Sep 202012
 

Promptly at 9am I was picked up by my guide, and we were off for our tour of the Port-au-Prince area. Before even booking my tickets, I’d contacted Voyages Lumiere to enquire about a tour/guide/driver. I’d heard enough rough stuff in the media about Haiti that I was uncomfortable attempting it on my own, especially for a short trip. I felt more comfortable having a driver arranged, and someone who could help me maximize my time there. Jacqui was quick to respond, proposed what looked like a great itinerary, and I was set! Jacqui is English, but has lived in Haïti for most of the last 15+ years, so she knows the country like a local. She speaks Creole, and as I was to learn – everyone knows her. I would very highly recommend using Voyages Lumiere if you go to Haïti. That said, on with the show!

We set off out of Petionville, and down toward the city centre.  First stop was to see some of the old “gingerbread houses.”  Many of them are quite run-down and in poor condition now, but after the earthquake many of them are also being restored.  They’re in the process of being added as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which should hopefully help with restoring them a bit.  I didn’t manage to get any pics of them, but also didn’t feel like there were any really good shots to be had.  We continued into the city, and headed down to Heroes Square.  From there, we continued down to the National Palace, which was destroyed in the Earthquake.  A few pictures of the square, as long as the ruins of the Palace:

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Sep 192012
 

When I was planning the trip, from what I could find online there seemed to really be two decent options for hotels. The first was the Karibe Hotel, and the second was the Hotel Villa Creole, both of which were located less than a mile apart in Petionville.  I don’t remember why I ended up choosing the Villa Creole in the end, but I was obviously confused, because I’d told the driver that I was going to the Karibe.  So, we arrived at the Karibe, he dropped me off, and I went to check in.  It was definitely quite nice looking, and I was happy with my choice…until they couldn’t find my reservation.  Why’s that?  Because I was at the wrong hotel, of course.  They were smooth though, “maybe you want to stay here instead.”  Nope, sorry, gave the other hotel my credit card number already, and as nice as this place looks I’ll probably be stuck with it.  Can you arrange a taxi to the other hotel?  “Sure, it will be $20.”  To go less than a mile…I kid you not.  I didn’t exactly have many other options at this point since the sun was setting, so off I went.

Pulling up to the Villa Creole, the reception area was certainly much more…spartan.  Unlike the Karibe, the front desk spoke little to no English, so we made do in French.  I noticed my rate was about $30 higher than I’d agreed to…that’s because you’re in a junior suite now.  Um, no, I didn’t ask for that…but for $30/night I’ll at least have a look at both rooms.  Off to see both, the junior suite was more than double the size, and seemed to have much more functional air conditioning. Ok, sold.  I’m game for it!

So, first a review of the hotel  The room was quite nice, bed was very comfortable, and the shower had nice warm water.  Well, except for the fact the water completely went out for 1-2 hours at a time several times during my stay.  Maybe they were working on it, but it was never a big deal since it wasn’t out when I needed it.  The AC in the room was plenty cool, so overall I was very pleased with the room for the price paid.

I didn’t eat at the restaurant for lunch or dinner, but did enjoy a beer by the pool the first night, and a rum punch by the pool the second afternoon.  The beer was a very reasonable $2-3, but the rum punch was nearly $11.  A bit much if you ask me for Haïti, but it was definitely delicious.  Before the rum punch, I had a nice swim in the pool, which had incredibly warm water and felt great after trekking about the city in the heat and grime.  A rum punch by the pool:

…and a bit better shot of the pool.  Looks inviting, no?

