[Above: Nick Baggarly hard at work at the shipping warehouse in Guayaquil, Ecuador; the Land Rovers unloaded and ready to go at the docks.]

Journal by Neil Dana

Nick, our fearless expedition leader, is amazing! He has the ability to push and push and push and push and push and push without feeling pushy. And I mean this in the most kind-hearted way, too -- he doesn't push us around, or any of his friends. What I am talking about is when we are dealing with foreign customs and borders and officials who we deal with very often. He said it quite simply the other day when we were in our freight forwarder's office, "I am bad cop and you are good cop, Neil."

For example, we arrived here in Guayaquil, where our vehicles were shipped from Panama and we have been dealing with getting them out of the port the last few days. Nick and I took a taxi from our hotel early in the morning, and when we got in the taxi, he told us it was $10 to get to the port. Isabelle, the women who owns the hostel where we are staying at told us it should be six. So Nick tells the taxi driver that we will pay him six dollars, but the taxi driver keeps on saying that it is ten and it will take an hour to get to the port. The driver told us to go and ask another taxi driver if we wanted, it will be the same price. Nick finally opened the door and got out and we went and got another taxi, which cost us $3, and only took 15 minutes. We both are not sure whether the taxi driver was completely lying to us, or was truly mistaken and thought it would take an hour. It seemed a bit ridiculous.

So fifteen minutes later we arrived at Malecon, which is an area of Guayaquil that is located along the river that opens to the ocean. It is a nice area that has brick walkways and shops and restaurants and cafes. It is kind of like a mall on the water, but not as mundane as a mall. We entered a building and took the elevator to the eighth floor. This building is where the freight forwarding company was located. Willaneus Willhelmsen is our shipping sponsor, and they have set up freight forwarders for us in our ports. These are companies that have people there to handle all the paperwork for us and walk us through the steps. And at these ports where our vehicles are getting loaded and unloaded, they are extremely helpful. We could do it on our own, but it would literally take many days more to get out our vehicles. The process makes a normal border crossing with four vehicles seem like a simple handshake.

So we entered our freight forwarder's office and went and sat down in the office of our representative, who was a very nice woman. Before we had entered, Nick told me we needed to make sure they knew how critical it is to get our vehicles out of the port right away, and to make sure we don't pay too much for the whole process. The problem we were facing is that our vehicles arrived in port on the 24th, and the port was closed then and on the 25th and 26th and so on. We ended up going there on the 29th, and in a perfect world, the freight forwarder, knowing weeks in advance that we were going to be there and our vehicles were already there, should have already started the offloading process and paperwork. But obviously, South America or anywhere for that matter is not a perfect world. The only perfect world is inside my head.

The woman asked us for all our papers, which include our passports, vehicle titles, notarized letters of driver permission, our carnet, entry papers for Ecuador, exit papers from Panama, and a few others as well. Now that she had the papers, she could call customs and start the process. However, customs has to get permission from Trinity, the shipping company, to offload the containers, and Trinity needs permission from Customs as well, and the dock people have to be coordinated as well. So it is a big circle and roundabout that can really start anywhere, as long as someone finally pressed the "GO" button and initializes the process.

Nick kept telling the women that we needed these cars today, which obviously wasn't going to happen, but if we keep pushing for today, maybe there is a chance we can get them in 2 days from then. She told us we would be lucky if they would even offload the containers that afternoon, which she highly doubted. We were also nervous, because if we didn't get the vehicles by the 30th, we would have to wait until the 3rd or 4th to get our vehicles, because as of the 31st, everything in Ecuador shuts down for 5 days. Nick kept pushing and telling her how important it is to get our vehicles. I love how Nick uses a process of deduction to get our victims to understand that they CAN do it. Usually someone says they can't start the process because customs needs the word from the port. Well, who at the port gives the word to customs? And who gives the word to the port to start the process? Oh, and who gives that person the papers or the call to start it, oh YOU DO? Wow, I am glad you finally figured it out. So by the end of our conversation, our victim understands her empowerment.

The trick, where our good cop and bad cop come into play, is making the victim like us at the same time. Nick being the person who is strictly business and getting the process done gets it done. However, during this process, I am looking around the room, noticing our women's pictures of her children on the desk, and then I pry into her personal life and get her excited about telling us about her family, and where she is from, and all the familiar things in her life that she loves and bring her happiness, other than another day dealing with people in the office. So by the time we are out of there, the lady knows we mean business, but that we also are good blokes and she even likes us! And if they like us, then they will actually pick up the phone and get the process started.

