Back to Daisy, Almost!

So, Sunday Bob and I were supposed to be flying back to Grenada to Daisy. However, as so often is the case with our travel plans, both Mother Nature and American Airlines had other ideas. Hurricane Isaac was making its way past Florida, bringing everything to a standstill, our flight out, being one of those things. As it happened, this wasn't a total disaster. Bob has had so many boat parts and equipment delivered over the last few weeks, that I was no longer able to even put my car in the garage. All these things needed to somehow, either travel with us, or be shipped out. Had we left for the airport Sunday morning with all the boxes we would possibly have been turned away, as apparently there's an embargo on boxes until September first… SIGH… typical airline crap… Anyway, I've not complained about spending a few extra days on land, although I do have so much varnishing to do while I'm there, I'm now worried that I won't have enough time to get it all done… Hopefully we will be able to fly out on Wednesday, please keep your fingers crossed for us. Cheers Daisy :o)

Back in Panama...

OH to be back in the islands. Where the weather is fabulous, the people are friendly, the beer is a dollar, and a full dinner with wine and a gin & tonic is less than $10.

Following a day of travel that started at 5am, and finished at 6pm, I was really quite exhausted.

 I flew from Atlanta on American Airlines, who have now dropped even further in my book of airlines NOT to fly with.  Following an early am start, with a quick Starbucks at the airport, I boarded my first flight, where I was served coffee (clearly not Starbucks!) with a teaspoon full of peanuts!  In their favor I should add that even though the flight left 30 minutes late, it arrived on time.  Although during the flight they did not serve a breakfast, or in fact offer anything to eat other than the teaspoon of peanuts. But I was hopeful of food on my next flight, since I had to run from one flight to the next without even time to make a potty stop, and absolutely no time to pick up food.
Sadly on the flight I had been sitting next to a guy who's breath smelt like rotting cow dung, really, OH Dear God it was horrible, then the guy in the seat behind me was snorting the whole time like a pig, I wanted to offer him a handkerchief with the advice to please blow his nose, but he was about 6'10" and 350 pounds, so I just put my headphones on and covered my nose... I could have been in a farmyard, to say it was an unplesant flight would be an understatement.

On my flight to Panama,  only first class passengers were served lunch, so everyone else in economy got to enjoy the smells of the food being served, and listen to the clink of the wine glasses, but were offered nothing at all in the way of lunch, or even snacks. I was sat near the front of the plane so I got to enjoy the strongest food aromas, but had no food to actually eat, and I was bloody starving. Even the flight attendants commented on the food smells, I think they were embaressed... Nice, American Airlines!!!  thank you so much... No, I will not choose to fly with you again...

In Panama I had a tight connection, and I didn't even know where the connection was, it turned out to be outside the airport in another small terminal, I won't go into the fiasco that lead to my finally locating it.

Being in a country where I don't speak the language, and they don't speak English, can make life very trying, thankfully sign language works.

At 3:30, 6 of us climbed into the tiny plane,  and made the 25 minute flight across to Panama City, where I took another short flight (Taca airlines) to Bocas, the joke is, the little 45 minute flight offered me more food and refreshments than the 3 1/2 hour flight with American Airlines.

When I arrived at the marina I couldn't get any power working on the boat, so I decided to leave everything until Bob arrives tomorrow, I had dinner at the marina restaurant, and went to bed at 7:30.

This morning it poured (and poured) with rain, but by mid morning the sun was out and  everything had dried out,  all I have to do now is unpack, and work out where the Hell I can put everything I brought back with me.

I'm really hoping Bob gets here before dark tonight, so he can get the power on.  Despite my horrible travel, it is beautiful here and I'm actually happy to be back...

More to follow...

So happy to be back :o)

Back to Curacao

Sunday 14^th November 2010

We left Columbus at 7:30, and enjoyed a trouble free flight to Miami, where we walked straight to our next gate and got the 10:45 flight to Curacao. We were upgraded to first class, OH what a luxury, comfortable seats, a decent (for airline food) meal, a couple of gin and tonic’s and I slept peacefully for most of the flight.

I really have to applaud American Airlines, the flights were enjoyable and on time, the food was good and they didn’t lose my bags, which is more than I can say for Delta, I can’t remember the last time I had a trouble free flight with them, one of the reasons we changed to American Airlines.

Curacao was quite overcast when we arrived.  The island had some bad storms over the last few days, with very heavy rain, leaving the roads flooded in places. The area immediately around the airport is very poor and run down, it’s not the best introduction to the island.

At the boat yard, Daisy was sitting out on the hard with her newly painted bottom (hull).  I didn’t stay out of the car for very long as there were millions of mosquitoes “OH joy”.

We then drove out to Louie’s house where we were staying for the night.  Louie’s beautiful house is high on the hill overlooking Spanish Waters.  We ate at Mei Mei’s restaurant, before returning to Louie’s for an early night.