Friday, March 12, 2010

Delta Blues

It's raining in Atlanta. I know this because I spent the night at the Comfort Inn here, courtesy of Delta Air.

Our flight out of Seattle was delayed and our flight out of Atlanta to Santiago wasn't. Last night Bill and I stood at a window in the airport with 15 distraught Chileans and watched our plane leave without us. One woman was lecturing the Delta employee who had the misfortune to be serving us that leaving Chileans on the ground in the U.S. during this difficult time in Chile was a "moral problem" for the airline.

Bill and I were distraught as well, but we had mentally prepared for trouble. Nothing about this trip has gone smoothly. I'd told Bill before we left Bellingham that we had to expect EVERYTHING to have gliches and bumps. If anything went as planned we could chalk it up as a miracle, but organizing this journey has been a bumpy ride from the beginning. There's no reason to expect it to change now.


So as of this moment, the plan is to fly out of Atlanta tonight at 8:20 PM and arrive in Santiago at 8:00 AM in the morning (March 13). At that point we will catch a SKY AIR flight to Punta Arenas, arriving there at 2:40 PM.

The main problem with our new itinerary is that we've lost our friend Marina. Marina was the lone, remaining runner from the original group. She was flying out of LA (to El Salvador, then to Peru, and finally to Santiago). We were supposed to meet up with her in Santiago and fly down to Punta Arenas together. My guess is that she's worried about us, and I'm worried about her being worried. Cross your fingers for us that we connect with her quickly when we arrive in PA.


We're supposed to do our Punta Arenas run the day after we arrive (on March 14) and Marina and I are supposed to fly down to King George Island on the 18th. I'll blog more if I can.

Peace!

1 comment:

Emily said...

Sending good thoughts your way, and anticipation for the adventure of a lifetime. Can't want to see you when you get back. SEVEN Continents!

Love you.