STRANDED PASSENGERS

It’s Saturday December 12, 7:00 am. The taxi that will take us to the airport has arrived. We’ll be gone for one week. Half of our luggage is staying in San Bernardo. We have said goodbye to most of the family last night. Nena is up to say goodbey.

It’s a 45 minute drive, the sky is grey from the smog which hangs low in between the mountains which surround Santiago.
After checking in and dropping off our luggage, we arrive at the boarding gate at the indicated time for the 9:30 am departure. After waiting for ten minutes an announcement is made that there is a delay. We will hear more at 11:30 am. We walk around, check e-mails and gather together with the other 200 passengers at gate 21 for the news. We are not able to leave yet. Bad weather prevents the plain to land in the tiny Mataveri airport on Easter Island. “Go and have lunch and at 3:30 pm, we will know more” we are told. We call Ramiro’s cousin Xenia, who lives on the island with her husband Mario. Perhaps they are able to tell us more. After all Mario is a senior employee at Mataveri. We wait, we eat, we sleep, we read and talk to some of our fellow passengers. There are people from all over the world. Germany, Italy, Holland, Belgium, Brazil, France, Portugal, England, Spain and Canada. Most of them are only scheduled to stay for three days. This delay really cuts into their sightseeing time.

At 3:30 pm. A large crowd gathers at the boarding gate. We are waiting for the announcement, which is first done in Spanish then in English. Passengers are confused, what’s happening, what are we suppose to do?
“We’re not flying today” is the message. “Go to the main floor, collect your luggage, go to the second floor to the check in counter and there you will receive further instructions”. We pick up our luggage, go the counter, where we receive a phone card. Our luggage is loaded into a van and two busses are waiting to take us to our hotel. At 5:30 pm we arrive at the Sheraton in downtown Santiago. Back in the smog, back in the heat. For some of our fellow passengers this is a real treat, because their accommodations during this vacation is a tent. Sheraton is a nice place to be, but the two glasses of wine we each have cost more than a meal would have cost us, including wine and dessert.

We check into our room and go for a walk in the nearby park. At 6:30 it is still 33 degrees. We have little energy and decide to go for dinner on the patio.

We gather some clean clothe for the morning and weed through the four boxes of strawberries that have been sitting in our bag all this time. Half of them are already moldy. Xenia will be so disappointed. This was her only wish; Fresh strawberries from the main land. We go to bed early and are to call the airline at 6:00 am.
After a good night rest and a quick breakfast all passengers gather in the lobby. The bus will pick us up at 8:00 am.
We go through the entire routine again, checking in luggage, checking the boarding pass and meet at the gate. The sign above the desk indicates, that the flight to Easter Island is scheduled for departure at 12:00. We have three hours to kill. I check ny e-mails and walk as far as I am allowed, up the stairs, down the stairs back and forth through the halls. All 200 passengers gather at the gate at 11:30. Nothing happens. we wait, and wait and are told to get our boarding passes ready, which are checked and then we are told to sit down. 10 minutes later the sign above the desk switches to a different destination. “All passengers for Easter Island please move to gate 22”. There is no plain in sight at gate 22.

We wait some more. A plain rolls in. The maintenance crew start rolling up their equipment along the doors of the plain, bags of garbage are taken out and freight is loaded in, even a Suzuki goes inside the belly of the plain. Finally at 1:00 pm the plain is loaded with passengers and we take of.

After five hours we land on the island. We had expected a nice sunny sky, but it’s overcast. As we disembark, the humidity hits us as if a hot, wet towel is thrown over our head. We walk over the tarmack and see Xenia and Mario waving at us. They greet us with one of the colourful Leis, just like they do in Hawaii.
Xenia is another one of the many cousins of Ramiro, her husband Mario was transfered to the island, about 25 years ago for a three year contract with the Government to be in charge of the airport. He is still here. He retired and was rehired for a different position. Xenia and Mario like life on the island, but they returns to the mainland at least once a year, to do some business, see specialist or dentists and visit their son.

After taking our luggage to the house and drink some Cola de Mono - a traditional Chilean drink, usually served during the Chirstmas season, made with Instant coffee, milk, vanilla and alcohol - we drive a round a bit and Xenia buys vegetables and fruit from a local vendor, who does grow some on hisrented land but brings most of it in from the mainland. A kilo tomatoes, wich would cost .60 cents in Santiago cost $ 6.00 on the island.