Breakfast was also included in the room rate, and was relatively tasty.  A few cut up fruits including pineapple and watermelon, croissants and toast, and scrambled eggs and a couple other hot dishes like beans.  Most importantly, the coffee was fresh and tasty.  Service seemed a slight bit distant, and the staff seemed a bit more interested in chatting and gossiping with each other than really interacting with guests.  That said, I never had trouble getting anything I needed, just that it wasn’t necessarily friendly by the standard I was used to.  There were probably 5-6 staff working the breakfast, and I never saw more than 10 guests there at a time.   Continue reading »

Sep 182012
 

A few months back when American not only offered to match by United status by giving me American Executive Platinum status for the balance of 2012, but also offered to let me keep it for 2013 if I flew only 55,000 elite qualifying points…well, immediate I started scheming how to get 100,000 elite qualifying miles on United as well as 55,000 EQP on American. It wasn’t going to be easy (and I’m still 15-20,000 short in planning on both with just over three months to go) but I knew I could figure it out. That said, when I found out American had a pretty good business fare to Haïti (a country I hadn’t been to) and that it made an easy four day weekend trip…well, I was curious.

See, one thing the last few years have travel have taught me is it’s just possible…maybe…that I don’t get the whole story about the world from CNN, Fox News, etc. I mean, it’s possible that the horrors they tell me about Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Somalia, North Korea are, well, maybe not exactly how day to day life unfolds there. Having been to all those places, and having learnt that basically what the media shows is maybe 2% of the real story, well, I was definitely interested in getting a bit more of the real story about Haïti for myself. To hear them tell it, Haïti is miles upon miles of never ending tent cities with people dying of cholera left and right. There are giant fissures in the ground from the Earthquake, and nothing resembling normality exists. Is it true? I had to see for myself. Flights booked, and I was off.

I’m going to split this report into four parts:

Part 1: The flights (this part)
Part 2: The hotel
Part 3: The sights, and what I saw
Part 4: The restaurants, food, groceries, etc

When I booked the trip, I had planned to fly all the way from DCA-DFW-MIA-FLL on the same day.  However, a change in schedules made this impossible since the later Miami to Port-au-Prince flight was eliminated.  I had two choices:  go direct DCA-Miami-Haiti and lose approximately 2,100 elite qualifying points, or overnight in Dallas and then continue in the morning.  I have a good friend I haven’t seen for a while in Dallas, so my choice was obvious!  I’d take a late DC-Dallas flight after work, and then continue in the morning.  The agent I spoke to on the phone was more than happy to make the change, and I was all set.

Got to the airport about 75 minutes before the flight, and TSA was relatively empty.  Quick stop in the AAdmirals Club, where I had the most attentive bartender ever.  He actually wandered the club with wine bottles, proactively offering refills to people where they sat.  I’ve never had this before, and I’ve also never tipped as much for free drinks.  He was absolutely fantastic!

American Airlines Flight 2021
Washington, DC National (DCA) to Dallas/Fort-Worth (DFW)
Depart 18:15, Arrive 20:30, Flight Time 3:15
Boeing 737-800, Registration N930AN, Manufactured 2000, Seat 5E

There’s not too much to say about this flight.  Typical mid-con dinner, although service was pretty poor.  Crew disappeared as soon as possible, and we didn’t see them for the rest of the flight.  I seriously thought I was back on United again!  Arrived about 20 minutes late due to a detour around weather, but I was reminded how I love Dallas as an arrivals airport because I was curbside and meeting a friend for dinner in under five minutes.  Absolutely fantastic!

American Airlines Flight 1442
Dallas/Fort-Worth (DFW) to Miami (MIA)
Depart 7:30, Arrive 11:15, Flight Time 2:45
Boeing 767-300, Registration N39365, Manufactured 1988, Seat 3D

TSA line in the morning was quite short, even though for the 8th of 8 times with American I was denied Pre-Check.  6 of the 8 flights have been on international itineraries (which are rumoured to be ineligible for pre-check) but the other two I got denied as well.  I think TSA hates me.  Actually, I think TSA hates everyone, but that’s beside the point.

Once through security at oh-dark-thirty, it was time to wait in line for Starbucks.  I saw a sign that a new Starbucks is being built in terminal D, which is fortunate, because the line at this tiny one inside a bookstore took nearly 30 minutes to clear the line at 6:30am.  Don’t they know that people are dying a slow death while awaiting their caffeine transfusion?  I mean seriously, people!  At least it gave me a chance to check out the local Texas literature.  I was afraid…very afraid!  Please, let me have my caffeine and move on!

