Monday, February 1, 2010

The Journey to Spring - January 31 - February 1

At about 4:30 p.m., we departed for Galesburg. After stopping for a light supper, we arrived at the Galesburg Amtrak station, picked up our tickets and departed on time at about 7:00 p.m. Thanks to our ear plugs, we were able to sleep for part of the trip. We arrived at Union Station at just about 10:00 p.m. and were soon met by our limousine, which quickly delivered us to Terminal 5 at O'Hare. When we checked in at about 10:30 p.m., we had our first surprise. After checking in our luggage, the ticket agent informed us that we had been upgraded to business class.

Our flight loaded at about 2:00 a.m. and we loaded just behind the infirm and found ourselves in row 2 of business class. We had extra large seats with lots of leg room. There were two seats on each side and only four rows of business class seating. Our flight left about 2:30 a.m. and we easily were able to get some sleep. At 4:00 a.m., we were served breakfast on real plates with real metal utensils. When we arrived at La Aurora airport in Guatemala City at 6:30 a.m., since we were on row 2, we exited the plane almost immediately. All in all, it was an excellent flight for which we had paid $100 (half of round trip), of which $43.50 was tax. Thus, the actual fare for this leg of our trip in business class was only $56.50 cents and there were no chickens on the plane.

Both immigration and customs went very smoothly, although the customs inspector seemed very interested in my small bag that was full of books and some computer equipment. After I opened it and let him examine it, he let it through. Outside the airport, we were quickly met by Jason, the driver sent to pick us up and deliver us to our apartment at La Casa de Los Tios outside Ciudad Vieja (about 4.5 miles from La Antigua). By 8:00 a.m., we had arrived and unloaded our luggage into our apartment. For us, Spring had arrived.