Saturday, Oct 14 (Boston)
So here I sit, at Logan Airport. The adventure is beginning. Surprisingly, there was no real problem with baggage or security. There was no reason that there should have been, but I’m paranoid. There was a small glitch in that the luggage conveyer belt was down, and the luggage backed up. Then, when the belt started working, it would get overwhelmed and then shut down again.
The flight should be loading in about a half hour. I am *so* not looking forward to spending 6+ hours on the plane and trying to sleep overnight. On the other hand, I think that will be better than the 8+ hours for the next leg.
At least now I can stop worrying about packing and whether I’m bringing the right stuff. Either I have it or not.
Sunday, Oct 15 (Amsterdam to Arusha, Tanzania)
The layover in Amsterdam is good—only about 2-2½ hours. It is 3am East Coast time, but despite getting no real sleep, I don’t feel too bad. I definitely liked the plane and service from British Airways better (I just flew an A330 from KLM). The seats we had here were not as comfortable and had no foot rest, although they did have video-on-demand. Now for the longer leg…
So here I am, in a new country, a new continent, and a new hemisphere. The second leg wasn’t as bad as I feared. Originally, I had planned on taking an ambien and sleeping for this leg, but then I figured that I probably wouldn’t sleep tonight if I did that. So I watched some movies, dozed a bit, and ate a lot. It seemed that every hour or two they were feeding us. There was a hot meal, a snack, a hot lunch, some ice cream.
It was really neat deplaning. We left the plane on stairs, from both the front and the rear of the plane (I left through the front). We landed after sunset, and it was probably in the mid 70’s.
The plane was lit by lights against a dark background. It looked like something out of Hollywood, maybe an updated Bogey film. You don’t see much of a plane from a jet way, but we had a great view of the plane and the huge engines as we walked down in front of them.
Inside the airport, there was a huge crowd. There was a mob/line waiting for visas. Then a guy came out asking for passports, entry cards, and US $50. A bunch of us handed the stuff over, and he took them into the office. A while later, he came out and handed them back.
Not surprisingly, there were about a dozen of us from this flight going on the Bio Bio expedition. We got our luggage, and I got hit up by a guy who wanted a tip for taking my bags off of the conveyer belt—not for carrying them anywhere, just taking them off. He was asking for $5, but I gave him $1.
We went outside and found the Bio Bio people. When we were
all assembled, we went out to a small bus. They passed the bags in through a
back window, and we drove out to the
Moivaro Lodge.
Our rooms are
two person units,
which are apart from each other. I’m sharing a room with John. There is
mosquito netting for the beds.
We came back to the main lodge for dinner on the
open veranda. I didn’t think I was hungry after all the food they gave us on
the plane, but I ate all of my meal.
I haven’t noticed any mosquitoes yet. The lodge has a thatched grass roof. It is too dark to see much else.
Mosquito netting on the beds—It sounds like Amy’s experience in Ecuador. There was some sort of flowery leafy thing on the beds as a decorative touch—nice.
My throat is a bit scratchy. I’ve had a mild cough for a few days. I really hope that I’m not coming down with something.
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