I suppose I should finish up The Belize Chronicles so I can move onto writing about something else.
J, Molly and I left on Wednesday. The hotel guys picked us up I think at 8am so we could catch the 8:30 boat back to the mainland, and get on our 1pm flight home. When they arrived at our house, the first thing they said was that the 8.30 boat was cancelled due to a storm and we’d have to take the 11am. I, of course, began freaking out. Jennifer saw the driver smiling, and figured out it was a joke. Very funny.
So we said goodbye to the island, and took the boat back to Belize City. When we were checking in for our flight, we saw signs posted saying our flight was delayed for 2 hours! We had a long layover in Charlotte, but we weren’t sure if it would be long enough. I think the lady checking us in felt bad for us, because for some reason we didn’t have to pay the $35 fee to leave the country.
We waited in the restaurant upstairs until our flight was boarding. Sadly, we got on the plane. Also nervous as to whether we would make our connecting flight.
We landed in Charlotte with what we thought was just enough time to catch our connection. But the freaking door of the plane wouldn’t open! Everyone was getting testy at this point, but we finally got off the plane. Then we had to get our bags, go through Customs, and recheck them. This didn’t take that long, and all three of our bags were rechecked at the same time — an important note.
For some stupid reason we had to go back through security — why? Is this standard practice, or did they just not trust the security in Belize? Not that I blame them, but still.
Anyway, the gate on our boarding pass said D, so we started flat out running for the D terminal. People were very nice, making way for the 3 crazy girls running breathlessly through the airport. We got to our gate and realized: There had been a gate change!! I had thought of checking the gate on the monitor after we went through security, but didn’t bother. Stupid. Our plane was in the C terminal. So we start booking it back toward C. At one point my backpack flew open and stuff started falling out. I thought I found everything and shoved it back in, but my book was somehow lost. I hope someone found it interesting!
We are the last people to show up for the plane at the C gate, barely making it before they closed the doors. Panting, we boarded the plane.
It’s not over yet.
We didn’t have time to eat or go to the bathroom in Charlotte, and the flight from Charlotte to Reagan is so short we never had a chance to use the plane bathroom. So after landing at Reagan, I set out in search of the facilities. They were ALL closed for cleaning! ALL of them! I almost went into the men’s bathroom until Jennifer pointed out the handicapped one I could use. Thank God.
It took over an HOUR for our bags to make it to the baggage claim. AN HOUR! The airport is so freaking small I don’t know how that happened. And of course: They lost my bag! We re-checked them all together, and mine got lost. Perfect.
It ended alright – my bag was delivered to my home sometime during the night.
But that was the end of our trip.
