Too Scared to Remember the Camera

The next leg of our adventure will not have any pictures so you will have to just take my word for it.

After getting out passports stamped, we gathered out luggage and made our way to the street. Before we even left the building a man asked us if we needed a taxi, so we followed him. He took us past the whole line of clearly marked taxis to what appeared to be his car/minivan and began to load our bags in the back. Hal asked the price of the trip to the hotel our reservations were made and he told us $20. (Ecuador's monitary system is US dollars) We would have probably just said OK except for the gentleman that was seated next to Hal on the flight had told him that the trip to the hotel should be around $5. We said no... He said yes... I said lets go get a different cab... Hal said $10 and the driver said OK. So in the cab we went.

Hal trying out his barely learned Spanish told him what hotel. The guy took off. Hal uncertain that he had made himself clear was desperately searching a map trying to figure out if we were going in the right direction.

I on the other hand was staring at the empty dark streets in horror as we ran red light after red light. I mean we just SAILED through the streets never even slowing down. I asked Hal, does red mean stop here? He ignored me as he searched his map.

The suddenly we were there... Or at least the driver said we were there. Where there was appeared to be a dark street, with the driver telling us to walk around the corner to what looked like a darker alley. By now we were pretty sure we were about to be mugged. I think the driver realized that neither of us wanted to go around the corner so he sorta walked a few steps and pointed. Swinging wide and looking the direction he was pointing there was indeed a lit doorway, and we headed that way. I cannot stress the relief felt when a hotel doorman stepped out to help us with the luggage. All was well.

By the way, red does mean stop. However, not necessarily at night.