Saved on Sifnos - a travel story out of the Aegean Sea that includes little harbours, sleeping villages, several tavernas, a ferry onward, a Greek cultures festival and a room with a view, travelogue, trip, travel, Greece, Cyclades, Sifnos, Kythnos, ferry, island-hopping

 
 
 

 





Plane in the rain


December 23 / 24, 2000
Longest Travel Time Ever

I thought our trip from Bangkok to London was our longest trip, but it has now been far outclassed. The trip back to Los Angeles was our longest time in transit, ever. We left AKR at 8 AM 12/23, and arrived home in Los Angeles 2:30 PM 12/24.

We flew from Roatan to La Cieba, at 9 AM, which was delayed at departure due to bad weather. The flight was a comedy of errors. As we were walking out on the tarmac to the plane, David thought he saw our bags still outside on on luggage cart. He called over to an official who told us it couldn't possibly be so. David insisted, and when we went over to look at the bags we discovered that they were indeed not ours. The official, was to say the least, a bit perturbed, and we were almost the last people on the plane. This was not one of Atlantic Airlines new planes, this was on another airline all together, called SOSA, and it was an old plane. To top it off, just when you thought they couldn't stuff anyone else on the plane, two rather large gentleman got on and tried to squeeze into the two seats facing us at the front of the plane. There was luggage crammed into the bathroom, luggage in the aisles, and the door to the luggage compartment swung open with every shift in the plane. And there was plenty of shifting because we flew through a storm to get to La Cieba.

Later, David told me he could see water seeping in through cracks in the ceiling during the flight, but didn't want to tell me at the time. Our connecting flight from La Ceiba to San Pedro Sula, left on time, but still arrived later than scheduled.

Because we had almost six hours to kill at the airport before our flight home, we had booked a trip into the city to see the market with Maya Tours, the company who had met us on our arrival and given us our plane tickets. Unfortunately, there was no sign of them. We waited, walked around, had lunch, called home, checked in our bags, and got our seats. At 12 PM we called Maya tours, and they said they had been there much earlier in the morning. Finally, they arrived at 1:30, and took us on ok tour.

Guamalito Market is very touristy, but has interesting food market section which was mostly closed by the time we arrived. We purchased last minute gifts, were able to bargain, bet prices still seemed high. As part of the tour we stopped at a nice cafe across the street from the market, and had a snack which was included. On the premises was a cigar shop with prices much better than we found in Copan.

Arrived back at the airport at 4 PM, and waited for our flight. The flight was supposed to leave at 5:40 PM but was delayed again due to weather. We had a connection to make in Guatemala City at 7:40 PM. We were then told both airports were closed due to bad weather and rain clouds. They told us that our Guatemala flight was delayed as well but we might still make it. It was not to be....


Part 13:
Longest Travel Time Ever... continued


this travelogue is part of the subside travelzine
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