Flight to the edge...

November 9 (Friday), just after lunch, an Iberia Airbus 340-600 flew into Quito. It was raining at the time and the pilot was unfamiliar with the airport. According to reports, the plane touched down about half-way down the runway. This didn't leave a whole lot of stopping room.

As you can see in the photos, the plane did stop, but not before it had run out of runway and taken out the Instrument Landing System. Fortunately, it did stop before it left airport property. The next stop was a building supply store and then a neighbourhood soccer field.

ILS flights into Quito were stopped until Sunday afternoon (Nov 11).

The Ecuadorian Civil Aviation department is still investigating the incident, but they have already banned this airplane from reentering Ecuadorian airspace if it is refurbished to fly again.

A new landing gear assembly will be mounted so that they can move the airplane from where it is right now. They hope to have that done this week.

A cartoon in one of the papers had a bunch of Iberia passengers waiting for their flight and over the PA system an announcer says that the Iberia flight is now ready for boarding but by way of Maestro Street (the street where I took the first photo).

Buying a car - Part 2

Well, we were finally able to purchase a vehicle, and we just needed to look outside our gate.

After a few weeks of looking around at used-car dealerships, newspapers, and the internet, we had found a vehicle which we thought would be good for us. You can read all about that vehicle in Buying a car - Part 1.

About 10 days ago, we saw a Mitsubishi Montero for sale, parked outside of the medical building across the street and took down the number. When we called them, they were asking more that we could afford, so we left it until after the deal on the Grand Vitara fell through.

Calling the owners of the Montero again, we found that they were willing to negotiate and they came by so that we could see the vehicle. We liked what we saw, and more importantly, the paperwork was almost in order. We had the vehicle check out mechanically and then started the negotiations. Surprisingly, they dropped the price $1,500, which in the market here is extremely rare. Normally, the price drop is $200-500.

We did find out that they hadn't legalized the change-of-ownership to their name and so we told them that we couldn't buy the car until they had done this. They called us back in 1/2 hour to tell us that they would do this (a cost of about $250).

Thank you to everyone who helped to make this blessing a reality. It is very different being able to get out now and take a break from the city! God not only provided the vehicle, but He made it so that we didn't even have to go looking for it!

Looking for a car - Part 1

We are in the process of looking for a car and it has been a bit of interesting experience. We looked for a vehicle over several weeks and by-chance happened to see a Chevrolet Grand Vitara XL-7 4x4 at a dealership. The price was reasonable for the a 2006 in Ecuador.

The problem started when we showed interest, the dealership seemed to show a lack of interest. The car was unlocked so we were sitting in it checking it it out, waiting for the salesperson to come out and let us take it for a test-drive. After about 10 minutes, the manager came out and told us that another couple had been looking at the vehicle and that the wife had arrived to take the car home. Bummer! But as we went back inside, the wife asked for our phone number as she doesn't like automatics (the Vitara 4x4 only comes with automatic) and if she can't get used to it that they would give us a call.

We received a call two days later. We had the vehicle checked and everything looked good, right up to the point where we took it to the lawyer's office to do the paperwork. As it turns out, the car was purchased by the couple but then the husband died. This wouldn't have been a problem except that they had children and under Ecuadorian law, the children have a 50% right to the estate. So the courts need to authorize that the children are in agreement that the cars be sold. The downside is that this can take anywhere from 2-6 months; our layer told us a minimum is 3 months and this is if you get the right judge.

So, we continue to look. We'll keep you updated.