Ecuador and the Galapagos – Day 20 can be found here.
All good things must come to an end. I just wish they didn’t end with commercial air travel.
This will be the longest travel day we’ve ever had with our kids, though it might not feel that way. The redeye flight we took home from Costa Rica in March 2020 – as the world unwittingly careened towards a global pandemic with our own travel plans offset by a Canadian rail strike – definitely felt like 50 pounds of travel crammed into a 10 pound bag.
Speaking of bags, I finally had to retire my beloved Deuter 28 – which had been with me since my wife and I took an around-the-world honeymoon in 2010, and which shows every inch of those many, many miles. But the zipper had given up the ghost, and it was more grime than canvas at this point. So it was time.
But I was able to rescue the build-your-own-Lego minifig that had unfortunately succumbed to a case of the melted cough drops:
With that done, there was no more space for time or excuses. It was time to enter the terrible Travel Vortex.
But – we must remind ourselves how fortunate we are to be able to travel, even if the Don Valley Parkway in Toronto has effectively been transformed into the world’s largest waterpark.
Source: @TORONTO_FIRE on X
Our driver Cristian arrived promptly at 5 pm, so it was time to once more load up his huge orange van and bid adieu to Hacienda Zuleta.
We’ll miss you – and your resort dogs, too
We’d arrived at Zuleta not knowing how much we’d be able to do – of anything, really. We thought we might have a few good meals and perhaps do a bit of hiking. Never did we imagine we’d be horseback riding and hiking and mountain biking and relaxing in front of a bonfire.
The perfect end to an exceptional trip.
We deliberately chose to leave early so as not to travel after dark. This was more due to practical reasons, but it also gave us another opportunity to enjoy Ecuador’s scenic highlights, including the Cayambe volcano:
Scenic pastures:
Terraced farms:
And those beautiful, rolling hillsides:
Though the fire we passed on our way in still smoldered on:
Darkness fell, and the lights of Quito beckoned – and before we knew it, Cristian had dropped us off at the airport roughly four hours before our flight left. Still too early to check in.
But we were able to find a Johnny Rockets, which was about as adventurous as we were prepared to be on our way out of Ecuador:
Source: Samuel P. on TripAdvisor
No images of our food, but I’m sure you can imagine the burgers, fries and milkshakes we enjoyed. It’s rated 3 stars on TripAdivsor, which sounds about right – though the server was friendly and capable, which certainly helped.
By the time we finished dinner, the Delta check-in gate had opened up and we were able to drop our bags. We were in Delta One again for this leg, which saved us a 30-person lineup for bag drop.
We were pleasantly surprised to hear that our bags would be checked through all the way to Toronto and Delta had lounge privileges at the VIP lounge here in the airport:
It’s quite a nice lounge. Maybe not quite as sleek and modern as the Delta lounge in Atlanta, but they did have a build-your-own sandwich bar:
And a pretty nice regular bar, too:
As well as a wide range of other food stations:
I ate precisely nothing, as I was still stuffed from Johnny Rockets. But I did enjoy a very nice gin and tonic served in a red wine glass. You need to present your boarding pass when you order, as I believe they limit you to two drinks. Not a bad idea considering the strength of the drinks we had.
10:20 pm – about time to board the plane so we went down to the gate. Unfortunately, there were very few gateside seats to be had, and Delta’s boarding schedule once again proved overly ambitious. But eventually Zone 1 was called, and we were able to get everyone in and settled well in advance of our departure time.
Delta One is quite nice, but their overhead bins are a bit rubbish. You’re able to get a single carry-on bag into one of the middle bins, if you’re lucky. So that means that the middle passengers are forced to put their bags into the window seating bins. But it all seemed to work out without anyone running out of space.
We declined the meal option, as we wanted the kids to get to sleep as soon as humanly possible. Our flight departed at 11:20 pm and arrived in Georgia at 5:25 am. Minus out the time shift, and it’s only a 5 hour flight – just enough to get a full four-hour sleep cycle if you don’t wait around for meal service.
