Night Flight

I have embarked once more for the wilds of Bonaire to visit my parents. This trip has been in the works for a while, I bought my ticket about six months ago, before I knew my company would be gutting my department and that I wouldn’t have a job to come back to. It feels a bit strange to be spending my unemployment waiting week in the tropics, but I’m told it’s very common and that I should also be dining on lobster and champagne.

I left Seattle around 10:30 PM on Monday, and Pokemon Go reminded me it was late. 

I was lucky enough that both of my flights had an empty seat next to me, and were as comfortable as it is possible to be in Cattle class so I was hopeful that I’d get some sleep on the way. Both planes were otherwise full. I’ve never gone to Bonaire at this time of year before, apparently it is high season because people are escaping winter. As a result, the median age on the plane seemed to be about 75. When I’ve been here before in the off seasons, its been mostly people in their 20s-30s here to dive/kite-board/windsurf. It was odd to be one of the younger people on the plane.

About 3 hours into my flight to Miami, a woman 3 rows ahead of me had a medical emergency. She stood up a few times and kept falling flat on her face in the middle of the aisle. This of course brought most of the flight attendants to flutter around her, which spilled into my aisle seat. Meanwhile the head flight attendant went to tell the pilot and look for a doctor. As I watched him on the phone to the cockpit I was pretty sure we were going to be diverted. As I sometimes have nightmares about a Hawaiian Air flight I was on to Germany that was diverted to Niagara Falls through a major thunderstorm, the whole thing wasn’t conducive to sleep.

The couple in front of me seemed to have a ghoulish interest in what was happening, so listening to them let me know that the patient had fainted and it may have been due to blood sugar or a medication. The patient was allowed to stretch out on the aisle floor to sleep, with a flight attendendent at her head and feet. Naturally this made the aisle around me impassable. Thank goodness I have a strong bladder.

I landed Tuesday Morning in Miami. All of the food places near my gate had huge lines, so I just wound up playing Pokemon Go and waiting 3 hours for my flight to Bonaire to board. The highlights of my visit were talking to a friend who lives in Miami but couldn't get in the airport to visit and learning that the Miami airport is really just a giant shopping maul from the 1980s.

 

The flight to Bonaire from Miami is fairly boring because it is mostly just the blues of sky and sea competing against each other. I was again in a Twilight zone seat, but I got a few pictures. 

The landing is a bit crazy, as the runway nearly dead ends into the sea. It always scares me a bit when we land. 

Planes here land on the tarmac, then roll up a staircase at each end of the plane for you to drag your carry-ons down. (No hop-ons). There is then a bit of a walk, and a queue for immigration/taxes. All of this is done in the 81F/27C unrelenting sun and 20MPH wind outside. Shade doesn’t happen until you’ve entered the building for baggage claim, and there are no real windbreaks.

Bonaire has instituted a $75 tourist tax for anyone coming to the island. It can be paid a week in advance through the interweb, which provides you with a QR code to show to the tax people when you land. Many of the olds flying with me had paid in advance, but they couldn't figure out how to deal with the resulting code. As the youngest person most of them could see, I was somehow nominated as tech support for a bunch of people who couldn’t get their phones to work.

I hadn’t slept all night, I was in the sun and wind, dressed for February freeze in Seattle, and I was swarmed with seniors. One of the tax collectors finally came to scan my QR code, and I handed off my tech support position to her as I jumped in line for immigration. We were told that they normally have 4 immigration officers, but they were out sick so there was only one. I’m pretty sure I got a sunburn before I got to baggage claim.

I breezed through customs and to my parents and the coca-cola and ice they had waiting for me. It was about 3PM Bonaire time, so on arriving at the house I immediately jumped in the pool, which felt amazing after overheating on the tarmac.

After my swim I grabbed a few pics of the ocean, attended a somewhat subdued happy hour, and dinner, and finally got in bed. Of course, since it was only 4PM to my body, sleep wasn't my friend and I wound up staying up to read two books.