touchdown

Well, after some delays (clearly not weather-related, mostly just secondary to "equipment issues,"--like, hello, we don't want to worry you, but the plane might stop working in midair--we made it to Bluefields Bay, Jamaica.  At least we didn't have it as bad as these guys.

 

(Full disclosure: I originally took to above picture to tweet about the sad state of etiquette in the culture of modern air travel, because: really?  No shoes?  Feet on the seats?  Playing a Nintendo DS all loud?  Also, not pictured: her boyfriend SLEEPING ON THE FLOOR, pronated elbow pictured visible above, to the left.  But then I remembered that there were some fairly significant storms in Atlanta yesterday evening, and that perhaps they were still delayed from that, and anyone delayed more than 12 hours and who has to spend the night at the airport can do whatever the hell they want as far as I'm concerned.)

Aside from our (relatively insignificant) delays, the flight down was fine.  There was the moment, during our descent, when I obligingly turned off all electronics to be in compliance with FAA regulations and Mack threw an absolute tantrum because he wasn't finished watching his episode of "Walking with the Dinosaurs" (he's two, it happens, though because of the spectacle of it I felt in that moment like Worst Mother Ever--the fact that he was watching a BBC documentary should have helped but IT DIDN'T) but otherwise, aside from the fact of the travel itself, our trip down here was fine.  We were picked up at the airport by Percy, a driver from Bluefields, transported along some very interesting terrain on the way to the Southern end of the island (among the sites we passed was a local funeral, with the full procession including a white and purple pall-beared coffin passing maybe six inches from our starboard window--Cal didn't ask and I didn't say anything) but we made it to our destination intact and greeted, charmingly, with strawberry smoothies and a beautiful view of the ocean.

So far we've only been here about, oh, four hours, but...I think we're going to have a good week.

The kids love it here.  Cal, in particular, loves the Ting Soda (pictured in the picture below--NO IT'S NOT BEER), which is a local grapefruit-flavored soft drink.  I wouldn't have thought that Cal would like anything grapefruit-flavored (he'll eat stuff with strong flavors and all--our latest triumph has been chicken curry--though he's definitely set in his ways when it comes to his culinary tastes) but everything seems to taste a little better here.

As I mentioned yesterday, we're participating in the "Blogging from Bluefields" program, so I'll probably be updating here fairly frequently.  Though, as a medical person, I'll probably doing things rather systematically, because, you know, REVIEW OF SYSTEMS, GUYS.  Tomorrow, I'll be talking about our accommodations.  Sneak preview: they're pretty nice.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend.