Travel Tuesday is the Tuesday after Thanksgiving in which the travel industry typically offers significant discounts on hotels, flights, and cruises, and it is touted as one of the best times to book travel, especially if you are somewhat flexible in your plans, and Scott and I are just that. So for our big trip this year we decided to wait (quite impatiently) until Travel Tuesday to roll around to see where the Travel gods would be sending us. Early on the morning of December 2, 2025 we eagerly booted up our computers, opened up various major airlines’ websites, eyes peeled for flight deals to countries that would have pleasant temperatures sometime in January/February. Spirit Airlines had flights into a city in Ecuador called Guayaquil from Atlanta for $200 a person. Sold! We would be heading to Ecuador.

Now we needed to begin our research because we were less than six weeks out from our departure date. Part of the fun of traveling for us is the research leading up to the trip. With such a short lead time we definitely felt like we didn’t get to spend as much time as we normally do leisurely watching YouTube videos to help plan, and instead had to make a more concentrated and strategic approach.

This is where AI came in. I begrudgingly admit that ChatGPT was quite helpful here (I am normally a reluctant AI user, horses being about as opposite from technology as it gets), and Scott’s incredibly specific and detailed prompt is what helped. It made for a wonderful starting point that we then were able to work from. One of the most helpful things it does is suggest where to stay in a city, because otherwise it can be quite overwhelming to decide on a hotel, especially in a decent sized city.

Once we had the basic outline of the trip in place, I went to work finding our accommodations while Scott worked on being our logistics officer and fun planner. For a country that is roughly the size of Colorado, it is surprisingly difficult and complex to get from one place to another, on account of the little mountain range that makes up the spine of the country, aka the Andes mountains.

Our research revealed that while most of Ecuador is fairly safe to travel to, Guayaquil was, to put it politely, not a place where one should stay for very long, or stray that far from the airport once there, as it is currently under a Level 3-4 US State Department Travel Advisory because of high crime and gang-related violence and the resulting increased risk of kidnapping, robbery, and armed conflict. ChatGPT helpfully suggested we stay at an airport hotel and I heeded its advice, rather than choosing an independently owned/non-chain hotel like we normally do. Our plan was to arrive, stay a night, and then get the heck out of dodge and to the capital city of Quito as quickly as we could.

At a Christmas Eve party a few weeks before our trip we met a fellow party-goer that was from Ecuador. He was initially stoked and excited when we told him that not only were we going to Ecuador, but would be flying in and out of his hometown of Guayaquil. He assured us that it was safe and everything was fine. When his wife walked up and we were telling her about it, she turned to him and said “Wait a second Eddie! You won’t even take me to Guayaquil because you said it’s too dangerous!” and then he sheepishly and reluctantly admitted to saying this and agreed that it was best to limit the amount of time we would be staying there.

Scott must have “practiced packed” at least three times leading up to the trip and was excited about using his new Osprey backpack, the same one that I have, for the first time. Packing for this trip would be a little trickier than others because there are so many different climate zones in one small country and we would be visiting most of them in our two and half weeks there. Essentially we needed to pack for both the Amazon jungle, climbing to a glacier in the Andes mountains, and everything in between.

Speaking of the Amazon jungle… one other wrinkle that presented itself was getting vaccinated for yellow fever. It is not a commonly available vaccine we soon learned and required a visit to one of the two specialty clinics in our area that carry it. The travel clinic/tropical disease clinic that is part of the Prisma health system had it and it would end up being a little under $200 for the appointment and the vaccine but they were not open through the holiday season, nor did they have any available appointments until the end of January… so that left us with having to use the specialty travel clinic in the area. They were able to see each of us so we went that route, but to the tune of $500+ each. Scott’s health insurance will cover his, but my plan did not cover mine. (This means we will need to travel to yellow fever endemic areas now to get my money’s worth for the vaccine… Hello Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Cameroon, Senegal, Uganda, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela!)

It was finally departure day! So vaccinated, packed, and loaded up with small US bills¹, we kissed Andi goodbye and drove to Atlanta, parked at Scott’s office to avoid paying for airport parking, and headed to the Marta for a 30 minute train ride to take us to the Atlanta airport. We had uneventful travels from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale, although the gate agent in Atlanta did make Scott turn sideways to inspect the size of his backpack that he was claiming as his “personal item” before eventually deciding it passed muster and letting him pass onto the jet bridge.

Our Fort Lauderdale to Guayaquil leg was delayed nearly an hour which meant we would be arriving well after midnight. I was able to message our hotel to let them know this and they assured us that it was not a problem and that the airport shuttle driver would be waiting for us and holding a sign with our name. Once we landed we easily cleared Ecuadorian Customs and the agent I encountered even sang a few lines of “Sweet Home Alabama” to me as he handed me back my passport when he noticed that I was born in Alabama. We exited Customs, saw the shuttle driver with the sign as promised, and were driven a few short minutes to our airport hotel where we were able to easily check-in, then shower and sleep for a few hours before we needed to head back to the airport and on to Quito.