Both kids were close to dosing off before the plane left the ground, and we were able to recline their seats into beds without disturbing them too much. I ordered a glass of milk with an airline bottle of Bourbon – perhaps the first time that had been ordered in Delta One, judging by the flight attendant’s confused expression – and I too was soon unconscious.
We touched down in Atlanta right on schedule, and thankfully the trip through US customs went quickly. We still weren’t entirely sure that our bags were checked through, so we hung around the baggage carousel for a bit just to make certain. But nothing showed up, so we went to make our connection. A staff member asked to see our transfer tags on the way out – another sign that our bags would hopefully make the connection into Toronto.
Not much was open in Atlanta at 5:30 in the morning. We opted to pass on the very-popular McDonald’s breakfast and instead opt for TGIFridays:
Source: TripAdvisor
TGIFridays didn’t open until 6:30, while our flight was notionally boarding at 7:10 am. But given Delta’s less-than-stellar boarding record this trip, we figured we’d have some extra time.
Then a party of 10 arrived just when the restaurant opened – a wedding party in search of mimosas.
I enjoy a good party as much as anyone else, but perhaps less so at 6:30 am in an airport terminal. I also have to admit that I was concerned whether we’d actually get our food on time.
But the staff worked their magic and our waffles and eggs were rolling out of the kitchen at 6:55 am:
We ate quickly and headed for the gate at 7:20 am – where we waited for another 5 minutes before boarding.
Unfortunately, we’d been unable to get business class on the last leg of our flight -so we ended up in Comfort Plus. The seats seemed the same width as regular economy seats, but there was additional legroom. I did my best to sleep most of this flight as well, despite it only being roughly an 1 hour 45 minutes long. Every little bit helps.
We landed in Toronto on time, as expected – and thankfully, Google Maps was showing the roads as clear. (Or as clear as they ever get in the Greater Toronto Area.) We were pleasantly surprised to find that they had advance customs clearance systems for families – we made full use of these, and were out by baggage claim a few minutes later.
We were also pleased to discover that our phones actually worked – we had previously been with Bell, who considered any request for network data to be more optional than mandatory, and which had led to some serious delays during our Morocco trip. The same had happened after my trip to New York. But we’d since switched to Rogers, and the cellular data actually turned on again. So clearly switching providers was the right call.
(Why turn off cellular data at the network level, you might ask? Apparently this is an issue with iPhone 15s – even if data roaming is off, they occasionally send very tiny packets of data over international networks when travelling. Turning off data entirely is the only way to avoid getting hit with Canada’s predatory roaming fees (think $16 per phone per day). We use Airalo global eSIMs instead – which include voice, text, and data.)
I tried to log in to Park ‘n’ Fly to arrange pick-up of our vehicle – only to find out that their much-vaunted app was now down. I had no idea how that would work in terms of picking up my vehicle from their valet lot, but there was little to do at that point – simply gather up our bags and split up so my wife and kids could collect Tim Hortons and I could get our vehicle.
I had to sprint to catch the Park ‘n’ Fly shuttle – irritating, but better than having to wait another 15 minutes for a second shuttle. They dropped us off about 5 minutes later, and then it was just a short wait to pay for our vehicle – again, highly recommend reserving in advance to get the best rate.
Unfortunately I then had to wait a further 5 minutes for them to bring our car around – usually it’s waiting in the parking lot – but this gave my wife and kids the time they needed to pick up food. We’d already gotten gas on the inbound leg – another lesson learned from previous trips – so this was the last hudle between us and home.
Or was it? My wife sent over the location for pickup and Rogers’ data network posted the way to the correct location – only for the driver occupying the prime curbside spot to dither as they very slowly set up navigation. Why they wouldn’t do that while waiting for their passengers is beyond me, but they were eventually sent on their way.
I was then able to make a pit-crew worth pick-up, loading our 3 carry-on bags, 4 backpacks, 4 checked bags in under 2 minutes – and we were on our way home.
Thank you all so much for joining us on our journey. It’s been an incredible adventure, and we’re so glad to have you all for the ride.
Please check back in the weeks to come as we unpack all that we’ve experienced and learned in our time in Ecuador, and find out how advisable it was to head off on a camping adventure in Algoquin less than 4 days after returning home.