The time is 8:51 p.m. Friday night, June 29. Some friends have just left our house in Mesilla, having wished us a good trip. My boyfriend, Tony, and I are merrily packing our huge backpacks for our trip and battling over whose choice would triumph as our packing anthem; his choice was an old "Bevis and Butthead" episode randomly on TV, mine was a Jill Scott CD. And then....my phone rings.
Through the dodgy cell phone reception often found in Mesilla, an automated voice asks that I stay on the line for information on my flight, which at that point was set to leave in just under 12 hours.
Our flights from El Paso to Miami, due to leave at 8:30 a.m. June 30, had been cancelled. Weather problems and thunderstorms in Houston, I would find out later.
My mood and patience instantly plummeted as the stellar airline customer service agent remorselessly told me, yes, my flight was cancelled, but they had booked us on a flight leaving El Paso for Miami on Sunday. The rub (as if we needed another)? The new flight would land us in Miami at 7:30 p.m. ... seven-and-a-half hours AFTER our flight to Guatemala City was scheduled to leave...yet nothing had been done about that, because that flight hadn't been cancelled, yet. Outstanding.
So, to save you all from detailed accounts of the web of phone calls with step-fathers and friends and a longer story altogether, I angrily hung up on this customer representative who seemingly lacked both compassion and common sense and chose to play the lottery, call back and see who else I could get on the line. Try number two yielded me a bubbly -- if not morbidly chatty -- customer rep. who found us a new flight that would get us into Miami by 10.40 p.m. Saturday and would still allow us our already reserved hotel stay in Miami and our seats on our flight to Guatemala City. Emotionally spent for the night, Tony and I ditched our packing efforts and went to a $2 showing of "Blades of Glory" (review: one-and-three-quarters thumbs up). In the car, I explained the situation to my friend Stephanie, with whom we were planning on meeting up on our Miami flight to Guatemala City, as she will be joining us for the first two weeks of our Guatemalan immersion. We vowed only to do what we could do...to keep each 0ther posted on what was going on.
All said, the night ended with fingers crossed by all that our new itinerary would hold and the removal of 5 a.m. from our alarm clock.
Wish us luck; hopefully, we fly out in 4 hours!
Where the deuce is Quetzaltenango, Guatemala?
Quetzaltenango is also called "Xela," said "Sheh-la," for it's original name, "Xe laju' noj" which means "under 10 mountains."
Guatemala's bandera (flag)
The flag’s two blue stripes on either side of the white one represent Guatemala’s being flanked by two oceans; the Pacific and the Atlantic. The white, therefore stands for the land, and also the purity of the country’s values and peace. The crossed rifles on the coat of arms indicate that Guatemala will fight to defend itself if need be, but are countered by the olive branches, which represent the preferred notion of peace.
No comments:
Post a Comment