It has been an eventful day - which at this time should have seen us sipping upon a rum punch (she) and a beer (he) at Blue Bay Villas Doradas, Puerta Plata, DR not waiting in Stanfield International Airport for a flight which will get us as far as Toronto this evening. We arose at 3:45 am and began our trek to the airport in high anticipation of a week's R&R. Stopped to pick up the teacher daughter and she accompanied us out to the airport to retrieve the car. As we approached the airport a thick cloud of fog appeared making it difficult to even see the exit. Hmmmm the shore captain mused 'wonder if the flight will go in this fog, oh surely they have instruments to handle this' and we proceeded through checkin. A fairly lengthy retrieval of the payment for an extra bag which we didn't in the end require. The money was one thing, the concern was that this mystery bag would cause troubles for us along the way. But troubles were already in the works. The security system is in a 'work to rule' situation and things were very slow getting through security. I get scanned for chemicals/bombs....whatever - I sure look like a mule/terrorist right? We finally make our way to Tim Hortons for a breakfast sandwich and hot drinks and settle in at the gate. The announcements begin for delays, we're advised that our flight has taken off from St. Johns, then comes a statement we've never heard in almost 19 years of fairly regular flying out of Halifax "you're flight to Toronto is cancelled, your luggage is being taken off the plane and returned to you, please make your way to the luggage carousel to retrieve it and go back to the WestJet counter to see what arrangements can be made for you. What we shortly learned was that 1) neither Air Canada (first flight out at 4 pm) or 2) Porter (flight at noon but into Billy Bishop Airport which is on Toronto Island and 45 min from Pearson) would enable us to make our 1 pm connection in Pearson to Puerta Plata and that 3) WestJet wasn't sure if/when they would send a 'rescue plane' for us as it would depend on the weather forecast (fog would have to be forecast to lift) and numbers and Monday was even mentioned as a possibility 4) was there even a flight to DR on Sunday? I made my way to a pay phone (having left the cell in the car with the daughter) to advise the daughter that we'd let her know if/when to retrieve us. After about half an hour the word was that a flight had been put on for 7:40 pm to Toronto and on to DR in the am. We waited patiently in line and when we reached the desk were told that there was a flight tomorrow at 6 am which would then connect in Toronto with a 9 am DR flight. We firmly but politely advised that we would fly to Toronto THIS evening to avoid an encore performance should Nova Scotia weather repeat itself. The gate attendant told us that with the runway construction work the navigation system was disabled and so the flight had been unable to land this am.
A quick call and the daughter arrived to pick us up and back to visit with her and the son-in-law. The shore captain got a bit restless and so the plan was to go shopping for my Canada Goose jacket. Not to give away the ending but it turned into a wild goose chase. Three shops in Halifax all selling Canada Goose jackets and not one to fit this body. A faint promise of 'a later shipment' and my name was taken at two of the stores but I do not have much hope as the jackets have become a popular (albeit expensive) fashion statement apparently. It appears I shall go with plan B which was to shop online. Glad for two things - that we only took one male (the son-in-law declined) shopping and that my friend and I didn't do this chase on a day when we had more plans. We shall instead use our time in the city for other errands. We did however have a nice late lunch at Palladium Restaurant in Dartmouth and the shore captain is now a fan as well.
I did manage to update the contacts in my 'smart phone' and download an e-book called Nurse Stuck in the Snow which is written by a nurse who had worked in Cambridge Bay as well as my next destination. Drum roll please.......Taloyoak (formerly known as Spence Bay) which I'll start out for on January 3, 2013 for eight weeks. I am posting some pics courtesy of my former roomie in Cam Bay.
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| Taloyoak Airport |
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| Taloyoak Health Centre |
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| Taoloyoak - sunrise or sunset? |
Since there are 24 hours of darkness from November 25 - January 16 I shall do my research now. It's a smaller Health Centre with I think two CHNs and a SHP, no ground transport (meaning put the patient in the Suburban and drive to the airstrip) no lab (draw the blood, centrifuge it, manually count the white cells) no xray (the janitor - or nurse- does the X-ray) and a Doc on call somewhere in the region. Should be fun! The community is about 900 people - 98% Inuit. Exotic working vacations are the best kind I think and the roommate spoke very highly of the staff, community and its people. And that talk about - 50 c temperatures I am just ignoring for now. Am pasting a link to an article about the community - a bit dated but still good info - warning it takes a while to load be patient:
So we're back at the airport awaiting our flight - it's 7:15 pm and no sign of anyone at the gate although the departure screen is still saying 'on time'. Getting a bit travel worn and we haven't left yet. Fingers (and toes) crossed that we're outta here as we've already had our trip shortened by one day and I'm wearing my shants (you know those pants which zip off into shorts) which are not required in these climes. Hasta.
