Day 15: Time to Go Home

One last group shot outside the San Salvador airport at 5 a.m.
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Journal Entry by Kendall Gustavson

To say that this day began at 4:00am when we started loading the bus for the airport wouldn’t exactly be correct. In reality most of us were up the whole night trying to figure out why the same number of clothes that we brought wouldn’t fit back into our suitcases. With bags bulging to the point where zippers were about to explode, we piled ourselves on the bus outside the Alamo for the very last time, leaving only Uliana behind.

We got to the San Salvador airport with plenty of time to spare, and most of the group proceeded to pass out from exhaustion. It seemed like we waited a long time, but the plane took off right on time with no major mishaps. Thankfully, we travelled out of the country with a little more room than we had entered with…there was lots of room, not that I think anyone cared. Unfortunately we were all starving, having not had breakfast in the morning, so when the food cart came around everyone was excited; we shortly found out, however, that we were served beans – the one food we’d had enough of and thought that we’d left behind.

Getting some much needed sleep before the flight to Houston.
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In Houston we said our goodbyes to the six people flying back to Toronto, and began to kill the many hours of waiting that lay ahead. Alison, Ben, Kyle, and I spent some quality time playing cards until their trip towards Ottawa started (I later found out that this was more eventful than they had hoped for) and Alison and I continued to amuse ourselves with pictures of the trip for the next seven or so hours.

We finally got on the plane, more than a little excited to be heading home for the first time since January, but that died as we settled into the well-practiced routine of waiting. About five hours later we touched down in Vancouver, stepped off the plane, and were greeted with cold air and zero humidity.

Waiting for the plane to Houston.
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The trip was fantastic and none of us will ever forget it, but it’s always nice to be home.