Let the Adventure Begin!

First blog post of my 2012 Roatan Nursing adventure!!! How exciting?!?! So obviously I have officially landed safe and sound in Roatan, Honduras! It has been quite an adventure so far!

Quick background of my last week or so, for those who don’t know.. I was a bridesmaid in my friends Julie & Rynier Carpendale’s wedding on Saturday, then Sunday I rested/packed, Monday I travelled to Halifax to do the exam to complete the ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support.. random extra nursing course I thought would be fun to have on my resume..) course I took. Then Tuesday we began our trek to Honduras and over 24hrs later we landed in Roatan! So my last few days have been busy to say the least.. but I survived and I can rest a bit now that we are here!

Ok, first of all, this trip I have one of my good friends, Katelyn MacKenzie (who graduated nursing with me and we’ve been friends for years..) with me. We travelled down together and are staying in an apartment (and sharing a room) together. It’s been great to have a travel companion but things are a bit more complicated with two of everything.

 So we had brought 7 hockey bags full of donations, plus a personal suitcase each with us..  so 9 bags (crammed to capacity and all weighing in around the 50lbs maximum). We originally planned to take all the bags and the ticket agent at the Continental Airline desk in Halifax was very eager to help.. but unfortunately she couldn’t authorize any extra free luggage (so rules say $25 for your first bag and gets progressively more expensive.. like $150 for each bag after that..) Anyway, long story short after a little coaxing and smiling, she went above her boss’s authorized 2 free bags to give us 6 free bags, with the catch that we’d pay $150 for the rest.. then we decided to leave one bag home because it was too pricy.. so long story short, we paid $350 (with tax) and got 8 bags (some quite a bit over 50lbs.. which she graciously overlooked) checked straight thru to Honduras! We cleared US customs fairly easily and went on our way. We also had a significant amount of carry on luggage.. basically all the heavy stuff we took out of our overweight bags, we just moved to our backpacks and purses and laptop bags.. lol.  We were quite a sight for sure! :) Our flights were basically uneventful and we overnighted in Houston, TX last night (with the usual mix up over the shuttle etc). This morning we arrived back in Houston to go through security to be informed that we had WAY TOO MUCH carry on luggage.. go figure! She insisted that we’d have to consolidate or throw stuff away.. and man, this lady was like the Gestapo! Straight faced and she meant business! We did our best to consolidate but it seemed useless! My backpack was already busting at the seams.. we tried other lines, sneaking past and nothing worked, she kept finding us again and insisting. I was nearly on the brink of a meltdown but we just buckled down, took a few breaths and focused on the task at hand.. finding a way to consolidate our carry ons. We emptied our bags onto the floor and basically re-packed in the middle of the Houston airport! But man, we got it all in.. and it was crazy heavy & huge! I was like triple deep with my backpack on.. I kept knocking into people! (I weighed my backpack at 38lbs!!) plus a very large and oversized laptop case with everything you can imagine stuffed in it too!! So we prayed that this would be acceptable to the mean lady and she finally let us through!

That behind us, we had a nice flight to Roatan and landed safely this afternoon. Our baggage seemed uneventful, until a mean solider guy insisted they put it thru the scanners ( this didn’t happen last yr.. but I guess the government is trying to step up or something.. ) The customs man decided randomly to choose two bags to search and they happened to have a lot of donated medications in them.. long story short, they held the bags for over an hour as I tried to get them released.. then finally they ended up confiscating about two grocery bags full of meds out of them and finally giving them back to me. I’m sure that I’m on some kind of black list at the airport now.. but whatever! The rest of the bags were unscathed (medications in those were left undiscovered I guess) and I’m sure that Mr. Mean Customs guy is selling those meds on the black market as we speak! Ugh. But that is corruption for you.

Anyway, so after being slightly frazzled with the airport experience, Dee (clinic volunteer who picked us up) took us to the grocery store where I treated myself to a fresh donut and cold diet pepsi (out of diet coke L  ) which improved my mood 100%.  Now I’m unpacking and settling in but I’m most likely heading to bed very shortly because I’m wiped!

Can’t wait to update you all on my first day of clinic! Thanks to everyone, for following my blog and being so supportive throughout this journey! LET THE ADVENTURE BEGIN!