Northern South America Travel Diary

2012

Northern South America Travel Diary 2012

 

There’s not much to report today.  As expected, this was a long day spent travelling, sitting on planes and spending even more time sitting in airports.

Getting from Guyana to Ecuador is no easy task.  I remember being surprised when I was booking flights for this trip many months ago that the flight connections between neighboring countries are so few and far between (and the land connections are usually even more difficult).  For travel within this region (the northern part of South America), flights seem to operate through a few hubs, notably Trinidad and Panama, and usually with long, inconvenient transit times.

My travel today required both hubs (Trinidad and Panama), but by ‘repositioning’ myself in Ecuador, I found that the remainder of the flights on this trip fitted into place fairly well – hence the long day of travel today.

Overall, the day went fairly much as planned.  I woke with the alarm at 5:30 am, left the guesthouse at 6:30 am, arrived at the airport at a little before 7:30 am, and took off on schedule for the first flight (to Port of Spain, Trinidad) at a little earlier than the scheduled time of 9:50 am.

The flight was just under one hour duration.  The flight followed the northern coastline of Guyana to the Venezuelan border, although the views were mostly of clouds rather than land or water.  On the descent into Port of Spain I realized for the first time just how close Trinidad is to the Venezuelan coastline of the South American mainland; the strait of water separating the two was surprisingly narrow, and the Venezuelan coastline remained clearly visible until only just before touchdown in Port of Spain.

The immigration line at Port of Spain Airport was thankfully much shorter this morning than it was when I was passing through several days ago.  In fact, I was able to walk straight up to a waiting immigration officer this morning, and the whole process was very relaxed.  The irony is that this time I had plenty of time to collect my bag and check in for my next flight, my transit time being just over seven hours – just too short to consider going out to see the sights but just long enough to start becoming tedious.

Check-in for my second flight of the day (Port of Spain to Panama) did not open until 2:30 pm (take-off being scheduled for 5:50 pm), which gave me time to catch up on video watching on the iPad (including the series finales to both Grimm and The Borgias and two episodes of Sherlock – brilliant in all cases), and a 6” Sub (please note the self-restraint) and a coffee from the Subway outlet within the airport terminal.  Not bad, eh? – that was four sets of parentheses in just one sentence!

Boarding for the flight to Panama finally started at 5:00 pm, and after an on-schedule take-off, we arrived in Panama a little ahead of schedule at 7:30 pm (with one hour time difference, making the flight just under three hours).  As boarding for the final flight to Quito was due to commence at 8:00 pm, there was a comfortable amount of time to walk across to the gate.  One hour for boarding seemed a little generous for a Boeing 737, but it seemed to be needed given the leisurely way of doing things in this part of the world.  We finally pushed back one hour and 20 minutes after boarding had started.

Disembarking in Quito immediately showed what a difference a bit of altitude makes to the temperature.  Quito sits at an elevation of 2800 metres (or 9200 feet), and so I really felt quite cool as soon as I left the plane, dressed in a short-sleeved shirt.  The temperature in Panama had been 31 degrees Celsius - the temperature in Quito was just 11 degrees Celsius.

My heart sank when I saw the line for the immigration counters.  The line twisted and turned through the zig-zag barricades, and then overflowed across the entry area and outside onto the tarmac.  I would estimate that there were well over a hundred people in front of me.  Nonetheless, the line moved with surprising speed, and I reached the counter after just 45 minutes.  The processing was quick, friendly and efficient, and I was soon in the baggage hall where I was reunited with my suitcase.

Leaving the customs area and entering the waiting hall was another daunting experience as I came face to face with what must have been a few hundred people.  However, in the midst of all the commotion was an extremely pleasant surprise - although I wasn’t expecting it, the hotel where I am staying was providing free shuttle bus transport.  Arriving as I was at about midnight in a new and unfamiliar city, this was an extremely welcome gesture.

It has, however, been a very long day.  I finally managed to get to bed at 1:30 am, which meant I had been awake for 21 hours.  It’s not the kind of thing I would choose to do every day, but with the anticipation of some great exploring in Quito tomorrow (actually later today, given the late hour I am typing this), I don’t mind at all.



Day 8 - Georgetown to Quito

Sunday

1 July 2012