7 Jul 2026
Ten years ago, I was in the Galapagos for my first real dive trip– I had a whopping 17 dives under my belt, a head cold that prevented me from descending on the first day and my camera flooded.
It wasn’t the magical trip I hoped it would be, and while the land-based portion was pretty incredible, I’ve been wanting to go back and get a second chance at diving. When my dive group sent out a call for this trip, I jumped at the opportunity.
Today started slightly earlier than normal- even though I’m flying out of our local airport, I’ll be checking a bag of dive gear and bag drop closes 45 minutes before the flight. I was a little confused by that until I realized that the woman staffing the check-in counter is also the gate agent!
I snapped a quick shot of the sunrise, then tipped over and took a nap (I had the row to myself!)
We had one of the shortest taxis I’ve ever had in Chicago, but then sat for a good 15-20 minutes waiting for a plane to get out of our parking spot and for them to dock the jet bridge once we finally got to our gate.
But I’ve a couple hours before my next flight, so no rush:
It’s kinda hard to see, but the handle on that turquoise suitcase is sticking out. Why someone would load it like that and walk away is beyond me, but they called for the owner a good half dozen times. It wasn’t until they went to remove it that some guy finally claimed it.
I slept for most of this flight as well (long travel day + early morning), but I did wake up in time for waffles!
From here, I’ve got about 4.5 hours to kill until my next flight. If I was thinking, I would have taken the $300 upgrade offer I got at check-in for this next flight- I decided it wasn’t worth it for the 5 hour flight down to Quito, plus, it was an aisle seat and I very much like looking out the window when I fly (though it’s an overnight flight, so that’s probably a moot point). But it would have gotten me lounge access…
Instead, I found a snack and hunkered down in a quiet corner of the airport until part of our group arrived:
Me, Dan, Max and Helge
Dan and Helge have status and can bring guests into the lounge, so we all hung out for a couple hours, watching the storms roll through (and hoping they’d clear out by the time we were ready to fly):
Our flight ended up being on the other side of the airport, and we left the lounge a bit late, so we had to book it to our gate and arrived just as our flight was starting to board:
Farewell, land!
Sun rays:
See- I would have missed out on these sights if I took the aisle seat!
…though I wish I could have missed out on this meal:
Strangely al dente yet mushy noodles in a solidified cheese block, which made it easy to pick the noodles out of the “sauce”, but after a couple bites, I gave up and just stuck with sides.
We landed in Quito just before midnight and cleared immigration fairly quickly. I opted to spend the night at the Layover Stay Lounge, which is just outside the airport:
Not the quietest or most private, and leather chairs aren’t the most comfortable for sleeping (I ended up pulling the pad off my chair and laying it and my wetsuits on the floor and sleeping there)… hopefully I can get at least a little sleep here. I kinda regret just not getting a hotel room.