Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

All the flights to La Paz were full so I got stranded in Los Angeles. I had a reservation at the Howard Johnson because our original route back (via Cabo) required an overnight stop-over. I'd just missed the shuttle bus to the hotel so I decided just to hop in a cab and get there quickly so I could rest after sixteen hours of traveling.

Where to?
To the Howard Johnson please.
You want a cheap hotel?
Yeah, the Howard Johnson is a pretty cheap hotel.
So I take you to a cheap hotel?
You can take me to the Howard Johnson.
Johnson? I don't know that hotel.
You've never heard of the Howard Johnson?
I don't know this Johnson. What is the address?
I have no idea. It's the Howard Johnson, here by the airport.
I take you to a cheap hotel? I recommend one.
No, I'm going to the Howard Johnson. I have a reservation.
I have never heard of this Johnson hotel.
No. Howard Johnson. You know, HoJo?
You should really write down the address of this Johnson hotel.
Look, just let me out and I'm going to take the shuttle bus instead.
Wait, wait, I call.

At this point he calls his dispatch, and they speak intermittently in English and in Russian. The dispatch is eventually able to explain to him that the Howard Johnson does in fact exist and provided the address, although I think even he was unable to transform it from simply “The Johnson”. Am I assuming to much that an airport cabbie should know the major hotels around the airport? It's not as if it's an unusual or unheard of hotel. It's one thing to not know the exact address, but not knowing it exists?

I was going to go out for dinner, but time shift caught up to me and I didn't wake up until about 3 AM. Since direct flights to La Paz appear to be full, in a few hours I'll be headed off to a very brief stop in beautiful Mazatlan and then take a second flight into La Paz via Aero California.

I still have lots and lots of photos that I haven't posted, but I wanted to include a couple more from the stop-over in Amsterdam. I think if I moved to Amsterdam, I'd like to live on a houseboat, but I don't think I'd enjoy it for more than six months or so. They're fairly expensive too… the ones I've seen online are sitting in the quarter-million Euro range, which makes them more expensive than many apartments!

One of the things that's always funny to me is all the half-sunk little boats that line the canals. I'm not sure if it's just temporary swamping from the wake of many tour-boats, or if they're truly derelict and abandoned. In either case, the ducks prefer them.

I already miss Africa… That said, I miss working as well, and while I did work on this trip, I wasn't putting in my usual hours — and given the backlog that has developed, I'll certainly have that wish fulfilled for probably a little longer than I can handle.