Flight to Miami was on a 767, which I was very interested to see.  See, so far in all my flights with American I’d only been on domestic aircraft.  Despite the majority of my trips being international, they were all in the Caribbean/South America, so no international planes.  I knew this was a 767, but based on the United 767s known as the “ghetto birds” I didn’t have high hopes.  I was actually surprised!  It was a true international plane, although something straight out of 10-15 years ago.  Seats were recliner-style sloped seats, and while decent for a domestic flight, I’d hate to be in these internationally.  Oh well, I guess this is why international upgrades are (relatively) easy on American compared to United!

Arrived in Miami on time, and had a couple hours to kill, so was off to La Carreta for a delicious lunch.  I’m going to have to completely stop skipping meals on flights into Miami, because the food at La Carreta is so delicious.  Living in DC, I don’t get awesome Cuban food often, so La Carreta is a bit of a treat.  I highly recommend their Cuban sandwich – it’s not only delicious, but also super inexpensive.  Plus, you can get Materva!  Mmmm!

Soon it was time to board the flight to Port-au-Prince, and the gate area was definitely a fascinating people-watching experience.  It was split evenly between tall blonde Minnesotans on missionary trips, and people of Haitian decent returning home.  I definitely felt like a bit of an outsider!  The skies were looking a bit ominous as we boarded, and I was convinced the skies were about to open up.

American Airlines Flight 833
Miami (MIA) to Port-au-Prince, Haiti (PAP)
Depart 14:00, Arrive 15:55, Flight Time 1:55
Boeing 757-200, Registration N678AN, Manufactured 1998, Seat 5E

Shortly after boarding, Tripit pinged me with a 30 minute delay, then 60, then 90.  I’m still not sure why I’m not getting flight updates from American, and I can’t find anywhere on my online profile to set it.  I guess it doesn’t really matter – I don’t need multiples as long as Tripit is keeping me in the loop.  As usual, I had to inform the flight attendants of the delay, since they were completely unaware.  I swear, the airlines should pay me for providing this service!  Heavy rains moved in, and finally just over 1:15 late we finally pulled away from the gate, and were underway.

Nothing too much to say about the flight.  We ended up with a relatively tasty snack for such a short flight.  There was no choice, it was salad, salad, or salad!

Arrival in Port-au-Prince was relatively uneventful.  I was actually sort of surprised to see there was actually a jetway for us.  Walked up it, down the hall maybe 2-3 minutes and down an escalator where….it dropped us at a bus!  LOL!  This is definitely the first time I’ve ever been teased with a jetway and terminal, only to be dumped at a bus when you went through them.  After loading, we were driven a few minutes to what looked like a small makeshift building which appeared to only house immigration and baggage, and was covered in ads for American and cell phone companies.  I found out later American had paid for the renovation of this building (and much of the airport) after the earthquake (gee, wonder who’s making a killing on this route) and thus almost seemed to “own” parts of the airport.  A quick shot of the makeshift immigration hall:

After immigration, a welcome to Haïti from the local cellphone mafia:

Outside arrivals, where I waited for my driver:

On the way back, the driver tried to (once again) convince me I needed to be at the airport three hours before departure.  Um, no.  No way.  I told him to pick me up at 7:15am (to give me time for some coffee first) and we’d be there by  7:45 for a 9:20 flight.  Plenty of time.  As predicted, arrived at 7:45, and immediately were surrounded by porters grabbing at my bags.  I waved them all off, but they were persistent, all trying to get a hand on the bags to justify a few dollars tip.  While I felt a bit obligated to stimulate the local economy, these people were clearly not hurting too much.  With a steady stream of much more gullible visitors, I didn’t feel too obligated to let them assist me.

The whole terminal was operated by American, and it was just for their flights.  The check-in line for economy appeared to be at least 30 minutes, but for business (which I had to ask for – there were no signs) there was only one person in front of me.  The terminal was air conditioned, security and immigration were quick, and arriving at 7:45 was plenty of time.

