Student Leaves Ghana for Guyana, Ends Up in Goiania
Entertainment | Gabe Zaldivar | February 26, 2015, Source - Travel Plus
We’ve all been where Emmanuel Akomanyi was recently, in a land between lost and befuddled. Although, our bad sense of direction never took us 3,000 kilometers out of the way and never in Goiania.
CNN’s Frances Cha reports the young man had just received a scholarship to study medicine in Guyana, mandating he leave his home of Ghana.
As Cha writes, there wasn’t a direct flight, “so he boarded a plane in Ghana to Guarulhos International Airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil.”
As a graphic shows, there is a sizable difference in distance from where Akomanyi actually ended up: “But when he got off the plane, he was not in Guyana -- he was in the city of Goiania, Brazil -- almost 3,000 kilometers away from where he needed to go.”
Remember, any and all travel mishaps can be avoided by taking a left turn at Albuquerque.
The peculiar story has a heartwarming conclusion as Akomanyi reportedly lived a week off the goodwill of strangers in Goiania, which we have to stress are not strangers who live in Guyana.
Eventually Akomanyi received a ticket from his original airline for Guyana, which also came with an impromptu and important geographic lesson for us all.
Now before you dismiss this as an isolated incident, Cha has a number of stories featuring travelers who embarked like Kevin McCallister for an unintended destination.
There was, for example, the unfortunate case of the couple that wanted to get to Dakar, Senegal but accidentally ended up in Dakar, Bangladesh.
It all serves to remind you to check your itinerary, and then check it again. In fact, you might want to check it once more after that as well.
