With my tan topped up, it is time to say a sad farewell to Cuba. I have loved it!! It seriously is a city trapped in time. The old buildings, that they are madly trying to restore before they fall down, and the old school cars that ride around the streets, it seriously gives an insight to what it would have been like to be here in the 50's. At times I'm a little surprised when I don't see gangsters in three piece suits, as that is the imagery that I get from this place!!
I can not encourage people enough to come to Cuba and experience what Havana has to offer. It is a safe and beautiful city. However I would not recommend you visit Cuba if you don't like old buildings, old cars, the heat or are easily offended by people whistling at you to get your attention.
So my ride to the airport was at 4.50am. Yep, back to early starts for me again! So I was up and ready, just checking my room for the last time when my phone rings. I hope good news is on the other end of this phone!! I pick up, and it's my driver, he's waiting for me in the lobby. Brilliant...15 min early. Although, I'm already really early, 4 hours in fact. However I was just glad he turned up. As I put my bags in the back of his Peugeot, the hotel security came out to make sure everything was legit. He was obviously just checking that the driver was ok, as I can guarantee he wasn't doing a safety inspection on the car... It was a fairly new car, however it looked like it had been cased by car thieves at least half a dozen times. There were parts missing, every time we went over a bump the headlights switched off, and the CD player kept skipping. Not normally a problem, but when you are tired it actually becomes irritating.
We arrive at the airport, which at one stage I actually thought was closed. It wasn't, they only had one door open. So I headed straight through that door and joined the line at COPA air. It was a slow old process as always. Finally it was my turn. So the guy starts processing my tickets, and looking at my passport. Then he starts shaking his head and tutting at me. What??? I have no idea, he asked me if I had already been to Brazil this year.... No. 'Well you got your visa in May this year and it is now expired, you have to use it within 90 days'. What the hell??? This guy has no idea. So I try to explain to him that the 90 days is the length of time I can stay in Brazil. He just replies, 'no I don't think so. I will have to take this to my supervisor'. Brilliant, I hope he knows what the deal is. 5 mins later the guy reappears.... He smiles and says 'you are lucky, it is ok. You don't have any restrictions on the visa', I just smiled and thanked him for checking, but in my head I'm really saying 'no s*** Sherlock'. Then after all that he said that he couldn't check me in yet as the flight isn't open. Ok.... Two hours until the flight and it's not open... I'll just go with it. So I decided to take a seat until the flight opened for check in. 10 mins later he calls me back over and it was open and all sorted. Now the waiting begins.
I was really feeling tired this morning. First stop pick up a Ciego montero cola. It is Cuba's own version of coke. Straight up. No light, double the sugar, double the caffeine... It's exactly what I need!!! Down the hatch.... I hope this is enough to keep me awake until I get on the plane.
I board the plane, and have a couple of younger girls sitting next to me. Again the flight closed early and we were ready for take off 10mins before our scheduled departure time. It was at this stage the musical chairs began. Everyone realised that the plane was only a quarter full, so people spread out claiming an entire row of seats to themselves. The two girls moved a row back leaving me an entire row of seats. Brilliant.
I settled in for a good flight. They started serving breakfast, and a man was eagerly trying to return to his seat after going to the toilet. However the service trolley was blocking him from getting back to his seat. So he asks his wife to send all of his bags back, and he plonks on down in my row of seats. Whhhhhhyyyyyyyy?!?!? He throws some of his bags on the chair next to me, and the rest on the floor next to me. He then starts giving the air hostesses a hard time.... What a demanding guy. I breath it out and try to recapture some zen. I did get my own revenge... Just as he was getting settled I got up to use the toilet. Then I returned. He was huffing and puffing... But he was the one that decided to sit there!!
The flight was great... No turbulence!! After 2.5 hrs we arrive at Panama airport, gate 15. It suddenly dawns on me, I'm leaving from gate 18, I don't need to go through security again. Woo hoo!! That's a first.
So with a 5 hr layover in Panama what am I going to do with myself??
First place I hit was the currency exchange.... Time to make things real... Hahahaha get it, Brazils currency is real. Ok totally lost on you!! I at least now have enough to see me through for a few days!!
Then I looked at the duty free. Case space is limited, so I can't really buy too much... So I made do with the essential... Nail polish!!
Then it was time to reconnect with the world, well my world anyway. I enjoyed 2 hrs of free wifi. I caught up with some friends old and new, and let my mum and dad know that I was alive and well, not bathing in an ice bath with one less kidney!!
