Oops! An Unexpected Detour

When boarding the plane at the Guatemala City airport yesterday, I was shocked to be turned away from the flight that was going to take us on our way to Ecuador.  There was a problem with the expiration date of my passport.  Whereas most countries we have traveled to require a minimum of three months remaining on the passport to enter the country, Ecuador requires six--a fact we missed, the online check-in tool missed, and the ticketing agent missed.  Argh!

We had to choose:

A) Let Shelly and the boys go ahead to Ecuador without me while I sort out my issue,

B) Go together on the first leg to Panama (which requires 3 months) to sort it out there,

C) Forego the flight altogether and sort out the issues in Guatemala City, or 

D) Some legal combination of the above.

We made a quick and painful decision to forego the flight.  This meant having the crew take our bags back off the plane and having a pair of agents walk us through immigration so we could go through customs again before being ushered to the airport exit.

We asked a cab to take us to the U.S. embassy to get started on processing a new passport for me right away. It's probably not hard to picture our anxiety not knowing how long a passport would take, when we could rebook a flight, if the flight would cost us substantially more, if we would be able to get in touch with our contact in Ecuador to cancel our driver and change our lodging plans, and how much it would cost us to stay in Guatemala City while it was all being worked out.  What we needed was info at the embassy and a good wifi connection to make calls (our phone access is only through the web) as well as do a bit of online research.

But those who read part 1 and part 2 of our story about arriving in Guatemala know that things have a way of working out for us.  Though we've lost a day we planned to have in Quito, Ecuador and have had to spend an extra $150 or so making alternate arrangements we have secured a new passport, have new tickets for departure today, and most importantly are completely safe and healthy.

We'd be content if the story ended here, but there's actually a sweeter ending.  Shelly remembered that before we left the States, someone had told her about a woman from our hometown of Peterborough who was temporarily working for the U.S. Government in Guatemala.  Figuring it didn't hurt to ask, I checked with the embassy clerk who was processing my passport paperwork and she confirmed that she did indeed know Beth. The clerk summoned Beth for us and we were able to meet in the embassy.

Though we had never previously met Beth, it was easy for us to discuss things we had in common.  Beth's husband is the attorney who drew up our will in Peterborough.  She's friends with a family of four Shelly often enjoyed play dates with (and Marshall worked with one of the family members).  Shelly served on the volunteer committee at the town library with another of Beth's friends.  

Beth kindly invited us to stay in her apartment for the night.  Knowing it would be easier for us to make it back to catch a flight if we were in a hotel near the airport, we politely declined.  But the kindness wasn't lost on us.

From the White Mountains of our native New England, there's a saying "If you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes."  In our travels, we've seen storms dissolve into blue skies enough to wonder if the same holds true for our circumstances.

Time for us to catch our flight.  Hope our next post really is from Ecuador. . . .