March 18- the Long Trek Home

All four of us were down in the lobby early and Williams joined us right on time at 3:30 AM.  The streets, he said, had the lightest traffic he’d ever seen and we made it to the airport in record time.  The lines were long but he led us to the “special needs” desk because two of the women were 80 years old.  I hate to pull the Senior Citizen card, but if it improves my chances of getting to the plane on time…. After hugging our guide and saying heartfelt goodbyes, we enjoyed some coffee from an airside shop and a takeout breakfast supplied by the hotel (yes, they think of everything). 

I started to breathe a little easier when we took off for Santa Cruz on time.  One interesting aspect was the very long runway at La Paz- apparently it takes far longer to get the engines running fast enough to take off because of the lack of oxygen at that altitude. 

The flight to Miami was another story.  Boarding, in theory, was at 7 AM and takeoff at 8 AM.   We had to have our bags X-rayed and have Passport Control check our documents even though we’d been through the process at La Paz.  My metal fork (which I take because I like to pick up some meals at grocery stores and want to avoid single-use plastic cutlery) was confiscated.  They let me keep the spoon. They boarded 5 wheel chair passengers at 7:45.  They hand-checked every carry-on bag of every passenger.  Wheels-up was at 9 AM.  I got tears in my eyes.  I was going home.  I’d pictured my departure as the final scene from “The Year of Living Dangerously”, with the giant airliner with "Koninklijke Luchtvaarte Maatschappij" (KLM) looming in the background as the main characters leave Indonesia but the jetway, the bag searches and the constant checking of documents put a damper on that.  I still felt a similar sense of relief.

Inexplicably, I was in the middle seat of a 2-3-2 configuration even though the aisle and window seats to the left were both empty.  As soon as the doors closed I claimed the window seat and ended up having both seats to myself.  While the seats on the 767-300 weren’t bad and had more legroom than many US airlines’ Coach seats, what I really missed was a real-time video display of where we were.  The in-flight magazine didn’t even contain route maps.  It was mostly glossy articles on expensive places to eat and expensive things to buy- more of a revenue stream than real information.

Snack about an hour after takeoff.  I asked for "black coffee"- they added so much sugar it made my teeth hurt.

Lunch

We landed 20 minutes late- not bad for an hour-late departure, but airlines do pad their flying times.  Immigration at Miami was far faster than I feared possibly because international travel was down in general and we weren’t subject to health screening because we hadn’t come from a high-risk area. 

After some bewildering wandering around. I found the concourse I needed, checked in, and paid an exorbitant $35 to check one bag.  I felt bad for one guy whose gigantic bag was going to subject him to overweight charges even after he’d removed a giant load of clothes into a clear, garage-bag sized plastic bag supplied by United.  I had to use the bathroom, I really needed water and I was hungry- but first. The TSA.  Fortunately I got through with an hour before boarding time.  My “dinner” cost more than any of the excellent meals we’d had in Bolivia complete with good Bolivian wine.  The gate area was strangely sparsely populated and there were empty seats on this plane, too.  I had an aisle with an empty middle seat and was very glad I hadn’t paid to choose a better seat.

Passage through Passport Control at Miami, which I expected to be a nightmare, was pretty smooth.  There was no health screening because we hadn't come from a high-risk area, and air traffic in general may have been down.  The remainder of the trip was uneventful- connection in Houston, on-time departure to Kansas City, back in my house slightly after midnight.

I DO have every intention of returning and completing the rest of the tour.  Next year!