The Conclusion of Our Exciting Journey

By Parker O’Neal

August 31st - September 1st, 2022

The last two days can be lumped together into what I call the travel days (for obvious reasons).

On Wednesday, our main goal was to get to the capital, Quito, in time for our midnight flight. The lovely staff at Mary Tere’s served us a feast of all our favorite delicacies for our parting breakfast. We said our goodbyes to El Carmen, our charming translator Raul, and our fearless COVID positive compatriot Yvette, and started the long, gut-wrenching drive through the Andes mountains. Up and down we went, gazing out the windows at the transforming landscape, going from the plantations of the lower hills to the clouds of the uppermost mountains to the endless sea of colorful houses in Quito.

For lunch, we ate at the most exquisite fast food restaurant that I have ever seen. The menu ranged from burgers and Coca-Cola to ribs and wine. This fueled us up so that we could continue our journey to the statue of the Virgen del Panecillo and take a lot of great pictures (as well as souvenir shopping).

Our next leg of the journey took us to another large monument, this time the Mitad del Mundo, or the middle of the world. This monument is located along the Equator and has many great photo opportunities for long lasting memories. We saw some alpacas, bought several alpaca related items, and made our way to the Mariscal Sucre Quito International Airport.

Saying goodbye to our guide Evelyn and our driver Carlitos was incredibly difficult, but we were motivated by the fact that we would see them once again in the following summer when we came back to complete the implementation stage of our project. After our many previous airport related mishaps, we were on edge and were just hoping for everything to go off without a hitch just this once. As expected, we ran into problems immediately when our boarding passes decided they did not want to print. The airline attendants were mildly helpful after we tried multiple times to get their assistance, but in the end we got our passes and got to our gate. At the gates, we then said goodbye to our nice Responsible Engineer in Charge Nolan Perreira as well as our punny friend Ari, both of whom had their own separate flights home.

The overnight flight to Fort Lauderdale was excruciatingly long and uncomfortable, and it was at this point that I realized that sleep would be incredibly sparse going forward on this journey. We caffeinated, ate a slightly better breakfast than that in the JFK airport the week prior, and took off for New York. The team was exhausted and we were not in the mood for tricks, but the team luggage in New York took agonizingly long to arrive which delayed our return home by just that much more time. Our COVID negative comrade Daniela had a ride home so she was at liberty to get out as soon as possible (good for her).

Then it was just me, Riti, Loren, and Klara on the SkyTrain to the train back to Princeton. At the station I said one last goodbye to the three of them because my journey was not over quite yet. I appreciated the opportunity to burn some time with them as I had another few hours before my flight back to North Carolina. My time in the JFK airport was long and unappreciated, but at long last I was in the air headed back home. This trip was something so incredibly impactful and moving, and my hope is that we can dedicate this next year as a team to doing everything that we can to ensure the progress and success of our project with the community of Rosario Vainas. Before we know it it will be August 2023 and a brand new travel team will be making their way down to our friends back in Ecuador!

By Parker O’Neal

Picking Up The Pace

Last Day in The Community

Engineers Without Borders USA Princeton University