We left home at 0300 hours to get to Gatwick in time drop off the car and check in for our 0900 flight toTobago. Enroute I used the wonderful Virgin Atlantic app which showed me our flight was delayed until 1020am! b*****!! This was confirmed as we checked in our two 9kg bags, necessary for the internal flight in Guyana and the more sizeable 15kg bag for the rest of the trip to Trinidad,Tobago and Barbados. So after security we trotted off to the Virgin lounge for breakfast and a long wait ......which allowed a final flurry of emails, a massage and a facial -as a result the time fairly zipped by! We boarded and after one film, two meals and some much needed sleep we arrived in a very warm Tobago. Fortunately we were off the plane quickly and one of the first in the queue for the immigration line- we were glad we were not at the end of the line as it as it seemed to take an interminably long time. With bags collected we went to fine the Caribbean airlines check in for our flights to Trinidad and then to Georgetown Guyana. The check in attendant definitely was on a go slow and this did make it a testing process firstly she had to be convinced that both flights were with Caribbean airlines but then proceeded to print the baggage tags the wrong way round and after trying to improvise after advice from a supervisor reprinted the lot about 20mins later we left for the internal departure zone. The flight and plane were excellent - good leg room and luggage space for a small plane.
Trinidad was a bright airy airport lots of fast food outlets before departure - and we were now a tad peckish - 1800 local time but 2200 UK time - but we thought there must be something similar after the gate - wrong-- we went through security to the gate but found nothing - so we retreated to a very nice coffee lounge - its sign made it look like a Starbucks but on closer inspection it wasn't - we had a very welcome panini washed down with a latte and made our way back to the gate security and waited for our 2035 flight which actually left at 2020...early! Arrived in Guyana which the aircraft flight system and stewardess said was an additional 30 mins behind Trinidad so we re adjusted our watches. As we emerged from customs a welcome driver was holding a board with our names on it. Off we set for the 45-60 minute trip to Georgetown and our first night stop at Cara Lodge.
A quick shower and bed was the order of the day but we noted from the TV that the time seemed to be Trinidad time but dead tired we went to sleep knowing we would wake anyway in time for breakfast and 0815 briefing.