The Worst Trip Ever

Day 2

I'm writing this at my desk in my room at St. George's School of Medicine, Grenada. I don't want to spoil anything, but I eventually made it to school, despite the best efforts of "THE Caribbean Airline." A little lesson I've now learned extremely thoroughly: Never, ever, ever fly with LIAT. It actually stands for Leeward Islands Air Transport. Most locals have some other names for it including;

Leaves Island Any Time

Languishing In Airport Terminal

Luggage in Another Terminal 

I flew American Airlines from JFK (New York) to San Juan, Puerto Rico. All this time, I had been nervous about going to St. George's but it was nothing compared to how I felt actually doing it. I felt slightly sick to my stomach the whole flight to San Juan. I arrived five minutes early, which I expected. I made my way to the LIAT terminal and managed to check my bags. Despite the website's assertion that passangers were limited to one carryon of 15lbs or less, they didn't say a word about my two bags, both of which easily weighed thirty apiece. I took this as a good sign: I had no idea how wrong I was.  I had to go through security again to get to the terminal. They made me open my carry-on bag and searched through it, but I made it through with ten minutes to spare. But in addition to my two carry-ons, I had another passenger following me that day. His name was Murphy (of Murphy's Law fame) and he would make sure that anything that could go wrong, would go wrong. Before the end of the ordeal of my trip was over, I would personally experience the reason for each one of LIAT's nicknames.

Despite the fact that the islands of the Caribbean lay in the same time zone as the Eastern United States, it feels like they are a part of an entirely different time zone: Island time. Most people move at their own pace, and schedules mean next to nothing. I ran to the LIAT departure gate, which was down a level from the rest of the airport. I realized this was because, we would not be taking a gangway, but instead would walk right out onto the tarmac to board the airport.

Boarding the LIAT plane in San Juan.

The plane was small: it could seat maybe thirty or forty people. More harrowing for me was the fact that it wasn't a jet. Unlike any other plane I had flown in, this one was kept aloft by two turboprop engines. The result of this was that the plane made a deafening noise whenever we were in flight. The other result of this was that the plane was incredibly slow. 

My flight was scheduled to leave at 3pm and arrive in Barbados at 6:05pm with one stop in Dominica. The flight crew arrived casually at 3:30pm. Onboard the flight, I was told the plane would also be stopping in Antigua, but that we wouldn't need to get off. I was worried about the additional stop, but I was assured that we would make our connection. This was my first taste of LIAT's particular brand of customer service. I have to say that all of the employees are extremely helpful and pleasant, but unfortunately, most of what they say is wrong. Partially this is because the higher ups in the airline lie to the employees (and by extension us) about everything from arrival and departure times to what planes are where. There's a reason that my iphone autocorrects "Liat" to "Liar." 

At Antigua, LIAT's headquarters, we were told we would be switching planes. We went through a mob-like line at the "In-transit desk", where they took one of our boarding receipts and directed us through security. My backpack was opened and searched. After I had made it through, they directed me to departure gate one where we lined up, showed our passports to the security officer for inspection, and walked out onto the tarmac. We were directed onto the same plane, almost two hours after we had left it. 

I met three SGU veterinary students on the flight, upper termers who mostly spoke amongst themselves in rapid-fire spanish I couldn't follow. We flew to Dominica and after a brief stopover where they luckily didn't make us leave the plane, we flew on to Barbados. By this time it was almost 8:30pm, so I asked the flight attendant if there would be a flight to Grenada waiting for us. She spoke to the station over the phone, and reported back to us that the last flight to Grenada was waiting for our arrival. Once at Barbados, we hurried through the modern airport to the LIAT departure gate. The woman at the desk told us the plane had not waited. She told us that the next flight was at 7am the next morning, and that it was probably cancelled. 

They put us up in a hotel for the night; It was comfortable, and they paid for our dinner. They awoke us at 5am and we were driven back to the airport where we rechecked our bags. I was polite to the clerk at the desk, and she didn't say anything about my clearly overweight carryon bags or the fact that my checked luggage was 5lbs overweight. 

We hurried to the departure gate, where we were told that the 7am flight was delayed until 8am. At 8am we were told that our flight was delayed until 9am. At 9am, they called our flight number and asked we assemble near the boarding gate. The supervisor of the desk staff came over and told us that our flight was going to be a little late. It would be arriving at 5pm. We were stuck in the terminal for the rest of the day. The monotony was relieved only by the wifi in the terminal. They gave us breakfast, which I skipped, and lunch which I didn't. Things in Barbados are expensive; my meal, which consisted of a fish sandwich, fries and a small drink cost 25 barbados dollars ($12.50US). 

While we sat in the terminal, these planes sat doing nothing for hours, and then were given to people whose flights were scheduled after ours. 

Around 12:30pm we were told our flight was cancelled. The news was followed up by a small piece of good news: that another flight, 687 had been cancelled as well, and that the plane would instead bring us to Grenada at 5:40pm. 

Around one, a small aircraft crash landed on the run way. Though it looked like the fire was quickly put out, the only runway at the airport was closed for more than two hours. It reopened close to three thirty, and flights started to go in and out. 

Finally, after hours of waiting, our flight number was called at 5:30pm. I squeezed to the front of the line. I was the fifth person to walk out onto the tarmac. I was directed to the first of two LIAT planes waiting. I got onboard. It was flight 727, the stewardess said, but would also go to Grenada. One of the veterinary students got on the plane as well. In all about eight people were put on the already packed plane. I sat next to a woman with a baby on her lap, which was screaming and kicking and grabbing at my arm. I didn't care. 23 hours after I was supposed to leave Barbados, I was finally about to leave.

A relieved selfie. 

We flew into Grenada. There's very little time difference between "starting to get dark" and "night" in the Caribbean. By the time we arrived 45 minutes later, it was pitch black out. We made it into the terminal, where I found out my luggage had not arrived. I asked it it might have been put in the next plane, thinking they must be right behind us. I was told that plane had not left Barbados, and would probably be cancelled. 

I made it through customs very quickly and was taken by cab to my room at St. George's. While much of the island (at least what I could see from the taxi) looks slightly run down, the campus of SGU is extremely nice. My roommates were home. Both were fourth termers in the school of medicine and spent the entirety of my first night studying. 

I grabbed some subway (located at the student center) and watched TV until it was time to fall asleep. My first night in Grenada was complete, and it felt like there was no way I could possibly adjust. As with most things you think exhaustively after two days of stressful travel, there was no way to tell if I would be wrong or not.