South of the Equator, here I come! (And Bob too, of course)

About 6 months ago, Dr. Pauli had asked me to go on a medical trip to Ecuador. I said 'sure, why not'. That was it that got me into a trip that I would probably never forget. I went to a meeting to turn in paperwork and then picked up tickets and itineraries mid-July. There were alot of people going from Rex: Cherine (Pharmacist), Mike (Pharmacist), Dr. Pauli (Hospitalist), Dr. Dilorenzo (ER MD) and his daughter & Jolie (ER RN).

Bags were packed, including the medical bag I was taking, Kelley and Ali were taking me to the airport, I just wasn't sure how I was getting home! ha ha..Guess I figured, after a week, I would find a ride somehow. The flight home wasn't getting in until almost midnight...oh well, Ill worry about that later.

We headed to RDU around 10am. We were to meet our travel teams by 1030. Mike was our travel leader and he didn't have a cell phone, so I was the cell phone contact in case anyone was running late. You couldn't miss everyone when I got to RDU. Everyone had their Ecuador shirts on, except my travel leader didn't tell me to wear mine. When I saw Mike wearing his, he told me that Cherine had emailed him to wear it, he just didn't relay that to his team. ha ha.

On to the kiosk to check-in! I got checked in, Mike got checked in, Cherine, however, didn't get checked in! 1st of what we would call the "Cherine Factor". After Mike and I got up to the desk and checked our bags, Cherine attempted to get checked in. This took over an hour! ha ha.

After the majority of our group were checked in, we headed to the gate. THEN I guess, the adventure began. 2 hour flight delay, which was cutting into our connection time. Oh well, we did get to eat lunch and sit around with everyone and get to know each other, I guess.

We finally got out of RDU around 1600 with a 2-hour flight and now less than 90 minute connection on an international flight. We looked like a herd of buffalo coming through the MIA airport. But we made it, probably about 20 minutes prior to boarding! Yeah!

Now off for the 4 hour flight to GYE! Another story about Cherine, but Im going to have to get Brad to video it, so I can uplink it! Its too funny and I could never give it enough credit like Brad does.

After they had called our group to board, and I had gotten a few steps on the plane, I whipped Bob out with the camera and asked the Flight Attendant if she would get a picture with the Captain! Its funny, every time I ask this question, the Flight Attendants get excited. She said "sure". I gave her my seat number and went and sat down. She came back a few minutes later and said the Captain wasn't in the cockpit yet but she got one with the First Officer. Yeah! Bob has done it again!

We landed in GYE as well as 5 other international arrivals. So, needless to say, the Customs and Immigration lines were BACKED UP! We knew we were going to be in for a looooong night! After 2 hours through Immigration & Customs, we got our bags, went through one more check point and then headed out to meet our buses! This picture was taken around 0130 in the morning! We don't look too bad for being up all day!

From here we boarded buses, took a 20 minute ride to the hotel, waited on the guys to unloaded ALL the luggage. We grabbed our bags, and then went to the line to pick up room keys. We were actually the 1st ones to get ours! Yeah! Off we went. Room 302 for the week! Off to bed we went!