American Airlines Flight 1608
Port-au-Prince, Haiti (PAP) to Miami (MIA)
Depart 9:20, Arrive 11:25, Flight Time 2:05
Boeing 737-800, Registration N833NN, Manufactured 2010, Seat 4E

Extremely uneventful flight, and nothing really to add here.  Typical light morning breakfast/snack which I skipped, and before you know it, it was time to experience my first Miami arrivals.  Walked a bit, took an escalator, took a train, walked some more, and was finally in the immigration hall.  It was almost as bad as Dulles, but not entirely.  Global Entry was a breeze, and there was also a special Global Entry customs line.  Got the usual dirty looks from other passengers, and was through quickly, and ready to connect to my next flight.  Grabbed a quick shower in the AAdmirals Club to wash off the morning sweat from Haïti, and onwards!

American Airlines Flight 2307
Miami (MIA) to Dallas/Fort-Worth (DFW)
Depart 13:35, Arrive 15:40, Flight Time 3:05
Boeing 757-200, Registration N638AA, Manufactured 1991, Seat 3E

Another very uneventful flight – again, the best kind!  Nothing to really say, so not going to say much.  We were about 30 minutes late due to diverting around weather, but my arrival and connection were both in terminal C at Dallas, so it was very easy to make it.

American Airlines Flight 2442
Dallas/Fort-Worth (DFW) to Washington, DC National (DCA)
Depart 16:55, Arrive 20:35, Flight Time 2:40
Boeing 737-800, Registration N867NN, Manufactured 2011, Seat 4E

Again, a very uneventful flight with a good crew.  Unfortunately, about 90 minutes into the flight I started feeling a bit “off” which I’d later find out was food poisoning.  Not sure if it came from Haïti, or if it came from the grilled shrimp salad on the Miami to Dallas segment, but either way I woke up about 8 hours later at home feeling like absolute death which stuck with me for a few days.  Oh well, small price to pay for an awesome adventure!

Sep 162012
 

I’d arranged with my taxi driver the night before who dropped me off at the Hilton to pick me up in the morning at 5am for my 7am flight, despite the Caribbean Airlines people assuring me the night before when I’d tried to check in that I “had” to be there no later than 5am – hmmm, yeah, I’ve heard that story before.   The day’s drama began when I tried to take the elevator to the lobby to check out.  See, the Hilton Port-of-Spain is built into a hill, and you actually check in on the top floor…all the floors are down from there, and I was a good 6-7 floors below the lobby.  Press the button for the elevator…nothing.  Press again.  Nothing.  Used the house phone next to the elevator to call the front desk, yes, they would send someone.  It took “someone” (who turned out to be the night manager) three calls to come, and finally he arrived with a maintenance guy who showed me just down the hall to the service elevator so I could get going.  They had no idea what the malfunction was.  Checked out, and finally on my way around 5:15 am for the 30 minute drive to the airport.

Check-in line was empty when I got there about 5:45, and I was plenty early.  For some reason row 1 (the exit row, aka legroom) was still “blocked” so I was told to ask at the gate.  There’s no exit immigration in Trinidad, so I decided to grab a quick coffee before hitting security, which had no line.  Still got to the gate more than 45 minutes in advance, yes, row one was open, and I could even have  seat next to me open.  Score!

Caribbean Airlines Flight 300
Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago (POS) to Caracas, Venezuela (CCS)
Depart 7:00, Arrive 8:15, Flight Time 1:45
ATR-72, Registration 9Y-TTA, Manufactured 2011, Seat 1A

The irony of being on this flight is that almost exactly a year prior, I’d flown this exact same flight the only other time I’d been to Caracas – quite a funny coincidence I was now using it at the last minute to fly around hurricane drama.  The last time they’d “informed” me when I arrived in Caracas that oops, my luggage was still back in Trinidad, so this time I insisted on wheeling it to the gate myself and gate-checking it.  Hopefully this would solve the problem.  Plane loaded up, maybe five free seats total including the one next to me, and we were off.  There was a small snack box offered, but it looked far less than appetizing so I settled for a glass of water and an uneventful flight.

