Leaving do 2 of 8, an afternoon Soiree at Shan & Ricardo's.
Leaving do 7 of 8, controlled chaos.
Leaving do 8 of 8, a very civilised afair
Despite having literally had months to organise things before going away I still didn't make it to bed the night before flying, even if I had I'm sure I wouldn't have slept at any rate. We set off for Manchester Airport at about 3.30 or so. I still couldn't sleep on the journey and to be honest everything felt more than a little surreal. Leaving for 14 months is something I've struggled to get my head around in the last few weeks and only from Sunday did things start to feel real... this was also accompanied by a feeling of acute panic.
After an emotional (yet surprisingly dry-eyed) fairwell with Mother and Father in the Airport, I checked my bags and wandered through the numerous security check-ins to the gate.
Me and Mother
Me and Father
I was in the same departure lounge as me, Jimbobbins and young Smoutleberry had been just months previously, which again all seemed very surreal... No Jarvis Cocker this time though?
My time in the airport passed off very uneventfully, once we boarded for LHR the pilot quickly announced we were running behind schedule which unnerved me a little. The last thing I needed was to miss my first flight, I think I would actually have given it all up as a bad job. haha.
The Jumbo
Miami beach yo
BA turned out to be fun, an episode of the Big Bang Theory followed by Frasier went along way towards calming me down.
Miami International was very much a sober version of my last visit, again quite surreal however being back there in such different circumstances.
Next was the flight to San Salvador, having not spoken to anyone for about 20 hrs I finally started chatting with a San Salvadorean woman on my flight. On arrival in El Salvador everything suddenly felt so very real. It was literally like no experience I've ever had before, the most intense feeling of excitement I've ever felt. I sat in the airport and just grinned from ear to ear, I think the locals must have thought I was simple... either that or they just assumed I was another excitable westerner.
By the time I got out of the airport in Guatemala City I was again getting a little antsy about things, mainly my transfer... who was no-where to be seen. On walking into the pick up zone I was swamped by locals offering connections, hostels & hotels etc. Luckily I managed to speak to a taxi driver who called the hostel for me, soon after this my taxi arrived and I was whisked off to Antigua City. From what I saw of Guatemala City its no bad thing I'm heading straight to Antigua. I'm pretty sure my taxi was just someone the hostel knows rather than an actual taxi, he was nice enough though and we made it without any huge incidents... something which I've quickly realised you should always be thankful for when taking taxi's/shuttles here.
On arrival at the hostel I had a good chat with the reception guy/barman. He said I'm in a dorm with three others, all fun people who were already out and about. He told me where they were but I decided a sensible option was sleep and introductions tomorrow.
And so ends the longest day, so much apprehension and excitement... I'm underway!!!
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