Souvenir Photo Studio, by Al Bourassa: Monday, May 25, 2015 Travel

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Monday, May 25, 2015

Sunday 4:30am, I called my contracted driver to make sure that he was awake. He told me to look out for a white car and sure enough, a white car showed up at the corner but there was a different guy at the wheel. He assured me there was no problem, that he was my driver and he helped me to stow my suitcase. I tossed my backpack in the backseat and opened the front passenger door to find a girl siting there... I was not a happy camper, figuring that he was bringing his girlfriend for the ride.

Halfway through the trip he tells me that this gal is his sister and I had had enough of being cramped into the back seat so I requested that I get to sit in front. Since I was paying for the trip I needed the legroom a lot worse than a 4-foot girl.

The trip was uneventful and fast, under 3 hours so I was at the airport in plenty of time so I was checked in in less than 5 minutes. I love the Guayaquil airport, the crowds were very sparse and it is clean and efficient. Getting off to Bogota, Colombia was a breeze.
The sky seemed clear above the clouds so I was certain that I would get a glimpse of Chimborazo, the mountain that is farthest from the center of the earth, and closest to the sun, so arguably the tallest mountain in the world.... Sorry, didn't see anything...

With only a 90 minute stop in Bogota there was barely time for a pee break before heading to the opposite end of the terminal (isn't that always the case?) to the Air Canada desk. There, everyone had to check in and, for some unknown reason, have the boarding pass re-issued, then a security man had to re-scrutinize all the documents and take 3 minutes making notes by hand for each passenger. The lineup was long but people were all taking it in stride.

We finally got away a little late and the captain announced that we were going to be about 20 minutes late getting into Toronto. We battled headwinds and minor turbulence and while away the time watching 3 different movies. I have to admit that the chicken meal served was probably the best meal I have had on an airline. Even the flight attendants were cute.

Arriving in Toronto 15 minutes late, the jet made a cruise near downtown to give us a view but I didn't have a window seat to get any photos. I boogied to the other end of the terminal (again, always the way) to go through customs, which took all of 30 seconds, and headed to wait for the bags. My bag was one of the early ones off the line so I headed out to look for Lou & Yvette.... I was a little aghast when I saw no familiar faces despite a check of the immediate area and outside. I saw a CIBC cash machine so I got a few bucks, just in case. I found a free internet connection so sent a cryptic email, knowing that it was a pretty useless thing to do. I found what seemed like a free phone and tried calling but it wouldn't do the long distance call to Vineland. Half an hour had gone by and I still couldn't see them.... I finally dug out my credit card and called the cel number that I had on my very old list, hoping like hell that they still had that number. It rang, Lou answered and said that they had just pulled up about 300 feet away. All's well that ends well.

Today, I am thankful to have a strong wi-fi connection here but this old laptop is so-o-o-o-o slow, that it has taken me most of the afternoon to process these poor photos. My sister Yvette is so happy that they have cardinals visiting their feeder for the first time so we went into town to get a huge bag of sunflower seeds. We filled a feeder and the birds have almost emptied it in a matter of hours. She is crazy about cardinals. They even have a hummingbird that visits occasionally.
I have been fighting for over an hour to get o ly 15 photos to upload to this Blog and they just won't all do it. I guess that I will blame it on the crummy laptop. Maybe I'll try to put the others on Facebook....

I hope you enjoy the photos. That was the day's excitement, Cheers, Al