Club travelers stranded abroad on 9/11 took long way home
The 20-year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States brings back unforgettable memories of a National Press Club trip to South America in September 2001.
The Club's then-Travel Committee and former Club travel agent Richard Meyer had long planned a journey to Buenos Aires, the famed Iguassu Falls, Rio de Janeiro and the Amazon jungle. The last stop was a rustic lodge on an inlet to the Black River, some 10 miles north of where the black waters of the river flow into the brown waters of the Amazon River.
I was a Travel Committee member and the trip leader for a group of 12 Club members and their guests who flew out of Dulles International Airport on Sept. 2 to Buenos Aires. After three enjoyable days there, we moved on to the majestic Iguassu Falls and then to the delights of Rio. As a former U.S. Information Agency press officer once posted to Rio, I took great pleasure taking our group to favorite restaurants and introducing them to Brazilian food and drink.
On Sept. 10 we were off to the teeming Amazon city of Manaus. After a tour of the city, with its magnificent opera house built by rubber barons of the 19th century, we traveled by boat to the isolated Amazon Ecopark Lodge.
The main attraction was a nearby "monkey forest" rehabilitation area, where local biologists worked to restore monkeys that have been pets or otherwise taken from their natural habitat. Amazingly, at feeding time marked by a banging of drums dozens of monkeys came pouring out of the jungle.
Following news of attacks from jungle lodge
Sept. 11 brought a morning hike led by our guide, Walter. We were introduced to all manner of exotic fruit trees, butterflies, insects, and other wonders of the Amazon. On our mid-day return from the jungle, Walter had proceeded ahead to the lodge. He hurried back shortly, looking concerned. He reported that "some guys hijacked an airplane and crashed it into a building" in the states.
Bewildered, we rushed to the lodge, where a small black and white TV had been placed on the check-in counter (the rooms had no TVs, radios, or telephones). We watched, shocked, as a Brazilian station -- narrating in Portuguese -- showed an airliner crashing into the World Trade Center in New York. We knew this was something terrible, but we couldn't make out the extent of the attacks.
That evening, skipping dinner, we hired a riverboat to take us to the big modern Tropical Hotel in Manaus, which had CNN in English. We watched it for about three hours and got caught up on the almost unbelievable events in New York and at the Pentagon and on the plane crash in Pennsylvania. Around 10 p.m. we took a 30-minute riverboat trip back to our lodge, silent and stunned.
The next day we departed the lodge and took another boat ride down river to the Manaus hotel. We had learned that U.S. airports were shut down; our schedule had us returning to the States Sept. 13. Since there were only two flights a week from Manaus, we coordinated with Meyer by phone and the Brazilian airlines in rescheduling flights back to the States when the airports re-opened.
Meanwhile, we watched the news reports on television and otherwise passed the time at the hotel. The Brazilians were most considerate and empathetic; a Manaus television station interviewed me on how we felt about the attacks.
A 32-hour return trip to D.C.
Days later when U.S. airports finally opened and after hours on crackly phone connections, we finally were able to book a flight home via Sao Paulo, some 1,800 miles south. On Sunday, Sept. 16, we headed to the airport around noon and departed Manaus, arriving at Sao Paulo around 8:30 p.m.
With the DC airports still closed, we flew out of Sao Paulo at 11:30 p.m. for New York. Flying into JFK Airport the next morning, we could make out lower Manhattan with a trail of dark smoke clearly visible, a somber sight.
After a considerable amount of checking with airlines, it was determined that the only way we could get to the DC area was via Boston -- all flights from New York were booked -- then to Baltimore-Washington International Airport.
We departed around 1:30 p.m. for Boston, then took a 4:30 flight to BWI, arriving at 5:30. Some of our group were picked up by spouses, some took cabs, leaving only the trip leader with no one to lead. I took a Super Shuttle to Fairfax, arriving home around 8 p.m.
From the time we departed the Manaus hotel, the trip took some 32 hours. One of our travelers, novelist William McCloskey, wrote a piece about our trip home for the New York Times, which appeared on Sunday, Sept. 30. The headline, fittingly, was "The Long Way Home."