My time in Latin America is slowly coming to an end. My initial plan was to do some final tours around the islands of Bocas del Toro and then get a night bus from Bocas to Panama city on Friday and then a flight to Miami on Saturday. I was lucky and found a couch surfer host that invited my to party with his friends on Saturday. Sounds like a perfect plan.
However, I underestimated the capacity of the local services. All boat tours from all agencies were either booked out or canceled (due to low demand!). All night busses to Panama City (private and public) were full for Friday night and Saturday morning. My flight to Miami was Saturday night though and I couldn´t change it because neither the airline nor my travel agency was open during the weekend (I made dozens of phone calls). In the end I ended up flying from Bocas to Panama. Even that proved to be very tight with timing since the plane made an intermediate stop in some little town 30km!!!! next to Bocas del Toro. I had to switch airports in Panama city. Luckily some Austrian traveling introduced me to their crazy ass taxi driver friend. He got me to the Airport for just a fraction of the normal prize and his elaborate VIP-chauffeur stories made the 1h drive very short (true or not, I didn´t care).
thanks Will for your hospitality
very convenient, my accommodation was just next to the Bocas Airport (there are so few flights that the noise is really no issue)
my taxi drivers recommendation. That's were the airport staff gets their hot dogs. A good culinary preparation to the United States :D
It actually tasted fantastic
OK, I got to the airport so everything should be fine now. I had triple checked that the dates on my ticket were correct this time. Unfortunately that was not true for the ticket in THEIR SYSTEM. The agent at the check-in counter fiddled around his computer for about 20 minutes and then talked to his supervisor. Conclusion, my agency had changed the flight to the current date but Thai Airways (who manages my AroundTheWorld Ticket didn´t change the booking in their system. According to the airport staff, they would not be able or even allowed to assign my booking to the flight today. Their comment: I should call my travel agency. Another check-in counter gave me the same answer. That was 9PM in Panama, 3AM in Germany. I and I knew that my cousin (who booked the ticket) was on vacation god knows were.
I felt very guilty but since I didn´t know what to do I called my travel agent anyways. She was far from being amused due to my late night call. Her comment, she cant do anything about it until next week and I should make some trouble at the counter so they change my booking, which according to her shouldn't be any problem.
Well, back to the counter again. This time I picked the one that looked like the most professional. She looked at my booking, asked if I recently changed my dates (yeah, a week ago) and without making any other comment she started hacking her keyboard until she gave me my boarding pass. So it WAS DEFINITIVELY possible to correct the booking! Why does it need to be so complicated all the times?
Around The World Ticket? Never again!
So I got on the plane to Miami. What I had not taken into account when I changed my flight was the arrival time. I thought Panama Miami is very close. However, including all delays I arrived in Miami Airport at 3AM. Probably the most inconvenient time to meet my host Ian. Anyways I got an Uber to downtown (god bless Uber America, 3$ for an airport transfer, they charge 30$ in Panama.
My host told me to call him once I arrived at this apartment building. So I did. Only problem, he had fallen asleep. Combined efforts of me (WhatsApp call) and the receptionists (in-house phone) managed to wake him up. However, when I got up to the right floor and knocked on the door: nobody opened.
However, the door was open, so I ended up just entering the flat, found my host deep asleep in his bed and an unprepared couch. It felt like an intruder. When I started preparing my couch (I got a sleeping bag), he finally woke up to say hi. That made me feel a hell lot more comfortable :P
So this was my trip Bocas de Toro – Miami Downtown. I hope it goes a bit more smoothly from now on.
No comments:
Post a Comment