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Published: December 14th 2014
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I woke up early at 8am despite a late night the night before staying up until 2am packing my things. I was full of excitement at the prospect of visiting South America for the first time and had a few things to sort before I departed. I left the house at midday and went to the shop to pick up some new hiking boots and a mosquito net for the rainforest as well as a medical kit. I had just enough time to sit down to have breakfast at my favourite bakery near the train station. With three hours until my flight I decided to leave, as I was excited to catch my flight to go travelling. However, upon arrival, the day took a turn for the worse. During the check-in, the flight assistant notified me that I would not be able to travel as i had no return ticket booked from my destination country, Ecuador. I explained that I would fly out from Perú and that I would travel by bus to cross the border. Unfortunately, she explained, policy states that a return flight ticket must be presented to allow me to board. I thought about the best approach, rather
than rushing and asked if I could have 20 minutes to think about what to do. I decided to book a flexible one-way ticket out of Ecuador to allow me to provide the necessary details and paid the extra fees to allow me to get a refund on the ticket. The check-in was a little more complicated than i had anticipated, but credit to the staff as they were very friendly and helpful to help me catch my flight. When I finally boarded the flight, I had found that I had been offered the seat at the front of the plane with extra leg room and all the benefits of business class. They had been very kind to me through my misfortune and that would certainly help with the 11 hour flight to Bogotá. It was extremely comfortable and didnt seem so long. About 8 hours into the flight we arrived at the South American continent and that was when the excitement began to kick in again. The sky was crystal clear and thousands of street lights from Caracas on the coast pf Venezuela illuminated the coastline. Even though we were 12 kilometers in the sky, the city and lights
were crisp and the lights appeared to be shining bright and colourful after a long dark flight over the atlantic. It felt really exciting to have finally reached South America and I was really looking forward to the month ahead.
A couple of hours later the plane landed in Bogotá and I spent another couple of hours there in transit to Guayaquil. I enjoyed a nice Colombian coffee to keep me awake for the final travelling hours, it was delicious. I boarded my flight to Guayaquil as I would be crossing the equator to the southern hemisphere for the first time. The December winter became a warm tropical 24C summer as I touched down at 1am. A short sleep and I will fly to the Galapagos Islands tomorrow. I can't wait to relax and spend a week on the islands!
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