Our Saturday started at 5 a.m. in order to be to the airport by 6 a.m. for our 6:30 flight. So there we sat in the "terminal". At 6:15 a nice man showed up to 'check us in' - which consisted of him, us, the tarmac and clipboard. We had heard lots of horror stories about the lack of air travel schedule on the island so we were really hoping ours would be different. As 6:30 came and went with no plane we had started to be very concerned. This check-in guy received a phone call saying that the plane was still on the ground on the mainland with a "problem but they weren't sure what." I was already nervous about taking a "chicken flight" in this country and this is not what I needed to quell my fears. As compensation the airline told them to take the five of us on this flight out to breakfast until they could get it fixed. They claimed we would take off at 8:30. Most importantly we were concerned about our flight on the mainland to catch to get back to Atlanta. Our only other option to make that flight would be to catch the ferry to the mainland at 9 a.m. and drive like hell to the next airport. At 9:05 still on the tarmac Tony and I had the conversation of "Um yeah, so there goes the ferry and we're still here at the faux airport". This could get interesting.
Finally about 9:45 our plane arrived...and suddenly I wished teleportation was an option. I don't necessarily like flying and that's magnified in regard to small planes.
Where's the nitro pills because there was a heart attack in my future. Tony's great idea was to sit in the front seat for the better view. Ha! This was my position in relation to the pilot. Gulp. The window was OPEN as we taxied down the runway to take off. People who don't necessarily like to fly in small planes really shouldn't sit in the front seat.
I will admit that the view was pretty cool and this was the part of the island where we stayed. It was great to see the island and the dive sites from the air. I was ok until we hit open ocean - then the smallness of the plane nearly killed me. I'm going to stick to 747's from here on out.
We made it back in one piece and have a hell of an adventure under our belts. I love to travel and am thrilled that I found a great guy who likes adventure as much as I do. I will always recommend stepping outside of your comfort zone and experiencing another culture whenever you can. It was kind of crazy but I wouldn't trade it for anything... except next time, I'll take a bigger can of bug spray. :)
Give me a shout if you're headed to Utila, we've got lots of recommendations!
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