Ok, I'll bite... story time!

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I use to get a ton of garbage 2 days in EWR, you know early show to do one leg then 3+ legs on day two with guaranteed delays. Quite often I was able to dump them for equal pay on an out and back MEX 2 day trip while avoiding EWR being EWR. So I spent a couple too many nts at Camino Real aeropuerto. Worth it to work smarter. One man's trash is another's treasure esp when u are at G Line.

 

If you like to surf, BQN is a fantastic layover. One of my favorites. There's a place a few minutes walk north that will rent you a stick.

LIB is more like a goat path than a road to get there.

Speaking of places to avoid, El Salvador. That's before the hour drive to get to the compound you don't want to leave.

 

Where's LIB? Do you guys mean LIR and if so, I really like the all-inclusive place we stay. Rent a stick down the road at Frijoles Loco in Playa Grande for some epic surf.

 

Yeah Liberia? The place with liquor dispensers in the rooms?

 

Port of Spain is the bottom of the barrel. Nice hotel but leaving is very risky. Actually like Caracas much better. YMMV. All the rest are fine. Aruba and the long layover in Ft Myers may be the nicest layovers not on a WB. Liberia hotel is crazy. When i saw the liquor bottle dispenser on the wall i suspected i might be on Punk'd. I took a picture on my cell incase my disappearance was on 20/20.

 

I understand that the g-line is the bottom of the barrel, I was simply trying to set up some standing bid groups with some avoids. I've layed over in MEX once so far, and it was the "smells" and the rent-a-cop with a shotgun in the lobby of the Starbucks next door that made me wanna stay in the hotel....

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/internat...inidad/509930/

I would also NOT under any circumstances (unless you are going to the airport to fly home) leave the hotel in Caracas.

If one goes to FlyingTogether>Travel>International SOS and MedAire there is a smart phone application one can download through these providers (UAL pays for them) that provides numbers for Doctors, US Embassies, country briefings, etc. for every country in the world (yes, they even have a briefing for North Korea). Great information through that service.

IMHO all the Caribbean destinations (except POS) are fine to leave the hotel. For the 737 destinations in Mexico, Central, and South America unless you are in Belize, Costa Rica, Panama, Columbia, or Quito (even though I know a guy who got mugged there), I would think REALLY REALLY REALLY long and hard if it is really worth it to leave the hotel. To me, it just wasn't safe to.

 

Guatemala City and Managua is fine. If on a longer layover in Guatemala City take a taxi to Antigua and explore the city. Amazing place and lots of great places to eat. In Managua you can tour the famous Chatedral or go ziplining. Tired of hearing how unsafe it is. Be smart, like hopefully one would be in any bigger city or unfamiliar area. Bring an id, a few dollars, a credid card and your phone. Enjoy the layovers.

POS is fine as well if you want to explore during the day.

 

U.S. flight crew held by foreign authorities for 'insulting' Chavez

Published: 12/11/2010 at 12:23 PM

OCTOBER 15, 2010. The Venezuelan government once detained an American Airlines pilot and crew on suspicion that one of the crew members “insulted” Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez by calling him crazy, according to a U.S. diplomatic cable posted today by WikiLeaks and reviewed by WND.

The cable revealed that on Sept. 30, 2008, the U.S. embassy in Caracas received word the American Airlines crew had been detained, apparently after a friend of a Venezuelan politician believed he heard a crew member insult Chavez.

As of 2006, it became a crime in Venezuela to insult the country’s president.

The cable related that a passenger who had been on American Airlines flight 903 to Caracas claimed he overheard a crew member announce the current local time as “loco Chavez time.”

“Loco “in Spanish means “crazy.”

The cable explained the crew member, who was informing passengers of the local time, may have been misheard stating “local” Chavez time. In December 2007, Venezuela created its own time zone, moving the clock back half an hour on a permanent basis.

“The crew member was likely trying to remind passengers of this and to suggest they turn their watches back 30 minutes,” stated the cable.

Passenger Nestor Maldonado, however, a friend of Venezuelan National Assemblyman Carlos Echezuria Rodriguez, called the assemblyman to report he heard a crew member refer to Chavez as “loco.”

Rodriguez called all the way up the political chain to Venezuelan Vice President Carrizales to report the incident. Carruzales then called the president of the country’s civil aviation authority, who went to the airport and turned over the investigation to the Venezuelan Immigration Authority, which may have distorted what happened.

The U.S. embassy in Caracas says it later obtained a report from Venezuelan immigration officials that claimed the crew announcement had instead been, “the hour of the crazy Chavez and his women”.

According to American Airlines Country Manager Omar Nottaro, Rodriguez demanded to hear the on-board recordings of in-flight announcements and wanted each crew member to give a statement about the incident.

Nottaro was able to defuse the situation by promising to put the crew back on the empty airplane as soon as it was refueled and get the captain and crew out of the country immediately, stated the cable.

According to the embassy cable, Nottaro apologized in person to Venezuelan governmental officials and committed to writing several letters of apology on October 1.

Venezuelan authorities accepted Nottaro’s offer, and the crew left Venezuela hours later.

The leaked cable explains, “American made the decision to turn the plane around even though it meant canceling AA flight [903] out of Caracas the morning of Oct. 1, at considerable cost to the airline.”