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Published: March 23rd 2006
Hi there!
You'll be pleased to know I managed to make it across the Atlantic without incident, and even managed to find my connecting flight at Miami, which wasn't as easy as it should have been. Full marks to the folks at American Airlines though, my Heathrow-Miami flight was good. Funny and friendly flight attendants, decent food, a plentiful supply of drinks and a reasonable selection of in-flight movies. I even saw a couple of good episodes of Frasier! Added to this I could leave my window shutter open to see the amazing views of the US eastern seaboard (not like Iberia last time!), and we got into Miami half an hour early, which as it turns out was just as well...
I have to say I really wasn't impressed by the chaos of Miami airport, and even less so with the hours of security queues to which I was subjected despite a) only being there for three hours and b) having done this already in Heathrow. We all had to queue for over an hour while slack-jawed American immigration officials trained each other on how to use the ID-logging system. All very reassuring. While I waited in line I filled in my questionnaires confirming whether or not I had been recently involved in war crimes or genocide, whether I had been involved in the holocaust (!!!), or was entering the US to commit terrorist acts, or to abduct children. I wonder what happens to anyone who ticks 'yes'... Clearly the minimum of thought had gone into the whole process.
Even after all of that I still had to find my way to my flight connection. The signs were very sparse, and when I did find the right place I had to join yet another huge queue to go through yet more security checks (including shoe scanning). I was hauled out of the queue for having one bag to many and wasn't allowed to rejoin until I put one little bag into a plastic bag. There didn't seem to be any discernible reason for this, so I did what I was told. I was too tired to argue! I tried to find somewhere to make a call, but no joy. No computers either, so I couldn't email either...
But despite all of the hassle at Miami I arrived at Quito on time, had no problems with immigration, my bag arrived safely, and Juan Pablo and Carmen were there to pick me up at the airport. We had a lovely catch up in the car on the way to the airport, and they dropped me at my hostal, where I had a lovely long sleep and a huge Posada del Maple breakfast!
So soon Juan Pablo going to pick me up and drive me to the reserve... I am really looking forward to it. The trip was a hassle, but its great to be back! The adventure begins again!
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Ali
non-member comment
Hi
Good to hear you've arrived safely! Look forward to the next instalment!