This journey began in June 2023 during a chat with one of my fav travel buddies and bestie, Linda Davey (of The Chouters) when she told me that she and Steven had booked an AirB&B in Cuenca Ecuador for “2 whole months!” before adding “And I thought you guys could come join us for a couple of weeks, or even a month!” The conversation continued gathering details like timing, potential costs, etc. We ended the chat with me telling her I’d discuss with Bill and let her know. Longer story short, within a few days Bill and I had airline tickets, and an AirB&B reserved in the same building as Linda & Steven. What made it even more exciting is other friends of ours, Brian & Sue, were already planning a trip to Ecuador, with the express purpose of considering it for a retirement home location. We had spent the day with them in San Antonio TX back in the early spring and they had told us all about it. We had been intrigued at that time, but honestly hadn’t really thought about it again until Linda brought it up.

I had just sent in my passport to be updated, so I counted out how many weeks until I was expecting to get it back. The website said most were being processed in 10 – 13 weeks, which meant I should have it back in more than enough time (about 2 1/2 months before our departure.) I eventually got it back late August, so earlier than expected, and was able to check that very important box!

The first decision that had to be made was would we leave from FL or TX, since the timing of the trip was right on the cusp of when we leave FL for TX. I pretty quickly dismissed the idea of leaving from TX since it would involve an extra flight back to FL anyway. The other compelling reason to leave from FL was I could leave Callie with my parents.

I messaged my Mom to tell her about our potential trip, asking if she was willing to cat sit and she happily agreed to keep Callie, which gave me a huge peace of mind.

Linda & Steven were flying DFW (Dallas) to MIA (Miami), then onto UIO (Quito Ecuador) before connecting to the final destination of CUE (Cuenca Ecuador) – whew! I initially looking into getting on the same flights, starting in MIA. But before making a decision, I also investigated TPA (Tampa) to UIO to CUE. Ultimately, we choose to leave out of MIA, but on LATAM airlines instead of American, which was the airline L&S were flying. Most of the reason was cost, which saved us enough to cover the cost of staying the night before our flight in a hotel AND the cost of car parking at the hotel, plus a bit more – AND – while we had to drive 4 hours to MIA, we didn’t have a HUGE layover there in the airport. You may recall, I employed the same tactic when we traveled to Edinburgh when we flew out of IAD (Washington/Dulles) versus the much closer PIT. (Can read about that here if you missed it.) So, our flight took us from MIA to UIO to CUE for a total cost of $1200 r/t for 2.

Step 2 was lodging. Linda and I chatted while looking at different AirB&B’s near their location. I forget if it was me or Linda, but one of us found a place that looked nice about 3 blocks from them. The host was a well rated superhost. Then Steven joined the conversation and said he thought their host had mentioned other apartments in her building, so he reached out to her on What’sApp to ask, and sure enough she did! She hadn’t advertised it on AirB&B yet but offered it to us and we happily accepted! We could have paid $75 less at the other place, but we really wanted to be in the same building. Total cost for 2-bedroom apartment, fully furnished, fully outfitted kitchen, rooftop deck, and laundry in the building for $450.

I immediately messaged Brian & Sue to tell them of our plans. They had booked a tour that specializes in helping Americans relocate to Ecuador but would also be spending a lot of time on their own revisiting their favorite locations. Just from reading about the different towns, they knew some of their “on their own” time would be spent in Cuenca, and I was hoping at least some of that time would overlap our time there. Turned out they hadn’t made reservations for Cuenca yet, but it seemed a couple of weeks might overlap.

Another thing to do reservations wise was to get a hotel for the night before our flight and car parking. I killed two birds with one stone when I booked a night at the Ramada near MIA. After spending the night, we would be permitted to leave our car in their lot for $6 per day. We technically could have driven to MIA the day of the flight, but considering it was a 4-hour drive, and we would need to be at the airport by 10:45am for our 2:45pm international flight, we opted to drive down the day before. You may be thinking 4 hours early is excessive, but that’s what is recommended, especially since it would be Christmas week. Aside from being much more relaxed travel, the cost wouldn’t have been much different since the long-term economy lot at the airport was $12 per day, or $348 for 29 days (they charge an extra day for anything over 24 hours.) Total cost for Ramada for one night $146. Total cost to leave the car $156 for 26 nights (they don’t charge for the night you stayed in the hotel or for the day you are picking up.) At the end of the day, cost wise, it came out close to even taking into consideration we had to get dinner out which was $76.

Last reservation to make was a place to store the 5th Wheel and truck while we were away. Avalon RV Resort, where we would be staying didn’t have storage on-site, so we looked back at Clearwater RV/Travel Resort and they had open storage spots, so we booked there for a month for $110, which was not bad at all. We also lucked out that they had a site available for the night we would be picking up, so I booked that as well. I would have booked more than one night, but the cost per night was $95! OMG!

