137: They almost didn't let me on the plane!

Rick was taking 14 university students to the Galapagos Islands for a week and I got to come along. As we were boarding our flight to Miami they stopped the last 5 people and told us that the plane was over weight and we might not be able to get on... The one man who was not with our group said he would take a later flight. So, they took his "two heavy bags" off the plane and let two more students board. That left Rick and I. The gate worker guy saw that I had a big carry on and told me I might have to stay behind. After several nail-biting moments (the guy doing the boarding was busy going back and forth, tapping on his computer, going to the phone and talking to the luggage workers) Rick and I were finally let on the plane. I whispered to him "I hope we don't crash because the plane is too heavy."
When we arrived in Quito, Ecuador, guess what? Our checked bag didn't arrive! I guess that's how they got rid of some of the extra weight! Kind of unnerving trying to figure out what to do when you don't speak the language. We met our tour guide for the week ("Hello, Mr. Richard!") and he promised to get us back to the airport tomorrow to pick up our bag. He said we shouldn't count on the AAirline getting our bag delivered to our hotel. We were met at the Hotel Eugenia door by a man in a tuxedo,

dropped our bags off in the lobby, and were quickly, but politely, ushered across the street where dinner was waiting for us.

I was planning to take a photo of every meal we ate. Little did I know every dinner would consist of chicken and/or fish, rice (white, yellow or green), some variation of potato, and a side of veggies that I always expected to be warm but found that it was always served cold (it surprised me every time!).