MuddyPuddles

One of the comments on my May 21 post (Gringo Perdido--Lost White Boy) posed the question about why I haven’t become a travel agent.  This got me to thinking that, yes, I could become a travel agent.  I could probably make a fortune over night.  I could call my agency “Gringo Perdido Travel Agency”.  But I need a good slogan or catch line.  I’ve thought of a couple---“We get you there further” or “Come see the world on your trip to Cleveland ” or ???.  Do you have any suggestions?  “We get you there in twice the time with twice the price?”  “We get you there by the end of your vacation?”  I know there is something better out there.  Let me hear your ideas.  It may mean the difference in my success or my failure.  Thanks in advance!  Dennis

Last year I had one of the strangest adventures of my life.  Below is the description of my true life adventure.  Many of you have already heard about it.  Enjoy it again, along with the newbies. 

Log 12/3/06

On this day, I was scheduled to fly from DFW to Antigua, Guatemala so that I could start a two week course in Spanish at the Christian Spanish Academy .   My flight was to leave DFW at 8:35 in the morning.  Since it was an international flight, I was supposed to be there two hours early (6:30 am).  Since I live about two hours away from the airport, I would have to either stay in a hotel in the metroplex or get up at 4:00 in the morning.  I chose the latter.

Everything went as planned as far as getting up, getting to the airport and getting on the plane.  My schedule was to fly from DFW to San Jan, Puerto Rico .  From there, after waiting almost 4 hours, I would fly to Antigua and should arrive at 8:35 pm.  Everything continued to go according to schedule.  A driver was supposed to pick me up when I arrived. 

So, when I got there, no driver showed up.  I decided that I would wait until 9:00 and then call a cell phone number I had to call a representative of CSA.  When I tried the pay phone, it wouldn’t let me dial it before it diverted to a recording that said it could not make the call.  So, I asked one of the airport people for some help.  They said that it was not a number from this area.  It had 8 digits and their numbers have 7 digits. 

So, I told them I was going to Christian Spanish Academy in Antigua and they said they had never heard of it.  As I thought back, when I was walking across the tarmac, I asked one of the airport security personnel, “how far is it between Guatemala City, (the capital of Guatemala,) and Antigua ”.  She said she didn’t know where Guatemala City was---she had never heard of it.

Now it was all starting to come clear.   I was on the Island of Antigua in the Caribbean Sea .  It began to dawn on me that the driver wasn’t coming to my location because I was probably 1,000 miles away from him on a tiny island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean where I didn’t know a soul and it was 9:00 at night. 

I kept thinking things like “I can’t believe I did that,” and I wonder how long it is going to be before I actually get to Guatemala ?”  “Will I get to Guatemala ?  I knew that the Guatemala airport was in Guatemala City .  I just had a mental lapse when I made my reservations online using my aadvantage airmiles.  I don’t think I’ll ever make that mistake again.

The ticket counters were all closed at the airport and Hezekiah, who is some big dog at the airport told me that there were two flights leaving in the morning and going back to San Juan, Puerto Rico , but that they were both full.  Uh Oh.  He gave me an 800 number to American and said that I should try to make arrangements with them tonight if I was going to have any chance of flying out of there tomorrow.  I would probably have to go standby and hope for the best.

So, I caught a courtesy van to the airport hotel.  I could get a room with a fan for $53 or a room with an AC for $70.  I took the fan.  I tried to dial an 800 number to American Airlines, but it wouldn’t work.  Finally the lady at the desk let me use the hotel cell phone.  I still could not dial an 800 number, but if I paid a small fortune it would let me call Bonnie at home in Hamilton .  Fortunately, Hamilton is two hours behind Antigua , so it was about 8:15 there and I didn’t have to wake her up. 

For $6 I got Bonnie and told her about my situation.  She said I jinxed the trip when I told her, before I left THIS MORNING, “this will be an adventure.” (Little did I know how right that was.) Anyway, I got her to call American and to put us on a conference call so I could hopefully get off of this Island before Christmas.   We would have to go through the lengthy phone tree to finally talk to someone and would tell them what happened and then they would transfer us to “international” where we told the story again to which they would respond, “I need to transfer you to an International Aadvantage agent.”  When we finally got the correct agent my phone cut off because I had run out of precious broadcast minutes, but I could redial if I paid another small fortune to the hotel. 

So, I paid a bigger fortune ($14) and called Bonnie back and told her that if we got cut off again to go ahead and continue the call with the agent and then to call the hotel cell phone after she had made the arrangements so she could tell me what they had come up with.  I had not thought to give her the cell number the first time, nor did I think to pay a smaller fortune just to call her to give her the call back number.  I was not even confident she would be able to get through to me from her end anyway.  After all, I was at the far end of the earth.  (By the way, the only internet set up they had at the hotel was out of order and I couldn’t make my laptop work since I didn’t have the necessary information to do it.)

Sure enough, after going back through the phone tree and then being on hold for about 5 minutes, we finally got the correct agent and then before we could get anything worked out, I got cut off again.  So I decided that I would give it 45 minutes and then if she hadn’t called me back, I would pay another $5 and call her to see what information she might have.

At 11:30 my time (9:30 her time) I still hadn’t heard so I paid my $5 and the hotel attendant contacted the cellular company who gave me more time.  As I was dialing the phone, it rang and it was Bonnie.  So, I had just made a donation to the phone gods.  At least, Bonnie must have information since she called. 

Sure enough, after much diligent effort by Bonnie and the agent (and the agent’s supervisor)they had worked out a plan (an expensive plan, but a plan).  I did get a reserve seat on the 8:05 flight back to San Juan where, after a 5 hour layover I could catch a Copa Airlines flight to Panama .  From there I could wait a few more hours and then catch another Copa flight which would take me to Managua, Nicaragua .  The same flight would then takeoff again after about 20 minutes and take me to Guatemala City where it should land at 9:38 pm. 

To make sure I caught the first flight (8:05 am) to San Juan , I got to the airport at 5:15.  I was first in line and I did make that flight.  In fact I made all the flights and with bleary eyes, a sore bottom and a smile on my face I disembarked in Guatemala City at 10:44 pm.  The driver was there to take me to my new home away from home in Antigua, Guatemala where I met my wonderful new host family.  I love it when a plan comes together.

So ends my little adventure of getting to Guatemala .  In the past two days, I have been on 6 planes and have made 12 takeoffs or landings.  I’ve learned several things.  The airport in Panama is really nice.  You ought to go there sometime.  I don’t recommend the flight from San Juan to Antigua , however.  It was a miniature puddle jumper which appeared, by the size of the seats and the space between them, to be designed to carry children instead of adults.   Thank you, God, for taking care of me.

Sincerely,