When we were about 10-15 minutes out from landing, it started to get really bumpy.  Prop planes aren’t fun on the best of days, but the modern ones really aren’t too bad.  We were getting blown side to side quite a bit, and there was some serious chop, which got worse the closer to landing we got.  It doesn’t help that the runway in Caracas runs parallel to the water, and the approach is low over a very residential area.  What looked to be less than 50 feet off the ground the pilot gunned the engines, and it was obvious we were starting to climb again.  After about 5 minutes, he came on to let us know the wind was too bad and he didn’t feel able to land safely.  We’d wait ten minutes and try again.

Circle around, and on approach, the same very windy, very bumpy conditions.  Pilot came on to tell us that “air traffic control” had told us that the winds had died down significantly and it was ok to land now.  We didn’t even make it as close this time, and we could see the start of the runway, but at around 100 feet off the ground the engines were gunned again, and we started to climb.

Captain came on again after a few minutes, and was obviously quite peeved with the airport.  The winds clearly hadn’t died down, and it was pretty clear he was unhappy he’d had to try a rather scary and unsafe approach again.  There would be no third try, we were off to our alternate at Curacao…where, after I asked the flight attendant, it was confirmed there was no Caribbean Airlines operation, so we’d just sit in the plane for an hour or two and wait for winds to die down.  There goes my connection!  ARGH!

That lasted all of about 3-4 minutes.  Unfortunately, the pilot was now “more confident” about the landing in Caracas than he was about going to Curacao with our remaining fuel.  Um, when your pilot says something like “of the possible options at this stage, the safest appears to be a landing in Caracas.  I will ask the flight attendant to demonstrate the brace position” that’s when you get more than a little nervous.  The “all the possible options” part seriously had me thinking he was considering ditching at sea, though, I’m sure that wasn’t an option.  So, the brace position was demonstrated, we were told that after the flight attendant announced “BRACE BRACE” over the speaker we were to do it.  The bad part is that she clearly didn’t speak Spanish, and the vast majority of the passengers appeared to not speak English, so the other passengers were having to translate.  It was more than a little tense.

The approach seemed to be a little bit smoother this time, but we were still pretty all over the place, getting bumped around and blown side to side on the way in.  Around 100-200 feet off the ground, the BRACE BRACE command was given, and head between the knees time it was.  I have no idea how tall people would manage that anywhere other than the first row…and yes, that was my first thought.  We slammed into the ground pretty hard…..but made it.  I think it seriously took me at least ten minutes to stop shaking after we taxied in.  It was definitely the scariest landing I’ve ever had by far.

Now, the question was, would I have a bag, and would I make the connection?  I’d only had 1:40 originally, and now with the three approaches that was down to 55 minutes.  Fortunately, the American agents in Trinidad had been at the counter rebooking people who hadn’t learnt of the cancelation in advance, so I managed to get them to print out and check me in for my Caracas to Dallas flight.  Hopefully that would help!  Bag showed up after a couple of minutes, and it was a quick walk/dash into the terminal.  I found no English-speaking staff, but there was a sign for “international connections” so I decided to give it a try.  Walking past the immigration counters, there was a desk for transfers…but nobody working it!

There was a security checkpoint that appeared to lead back into the departures area, so I showed my boarding pass to the military security guy and attempted to explain to him in Spanish what I was doing.  Found out the couple in front of me had been trying to explain to him for 15 minutes with no luck, however, they didn’t have boarding passes.  My explanation seemed good enough for him after he paged through every page of my passport looking at stamps, and he let me through.  Once through security I was indeed in the departures area…but the American flight to Dallas wasn’t on the monitors!

Found the AAdmirals Club, and it was just a technology glitch.  Was pointed to the right gate where boarding still hadn’t started.  Score, it looked like everything would work out well after all!

