I was late…

I was late, the traffic was brutal and it was raining. “This is no way to start a dive trip to Honduras,” I was thinking. I consoled myself that as long as I made the flight, any way to start a dive trip was all right with me. These days I leave myself lots of time before a flight but in those times I cut everything in my schedule as close as I could. This time it was about to bite me. The worst part was I could see the airport but the traffic was bumper to bumper and moving at a crawl. I started timing how far I got in a five minute period and tried to do the math on my chances. If it kept moving it appeared I just might make it.

Finally I arrived at the airport, parked, grabbed my bags and ran  straight to the gate, an adrenaline rush giving my feet extraordinary speed. No ticket , no security checkpoint, no TSA,  no boarding passes, that gives you an indication of how far back this adventure was. They were getting ready to close the door when they heard me yelling as I ran down the hall towards the gate. In today’s world that would get you arrested. In those days they waited for you. I was the last person on board and the plane was packed. As I walked down the aisle to my seat at the back of the plane, I realized that every few rows, I knew somebody and they were all in the dive industry. Sitting next to me was a guy I had known for years and he informed me that the company they worked for, U.S. Divers ( now Aqua Lung ) was having their annual sales meeting in Roatan. That was the beginning of several drinks and even more stories. Dive Industry folks have a way with stories as well as drinks.

TACA Airlines crazy flight 110

The main access in those days to anywhere in Central America was on one of two airlines, both based and owned there. We took great pleasure in making fun of both of them.

Sahsa was known as “Stay At Home Stay Alive” and our choice for this evening was TACA which we said stood for “Take A Chance Airways”. We actually liked them both for their liberal adult beverage service. The rain had been the only reason I had made the flight at all so it had been a blessing but the further south we flew the harder it rained and the bumpier it got.

Our destination was San Pedro Sula and it was known for diverted flights due to rain.As we got closer we were not too surprised to hear the Captain announce that things in San Pedro were not looking good. About thirty minutes and two drinks later he announced that we were not going in and they were making other plans. About fifteen minutes later we were all tickled to hear that instead of turning around we were going to overnight in El Salvador and go on the next morning. In fact, they were even going to pay to put us up for the night. I had never been to El Salvador and seemed like a good way to start.
TACA was based in Salvador and it was interesting to me that they owned a very large hotel there named “El Camino Real”. The Captain announced that everybody with a ticket would be given a room, and we were being transported to the hotel on a bus. Now at this point, I’m not even bummed by the diversion. I’m on a plane with a bunch of friends and fellow dive industry folks and getting to hear a bunch of war stories from dive locations all over the world. Locations that could be in my future.

These guys were all seasoned veterans and would be loaded with information that  I needed to hear. We all agreed, get checked in, throw the bags in your room and get to the bar.
When we got to the hotel, which was a pretty lengthy drive,  it turned out we weren’t the only plane they had been diverted. There was a line of buses already there and the line at the check- in was out the door with people holding tickets. Being quick on our feet and ridgiley flexible, we decided to throw our bags in a corner off the bar and wait out the line. Several of us started with what turned into  a few hours of the promised drinks and stories. We kept an eye on the line as it shortened, some of the group left and joined. Finally there were only three of us left and the other two  decided to get in the rather short line while I decided to have one last beer. The last person in line departed with his room key as I was paying my bar tab.

El Camino Real Hotel in El Salvador

When I arrived at the desk the lobby was empty and the three attendants at the desk had gone into the office behind the check-in area.
I called out that I had arrived in broken Spanish, got  no response so tried again in English. All of sudden there were three heads poked around the door looking very puzzled. When I showed them my ticket and asked for my key, they started all talking to each other at the same time. Finally, I intervened and said that all I wanted was a room. They ran into the back office. I waited, waited a little longer and started ringing the bell on the desk. Finally a person entered through the front door of the hotel walked over to me. He told me he was the manager and had been called down to talk to me. I told him, “Look no big deal here, just throw me a key and I’m outta here”. That’s when I heard the news. There were no more rooms.  “That can’t be,” I told him, “here’s my ticket.” He now looked as puzzled as the other three clerks. I saw I was losing ground so I blurted out the oldest line in the history of hotels, “I’ll bet if the president of your country walked in that door and wanted a room you would have one and I want it instead!”. The manager paused and said he would be just a minute. He walked into the office with the other three in tow and I saw him pick up a phone and make a call.
After a couple of minutes two big, I mean really big, giant type security guards walked up to me. The manager came out of the back with a really large key in his hand and was acknowledged by the security guards. He looked at me and what I heard made me want to burst out laughing, but at the same time was a big relief. “We do have a room for the president and tonight you get to stay in it. Two rules however, you cannot use the bar and you cannot wear the robe”. I wasn’t sure what was going on but it had a bed so it was good with me. “These two gentlemen will escort you to your room. Have a good evening”. And he was gone.
Up to the room the three of us went with one of these giants on each side of me. When the elevator doors opened I first realized that this was going to be way different than I had originally thought. The hallway stretched the entire length of the building and the only doors were two large hand carved mahogany sculptures. We went inside and I was speechless. On one wall there was a bar that went all the way down the length of the room and the other side was glass. The bedroom was as large as a house and the bathroom larger than most hotel rooms. The security guards said goodnight and it was only a couple of minutes until I had located the drink of  my choice in the bar. I fiddled with the cappuccino machine until I figured out how to get a cup of coffee out of it for the next morning. I went to take a shower and as I was drying off saw a door and had to know what was behind it.
The door in the bathroom turned out to be a walk in closet almost as large as the bathroom itself. It was empty except for a row of bathrobes. There it was, the forbidden robe. I touched one of them and it was the softest material I had ever felt. White with a gold seal or something on the right shoulder, I had to try it on. Delicious, now that’s luxury so I decided to wear it and have a nightcap on the veranda then off to bed.
The next morning came way too early. It was still dark outside, I put on the robe and I fumbled with what was to be a coffee maker for me this morning. I took a cup and sat out on the balcony to watch the sun come up. As it got bright enough to see the grounds below I could tell this was some magnificent landscaping. There were already a couple of gardeners clipping shrubs. As I watched them work, one turned and looked up and we made eye contact. Feeling a bit awkward, I  shot him a small hello wave. He walked over to the other two guys and they disappeared. As I came back out with my second cup of coffee several folks had gathered in the garden and seemed to look my way. A few left and returned with more and from time to time I gave them a small wave. When it was time for me to get ready to leave, I stood and arm extended gave them a full four times across the sky wave that seemed to delight them. As I walked back into the room, the doors came crashing open and the too large security guards from the night before headed straight towards me like angry gorillas! They ripped the robe off of  me and I stood there, buck naked, frozen with fear. One of them started throwing my stuff in my suitcase and the other threw me the clothes I had laid out the night before.
I was escorted to the lobby and then out to a waiting car, driven to the airport where the manager from the night before met me. His words were short and to the point, “You knew the rules, you broke them. Don’t let me ever see you around here again”
That was my first and only visit to Salvador!

One of the tasty
El Salvador Beers