Late Friday night my son took me to the best airport in the DR, STI, (Santiago International). A clean, well, run facility.
I was the one of the first three folks to arrive and had time to get the forms filled out (curiously, the are over by the entrance to Immigration, but they are there--a customs declaration and an international Embarkation/Debarkation form--so the time was not wasted. Also a bunch of former students welcomed me to the airport with yells of "Ehh, Profe!!" so I had someone to talk to..
Check in was a breeze but yet another wait for Immigration to open up. And YES VIRGINIA, they do have people to collect your money if you overstayed your visa......, not that that was an issue for this old hound.
The neat, very cool waiting room needs for its clients to have at least a light sweater...HB, being the well versed traveller, had a sweatshirt and his neck donut...so he pushed some of the seating over to a pillar and snuggled up and went to sleep, loudspeakers and all.
An hour or so later, I came to and realized it was almost time to board. Uh Oh..no, the flight was delayed..Sor we waited for an hour more before boarding and all in all ended up getting to FFL at around 5:40-5:45 a.m.
This was bad, because it meant that three flights arrived at the same time!! So immigration was a total cluster fu#k, as the saying goes. An hour later we got down to the baggage claim area and really had to look for my solitary bag. Eventually I found it..and daughter, bless her heart was waiting.
45 minutes later we were home and having breakfast.
All told, for $240 r/t it was worth it!! None of the hassles or delays were the airline's fault..and sheesh! at that price why bother to complain...I flew in one of the big leather seats in total comfort. When I boarded, I asked the flight attendant to give the the forms for landing since I wanted to sleep. I got them and the last thing I remember was taxiing out to take off...ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Typical Reverse Culture Shock. D@mn highway so big. All the lights!! Traffic lights, ahh the lights....
Walmart, Target! The Park with golf, f?tbol and 6 baseball fields with lights!!!
And that was just the first day.
Happy May Day to you all, enjoy the holiday tomorrow.
HB
I was the one of the first three folks to arrive and had time to get the forms filled out (curiously, the are over by the entrance to Immigration, but they are there--a customs declaration and an international Embarkation/Debarkation form--so the time was not wasted. Also a bunch of former students welcomed me to the airport with yells of "Ehh, Profe!!" so I had someone to talk to..
Check in was a breeze but yet another wait for Immigration to open up. And YES VIRGINIA, they do have people to collect your money if you overstayed your visa......, not that that was an issue for this old hound.
The neat, very cool waiting room needs for its clients to have at least a light sweater...HB, being the well versed traveller, had a sweatshirt and his neck donut...so he pushed some of the seating over to a pillar and snuggled up and went to sleep, loudspeakers and all.
An hour or so later, I came to and realized it was almost time to board. Uh Oh..no, the flight was delayed..Sor we waited for an hour more before boarding and all in all ended up getting to FFL at around 5:40-5:45 a.m.
This was bad, because it meant that three flights arrived at the same time!! So immigration was a total cluster fu#k, as the saying goes. An hour later we got down to the baggage claim area and really had to look for my solitary bag. Eventually I found it..and daughter, bless her heart was waiting.
45 minutes later we were home and having breakfast.
All told, for $240 r/t it was worth it!! None of the hassles or delays were the airline's fault..and sheesh! at that price why bother to complain...I flew in one of the big leather seats in total comfort. When I boarded, I asked the flight attendant to give the the forms for landing since I wanted to sleep. I got them and the last thing I remember was taxiing out to take off...ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Typical Reverse Culture Shock. D@mn highway so big. All the lights!! Traffic lights, ahh the lights....
Walmart, Target! The Park with golf, f?tbol and 6 baseball fields with lights!!!
And that was just the first day.
Happy May Day to you all, enjoy the holiday tomorrow.
HB