American Airlines Flight 2108
Caracas, Venezuela (CCS) to Dallas (DFW)
Depart 9:55, Arrive 15:00, Flight Time 5:05
Boeing 757, Registration N656AA, Manufactured 1991, Seat 1E

Pretty uneventful flight.  The only two interesting things were my seatmate and the breakfast.  The seatmate was unusual because she hadn’t been seated two seconds before she was paging the flight attendant with the call button and asking for a Baileys.  She spoke no English at all, but the flight attendant did understand “Baileys por favor.”   I had to translate for her on the ground that there was no Baileys on the plane, so she wanted white wine.  Flight attendant got that for her, and she was happy.   Less than 10 minutes into the flight she was pressing the button again “white wine!” followed 10 minutes later by “mas!”  Hahahah the flight attendants didn’t know whether to be amused or annoyed at her, but after somewhere around 5-6 pressings of the call button she passed out and slept the remainder of the flight.

The breakfast wasn’t interesting per se, just different than you normally see on American, so I thought I’d post a picture.

Immigration in Dallas was a breeze, took the AirTrain over to the C terminal, and they were just getting ready to board the flight to Washington.

American Airlines Flight 2442
Dallas (DFW) to Washington National (DCA)
Depart  16:55, Arrive 20:35, Flight Time 2:40
Boeing 737-800, Registration N813NN, Manufactured 2009, Seat 4E

Nothing at all unusual about this flight.  Standard mid-con dinner service, decent crew, and kept entertained using GoGo Internet.  Although things aren’t perfect on American, I can’t remember why I ever bothered with United.  Yes, the international nonstops out of Dulles Airport were nice, but the combination of often surly staff, old planes with no WiFi, and frequent delays have me questioning it.  I’m close enough to million miler that I’ll make sure I get that and requalify for 1K this year, but after that, it might be time to do some rethinking!

Sep 152012
 

…or, otherwise known as, the travel day where almost nothing went right, but in the end, most everything ended up ok.

But, I owe a bit of back story from the night before. Got to my hotel, which I’d chosen based on location (walkable to most major attractions in Fort-de-France for the morning) and on TripAdvisor reviews. I was staying at  l’Hôtel Impératrice, which was a very French-feeling small hotel with maybe 20 or so rooms.  I’d paid a little extra for the “chambre prestige” and was quite happy with it.  Plenty of space to walk around, and what looked like a nice balcony.

It was still pretty early, and again, based on TripAdvisor reviews, I decided to hit Lili’s Beach Bar, which was located in the next town over called Schœlcher, about a 10-15 euro and 15 minute taxi ride.  It was located in the Hôtel Batelière down on the beach, and was really more of a bar than a restaurant.  I’d gotten there about 8, and there were still plenty of people eating so it was fine.  By the time I finished at 9:30, however, it had gone full bar mode and as the reviews note was completely packed with people buying expensive drinks and “paying to be seen.”  Food was decent – not stellar, but pretty good.  Ended up having a conch pizza which was pretty tasty, along with a Planteur Rum Punch.  They were around 10 Euros per drink, but decently tasty.

Back to the hotel and crashed so I could get up and walk around a bit in the morning.  Got up in the morning, and went straight out onto my balcony to take in the view.  Not bad!

Continue reading »

Sep 142012
 

Woke up at oh-dark-thirty, aka 5:15 after not getting to bed the night before until after 11 thanks to the very long trip in the share taxi from Suriname. Considered going back to sleep since I knew my chances of making this trip work were small, but decided I only had part of a day here so was going to try and make the most of it…even if I didn’t manage to make it to the Space Centre. Was out the door by 5:45, and on my way to the shared taxi rank…which I only had a vague idea of its location.