After we left the office, we walked around town a bit, got a really tasty cappuccino and latte and bought some $1 DVD's and I bought a long-sleeve Ecuadorian Seleccion Futbol team shirt, for the Andean mountains that lie ahead. We need to start gathering clothes for the cold days ahead. The markets here are great, extremely busy and chaotic. It is quite an enjoyable experience.

The next morning we awoke at 8AM and grabbed a taxi to the office, then met another person who took us in another taxi, another 20 minutes away to the actual Guayaquil Maritimo Port. This was a bustling port, with people walking around all over the place, and trucks and boats filling the roads and waterway, along with containers as far as the eye could see. It is quite amazing to think of all the millions of dollars in merchandise that passes through the port all the time. And also, the amount of stuff that does not get inspected, there is no way to inspect everything thoroughly, it is a bit scary to think about.

So we got to the port and met three people who were helping us with the process. The main guy, Jorge from Customs, was our man who helped us from beginning to end. And what a nice guy he was. So we entered into the first office to get our papers signed off, which basically were just papers to allow us to enter to port. Then we got in his truck, I sat in the open bed, and drove into the port. Jorge drove us around in circles to different locations and we sat in the car most of the time while he ran in and dealt with paperwork, and also handed off some papers to other people to expedite things as well.

Then we finally actually found one of our containers. We were excited and nervous at the same time. This was the moment when we got to see our cars, but also to see whether or not they arrived unscathed or not. We were also nervous, because when the vehicles left Panama, they did not have proper locks on the containers and we were worried about it. So when the container finally opened, there were our vehicles, what a sight!! Not a scratch. They were intact and everything was inside. The only strange thing was that one of the windows had slid all the way down, but nothing was taken out of the car, so it must have just been some sort of malfunction.

So we drove them out of the container and parked them to get inspected. We found the other container, and the little security tag that was on it was broken, so we were even more nervous, but I guess it was broken because they were preparing to unload the previous afternoon, when we showed up late. Anyway, they opened it and our cars were fine and we parked them inside this huge building or warehouse with all the other merchandise that must be inspected by customs.

We had to wait about 3 hours until they were ready to be inspected, so we ended up meeting Jorge's family, which was a highlight of our trip. Jorge's wife was extremely eager to meet us and came to the port to hang out with us. Her mother has Parkinson's Disease and when she heard the day before from Jorge what our organization was doing, she was excited to meet us. So during part of our waiting process, we were in their van and Nick her talked about Parkinson's for a while. It is amazing the amount of information we have about Parkinson's in the U.S. versus what they know here in Ecuador.

We ended up going to Jorge's house and meeting his mother in law. She was a very beautiful woman who had Parkinson's and was shaking the entire time we were with her. It was not a severe shaking, but it was there in her hands and you could notice it. They brought us cherries and strawberries and introduced us to their whole family, the children, brother, uncle, etc. They were all honored to be in our presence, as I was theirs. We talked for about an hour about Parkinson's and the medicine's and information that we knew. Nick is extremely informed and has read Dr. Langston's book and Michael J. Fox's, as well as many others. It was really sad to listen to this family and realize that the mother was taking quite a bit of dopamine, which is a drug that is useful to allow patients to control their movements. The downside is that it only works for a certain amount of time, then your body builds up a resistance to it, and reverts back to an even worse condition than before, where you have uncontrolled movements. And the fact that this woman was taking heavy doses of dopamine, made me really sad. It is really hard to watch someone who has a terrible disease. I have always been blessed with good health, as has my family. My grandmother did have Alzheimer's, but at least she forgot everything. Parkinson's is worse, because you lose control of your body movement, or can't even move at all, but you are completely conscious the entire time. You are trapped inside your body and can't control it. I cannot imagine. I guess if you are in that situation, you learn to deal with it, like any situation in life, but also like in life, it is impossible to completely empathize with someone else's situation unless you really have experienced similar conditions. So meeting this women was extremely painful for me, but at the same time, I am grateful for it and it warms my heart to know that she is loved by her family and lives with her family, and that people are actively doing something to try and cure this disease. Parkinson's is horrific.

