Erin & Regan's South American Adventure

Hola,

The day of our flight finally rolled round so it was off to the airport we go.  Just before leaving we gave some of our food away, to lighten our load.

At the airport we discovered the check in desks, and an enormous queue which didn't seem to be moving very fast.  Nonetheless we joined at the end only to discover just in front of us an english boy (Benjamin Wilson) we met in Platypus hostel, Bogota, Colombia.  Turns out he was heading home having run out of money.  He spent his entire trip in Bogota, not bothering to travel anywhere else... this was not his inital plan of course but he liked Bogota so much... well, there you go.

As we queued we overheard a woman from Brittish Airways telling someone else that there was a mechanical problem with the plane, which was still in Sao Paulo (Brazil) and rooms had been booked for us at a hotel in the event we could not fly today.

Eventually, after several hours queuing we reached the front of the queue, checked our bags and were given vouchers for lunch.  We headed off to lunch and while we waited for service Ben joined us.  Another BA staff member approached our table at lunch and informed us we would need to queue again at 1pm to find out what was going on.

We queued again... this time they made an announcement that we wouldn't fly today and they would be handing out vouchers for a hotel and transport.  This caused a mad rush where everyone ignored the orderly queue they had been in and swamped the ticket desks.

Eventually we made it to the front of the queue again (9 hours queuing so far) and received our vouchers, we were told to collect our bags and head to the transport.  I went to collect our bags only to discover one missing, I asked about it and they took down the details and radioed to another area where it was found and brought to us.  We then headed to the transport and got a private car for just the 3 of us.

Apparently just after we left the queue another airline took over the desks BA was using (because their time slot had expired) and everyone was in a panic until another desk could be obtained.  Some unlucky passengers were queueing for another 5 hours!

We arrived at the hotel and checked in.  As we were doing so a bus load of passengers who had left earlier than us arrived and were quite surprised to see us there.

Our room was grand...

but they suckered me in with a bottle of water which read something like "Our tap water is safe to drink but we would like you to enjoy this bottle of mineral water" only to have a price marked on the bottom of 19 pesos!  Ben fell for this evil trap too.

At 9:30pm they served a buffet dinner which was fabulous.  After that we headed to bed.  Our wake up time was 3:45am the next morning, *sigh*

Back at the airport we queued, again.  After a while they decided to forgo the whole queuing idea and read a list of names, sending us to another airlines check in desks.  We had approximately 45 minutes to check our bags and get on the plane!  Erin and I had tax to claim back from our purchases of suits and so on for work in the UK so I rushed to the counter and explained the hurry and everything was processed nice and quickly.

Finally on a flight we all rejoiced... but it was far too soon for that.  We arrived in Sao Paulo only to be told we had a 3-5 hour wait, but at least they provided lunch vouchers... however Erin cannot eat wheat and all they had was a bakery style deli, which although they had potato chips would not allow us to have those on our vouchers.  Erin found a BA employee and asked if any other food could be found, they said yes and told her to come back in an hour.

We returned in an hour to find.. well nothing, the employee had vanished.  We tried the deli again and eventually someone there realised we were the people for whom a special box had been delivered.  Finally Erin had something to eat.

In the meantime we also did a bit of Duty Free shopping for essentials like perfume and make up, also underwear to replace the stuff we had worn out in 6 months backpacking.

Then it was back into a queue for our boarding passes for the next flight to London.  This process seemed to take an incredibly long time and no reason was given.  It appeared to me that someone or something had stuffed up and lost some boarding passes which then had to be re-issued.  Initially they were processing the queue and searching for the passes but finally someone decided to read the names out loud and that was a little faster.  Unfortunately I was one of the people who pass was missing and a new one had to be issued.  We were some of the last onto the plane.

The flight was excellent, the food was good, and they even had Erin's wheat free meal!  I watched 4 movies and Erin slept a bit but I couldn't, as usual.

Once we arrived we had to wait for a free spot to disembark, then the air bridge was broken and we had to wait for stairs... all this took around 30 minutes.  And I thought we were past all the problems, no such luck.

Finally we made it off the plane and down to the baggage lounge where we collected 2 of our 3 bags... we waited, and waited, worried about Kirsty sitting somewhere and waiting for us, not to mention the parking costs!  Every so often an announcement would be made, apologising for the delay and saying they had found another baggage cart of bags but all to no avail.  Eventually we gave us, filed a missing baggage report (leaving Erin's notebook behind!) and left.  Parking was £10!

Some days later my bag arrived, it was delivered by courier.  Sadly Erin's notebook has not.  So, there ends the disaster that was our flight to the UK.  At least the plane didn't crash I suppose.

And now, the job hunt begins.