The planned route to Santiago: fly London-Sao Paulo, wait for 2hrs then fly to Asuncion (Paraguay), stay the night in Asuncion, fly Asuncion-Santiago after a refreshing nap. Land at Santiago just under 29hrs after beginning my journey.
The actual story summarised: diverted flight, missed connection, almost sent back to London, 3hrs sleep, forced to take the long way to Santiago, lost baggage. This is a long and whingey post.
Days 17 & 18: Sunday 17/02/2008 & Monday 18/02/2008. Hayley dropped me off at Heathrow and it appears it was third time lucky for me: no random body scan!
I did, however, lose my boarding pass on my way to the departure lounge. A nice British Airways person printed another copy for me, then disclosed the fact that the gate attendants never check the ticket against the passport "even though they should". Despite all the extra security measures, there are still obvious loopholes in the system.
Checking in was easy, though the BA person told me that I couldn´t check in all the way to Asuncion. I would have to disembark at Sao Paulo and check in again. This was opposite to my travel agent friend´s advice so I asked her if she could check this for me, which she did. My 1.75hrs between flights should have been just enough time to collect my luggage and check in again at the other end...
My flight began comfortably (I had two spare seats next to me) but it wasn´t destined to end that way. About half way through the flight, it became obvious that the 11.5hr London-Sao Paulo flight that my itinerary promised was actually 12hrs and growing. With just 1hr between my connecting flights, I was getting anxious.
Things went from worse to worst-case when the captain informed passengers that heavy thunderstorms were preventing us from landing in Sao Paulo: we had just enough fuel to make it to Rio de Janeiro. Our flight attendant told us that travel insurance would cover our interconnecting flights and we would most likely receive hotel and meal vouchers for our troubles.
There were two things wrong with this picture for me:
- I would be by myself in either Rio or Sao Paulo late at night. All I could think of was the flavillas and Katie B´s South American experience. Embarrassingly, I didn´t know exactly what language was spoken in either city. I had done no research on Brazil; and
- I did not have a Brazilian visa. I had a Paraguayan visa, to cover my one night in Asuncion.
My worst fears were realised when we landed in Sao Paulo just after midnight. I had missed my connecting flight and had been on a plane for almost 15.5hrs. It was 3am London time.
I can not sleep on planes. It´s a disability. I managed a couple of half-hour naps around take-off and landing (when I am most relaxed), but no substantial sleep. I had about 3hrs sleep the night before and I arrived in Sao Paulo on edge. I was exhausted, hungry, thirsty and very much alone.
My first challenge, after registering as a displaced person with BA (and I was the only person on the plane travelling to Santiago via Asuncion), was determining the language. I listened to conversations as I moved up the queue and it seemed that they spoke a mix of Portuguese, Spanish and French. Darn multilingual airport staff! I wished that I had done some contingency reading on Brazil.
The people in front of me had British passports and needed no entry visa. When I reached the front of the passport queue, I was told that I needed a visa just to enter the airport, let alone stay in the country. With meal and hotel vouchers being given for places outside of the airport, I feared that I would be spending the night (ie. getting zero sleep) in the departure lounge. Two federal police questioned me about why I was heading to Asuncion then discussed my fate in indecipherable whispers. I felt like screaming, "I am four months pregnant. Give me food and a bed", but I didn´t. I still haven´t used that card.
A useful airport person who spoke English fairly well, wasn´t hell-bent on sending me back to London (as the police wanted) and finally understood that I didn´t want to enter the country told me about the Fast Sleep Hotel. I would only pay for the hours I slept and would have to pay up front but I could then make a claim back from BA. He would sort out a breakfast voucher and connecting flight for me.
He also tried to book my replacement flight straight through to Santiago [the Asuncion stay was only booked to avoid the Brazilian visa, which turned out to be unavoidable]. My ticket, however, detailed specific destinations and I had to go via Asuncion. Though unable to give me a more convenient flight, he assured me that he had personally collected my luggage and checked it all the way to Santiago for me.
It was 2:30am by the time I got to bed; I was up 3hrs later, surprisingly refreshed.
My 9:00am flight to Santiago via Asuncion turned out to be the 8:00am flight to Santiago via Asuncion via Cuidad del Este. Very fortunately, I checked in with Tam Mercosur early [I wanted time to eat breakfast...] and I was the second-last person to board the bus to the plane.
From the ground, Sao Paulo looked like an industrialised suburb of Perth. It wasn´t until we were in the air that I appreciated the expanse of the city with its verrugated landscape and candy-coloured houses.
The hum of the Fokker 100´s engine was musical and familiar. It reminded me of the soundtrack to the Dali exhibition; droning bass overlaid with dissonant treble.
Half an hour into the flight, I discovered that my vegan vegetarian meal preference was not communicated to all flights as QANTAS had promised. The set meal promised listeriosis and I sipped gratefully on my orange juice. Minutes later, Maria Johnson´s fruit platter materialised in front of me and it was very good.
Only 5.5hrs left before I could enjoy a proper meal - which meant 5.5hrs for me to learn basic Spanish from my guidebook and the in-flight duty-free magazine. I was ordering drinks in Spanish before the end of the flight.
Two unexpected bonuses: (1) flying over snow-capped peaks just before reaching Santiago; and (2) landing 25mins early!
I entered Santiago with four different currencies - euros, pounds, $Sing, $US - and only just not enough $US to pay the unexpected $US56 entry fee to Chile. I had to exchange all other currency for Chilean pesos then buy the extra $US, then re-queue. All this before reaching immigration and baggage claim.
My recent good fortune meant that I was due for a balancing bout of bad, which I got when my luggage didn´t show. I went to the Tam Mercosur counter next to baggage claim and lodged a report, as they could not tell me where my luggage was. The attendant didn´t understand that my mobile phone was actually with me and operational in Chile, even though I physically showed her my phone, as I listed it as an international contact number. So she left two numbers for me to call her on when I could give a local number.
I met up with Luke an hour after disembarking and spent the next 1+ hrs trying to find Tam Mercosur´s main office [the two numbers I had been given rang out]. After being assured that my luggage would arrive "tomorrow", despite no further information [and I suspect it was sitting in Sao Paulo], it arrived later that day - only we were shopping well away from the house. All I could do was laugh. And shop. And eat Havanna chocolate bombs. Mmm...Havanna.
I now have my borrowed suitcase returned and my first 1.5 days in Santiago have been 31 degrees and fabulous. Valparaiso tomorrow. More to come.
1 comment:
Wow! Glad to read that you arrived safe and sound. Am loving your posts...a wonderful distraction from reading about juvenile justice.
Travel safe,
D x
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