Zelma’s Trip

…..it wasn’t!!

The first problem was my lack of alarm clock, or any clock for that matter, and the fact that I knew that the guy I was meant to be sharing a taxi with was flying an hour earlier than me.  The second problem, which I found out about later, was that the other guy was also being equally unresponsive to his wake up calls.  So, after being told I would get a later taxi and the other guy moaning at him, the reception guy evidently gave up.  I woke up properly with about thirty minutes to spare before my flight.  Having been told at reception by Eric that there was no chance of me getting to the airport in that time, which I knew but was hoping for some miracle, I rushed to the office where I had booked my flight.  They changed it for a small fee and I had to rush back to the hostel and pack.  I also sent an email to my travel correspondant in London and, prior to getting back to the hostel was informed that the next available seat for my connecting flight from Caracas to Miami was 31st December!  He suggested that I speak to them at the desk in Caracas so I rushed, packed and got a cab to the airport.  Once at the airport I comically failed to understand the commands to pay extortionate airport taxes for some time, prior to getting onto a plane which looked like it had been made on ‘Blue Peter’.  Seriously it was sooo makeshift, the Laos airlines flight I took seemed luxurious. 

After a slightly wobbly flight I landed in Caracas.  Some of the luggage came out but the rest appeared to take hours.  After a while it transpired that the delay was due to my backpack splittling open on the plane and spilling its contents everywhere.  This led to the airport staff having kind of stuffed it together in a makeshift polystyrene and tape combo which was rather difficult to carry across to the international terminal.  By this point I had decided it wasn’t my day.  Fortunately I still had the bag I left England with inside so did a change over which probably looked dodgy as hell, particularly when I discarded the rubbish backpack rather red faced by a bin. 

After talking to various people and joining too many queues I was put on the standby list for the later flight to Miami.  When I asked how hopeful this looked I was greeted with a less than cheery face and, when I turned up for the standby queue and saw a family of five infront of me, I was less than elated.  Fortunately, the whole ‘divinely protected’ aspect of my name took hold, or something, and there were six free seats on the flight.  Less favourable was the fact that these were allocated about fifteen minutes prior to the departure time.  I was pleased also that I had to remove my cuddly kangaroo from the side of my bag as the guy who checked my luggage in said, ‘the staff will steal him’.  So, ticket in hand I rushed towards passport control only for my bar code not to work.  I then went back to the desk and the guy ran around before apologising having issued the ticket incorrectly.  Finally I got through and joined a long queue.  After about ten minutes I asked the person infront of me if I should be concerned about missing my flight, evidently I should have been as he spoke to a member of staff and I was rushed to the front of the queue before going to boarding.

Slightly tired to say the least, I landed in Miami and decided to opt for a hotel near the airport which turned out to have a very comfortable bed!