And we're off!

In a couple of hours, 4 of us - James, Caity, John, and I - will be leaving Syracuse in a rental car to drive to JFK airport where we will meet Claire. The 5 of us will then fly to Guayaquil over night, have a couple hour layover and then fly to Santa Cruz where we will meet up with Daniel and the team will be complete! I'm very excited, but very anxious, too. At this moment, here are the top 4 scenarios that I'm worried will happen:
1. All of our baggage won't fit into the rental car. It's a large SUV, but it doesn't have a roof rack (as the one I reserved did!) which was the plan for overflow. It may be a tight and uncomfortable 5 hour car ride.
2. The airline won't accept the large and heavy metal cases of equipment we have. I have an email from customer service saying that they would, but you never know...
3. I'll arrive on Santa Cruz, and despite weeks and weeks of diligently (diligently) watching telenovelas, I actually don't know any Spanish. I'm a bit more confident that this one won't happen, but I am anxious about my Spanish.
4. The equipment that I stored on Santa Cruz will have vanished. These are fairly necessary items like tents and the solar panels. I really hope this one doesn't happen. It's a pretty irrational worry, but at this point I can't help but have irrational worries!

Well, we've managed to avert the few little crises so far, let's hope our luck continues.

It's a dreary, rainy day in Syracuse, which makes it easier to leave. Farewell, and I'll write again from Santa Cruz!