Planning A Trip Back Home

Cute

Since the time that Henry and Grace left Ecuador, the four of us had talked about all meeting up again in England during the Christmas and New Year period. Henry was already back in the UK and I had been talking about returning home for some time now - as it had been two years since my feet were last nestled in the mother-land. Then I thought, why doesn't Maisa come along with me - that way she could meet my family and friends and see London all at the same time. It then followed that Grace should head over from Canada also, so that she could see Henry and meet up with her sister (Maisa), who she wouldn't have seen for three months or so. It would be a perfect reunion......and so, we all started to plan our trip to England.

It was a busy time for me. Not only were we all planning a big trip but I had a lot of work on at that time. While I was playing with volcano data, I went out to the field to help install a seismic monitoring station and was asked to do a presentation at the end of November, on explosive activity at Tungurahua Volcano in the 2010 year. It was strange, because exactly a year earlier, similarly I was presenting - that time at a nationwide conference in front of 200 people. During that conference, Tungurahua started to go off for the third time since I had been there. Skip forward exactly one year and it felt like life was repeating itself. This time I presented at a conference held at the university where I work. It was a smaller affair, as about 50 people came to see me talk, but, once again Tungurahua started to erupt. It's funny how life goes round in cycles sometimes.

When Tungurahua started to erupt one more time, it really added to my work-load. Not only that but it was disrupting my holidays too. A planned trip to Banos was cut very short as we entered the town and found it to be unrecognisable. It was raining ash as we arrived and people were walking around with gas masks on like we had just entered some post nuclear war scene. It was a real mess.

With all these things going on - planning a trip back to England was taking some time and a lot of work. Normally when a Brit travels the world they are usually let into any country of their choosing with relative ease - especially as a tourist. For this reason, you often don't think about travel visas too often. For an Ecuadorian trying to get into England however - it's a whole different ball game. Just to visit the UK is a real nightmare and we found out just how bad it really was. So, to get a simple tourist visa for the UK, an Ecuadorian first has to go online and fill out a hefty application form. You pay for it ($125) and then book a biometric appointment. This involves heading down to the British Embassy where they take your photo and fingerprint details and a lot more of your money ($192 more). You then have to provide a ton of documents to show you have money to support yourself, that you have assets, flight details and accommodation in the UK, as well as a sponsor. Then all these details get sent to Colombia where they process your visa. In the end - it took about 3 weeks for the process and around ($360) just for Maisa to obtain a 6 month tourist visa. It was all approved in the end - so I guess it was worth it. Luckily for Maisa, she already had a visa for the U.S., because the only flights back to England from Ecuador go either through the U.S., Spain or the Netherlands which means you also need a visa for one of those countries too, just to be in transit. This world is an insane place sometimes!!!

So with Maisa's approved visa, the purchasing of flights and all plans put into action, we were almost ready to go. The last problem - was me. My visa for Ecuador was running out and I had to get it renewed before I left or I wouldn't be allowed back into the country on my return. In Ecuador, these things always get done last minute and this was no different. After a lot of paperwork, a lot of money and a lot of hair loss, I ended up getting my visa too. Grace also got her document to travel to the UK and with everyone ready, the excitement started to set in. So the plan was - Maisa and I would leave Ecuador for England, via Miami. We would spend 18 days in my home-town (London) - before we would head back to Miami for two more days and finally onto Quito for our return. It was all (finally) planned.

During the last week before our trip - we were basically ready to go. We did do some last minute shopping however. Maisa and her family (and myself of course), all headed up to Otavalo Market to buy clothes, souvenirs, and basically everything you can think of made from alpaca. Maisa even purchased a funny hat, that looked like she had some sort of beaver attached to her head. Nevertheless, before we knew what was going on - our time had come. With our bags packed, our passports finally in check and Maisa's animal hat...............we were off!!!