I'm sure most of you are wonder why I don't update much. I have this tendency to rant a lot on blogs and that is boring. No one wants to read my angsty noise. They could just hum around livejournal for a while and get plenty of that. I tried to break that habit. I still havn't quite totally cleared that hurdle.
So, this week. The week of April the 5th. We have this clients that are in the Caribbean for work. They have tank farms and I check them to make sure the bottoms aren't corroding to shit, as they tend to do in the Caribbean because of the salt water and what have you. So I get to go on a journey to the Caribbean.
Everyone says "Yay you must love it." I don't hate it, but its far from loving it. Let me run down my itinerary and you'll see why its not much fun. Monday 8am ATL->MIA, 12p MIA-SNJ(San Juan PR), 6p SNJ->GND(Grenada). I arrive in Grenada at about 8:45 pm. 15 minute cab ride and my first 14 hour day comes to a close around 9:30p. 3 flights in the bag. Many more to go. So in Grendada I do my survey and everything is fine, takes about 4 hours. Then I go back to the hotel just after lunch and hang out but I go to bed early because Wed looks like this: 6:30a GND->SNJ, 10a SNJ->DOM. Now that's not so bad. Only two flights, but I had to be to the airport by 5:30am, which means getting up at 4:30 to catch a late cab at 5am. Sleep is waning. The fun has only just begun though. Grenada is cake compared to the next leg of my trip.
Now that I'm in Dominica I get off the plane and guess what? My bags did not come with me. I ran from security to get to the gate in time as I did not plan enough time to go through US Customs which you must do everytime you pass through San Juan as its America Jr. or something like that. So I get to the gate and they are holding the plane for me, its 10 minutes till departure, but everyone is on board but me. I have a moment of clarity before boarding I ask "are my bags going to make it in time I just dropped them off 20 minutes ago at security?" She assures me they will get them on the plane. Liar! So I walk through customs as I have no bags except my one carry on which I thankfully packed a pair of underwear and a change of socks and shirt. I've never had a bag lost by an airline. I have waited 3 hours at the carousel for one, but never lost. I guess my number was up. I get to the outside and I'm looking high and low for a shuttle. There are none. There are two taxis. The taxi drivers in Dominica are clever and have gotten together and agreed that if you are to drive solo from the airport to Roseau, the place I'm staying and capital of Dominica, they charge you 70US. I asked 2 cabbies, same price. Just as a test when I got a ride back I asked a few, they all said the same thing. 70 US to take a 1.5 hour cab ride across this island. It's a trip getting across the island. Let me show you a map.
The airport is near Marigot and the town I was staying in is Roseau. Why they put the airport on that side I'll never understand. I guess since the Island is so mountainous or something. Back to my story though. So these cabbies got me by the balls and they know it. 6 people came on my plane. 5 of them had rides. I did not. After I get my bags straightened out they tell me they will come to my hotel tonight as there is later flight coming in. I think awesome, this will work out.
So I get in a cab. We talk most of the way and he is giving me the tourist trip with all the info about the island and the people and the geography, its kinda nice. I get to the hotel and thank him. He is super amped cause chances are he woudln't have gotten a fair all day had I not used him. I check in to the room and proceed to go find some food as its about 3pm by now. I am ravenous as I havn't eaten all day and I've been up since before 5 mind you. I get a sandwich and some Kabuli (the local brew, which is beyond amazingly good). Then I retire to rest after staying up till about 9pm hoping my bags were on the last plane. They weren't. I get up in the morning, no bags. I work on some reports and get some other things in order around lunch I check, no bags. I check online, they still havn't found them. I need the things in my bag in order to complete the survey that I was sent there for. I start to wonder now how long it will take to get my bags or did someone steal them or did they send them to my apt in the US by accident thinking I had gone home. Finally something shows up online that they are being fwd-ed to DOM and should be on the ground by 2 and a parcel service will get them. I breathe again. 2pm rolls around. I start to squirm waiting to get my bags. I realize now that I might not have enough time to complete the survey. I figure if they aren't here by morning I'll call and reschedule. 8:15pm, after dinner, I get a call from the front desk. My bags, 32 hours after my arrival have arrived! I go to sleep thinking about how I am going to make my escape on Friday.
I get up Friday and hammer down breakfast get everything in the right order and take a cab to the tank site. I show up with all my bags the manager there thinks I am crazy, but I don't care. I get the survey done and there are problems so I begin to troubleshoot and after 2 calls back to the US finally figure out what it was. A loose connection on a pipeline was disabling the cathodic protection. It was in a valve pit where gas vapor commonly accumulates during transfer of gas. This loose connection was sparking when I was there. Its a miracle that whole thing didn't go up. I do a temporary fix to finish my survey and explain very clearly to multiple people there the situation they have at hand and how they can fix it. I don't have the appropriate tools, as a 1.5" wrench is not something I generally bring to a job site.
My cab comes on time and I venture back to through the hills of the rain forest. The driver is super nice and actually works with a lot of the people who work at that terminal who go in and out. Having a population of 72,000 dropping a few names of people you have met around the Caribbean gives you some cred and this guy knew a lot of the people I had met. Dude still charges me 70 US to get to the airport. :( Oh well. I get on my plane after having both bags searched twice and patted down 3 times. I think a lot of that has to do with wearing the caffeine molecule shirt as seen here.
So from Dominica to San Juan. I arrive in San Juan around 6pm and wonder if I can make it to Miami that night. I make it through the customs gauntlet where the agent was asking me way to specific of questions and made me nervous. Just doing his job I presume. I look at my itinerary and realize I booked my connecting flight to MIA for the next morning. Fail. I go ask an agent. He says it'll cost $150 and that if I was to get to Miami that all the flights on Saturday are booked till the one I got at 7;10 anyways. Mega fail. I resign after a difficult day of a survey, crazy taxi ride, crowded plane ride to a hotel. They have a Best Western in the airport. I check in and get some zzz's.
I wake up all night but for real at 4:30am to get to my plane which is leaving at 7a and boarding at 6:20a. Just for those of you who don't know you have to have your bag inspected by some giant x-ray outside the airport by the USDA from San Juan. Who knew? I certainly didn't, no one told me. After putting my bag in the giant x-ray I get my boarding pass and get to the gate. I saw my little sister online and I wondered if she was still up. She was. It was now 6a, so about 2am where she is. Weird how that works... Just starting my day, she's ending hers. I miss being able to stay up that late consistently. Uneventful flight to MIA.
I got here and its busy. I mean MIA is packed. I been through this airport a lot, but today is unreal. Spring break travel and everyone is flying it seems. I caved and bought an Admiral pass so I don't have to deal with the droves of people. So here I sit. I still have 7 hours till my next flight but at least I can think and hopefully get some work done.
I say that... and now there is a dog up here barking, wtf.
I'm almost home! I just realized this post is very Dominica heavy. Maybe I'll write about Grenada sometime. Grenada is a lot nicer that Dominica in my opinion. Dominica has a long way to go, but Dominica is way way way prettier as far as geography and landscape.
So when people ask me why I don't want to travel the Caribbean? Look at that joker on the plane without the umbrella cocktail writing furiously on his laptop at 20,000ft and say oh wait I guess people actually work here too. Give me the woods over the beach any day. Hiking through Dominica might be a different story, but I have yet to have the time to do that. So in summary.
ATL-MIA-SNJ-GND
GND-SNJ-DOM
DOM-SNJ-MIA-ATL
More time in airports than anything else this week. Wheee!
Hope this wasn't too ranty, good for you if you made it this far.
-bob
wow, what a lot of hassle, but at least you kept that tank from exploding...
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