I had to wake up really early this morning to catch the shuttle bus back to the airport. I went down had some breakfast and then went to the front desk to check out. Another really cool thing that happened, at check out not only was dinner free but also breakfast. So I got to stay in a really nice hotel 100% free, can’t get any better than that :) I then took the shuttle back to the airport, took my bags up stairs to check-in and re-check-in my bags. It was nice; since it was so early in the morning I didn’t have to wait in any lines or anything, just walked right up. With the rest of my plane, I took the airport train to our terminal and then waited at the gate for like 1½ hr. The trip from Madrid to Johannesburg was 10hrs OH MY FUCKING G-D!!! See if it wasn’t for my day yesterday and everything that happened then the 10hrs would be fine. Ok, maybe not fine but still bearable. Unlike now, were all I wanted to do was get to South Africa with no more problems and no more waiting. I am thankful that the person sitting next to me was nice and pleasant to talk to and didn’t have any of those annoying habits that you hope your neighbor won’t have. They showed 3 movies on the fight down and then also had one of those pictures where you can see where the plane is at that moment. The movies that we watched were; The Devil Wears Prada, The Break Up, and some Spanish movie about this woman who becomes blind and how that affects her, her family, and her life, both positively and negatively. I thought 10hrs on a train was bad, it’s even worse on a plane. Because at least on a train the scenery changes. On a plane it’s like… look a cloud… another cloud… another cloud… and… oh look…… another cloud. At a little past 5pm we finally landed in Johannesburg. I get my bags, which are thankfully one of the first, so I don’t have to wait long. I go through customs with no problems and didn’t have to wait long since the only people in line were from my plane and they had 10+ lanes open. I get out into the main part of the arrivals hall and look for Marnie. Marnie is one of the people who own and run Voluntours. See it’s a very small business, nothing like Earthwatch. For example their office was once a spare bedroom in their house. I wait for Marnie for a couple of minutes and then decide to give her a call. They probably don’t know when my new arrival time is, since I had to leave it in the hands of my mother to call or email them the new information and apparently it didn’t get done (no offence Ima, love you still). Well I can’t find any payphones and I’m like how can an airport not have any payphones. I then realize that it is because they have a pay phone store, sort of like the one that I went to in Marrakech. I then was able to call Marnie and tell her that I was here. She told me she was at home and about 30min away. While waiting for Marnie I stay at the phone place and call some people to chat and say hi while I’m waiting. I find Marnie and we walk to her car, which is a lime green Renault. It sounds bad, bat actually it fits the car, it’s like how some colors that look really bad on other cars looks good on the VW Beetle, same idea. Since it’d be to late to bring me to the B&B that I will be staying at while at the zoo, I go home with her and sleep in there guest bedroom. We have a quick dinner and then hit the sacks……
§§§ PICTURES COMING §§§