Now what to do with the other two hours? I started by watching the fast approaching storm. Somehow I don't think I'm going to escape the turbulence on my afternoon flight to Manaus (Brazil). I think it might be a white knuckle special. I noticed quite a few more people praying at the airport chapel this afternoon.
Lunchtime must be over, as all of a sudden a whole heap of COPA planes arrived. The ground crews scurrying around in the rain below. The rain really started to fall quite heavily.
So with a couple of hours to kill, there was nothing left to do other than my favourite pastime - people watching.
So many interesting people at the airport. People animatedly chatting to others about where they have just been, or excitedly telling them about where they are about to go. That one American guy dressed in his Hawaiian shirt, making his way to Havana. That one young guy who bought an oversized hat, and now has the embarrassing task of wearing it all the way home as it won't fit in his luggage.
Or the lady that walks her poodle all the way up to the departure gate.
It came time for all of the captains and cabin crew to board their respective planes. There was one captain who whilst walking down the walkway tripped over his own feet. 'Please don't be flying my plane, please don't be flying my plane', oh s*** he's flying my plane!! This is no reason to be concerned right?? I mean do you really need to be able to walk in order to fly a plane?!?
So on the plane we get. I was sitting next to a hippy girl. Not bad, I can handle this. However the lady behind me was coughing up a lung. I noticed that the back 1/4 of the plane was empty, so as soon as that seatbelt light switched off I high tailed it to an empty row of seats. Argh, the bliss.
There aren't too many people flying today, I'm guessing that maybe the fact that it's September 11 has something to do with it.
The flight was pretty boring, as there was no inflight entertainment system. Boring (insert yawn here). All I could hear was an infant crying, an old man snoring, and lots of Spanish yabbering. And I can't forget about the snorting. Please people, just my public announcement, if you are going to get on a flight, buy a hanky or some tissues, even use a sleeve.
Can you tell that I'm tired and easily irritable. Maybe a glass of wine with dinner will help?
Well, the one downfall of moving to the back of the plane is it narrows your food choices for dinner. It was either the chicken chow mien, or the chicken chow mien. Hmmm it's a tough one, but I think I will take the chicken chow mien. I'm glad that was my only choice. The beef option looked gross. Grey minced meat with a few peas and carrots. Yuk!! The chicken wasn't too bad, so I'm happy with my forced decision!! The wine did help, so did the cup of aeroplane coffee!!! Ding.... I'm feeling human again!!!
The flight was pretty good. As expected a bit of turbulence, but totally manageable!!! It soon turned to darkness outside and before I knew it I saw the glistering lights of Manaus below. The captain turned the cabin lights off, which made the orange and white lights pop even more. Manaus is much larger than what I thought. Here I was thinking that this city was only going to be a handful of blocks, well I was completely wrong. Apparently 2million people live in Manaus, so it's a sizeable city.
We land and all scamper off the plane. We play follow the leader through the airport until we arrive at immigration. One line for foreigners, and two lines for national citizens. So the nationals were being pumped through immigration at great knots. However our line was running pretty slow. One by one us tourists are lined up for the firing squad. This dude was scary.... And I hadn't even seen him yet. When I arrived at the line I could hear some poor American tourist being hammered with questions 'so have you been here before' ' well which is it, yes or no'. She just laughed and giggled and finally he let her go. Next victim. Eventually it was Hippy's turn. Man was he ripping her a new one. It was all in Spanish, but I knew that the conversation was not good. The look on my face must have been priceless.... I was cringing, with my jaw dropped below my knee caps, I was almost ready to start crying, and it wasn't even me. Oh my god, how am I going to get through Brazil immigration, without sweating, crying or pooing myself or all three?? Then a miracle happened... The national line finished.... So we could head to the national booths.... THANK GOD!!! So I walked up thinking, here we go.... My guy just scanned my passport, stamped my passport, stamped my immigration forms and let me go. I massively dodged a bullet there!!
I collected my bag, which some how made its way to Manaus without being lost or delayed, and again fully intact.
I wheeled my case to customs, which meant that you had to pass by immigration again. The poor hippy girl was still being yelled at. I felt so terrible for her!!!
Customs flagged me straight through, and I walked out to general pub. I found my driver and we took off in a van. We drove past the World Cup stadium which was pretty cool, and finally I arrived at my hotel for tonight!! I can't wait to curl up and go to sleep now!!!