Day 15 -- Return back from Guadeloupe
Saturday 3/6/2004
From: Vernou, Guadeloupe
To: Merrimack, New Hampshire
Total travel time: About 11 hours, door-to-door (including airport security, etc.)
We got up early this morning to pack our things and get ready for the airport. The weather was very nice. A few things were still wet from yesterday and had to be hung up in the sun to dry (and save us weight). We ate breakfast with Bengt and Lotta around 9 o'clock, after Bengt had gone down to the bakery to get some fresh bread. We did not have excessive volumes of food in our fridges this year, but we still had to throw away a large amount. Some of the dry things we left for Jean-Jacques. A bit later in the morning, Jean-Jacques came by and said good-bye. He told us there was no hurry to get out of the bungalows as he had no customers coming this afternoon. This made for a more relaxing morning.
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| Flowers at the bungalow |
Our plane would leave for San Juan by 2:55PM while Bengt's plane did not leave for Paris until after 6PM. He agreed to help drive us and some of our luggage down to the airport. The cars we are renting do not have a lot of room. He had to fold his seat to fit all the things we needed to get loaded up. He also took a few of his bags, with the plan that he would leave some of them at the car rental place, allowing him to fit his family and the rest of the luggage in the next run. The kids prepared sandwiches for us that we could eat for a late lunch at the airport. Like the last time, we ended up making fois gras sandwiches, which are quite nice! We loaded up on yoghurts and other things too. Lilli prepared a pina-colada for the road. She dumped a bit of rum into a pina-colada juice container.
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| The big squeeze: Our rental car -- Opel Astra. 5 people plus all luggage .. NOT |
I kept dragging my heals for the change into jeans. I've been walking in bathing suits for two weeks now. With a comfortable 30C (86F) every day, who'd do anything else? We left the bungalows at noon, which gave us three hours to get to the airport (plenty of time). We bought some gas on our way, where I joked with the gas station attendant about "snow tomorrow". We then made a quick pit stop at Carrefour, where Lilli wanted to pick up a pair of pants that Isabella had been looking at last time we were there. We then headed down to the airport. After we had unloaded all the luggage, Bengt and I each took one car and headed to the car rental place in Jarry. We got there just after 1PM. To my great surprise, the car rental place (Pro-rent) were closed. We scratched our heads a bit, since this screwed up our plans. Finally, we moved Bengt's luggage over into my car and left it there, locked. This left us with one more problem: how to get Bengt to the airport once he returned his car. We went over to a restaurant, just 100m up the street from Pro-Rent, where I asked to borrow a phone. I called the Pro-rent number but got an answering machine. A man working in the restaurant offered to help. He walked down with me to the rental place, armed with his cell phone, and we called the 24hr number listed on the wall by the rental place. We managed to get in touch with someone, who agreed to come and pick up Bengt at 3PM. I thanked the man from the restaurant, and then headed off with Bengt to the airport (since there was no shuttle to be had). Bengt left the airport at about 1:30PM, with less time than he had expected, to get back home and then down again. [At the time of this writing I have heard Bengt and Lotta returned to Sweden without problems, but they had to skip the Carrefour visit due to lack of time].
One of the nice things with the airport in Guadeloupe is that it is very quiet, at least when we've come there on Saturdays in the past. It was no difference this time. Lilli had already checked in by the time I got back. We sat down for a while and ate a snack. We had to be searched before we were allowed to board the American Airlines plane. Both using a metal detector and a search of our backpacks. But I must admit that the backpack search was spotty at best. They did not take the time to go through things. The ride over to Puerto Rico was without any events. We all got our assigned seats (unlike coming down) and everyone also got their drinks/snacks!
In Puerto Rico we have to do US Immigration and a check of our luggage. No lines at Immigration. But I fumbled a bit with our passports and managed to pick out Karl's Swedish and US passport, but not Lilli's passport. The officer first greeted Karl because he had an American passport. Next he pointed out that one passport was missing. After some putzing around, I got Lilli's passport out. In the end, however, I still had two of Karl's passports out. Perhaps forgetting this, the Immigration officer then greeted Karl again and stamped his Swedish passport. We rushed off to get our bags picked up. It looks like a regular luggage pickup area, where you pick up your bags, go through customs, and then check them back again again on the other side. Here you need a few dollars to "rent" carts to push your luggage around. As I had crossed in "YES" on the US Customs form, regarding food, we ended up being stopped for a while. I explained we had bought Yoghurt and a few other things like jam. I offered to open things up, but the officer said it was not needed. We were shortly on our way again, walking towards the gate where our plane for Boston left. As with many bigger US airports, there are terminals dedicated to specific airlines, in this case American. This makes it very convenient. We had to get through a major security check before we could get into the terminal area. And that was very different from the relaxed one in Guadeloupe. We even had to take our shoes off here and run them through the X-ray machine.
We had a little bit of time at the gate. Lilli ate her sandwich and sipped a bit from her disguised pina-colada drink container. The seating area was full of people. Erik asked, somewhat loudly, if he could have a sip. Lilli said not. Erik asked why and Lilli tried to hush him. Erik asked, is it because there is wine in there? It was very embarrassing. Next time, perhaps we should put a clear sticker on it: MOM HAS BOOZE IN THIS CONTAINER! The ride home was without any events. We rode a bigger Airbus 300 jet. We were a bit delayed at the gate because a mechanic at the airport had forgotten to return the log-book into the plane (a required item for departure). So we sat at the gate, waiting for the airline to locate their mechanic so the log-book could be returned to the plane. We heard it was 59F (~14C) at home. It was actually only 44F (~7C) when we got to Boston, around 9:45PM.
While everyone else took care of getting our bags, I took the shuttle over to the parking area. I was afraid that the car's front seat would be all wet due to the warm weather and possible rain, as I has a leak in the windshield fitting above the driver's side. It was nice and dry, oh yea. It started immediately, with a plume of blue smoke. Can't complain about that! 180K miles. Did not even lock the doors. It cost me 15 days of parking ($173) for this, about 30% of what the car is worth. On my way back from the parking area in Chelsea I made a U-turn and tagged along behind a shuttle van, as I knew it took all the short-cuts to the airport. We managed to load everything up in the car without hassle. We could not see any snow on our drive home, except for big banks that had been built up by plow trucks. Everything was in order when we got home. My friend John Dustin had left me a note, welcoming me back to the "mud season". And "mud season" it was. We had virtually no snow left, but it would snow overnight. The marsh below behind the house seemed like it had regained some water since we left; the beaver dam broke about one month ago, draining the entire marsh completely. This bodes well for the spring. We spent a little bit of time to unpack. Nothing had broken, except that we'd had a container of soy sauce in the cooler with a cap that was not turned on. After unpacking for a little while, I sat down in front of the TV to watch the news. Without TV at the Bungalow in Guadeloupe, you get kind of information starved.
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| Back at our house in Merrimack -- better put some sun-tan lotion on! |
As I write this I do it with a bit of pain. I have some sort of allergic reaction on my fingers. I picked it up a few days ago, perhaps in Gosier. I might have touched some corrals when I snorkeled. It hurts my finger tips. It is like blisters that do not want to come out. Either way, it is good to be back home again.
THE END.
{Lilli> I also got a mild version of blisters on Wednesday after we got home. Maybe I touched something while unpacking. About the cell phone not getting a signal. I called T-mobile and we need to change the band frequency on our GSM worldphone from 1900MHz to 900/1800 in order to get it work outside US/Canada. Last comment next time we go scuba diving, we need to make sure we clean our ears. In order to avoid problems with equalizing the pressure.}