Travel Day Arriving in Placencia

It took us all day to get here and had a few OMG moments along the way but we finally made it !

Our flight from Portland left on time @ 6am and we met up with Jason, Jennie and little Nathan (2yrs) in Dallas as scheduled.  Our flight from Dallas to Belize City was late getting off the ground so we landed in Belize City @ 4:15pm (original scheduled landing was for 3:35pm) and our puddle jumper to Placencia was scheduled for a 5:00pm departure. 

Of course, miss travel agent that I am, immediately panicked (not a pretty sight after 9hrs of flying !).  I called Maya Island Air to ask if there were any later flights to Placencia since it didn't appear we would make it for the 5pm flight considering there were 100 passengers ahead of us trying to get off the plane and then we had to go through immigration, claim our luggage and then customs.  Henry (we got to a 1st name basis after several panic calls), told me there were no later flight because they couldn't fly at night (no lights on the runway) so we might have to fly Sunday.

We finally made it off the plane at 4:30 pm and then faced a line at immigration.  I approached one of the Immigration officers standing guard and explained we were on a tight schedule due to our flight being late and he let us move to the head of the line (it just goes to show you, it never hurts to ask !).  Now it's 4:40pm and we explained to the Immigration officer reviewing our documents that we had a tight connection (hoping he would speed up his process) and he said.... You have a reservation... ?  we replied yes... he said...then they will wait for you... no worries... (Well Henry didn't say that to me so who's tellin' us the right thing ?!). 

We finally get through Immigration and now have to wait for our luggage (it's now 4:50pm)... wouldn't you know it....our bag was the 2nd to last bag off the plane !..... so we now have to get into the Customs line!   We get through Customs @ 4:55pm and round the corner only to face another line at the Maya Island Air ticket counter !  I just went right up to the counter (yes...I was one of 'those' people) and explained to the ticket agent we needed to get on the 5pm flight.  He looked at me like I was crazy but proceeded to get us boading passes and then had Henry (yes... the same Henry that told me I would have to fly tomorrow)... escorted us through to the boarding area.   

In the end.... we made it to Placencia (Maya Island Air apparently made a special flight for 8 of us that were on delayed flights from the States).  We landed and Jim (Jennie's Dad) met us and we met up with Jason & Jennie (they were on Tropical Air) and 20 minutes later we arrived at our vacation villa.

Everyone else was already here - Emilie (Jennie's sister), Blake (Emilie's Hubby) and Kai (their 18 month old), Marjorie (Jim's wife and Jennie & Emilie's Mom), Chad (Jason's college buddy) and his wife April.  We proceeded to go through a case of local beer, a 1/2 bottle of tequilla (Margaritas !) and Mike (our house man for the week) cooked up some delicious chicken & rice for dinner.

We hit the sack at about 11pm