As when we went to Europe and Israel, I logged into the AARDY website and searched for a travel insurance policy. The policy I choose insured our flights and AirB&B costs. The flights were non-refundable and the AirB&B had a scale of refundability. The policy also had coverages for medical evac emergencies and stuff like that – just in case. It’s peace of mind and wasn’t that expensive at $115.

Once all this was settled, we relaxed about it and enjoyed our summer with our girls. October rolled around quickly and we began our journey south, if you’ve been following along you know we stopped in VA and OBX, before our first stop in FL near my sister in Clermont and nearly 2 months with my parents in Clearwater/Seminole.

Other things we did, as we did when traveling to Europe, and when I went to Israel: notified our credit cards we would be traveling and confirming which charge transaction fees (Chase) and which didn’t (Sams Club Mastercard.) One aspect of this trip that was easier is that Ecuador uses US money, so no exchange rates! We were advised to bring small bills (anything over a $5 was heavily scrutinized), so I popped into our local Bank of America branch to get $300 in small bills. I made photocopies of our passports, one copy for us to have with us and a second copy to leave with my parents, just in case. I also organized all our flight info and AirB&B info for my Mom, so she would have all that. I also sent her the info related to our travel insurance policy. I always feel like its best for someone at home to have all that – just in case.

Next thing we knew, Christmas was behind us, and our departure date was fast approaching. We got busy packing. When we went to EU last year, we way overpacked and we were determined to not repeat that, which was a HUGE challenge. Knowing there was laundry facilities in the building did put me at ease about not bringing too much stuff, but it was still difficult to decide what to bring. We needed to keep in mind that it would be summer, albeit summer at high elevation (8,300ft.) Temps were expected to be in the 70’s during the day and 50’s at night – PERFECT!

Day 1 – 12/28: With everything packed up, including Callie and all her things, Bill got the trailer ready for storage, emptying and rinsing tanks one last time. A few days before we had noticed a water leak during a rainstorm and after 2 trips onto the roof, we hope that has been permanently resolved. He set up the solar to run only the fridge while we were away, so hopefully even with days of rain, it would be ok. We had emptied the fridge and freezer as best we could and brought as much as would fit over to my parents but there were a few things left. With Callie safe in her crate and the inside ready to go, we brought in the slides and Bill hitched up. It was a short 10-minute drive to Clearwater RV/Travel Resort and Bill easily got parked in our storage site. We each did a last look/walk around to make sure all was good, then locked up one last time. It felt very strange leaving it like that.

Parking complete, we drove to my parents to spend the night there. I set up all Callies things and as soon as her crate was open, she came out and started a tour of the place. My parents got take-out for dinner, and we had a quiet evening. Sleep didn’t come easily as I was so excited, but I did eventually drift off.

Day 2 – 12/29: We woke fairly early after a restless night. Since we were only driving to a hotel, we didn’t need to be in a hurry, but we wanted to arrive in Miami around 4pm, before their evening rush hour traffic got started. All day I was checking my list to make sure nothing was forgotten. At about 11am, we started packing our stuff into the car. We knew we would need to stop for gas so after hugs to my Callie and my parents, we were on our way at 11:30am.

The weather was beautiful, sunny and warm. The views from the Sunshine Bridge were amazing as always. There was a brief slow-down when we merged onto I75 south, but it didn’t last too long. We stopped in North Ft. Myers for gas and snack break.

The entrance to the Ramada was not found easily, even with GoogleMaps, but we figured it out. I went in and got us checked in for our one-night stay, as well as the 26 days for the car; they don’t charge for the night you stay in the hotel, nor pickup day. I was told where to park and given our room key. I asked about the shuttle to the airport and made note of where he told me to wait in the morning. Bill disconnected the car battery for 2 reasons, one to make it more difficult to steal and second to help prevent the battery from going dead.

We had dinner at the pub in the hotel, which was not the greatest, but was ok. I ordered nachos but didn’t chew one well enough and it scratched my throat so bad on the way down. There was literally nothing I could do except keep swallowing. My throat hurt for about 4 days! OUCH!

