Ecuador in the Imagine Cup Japan 2005 finals
To begin with, the trip Quito-Bogotá took me an hour and 15 minutes then, after waiting 5 hours, more than 10 hours between Bogotá and Paris, and finally over 12 hours between Paris and Tokyo. The team did it even longer: Quito - Bonaire (in the Antilles) - Amsterdam - Paris - Tokyo. To get an idea of the size of the trip, this picture illustrates just the last leg:
I took the picture at 4 A.M., while flying over Siberia when we had still three hours before getting to Tokyo. That should easily explain why the team that in Paris still looked like this:
Nine hours later, while flying over Siberia, looked like this:
Almost two days flying, with precious little sleep and a time zone shake up (I'm writing this at Thursday noon in Yokohama, which happens to be Wednesday at 10 P.M. in Quito), but the team is now in good shape again (they are strong college students, these guys) and poised for the first round of presentations this afternoon.
Edgar Sánchez