Thursday morning we had to be at the Quito airport by 7:30am for our 10:15am flight. We were down in the Hostal lobby waiting for a cab by 7. It was quite the experience fitting all of our luggage into the cab. We ended up having to sit in the back with my big bag and the girls' two smaller checked bags. Unlike the domestic flights terminal, the international terminal was excessively over priced for food. But we needed to eat so I spent $11 on a panini and coffee. OUCH! The good news: we didn't have to pay an exit fee!
When we arrived to our gate we had to go through another security station in order to comply with TSA guidelines regarding flights into the USA. We weren't allowed to bring any liquids into the waiting area unless they were under 3 ounces. After sitting at our gate for a couple minutes, we heard our names called. I went up to see what it was about and was told that we had been randomly chosen by the police for a narcotics screen. So we were escorted plane-side to have our bags gone through and sniffed by drug dogs. We all passed with flying colors.
Our flight to Miami was pretty uneventful, however they did run out of customs forms and told us we would need to get them once we landed. When we landed and walked to the passport verification area, we tried to get customs forms and were told we could get them with our luggage. Luckily, a TSA officer asked us if we had them before we made it up to the counter and informed us we needed them to get through passport control. So he went with Jen to the same person that had told us differently and got us the forms we needed. We filled them out in line and only had to wait about 25 minutes before we had made it through. Next step: pick up our luggage and head to customs.
Jen got both of her bags almost immediately after the baggage carousel started to move. Mine appeared about 15 minutes later, and Rachel was one of the last people on the flight to get hers (we were freaking out a bit that her bag didn't make it from Quito because the baggage carousel had stopped a couple times and it looked like all the bags from our flight had made it out). Customs was the easiest part. All I was asked was if I had any fruits or vegetables.
Next we had to re-check our bags and head to a security checkpoint to continue on to LaGuardia. Re-checking the bags was easy - we just dropped them off at a screening point. Heading to a security point took a bit more time. We ended up having to walk outside to a different terminal to catch our next flight. The security lines were CRAZY! We waited about 30 minutes to get through security and fortunately we had enough time, once we were through, to get a bite to eat before our flight. Our flight to LaGuardia was 10 minutes late, but our luggage was waiting for us at the baggage carousel and we were curbside waiting for Jen's dad within 10 minutes. When we made it to Jen's house, her dad had made baked ziti and meatballs for us. SO GOOD TO HAVE SOME COMFORT FOOD! I was in bed by 11pm. Tomorrow is the long drive back to Buffalo.
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