Day 3 – 12/30: We woke after a restless night, and I was in “time to go” mode. I can drive Bill a bit crazy when I get like that, but it’s just anxiety to get moving. That may sound odd, considering how we live, but having to catch a flight is not at all like just driving somewhere. After double checking that all our belongings were packed away, we walked down to the lobby to wait for the airport shuttle, which we could see was parked outside. As we waited, more and more people started showing up, and I started getting concerned that even though we were the second “family group” to arrive in the lobby, others were now standing in front of us and there was no way all of the people in the lobby would fit in the shuttle. Soon, another shuttle, this one with a little trailer behind it, showed up and people started walking outside to get in. I was confused and didn’t understand it at first, but there were two different shuttles, one for the cruise terminal and the other for the airport. Thankfully, they had a list of names for the cruise boat shuttle, which made it clear that wasn’t the one for us. After literally waking up the driver for the airport shuttle, who had his driver’s seat fully reclined, we were dropped off at our terminal with no problems.

Lines for security were long but moved along. After about 40 minutes we found our way to our departure gate. Considering how much time we had, and we hadn’t eaten at the hotel, we walked around comparing all the food options. We got a seat at (believe it or not) the Bud Light Cafe. They had breakfast available, so we sat and relaxed. After breakfast, we walked back and found seats at our departure gate. Our flight was announced, we got in line, and got seated on the flight with no problem.

The LATAM flight itself was fine, some mild bumps, but nothing serious. All announcements were made in Spanish and English. We were served cheese quesadillas, which weren’t great but edible. When we arrived in UIO (Quito), there was no time to waste getting to our connection to CUE (Cuenca). We had to go through customs/immigration, have our bags X-Rayed, and find our departure gate. All this made me nervous we would arrive late, but we got to the gate with some time to spare. One of the gate agents approached us asking if we would like to gate check our bags and that was a hard no from me. I had purposely packed light enough to carry my bags with me and I was not risking my bags getting lost. Since that might seem overly anal, I’ll mention here that Steven’s bag was lost and at that time I wasn’t aware that it had been found and delivered. So, the gentleman hesitantly asked how old we were, which I admitted that I was 59 but why was he asking. He smiled and said “Great – you can board with the seniors!” Ha! I agreed that was fine. I hadn’t noticed in MIA, but apparently LATAM allows their senior passengers to board first, like people with kids, etc. That ensured there would be plenty of space for our luggage in the overhead bins. Perfect!

Other than the harder than usual touchdown in Cuenca, which we later learned was due to short runways, we easily found our way outside and to the area to get a taxi. The language barrier became an issue right away when trying to tell the driver where we needed to go. I pulled up the address that Jane (our AirB&B hostess) sent me, but the driver didn’t seem to know where it was. He did, however, still want us to get into the taxi, which needless to say made me nervous. We put the address into GoogleMaps and showed it to him and then he said “Ah – ok” so we got in and we ended up letting him follow my GoogleMaps directions. It all worked out and about 10 minutes later we were pulling up to where Linda was waiting outside for us! Bill paid the man $2 and we thanked him. The actual faire was less than the $2 but we let him keep the change. Our hostess was at a family wedding, so she had given Steven & Linda our keys, of which there were 3. The first one, which was color-coded black, was for the outer gate, which is white. The second one, which was blue, was for the front door, which was blue; the third was for our apartment door, which had a yellow band on it. I quickly memorized it black for white, blue for blue, and yellow. Easy peezy! We entered our apartment and relief washed over me. Linda gave us the quick tour and she and Steven said their goodnight’s. Whew! Having to burn off some nervous energy, I got us unpacked, before climbing into bed and crashing. The following day I took the photo tour pics below:

So there you have it. I am trying to keep up with this trip and not get too far behind.

SPECIAL TREAT:

Click HERE to view Steven’s video/movie about their/our arrival in Cuenca and a sneak peek about our first day!

If interested, you can also check out The Chouters blog post about their arrival in Cuenca HERE

Next up: Cuenca Ecuador; #2 Happy New Year – Cuenca Style!

Previous: FL Family Time/Thanksgiving in PA

How can I follow along?

If you haven’t already, I’d like to personally invite you to receive our newest blog posts in an email – can sign up by entering your email below where it says “Follow Blog Via E-Mail” on the sidebar or at bottom of this post. Thanks in advance!

Supporting our blog:

We also would love to have you check out our list RV must-haves by clicking the “Stuff You Need” tab at the top. You can also just click the “SHOP HERE” link on the sidebar. Using the links to purchase from Amazon helps pay for this blog and we appreciate you using them to purchase one of our pre-chosen items or anything else you may need from Amazon. Please be aware you can still use your Amazon Prime!

Keeping In Touch

There are a few ways you can keep in touch and we’d love for you to reach out anytime! First, you can comment on any/all posts – we love to hear your thoughts on our posts! Second, you can follow us on Facebook or Instagram for the most up-to-date goings-on! Third, you can always reach out via email: bkamericanodyssey@gmail.com.

Thank you to all our readers! We appreciate you taking time out of your day to follow along with us! See you in the next post!