I wandered around, and the local produce market was setting up for business, and after asking a few vendors still had absolutely no idea where the taxi rank was…so I just kept wandering. After about ten minutes I saw lots of minivans pulling in, people getting on, and heading off, so I asked some people and it appeared I’d accidentally found it.  On the way, while waiting, there was an amazing sunrise:

The goal was to head to the European Space Centre aka the Centre Spatiale Guyanais where I’d arranged a free tour that started at 8:00am.  It’s near the town of Kourou, about 5km outside of town.  However, the shared taxis from Cayenne only go to Kourou, and not to the Space Centre.  A taxi to Kourou pulled up finally, but it was only me and one other passenger.  This was looking like a repeat of the previous day where I might wait hours to fill up.  Not good since the tour started in 90 minutes and it was a 55km drive just to Kourou.  I chatted with the driver, and he said it was 10 euros a person to Kourou.  I asked him, for 20 euros will you leave now with just the two of us, and drop me directly at the Centre?  He sized up the other passenger, she offered him 15 euro to leave now, and he decided 35 euro was good enough for a trip and we were off.  SCORE!  I’d made it work!

Continue reading »

Sep 132012
 

This was definitely the leg of this trip that I was most excited about, and most nervous about. Both for the same reason. Traveling overland by public transport definitely holds a romantic realness about it. You’re often traveling with locals, getting an insight on how local people get from place to place, and if you’re fortunate you get a good chance to interact with them as well. I can only remember one time that I did the shared car/taxi thing, and that was several years ago when I took a shared bus/taxi service from Moldova to Transdniester. That was a large bus, however, but I’ll still count it since it left from the shared transport bus station.

In this case, everything I’d read online said that in order to be assured your share taxi would leave within an hour, you really had to be there before 7am, because after that time there were very few passengers leaving Paramaribo and you could be stuck waiting for hours for your taxi to fill up unless you wanted to buy all the spots up. Everything I’d read online told me to expect about 70 SRD for one of five seats in a share taxi (about $22) for the three hour ride to the border. With that in mind, I asked the hotel concierge to call around and see what options he could find.

He first came back with 500 SRD for a private car (about $155) which was absolutely ridiculous. In theory, I could show up at the share taxi rank and buy out all five seats for only 350. He then called “some friends” one of whom was willing to not only pick me up at my hotel the next morning, but would agree to come at 9am (yay sleeping in) and only charge 80 SRD. I figured for this price I’d be doing some sharing, but for the convenience of hotel pick-up, a “known” driver, and sleeping in it sounded great.

Fast forward to 9am…no sign of the driver. 9:15. Nothing. Hotel calls him and he answers…”stuck in traffic.” Finally, around 9:45, he shows up with his sister and her small child already in the car. Great, at least we’re off! No seatbelts, but wouldn’t really expect that in a bush taxi. Of course, where do we go? You guessed it, the share taxi rank! Fortunately, it was just to meet three of his “friends” he’d agreed to pick up and drive to the border, so the wait was only another 10 minutes or so. Doing the math, I was probably subsidizing the others a bit, but it was what it was.

He was a relatively safe driver, although once again the entire conversation was in Dutch. We attempted both French and English, but they couldn’t really keep up in either, so we spoke what Dutch we could and the rest of the time they all conversed in Creole. We did need to make one “ganja stop” along the way for the other passengers to smoke, and then we made another stop maybe 30 minutes from the border in order to…buy watermelons. All the passengers bought watermelons from the roadside, as well as buying huge slices of watermelon to eat. The driver offered “I buy you, you eat!” but I wasn’t in the mood for suspicious roadside fruits with another 4-5 hours in shaky taxis to go. This is where things got strange. He confirmed I needed to go to the immigration building (the locals don’t bother, and just take a water taxi across the river), since he knew it was important for foreigners to get the exit and entry stamps. “No problem, no extra.”

After we started up again, the driver’s English suddenly improved a bit. “You have girlfriend?” “Uh, no, too busy, too much travel.” “Oh too bad. I have 3 girlfriend. You have boyfriend? I have two boyfriend!” “Uhhhh…” This was definitely getting very very weird. Little more small talk and he gave up, until we pulled up to the border. The local boat tout across the river swarmed the taxi, grabbing at my luggage. Driver assured me “It’s ok, he my friend, he take you across river.” Ok, that’s fare. Saves me negotiating with the touts, and we confirmed the price was the same 20 SRD I’d seen online. Then, it got really weird. “You pay 80 SRD. If you no want pay, my friend have house down the street.” Now, I’m pretty sure he was suggesting trading the ride for, um, “adult activities” and I quickly gave him his 80 SRD and walked into the immigration hut.

