On the road again, another time, another place.

Here I am. In the LATAM lounge at the Auckland airport! The gates will be opening soon. What a day. I left Adelaide very early this morning. My darling son and his gorgeous wife, were kind enough to take me to the airport. The Adelaide check was fast and easy. Except I left all my medication at the X Ray machine. Luckily I found out before boarding and I was taken back on a trolley with flashing lights!! VIP feeling, and I only just started my trip! I asked several staff members about the very tight connexion in Sydney. The woman at the check in counter was NOT impressed! ” you should have booked an earlier flight” this is NOT the responsibility of Qantas”! She obviously got up in a lousy mood! Mind you this was the ONLY unfriendly person I encountered! And it happened to be in Adelaide!

Great! Luckily all other staff members were incredibly supportive! Of course I wasn’t the only one with a tight connexion! There were all together six, two people who needed wheelchair support, which they didn’t get by the way. When all the people were on the bus, to be driven across to the international airport, a lone, black back pack, sat lost and forlorn out there on the Tarmac. This resulted in two buses stopping for twenty minutes, while emergency services dealt with this Lone Ranger! Then they waited for another trolley to come and pick it up. Glad to see people in Sydney are doing their job right! Of course Qantas held the plane for us!

I was supposed to have a two hour time slot at Auckland airport, due to the delay, I was on the next flight within an hour! The eleven hour journey to Santiago de Chile, was boring. Took my sleeping tablet, my painkillers, watch Bohemian Rhapsody again and two more movies which I have forgotten already. Barely slept! Plane was packed! Chair not reclining, all good. Did a lot of Spanish practise with the staff members! When I left the plane, the first class flight attendant gave me a good bye gift! She could not believe I can travel for five months with a 6.7 kg backpack! I didn’t tell her that I buy another bag on the way, which I fill up as I go!

Waiting in the lounge I connected with a lovely young woman from Switzerland, who bought me a cup of coffee, and gave me her little pillow to travel with. After big hugs she left to catch her connecting flight. After a four hour sleep, I chatted with a lovely young man from Brasil, who had just broken up with his wife, and was shattered! I lend him my ears, and gave him lots of kind words, while he sobbed in the airport lounge. Big hugs, and more good byes and I was on my own again. It is really those short intense Connexions with other transient souls I treasure.

There was no information desk, it was the wonderful, elderly cleaning lady, who guided me towards my new airline’s golden lounge. After organising my seat, no boarding pass as yet, the young man let me into the golden waiting room, where there was a buffet of food, drinks, soft drinks and wine was freely available! Stuck to coffee, charged my iPad with the free Chilean connector, and indulged in another short sleep, and watching Trevor Noah and Steven Colber on You Tube! Ah, life in the golden lane! How wonderful! Don’t dare to take another sleeping tablet! The last stage of my journey, for now! LIMA here I come! I can taste the Pisco Sour already!! 

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4 Comments

  1. Glad you arrived safely – and sounds like you are off and running! Enjoy 🙂

    • ineke

      Thank you Michelle. Am travelling to Ecuador tonight, flying to Galápagos on Sunday!

  2. Hi Ineke – I just read about your travel, the trip sounds amazing. I admire your for traveling like that by yourself, and your ability to make friends where ever you go.
    Stay safe and I send you lots of love, from Hanne Klein

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