In my last post, I had made my flight from Montevideo to Lima Peru. I caught the flight out of Lima headed to San Jose Costa Rica on an Airbus A320 - very similar to the A319 from the flight before. I spent most of the flight reading my book (Viven!), doing a spanish/english crossword in the inflight magazine, and watching a fairly horrible movie called "Our Family Wedding".
It wasn't until we were almost to San Jose that I sparked up a conversation with the guy next to me. He was from Brazil, heading to El Salvador to go surfing. He, like I, bought the cheap 5 flight package, although he was on flight #4 while I was on flight #2. We were chatting about normal stuff, he was a policeman in Brazil, the Brazilian team Santos is in the final of the Copa Libertadores, etc. when the plane started hitting some turbulence. He didn't quite like it, but I assured him it was much better than my last flight.
We continued talking, and finally took note that we were not landing at all. We were circling in the air, mainting a holding pattern, and I think, attempting to land every so often but forced to pull out of it due to the turbulence. It was super super cloudy, and I couldnt quite see anything, but the stomache clenching drops and plane shudders were on the minds of everyone within.
Even on schedule, I only had 40 minutes between flights in San Jose. I was already wondering if my luggage would make it onto my connecting flight. As the minutes ticked away, I slowly realized that it wouldn't be much of a problem cause I wasn't going to be making the connecting flight either. Circling in the air, jostling in the storm around us, many things run through your mind. Do we have to land here? Do we have enough fuel to land somewhere else or do we have to run the gambit of this storm? How much pressure does it take to rip a wing off a plane? Can the pilots see any better than I can? What are we doing? Whats the problem? and of course, much much more.
On the larger drops in the sky - the ones that make you realize just how valuable life is and that you really do want to go on living and not plunge to the earth at 800 miles per hour - my Brazilian seat mate favored the spanish expression "La puta que te pario" while I favored the american classic "holy shit" while clutching the arms rests on either side of my seat in some ill attempted fear of desperation. There were two girls sitting behind me from Oklahoma City returning from a dental volunteer program who were considering using the barf bags supplied with each seat. Most impressive, was a 3 or 4 year old girl sitting in front of me who didn't cry, or make a single noise the entire time, unlike myself. She was quite valient.
I have to say, there's nothing like a little air turbulence to bring people together. When the pilot announced we were rerouting to El Salvador their was a collective sigh of relief. The remainder of the flight was normal and when we landed everyone clapped and cheered to celebrate our safety. And then we all wondered if we would ever make it home, as we had all missed our conncetions, except for my Brazilian friend who was able to shave a few hours off his trip to El Salvador.
Exiting the plane in San Salvador, we entered the airport where an assistant pointed us to new gates depending on our lost connections. I made my way to the Los angeles flight, to find that the plane was still on the ground in San Jose and hadn't yet left due to the weather. Luckily, I am blessed with a great abundance of patience for situations like these. So I waited, knowing that ultimatlely, my flight from LA to Seattle didn't leave until the following day regardless of my current situation. I sat chatting with others - from Peru and Honduras - in both spanish and english, and we were able to bond through our shared hatred for the last flight and speak about general things.
Eventually the plane arrived, and luckily we all fit. It was an Airbus A321, which was a bit larger than the last two planes. I was stuck in the odd seat next to the emergency exit, but felt lucky to be on a plane headed somewhere at all. During our delay, the entire airport shut down, food and drinks and bars and all, and I couldn't help but wonder about the possibility of being brushed off until the following days flights. Once boarded we waited on the tarmac forever....... and finally headed off to Los Angeles. Like on the Lima bound flight, I watched a movie starring Dennis Quaid as President Clinton about his sex scandal and his association and friendship with Tony Blair. It was decent, but a bit much to watch twice in one day..... but I did it. I slept a bit, I talked with my seat mates who were returning from the Galopogos Islands in Ecuador, and I read my book.
We arrived at LAX around 1:20 am. Deboarded, picked up my luggage, made my way through customs, and exited the airport to find myself outside - wondering where to go to find a connecting flight. I found a police woman who directed me towards the Alaska Airlines Check in area. I walked there to find a deserted wasteland of cleaning staff, and maybe 3 or 4 others like myself lingering on benches with luggage waiting for their morning flights. Exhausted, I took a seat and did my best to sleep, fighting the uncomfortability pre designed into seat.
At 4:30 am I checked in, made it through the inspection process, and arrived at Starbucks 5 minutes before their 5 am opening. I took my american and sat at my gate (31a) to wait for my 8:20 am flight. Around 6:30 the shops started opening, and my sheer boredon forced my attention to perusing magazines, books, candy, tshirts and all the other knick knacks of inherent in airport shopping. While in the shop, I struck up a great conversation with the woman working who was originally from Guatemala. She congratulated me on my good spanish and introduced me to her friend who was from El Salvador. I explained my journey and they told me all about the dangers of there past cities. It was refreshing to find myself using my spanish in the states, and they were both very very nice and wished me the best as I headed off in search of my friend and family.
After much too many hours on the road, I finally boarded the plane and felt like I was finally going home. I slept almost all of the two or so hours home, and enjoyed the birds eye view out of my window seat of lush green mountains, puget sound coastal towns, and the City of Seattle from afar.
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