A few good notes

In Barbados we had to wait a couple of hours for our connecting flight. This gave us the opportunity to check out the very nice looking waiting area of the airport. I made sure we got a nice souvenir: a bobbing head turtle.

Our connecting flight was delayed with half an hour. When we were to the gate, the plane was just arriving, so we had to wait. Other than that this leg of the trip was smooth sailing (or flying).

Right after take-off we could see the shores of Barbados from a couple of thousand feet up: a breath taking sight. It is hard to explain the feeling you get when you see the turquoise and blue waters moving in small foamy lines to the yellowish sandy beaches with your own eyes. Unfortunately the skies were a little cloudy on the other side of the island, so I couldn’t see what it looked like there.

Here and there it looked like the ocean had stretch marks. The closer we came to St Vincent and the lower we were flying, the more these stretch marks started to look like rivers within the ocean, with a number of branches. I assume it may have something to do with fresh and salt water, but I’m not sure. Also, the closer we got to land, the more greenish spots became visible in the water.

Approach

As we came closer to our destination, “the Grenadines” became visible. These islands are governed together with St. Vincent. It is said that these islands also have a lot of great places to visit.

As we land, I could see some nice spots right before the runway. I could even see people scuba diving. This is one of the spots I really would like to visit.

We are there!

The landing itself was nice and smooth. We checked out without problems and were transported to our hotel. More about the hotel in future posts.

For this leg of the journey, Liat get a 7.5, losing half a point because of the short delay.

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Transportation to the Cheddi Jagan International Airport of Guyana arrived around 4:30 AM. En route we picked up her coworkers who were part of the team to go on this journey.

Check in went without problems. We were sitting in the waiting area within no time. My friend Nick, who was going to Antigua via Barbados with Caribbean Airlines was still waiting for his flight. He left a little earlier than we did.

Departure from Guyana

Our flight to Barbados, in one of Liat’s Dash 8’s left a couple of minutes later than was planned. I personally prefer flying in this smaller propeller plane for these distances rather than with larger aircraft. I like the bumpy rides: you really feel that something is happening.

En route to Barbados

There was some bad weather in Guyana when we left. Because of this weather, the pilot had to fly slightly to the right of the plotted course and 4000 feet higher, to avoid flying in dangerous clouds. So the first 15 to 25 minutes into the flight left nothing much to see outside. It was all white (and some light shades of gray). Clouds on the left, clouds on the right, clouds everywhere.

When this bad weather was behind us, there was still not very much to see: a nice morning sky with a lot of blue water below. So now and then you could see a ship. Still, the 110 minutes went by fairly quickly. Before you knew it, we were approaching Barbados. We landed right on time, that is, the scheduled time. The flight was 10 minutes shorter than was scheduled.

In contrast to what I’ve been hearing about Liat, I enjoyed the flight. For this leg of the trip I give them 8 points.

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For work, Barbara needs to be in St Vincent for 2 weeks. We decided that I will go with her. Her trip is being paid for by Caricom, so we only had to make arrangements for me. That makes it a lot cheaper to travel.

While she’s working, I will have time to check out the scenery. Then, after she’s done working we can do that together.

We will be flying with Liat. Some of my friends had some bad experiences with this airline. According to them, Liat often has delays. There were even times when people would go to the airport with their tickets in hand, only to learn that there is no space on the plane, so they had to go with the next flight. I just hope we don’t have the same kind of trouble.

This will be my first time visiting a Caribbean Island. I’ve seen these islands in pictures, movies etc, but I do believe that the personal experience is far different. We’ll see.

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Since I moved, there is a lot that’s been happening.

My wife Barbara and I stayed in a aparthotel for almost 2 months, waiting for our house to become vacant. We finally moved in our house last month.

Since September, I’ve been making new friends, getting to know Georgetown, getting settled in and finishing some existing work. Since most of it is not very fresh in my mind right now, I’ll skip the details and start writing my new posts about the present.

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