Despite the bad night’s sleep and not having to
fly as early as we feared, we were still up at the crack of dawn to get
everything packed and sorted before we travelled. We took the metro and a different
bus to yesterday and were safely at the airport by 10.30am.
We had loads of time so we headed to the LAN
office to see if my little bag with my water bottle had made it’s way to lost
property – it hadn't but they did show the the iphone and tablet that had been
found so I could have been quids in on the deal.
Our flight still hadn’t appeared on the board but
since the queue was humungous, it made sense to get in it. A couple of hours
later we were still in it and only had a short time until the plane was due to
board.
When we finally got to the front, we were asked
if we would like to volunteer not to fly until tomorrow. The deal was nowhere
near as sweet as our volunteering jackpot at the start of the trip and Easter
Island was a dream destination so we weren't willing to cut our trip there
short.
The check-in lady had other ideas though and
spent so long dithering that our time for boarding came perilously close. She
offered us a flight back a day later but it flew to Lima before Santiago so we
weren’t interested. After leaving us waiting for ages, she finished her shift
and took off, telling us that someone else would look after us and the manager
knew all about it.
The manager was doing her best not to catch the
eye of the group of people who, like us, seemed to be stranded at the check-in
desk. When I did manage to collar her and ask if we were getting on the flight,
she simply said, ‘no’. Not too long after, she also picked up her bag and
scarpered – this time without a word of explanation! I saw her trying to sneak
off and chased her down but she was very dismissive.
Eventually we got to speak to someone helpful and
things started to come together. We were sent off for a free lunch while they
sorted out our flights and puny compensation. Things could have been worse
though - there was another couple who were also bumped and had their time on
the island reduced from just three days to two. They’d had their flights for
about as long as we had and had even successfully checked in the previous night.
What couldn’t have been much worse was the food
in the restaurant! Everything in the buffet looked great but tasted awful! I
didn’t know it possible to make salad taste gross! We did have a good laugh
about it though and crossed our fingers that the food at the hotel we would be
sent to was a delicious as last time.
When we got back, the ground staff were panicking
before we seemed to have a leg of our journey missing on our itinerary. We
probably could have wangled an extra flight but admitted to intending to
travelling overland to Lima at a later date. We did still have to go via Peru
to get back to Santiago but they did change our Brazil flight to a more direct
one and give us vouchers for food and onward travel when we got back to
Santiago.
Finally, at gone 4pm, we were off to Hilton
Gardens hotel. The one member of ground staff who had been exceptionally
helpful, despite not speaking English, gave us both a hug and a kiss and waved
us off.
I had a great afternoon in the hotel gym and pool.
I can’t say I’ve missed much other than people but I have missed getting into
my little head-bubble and pounding it out in the gym. After a good workout, I
moved from the gym to the swimming pool, sauna and jacuzzi for a nice relax. I
was about to go for dinner when Matt came to join me and we bumped into the
couple we had seen at the airport, Mark and Margaret. We had a nice chat in the
pool and arranged to meet up over dinner.
The company was great and we enjoyed hearing
about their stories of travel in Russia but the food was terrible. I realised
just how spoiled we’d been on our first ‘volunteer’ when the waiter brought
over the menus, realised we were from the airport, huffed and took them back.
He then told us what we were having chicken and mash for dinner. No choices, no
vegetarian option, not even a smile. When Mark told him that was the same as
we’d had for lunch, he reluctantly offered us pasta.
I couldn’t help but smile when the pasta came. It
looked like a crappy kids version you get for a couple of quid when you order
an adult meal in a chain-pub. The pasta was a kind of dried ravioli and it just
wasn’t cooked enough. We chewed our way through a couple of pieces before Mark
spoke to the waiter, very politely, and told him that they didn’t want to be
there about as much as the hotel didn’t seem to want us but that we’d at least
like something proper to eat.
We were told we could have something from the
non-pauper menu but that we all had to order the same thing and from a
pre-determined section. We gave the pasta a miss and agreed on the rack of
lamb. It took ages to arrive and when it did, it looked so much more
appetizing. Unfortunately, it was so tough that I got cramp and callouses
trying to cut it. I was in stitches by the time that Mark just gave up and picked
the thing up to tear it apart with his fingers and eat with his hands – not
only was the whole situation ridiculous but it made him look even more like Ron
Swanson that he did previously.
We were up late chatting and packing but it was so
good to collapse into a big comfy bed without the noise of the Santiago hostel,
knowing that tomorrow we would really be on our way.
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