The fantastic fact about Parkinson's is that scientists know where in the brain it occurs, how to probe at it, and how it works, and lastly, the main key to finding a cure, is how to cause it. The only thing missing is more money to help the scientists develop the cure. Parkinson's scientists have many ideas that have yet to be tried yet, and the only thing holding them back is money to get the resources to experiment. With cancer and AIDS, there is more money, but not as many ideas that haven't been tried. Many grant proposals that have been written for research about cancer and AIDS are denied because they have already been tried. Parkinson's is the opposite -- there are more ideas than there is money to support.

Anyway, Jorge's family went with us to one of the greatest lunches we have had this trip. We ate coconut shrimp and fish and fish stew, with guayaba juice. It was delicious! We were there for a couple of hours. This restaurant was filled with local Ecuadorians and now we know why, mmmn, mmmnnnn.

After lunch, we went back to the port and met with the inspector who checked our vehicles. This inspector opened one door of one car, and looked at all our Red Bull drinks and asked if it was liquor. We had just received another batch of Red Bull in Panama, so our vehicles were stuffed with it. He didn't check in the back of the vehicle or any other vehicle, which was fantastic. In fact, when we were pulling out of the port, another official asked us about baggage, and Jorge just said, oh it's nothing, just camping gear, etc. They had even asked if we had electrical equipment, and Jorge winked at me and nodded, so I said "NO." Then Jorge grabbed the papers out of his hands and laughed and patted him on the back and hurried up the process even more. It is like a buddy system, with trust going to those the officials know. It is very advantageous for us and those who can pay for this type of help.

On the other hand, it makes you realize how easy it is to smuggle things into a country.

So all in all, it took us one day less to receive our cars than we thought when we first enquired with our friendly lady at our freight forwarder, we were stoked!! And now we are chilling in Guayaquil for New Year's and that is just awesome!

So all of you reading this, I hope you realize how important our expedition is, not only for raising money for Parkinson's, but everyday, we are meeting people that we have a positive influence on and vice versa. I know that we gave an extreme amount of hope to Jorge's family and that alone has made this trip worthwhile for me. One of the things that Jorge had said about his mother, was that she didn't have much hope left, and knowing that we revitalized that and gave them some information that they did not know previous to our visit is wonderful. We also wrote down the names of a few books that would be extremely informative to them as well.

You never know when you are going to meet someone unexpected or experience something fantastic. I mean, on a port day, our most dreaded days of days, ended up being one of the most memorable days of the trip.

Happy New Year!

Neil
neil@drivearoundtheworld.com

Logbook for December 28th, Day 58
Start: Quito, Ecuador
N: 00* 13.019'
W: 78* 30.004''
Finish: Guayaquil, Ecuador
N: 02* 08.171'
W: 79* 54.397''
Mileage: Lots of bus miles...
Notes: Day Ten without our vehicles. Today the team took a 1030 a.m. bus from Quito to Guayaquil. It was an 8-hour ride. The guy behind Justin and Nancy puked. All-in-all, though, it was a good trip. The view out the window was intoxicatingly beautiful. The only downside is that we are back in the heat and humidity again. I sure miss the altitude of Quito. (N.O.)

Logbook for December 29th, Day 59
Start: Guayaquil, Ecuador
N: 02* 08.171'
W: 79* 54.397''
Finish: Guayaquil, Ecuador
N: 02* 08.171'
W: 79* 54.397''
Mileage: 000
Notes: Day Eleven without our vehicles. Nick spent today at the port of Guayaquil, but to no avail. He couldn't spring the vehicles due to some extensive shipping company and customs procedures. We'll return tomorrow to try again (N.O.)

Help support our cause: The LONGITUDE Expedition is the longest journey ever attempted with a focus on Parkinson's Disease. The Drive Around the World team aims to raise money for Parkinson’s Disease research by driving four certified pre-owned Land Rover Discoverys around the globe following lines of longitude. Readers are encouraged to pledge small amounts of money per expedition-kilometer via a pledge form that can be found on our Parkinson’s page by clicking here. 100% of donations received go directly to Parkinson's research and all who donate $10 or more will be entered into a raffle to win an expedition-equipped Land Rover Discovery.