Good Bye Ecuador!

Wednesday, 10/27/10. Good riddance to Ecuador! It was very expensive getting out of this country and I will never come back. First of all, when I got to the ticket counter at the airport, I was told I was overweight on my bags. According to them I was only allowed 32 kilos for my two bags and they totaled 41 kilos. What I read on the internet was that the international flight baggage allowance was 24 kilos each. South America to Central America, right? Ah, but they explained, anywhere in Latin America is under the lesser baggage allowance. OK, so I paid $17 excess when I flew up from Cuenca on Tame Airlines, so I thought no big deal. Wrong! COPA airlines charged me $56!

My next shock was I was told I had to have an exit ticket out of Panama. Well, I showed him my AA return ticket back to the States. Wouldn’t fly – the ticket had to say departing from Panama. So I was forced to buy a ticket. I guess I’m going to San Jose, Costa Rica on December 1st - $329.00. Good deal they said because it’s a special in Business Class – cheaper than economy. I’m going to have to really check the rules for getting in and out of Costa Rica and obviously lighten my suitcases by 9 kilos to avoid another overage fee.

Finally, Ecuador (unlike other countries), does not add the airport fee to their tickets so I had to fork out another $40,80.

This has been a very expensive episode in my travels and it was all to avoid travelling thru Colombia. Guess I’ll be eating a lot of beans and rice this month!

PS: Their airport security sucks. I walked thru with two bottles of water and they told me not to take my laptop out of my bag.

PPS: Guess who got tagged for a “random” bag check? I had to go down to the bag staging area, pick out my bag, unlock it and stand there while the policia went thru my things. More great fun in Ecuador.

I liked Cuenca the best.