Normally, when I’m about to visit a Caribbean island, I excitedly count down the days. This time, however, I’ve been cringing the coming days. I’m not sure if this is a self-fulfilling prophecy or a rare psychic moment, but starting on Friday, I’ve had one aggravating thing after another happen.
First, I broke my blender. Unfortunately, the broken part isn’t one of the many parts that can be ordered and replaced. The blender motor no longer works and for that, there’s no authorized repair place in town and even if I send it back to the manufacturer, I have to pay for everything since it’s no longer under waranty. I spent an incredible amount of time looking up small appliance repair places and the only one that was open on a Saturday didn’t fix blenders. I have two more people to call, but neither work on the weekends. So, the broken blender dilemma must wait until I return. The worst case scenarios will be that I have to buy a new blender and/or try my hand at fixing it myself!
Then, my precious laptop, which is going to make life so much easier for me while writing and advancing my second novel started experiencing screen resolution problems. I did a variety of things before I stumbled upon restoring the factory settings, which means that all the software that I had installed, I must reinstall. Since it’s twenty minutes to eleven at night, I’m truly not excited about this. I’m currently reinstalling my security software and the all important MS Office. I’ll also have to reinstall my smart pen software, which is my new play toy. I don’t dare do any of this while in Utila since, I’ve already learned from my vast overseas experience, some things cannot be downloaded while being in a developing country. It’s best to get all these things squared away now.
In the meantime, I ran around town to put together my contribution to a 50th wedding anniversary gift for my parents. That actually went pretty well, considering all the electronic device problems I’ve recently experienced. The most challenging thing was getting the oil pen to write. Nonetheless, the picture frame that I decorated with it came out remarkably well without a hint of the frustration that has been building up the last 72 hours.
It’s a good thing that I don’t have to drive myself to the airport or fly the plane. I predict that I’m going to have a restbroken sleep and perhaps forget to pack something vital although I’m about 99% packed. Thank goodness I packed right after I finished cleaning up myself and my apartment after bikram yoga.
It’ll actually be delightful to be at the airport since that’ll mean that I won’t have to run around or anything, just enjoy the traveling experience. I initially thought that my forebroding feeling was nervousness about my research endeavor for my novel. After this frustrating bout of bad luck, I’ll be happy enough to vacation and just incorporate whatever I happen to absorb without any more ambition than that!
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I knew it! I knew it! I knew it! My foreboding feeling was confirmed in less than 12 hours after I blogged the preceding post. I arrived at the airport in plenty of time to discover that TACA, the Honduran airline that was to be the carrier for the last half of my air travel to La Ceiba, had completely changed my itinerary and told NO ONE about the change.
My Continental Airline ticket agent, together with an Orbitz agent, pieced together that although the original reservation that I’d made at the end of May still existed, TACA had switched the ticket a few days afterwards, much to all of our surprise. So, now I already have my boarding pass for tomorrow at 7 am.
Yet the saga continues since TACA doesn’t want to book me in a hotel for a night. Thanks to their new bookings of my return flight, I have to leave the beautiful, laid-back island of Utila a day earlier, spend the night in La Ceiba, then catch an early flight out. My Orbitz agent gave me word that there’s a possibility of getting a later flight, which will mean that I get to spend my last night in Honduras on my island of choice, but a TACA representative will call me around 2pm today to let me know.
I’ll give them until 2:30 before calling Orbitz again for a fourth time to let them continue negotiating for me. The last Orbitz agent told me that she had documented everything and if TACA does not give me what I want in terms of a later flight or overnight in a decent hotel, then she encouraged me to call Orbitz again.
Ahh, excellent customer service! Yet another thing that separates developed and developing countries.