You can see above the tout hurrying to the building along with my bag.  Once inside, there were about 100 people milling about, most of them with French passports.  I chatted with a few, and they were all from French Guiana.  Seems it was important for them to get stamps too, to document just how long they’d been out of the E.U.  It seemed to just be the local Surinamese who didn’t care.  Of course, why the line?  It was just before 1pm, and the immigration person was on lunch!  I had to wait about 30 minutes, and finally he showed up.  I’d obviously been in the region long enough by now, because when the shoving started I held my ground and was near the beginning out of the line.

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Sep 122012
 

My guide/driver picked me up right on time the next morning for the roughly two hour drive into the interior of Suriname (around 120-150 km or so) and into the edges of the Amazon Rainforest. My company for the day was a Dutch lady who had been born in Suriname and her two young sons. The plan was to stop along the way to get lunch at a small roadside Surinamees/Indonesian snack joint and then head into the park where we’d lunch before starting a several hour hike into the park.

The drive to the park wasn’t too bad, except for the last 20km or so, which took well over an hour to cover. It was a nasty potholed dirt road, and when I say potholes, we’re talking 1-2 feet deep and filled with mud and water most of the time! However, we made it to the park just fine and were ready for lunch.

I still don’t remember the name of what I ordered for lunch, but it was a soup with pulled chicken in it along with lots of spices and a bag of rice and other condiments…including a hard boiled egg, to mix in. Quite tasty! While eating at some tables in the park, we were rewarded with some fantastic views.

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Sep 112012
 

Up early, and off to the smaller “domestic” Ogle Airport for the flight with Gum Air to Zorg en Hoop Airport in Paramaribo, Suriname. Both of are the “smaller” airports that are “downtown” and when they say small they mean small! Unlike the charter flight to the falls the previous day, this one was actually pretty serious with security/immigration/etc, but they paid absolutely no attention to the baggage allowance. It was advertise at only 15 kg per person, but I was closer to 19-20 and they didn’t say a word. It was only like $2/kg extra anyways, so…

I had bought my tickets with TransGuyana Airlines, but showed up to find out the flight was operated by Gum Air. Seems they codeshare on this route, with TransGuyana offering one flight, and GumAir the other. Since my ticket was just a computer printout, I had no way of knowing in advance. No big deal, I was glad to see, however, it was the same plane type as the day before.

Georgetown, Guyana, Ogle Airport (OGL) to Zorg en Hoop Airport, Paramaribo, Suriname (ORG)
GumAir Flight 42
Departure 8:30, Arrival 10:45, Flight Time approximately 1:15 minutes
Cessna 208B Grand Caravan, Registration PZ-TBT
Seat “5A” alone in the back of the plane

Flight was completely full, but no luck this time in getting the pilot to let me sit in the copilot seat So, I took the seat way in the back so I could watch. This plane has seen better days:

A couple of aerial shots from during the flight.  We were at a max altitude of 12,000 feet, which I thought was pretty unusual for an unpressurized plane.

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Sep 052012
 

After juggling around the trip a bit, and deciding to fly the next leg to Suriname instead of take a share taxi, I was left with a full day to wander around Georgetown. I’d been told by several people there wasn’t a ton to see, and after just getting four hours sleep the prior night I decided to sleep in a bit.

Got down to the hotel breakfast (literally right down a staircase from my room – a 15 second walk) just as it was supposedly closing, only to find absolutely nobody around. There was bread and coffee sitting out from toast, and that was more than enough for me. Around 10 or 11, I finally made it out to start my very hot and humid stroll of the city. Even though it was hot and humid out, I wanted to walk around and see as much of the city as I could before the heat got to me.

Headed out of my hotel, the Herdmanston Lodge, through the nice courtyard:

I walked about 20-30 minutes through the city side streets of Georgetown:

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