver for the morning know that we were good to travel in the morning. Whew!

Roadtrip...Quito to Cuenca!
We were out front at 7:30 AM and our driver arrived on time in a very clean van for our journey from Quito to Cuenca - about an 8.5 hour drive. Edwin was masked and had hand sanitizer which he used after every interaction with toll booths, etc. As a professional driver in Ecuador he is tested every 2 weeks.

The drive was beautiful! As we climbed up and then descended the Andes along the route we were witness to about 99% compliance with masks along the way. What a difference from the maybe 10% compliance in Texas. Edwin enhanced the trip by pointing out the volcanoes, interesting sites, and sharing lots of interesting facts: did you know that the closest mountain to the sun is located in Ecuador? 

One of the incredible volcanoes along the route.

We also passed the first Catholic church in Ecuador which is just shy of 500 years old. Unfortunately, like all of the other attractions located in North and South American, everything is closed, so we took a picture from outside and moved along.

One point along the route we drove along the "Quinoa Road" which is the only place in Ecuador where they grow quinoa.  We were impressed by the beauty of the plants.  Our driver stopped for a picture and then pulled off the top of one of the plants to show us how the quinoa grain grows. 

The rolling hills covered by puzzle piece like farm fields everywhere where beautiful!  

Cuenca!

We arrived in Cuenca at 4:30 and headed up to Dennis and Jackie's place where the best pizza in Cuenca was waiting for us, still warm as it had just been delivered! The last 10 days of scrambling from San Cristobal to Texas and then down to Ecuador with all of the uncertainty washed away immediately - the bottle of Old Bushmills Irish Whiskey we brought helped.

Now the next chapter begins with the exploration of Cuenca and surrounds. We have to find a place to rent and finish our resident visas, but neither are close to the daunting tasks we already pulled off as a crazy good team.

Those stories and some more from the time in Texas are yet to come, but for Safety Sunday we decided to go with this post first.

We hope this post finds you all safe and healthy and we promise more soon. Peace and love peeps....

Lots Of Moving Pieces

We learned mid last week that we were not going to be allowed to ship our van with the belongings inside to Ecuador as they had not opened that aspect of their borders as yet. That left us with a lot to do.

The shipping agent we contacted for shipping our belongings recommended we use Houston as opposed to LA and also told us not to use a Mexican port so we plotted a course for the Texas border and chose Brownsville.

We also had the little task of selling the van, and there have been modifications made that make it more of an overlanding rig than a cargo van. We decided to list it for sale on the Pan-American Travelers Facebook page and in less than a day we had three interested parties. The next morning we had a "I'll take it." so we arranged the pickup in the Dallas area and began looking at flights.

I was able to find flights on the 24th of June which gave us time to get stuff done like packing and detailing all of our belongings into tubs and dropping them off at a warehouse in Houston where they will wait until about July the to begin their journey south to allow us time to get our visas done so our stuff can be legally imported.

The trip up was simple and other than a little confusion at the border and a long wait on the US side it went well. We had three Federale stops on day one which  ranged from curiosity to the photo being taken which is their way of saying keep moving north.

The next day was longer than expected because the beach town we intended to stop at had closed beaches and was otherwise not worth a visit so we kept moving to Ciudad Victoria. We chose a better hotel so we could be guaranteed the rest we needed after a 12 plus hour drive and the Best Western Santorin more than fit the bill.

In the morning we had only three hours to the border so we slept in and had a leisurely breakfast before heading out. We hit the border and were looking for the Aduana building which has green and red stripes and there were 4 or 5 such structures and no actual signage. You might ask why we needed it and the answer is to cancel our Temporary Import Permit which meant a $4000 deposit refund and also being stamped out of Mexico.

We finished that process and landed in a nearly 2 hour line to enter the US. There was lots of border workers, but one line to go through except the rapid line for people with a special pass.

We crossed back without issue and headed to Corpus Christi for the night after dinner at the Executive Surf Club where not many face masks were in use.

We headed in the morning to Houston to get to packing and after some shopping - new laptops since ours were both on their last legs and many storage totes for our stuff. Once we had the totes we headed to a little park nearby in search of a shade tree. We found such a spot, backed in and emptied the van in the shade behind the van. To say we got some scared looks during the next 5 hours in 90 degree heat would be an understatement. I would have expected at least one visit from the police.

Once we ran out of totes - yes not out of stuff, just totes - we headed to a hotel - with a beer and wine stop on the way - and showered, ordered food in and began typing the lists into one of the new laptops. The pizza was quite good and the beer was exceptional. The typing was long and trying, but we finished everything we had packed.

We decided early the next day while packing stuff to stay another night in the same hotel and just after noon we headed to the warehouse with the van full of totes and stuff to be dropped off. We arrived at one and at 1:45 we were heading back - leaving behind two pallets of stuff - 27 totes of separate items.

We earned a glass of wine and found a Max Wine Dive for some Mac n Cheese, brussell sprouts and Montepulciano Abruzzo. It was perfect.

The next morning we were off early for San Antonio to get our pre-flight covid tests done and quickly found that the places listed online were either booked out for weeks or only served Texas residents. After hours of trying we gave up deciding to give in to a 14 day quarantine on entry to Ecuador - something we really wanted to avoid.

We walked the River Walk in San Antonio - enough that we forgot where we parked - and then headed to a hotel for the night. We had posted about our misfortune with the covid tests then went to bed.

I woke up to a note from Jackie saying that her friend in San Antonio had found some places near San Antonio that were doing pop-up testing this morning so we picked the one starting at 8 and running until four and made our way there. We arrived at ten of 8 and were driving away tested before 11. There's nothing like a successful crowd sourcing effort! We may not have the results until we arrive in Ecuador, but we will have them at least.


Now we are in Austin where we hit a store for some Birkenstocks and then had a tasty beer and a salad for lunch. Pam is in the pool and I am keeping you up to date. We drop the van in Dallas on Tuesday and need to be at the airport on Wednesday at 3 AM for a 7 AM flight.

We hope this post finds you all happy and healthy. Peace and love peeps and more soon....

Plan B

Our month in San Cristobal De Las Casas is coming to an end and our goals for this time have mixed results.

As far as our Ecuador visas everything is going well. The FBI says we aren't criminals and now Washington state has to agree and we are pretty much done. We are calling that a success.

The goal of shipping the van to Ecuador is not so muchie. It turns out that Ecuador isn't allowing any vehicles to be shipped in now. Even the folks who own the largest supermarket chain in Ecuador can't get their cars in. That complicated the plan dramatically.

Making the best of it:  What that means for us is that we are heading to Houston to pack our belongings and ship them to Ecuador, selling the van and then getting a PCR Covid test done for each of us so we can fly down to Ecuador and spend 14 days in a hotel room of the government's choosing - and I mean a room - for the entire 14 days. That is with a health certificate showing that you are covid free.

At this point it seems like a good idea which is beyond weird, but that is life during coronatime.

Before you start thinking that we have had a sucky trip, we have been fortunate to enjoy so much beauty thus far, have had the freedom of movement we had, meet the family of travelers and the family that took us in at Mision Surf Mexico and gave us two months of safety and purpose, add up to something we would certainly do again even knowing how things would go. Our hearts have been filled by the more than 100 people who touched them along the way. I know that we will see a bunch of them again as well.

We hope that this post finds you well and not too stir crazy. We will update you all more once we get our stuff done. We might be driving you all crazy from our quarantine quarters because we will have a lot of time on our hands.

Peace and love peeps. More soon...