My husband and I have been having a lovely holiday in Argentina and Chile and have ended up in Easter Island - one of the places we have planned to visit for a long time and this year seemed to be the time. This was a combination anniversary trip (32 years thank you - together for 38) and my birthday (and we won't mention which one). Trip has gone swimmingly and we've seen some fantastic things, had some good times and loved Easter Island, in spite of it taking about 6 hours to get to from Santiago, Chile. It is our last day, my birthday, and we are flying back to Santiago and then back to London the next day. Holiday over, time up, back to work.
Happily, we are business class. Latam is the airlines serving Easter Island and for once, they have a separate business class check in line and boarding line. this has not always been the case for them. Time to go as there is one flight a day. Flight comes in from Santiago around 1 ish, crew cleans the airplane and turns it around to go back. Yesterday's crew comes back to fly it home to Santiago. We board, we get our pisco sours and nuts and are sitting on the plane relaxing and thinking about the wonderful things we have seen.
My husband is in the window seat. I'm in the aisle. The plane is full and they are minutes or even seconds away from closing the cabin door and removing the stairs. Two flight attendants are standing next to me and doing flight attendant things when there is a very loud clang/bang. My hubby thinks it comes from underneath us. I thought behind but what we both noticed immediately is that the two flight attendants were startled! Oh, that is not a good thing.
Within seconds, the captain is on the intercom system asking all cabin crew to report to the front of the aircraft. that also does NOT sound like a good thing. we're looking out of the window and can't really see anything but as we are watching, the announcement comes over the intercom, in Spanish which we don't speak but can understand bits and pieces and some words, to "disembarque" which we have certainly translated correctly to "GET OFF THE PLANE NOW". Oh, bad.
Honestly, I know you are supposed to just move but as there are people in front of us, I took the 15 seconds to open the overhead bin and grab my purse. without it, I might end up being "unidentifiable" as I have no ID on me. And I noticed that every woman I saw getting off that plane also had her purse. And I didn't hold anyone up behind me so I didn't feel bad about it. Probably if there had been smoke or flames, I wouldn't have taken the time.
So we are not running but staff is definitely telling us to get into the terminal and away from the plane. In this terminal there is a section that is open, a little garden with sculptures, and you can stand in this garden and see the tarmac. We headed for this section and watched the rest of the flight deplane. Seemed to take a very long time to get the 300 or so people off the plane but never any panic, never any running. Last off are the crew.
Around the plane are 3 firetrucks. Firemen are also standing around the plane and on a lift towards the right rear of the plane and getting into the hold. These firemen are in full "space suit" mode - their silver fire retardant suits with helmets. So they look quite space walky from a distance. One has a hose unrolled and is aiming it at the plane but he never turns it on. The plane looks quite normal albeit abandoned as there are only these few firemen close to it and there is no smoke, no smell, no fire, no anything. just a poor forlorn plane sitting there.
A luggage container comes down on the lift from the hold and is towed to the far end of the tarmac and left there. hmmmm. we were kind of waiting to see if they were going to blow it up or something and no matter what the problem was, we knew our luggage would be in that container but it just sat there and for as far as we know, it could still be sitting there.
With nothing happening, we finally just go sit down. There is an announcement and a general groan. We wait to see if it comes in English but it doesn't so we hunt down someone who will tell us what is happening. it was a "wait until 5 p.m. and we will make another announcement". yep, groan. Plane was supposed to leave at 3:30. hmmm. we start thinking that maybe we aren't getting home tomorrow.
Easter Island is isolated, very isolated. Still not sure exactly how it became a part of Chile and one of our guides actually said it was because Chile changed the wording on the agreement between them and someone when it was being developed as a defensive area against Peru. lots of politics back then, I'm sure, but Chile ended up with it and it takes a very long time to get there as it is supposedly the most remote island in the world. It is also unique, not just for it's history but it doesn't have a reef so the ocean just pounds on its volcanic shores. Container ships cannot dock but must unload and containers taken in on barges. And it has one of the longest runways because it was built as a backup emergency landing runway for the space shuttle. just overall, the whole place is unique in so many ways but we were ready to leave so big groan until 5 p.m. now.
At 5 p.m., another Spanish announcement which basically, once we got someone to translate, tells us that we must now wait until 6 p.m. for the next announcement. Luckily, they made a decision around 5:30 that this plane was not budging and a new plane from Santiago would be sent for us BUT of course, it would not get here until tomorrow so Latam would put us all up into hotels for the night, feed us, and get us back to the airport the next morning. My hubby and I had been sitting there reading and had not noticed that people had lined up to get back onto the plane to get their cabin baggage but with this announcement, we split forces and I went out to get our luggage which all luggage for some 300 people was already being taken off the carousel and lined up for their owners and my hubby went and got into the line to get on the plane for our cabin baggage as our meds are in there and cameras, etc. etc. They were letting just about 5-8 people on the plane at one time so it was going to take him awhile.
Our checked baggage was already on the floor there so grabbed a luggage cart and got into a line that was to get our hotel. supposedly this line was for business class passengers and another line that was VERY long was for the economy passengers. Don't know if you have traveled in South America but I've noticed this frequently on this trip that any person can just walk up to the front of the line and ask the desk attendant, or flight attendant, or shop owner, or waitress or whomever, a question and that person will stop helping you (even when you have been waiting in the queue) and answer the question, no matter how long it takes, and then go back to helping you. This drives me crazy since I have waiting in the queue for this and other people have as well. But it seems to be an accepted practice in Spanish speaking countries. and a few others as well. And since I am generally not speaking the local language, can't say much about it or even know if the question was so important that this person could not possible wait their turn. I've tried doing it and it never works for me.
The lines are moving slow as everyone in front of me seems to have a problem plus there is the odd person coming to the front of the line to ask a question but I am finally the next in line and still my hubby has not shown up with our cabin luggage. At least I am in the business class side as the economy line is still ridiculously long. She writes on my boarding pass a name times 2 and says someone will be outside the luggage area to help me. But no hubby. I abandon my luggage cart as I figure in this chaos it will probably be ok for a few minutes. I figure I'll get stopped walking back into the terminal but nobody says anything. My husband has just gotten to the front of the line to go get on the plane to get our bags. wow, took him about 30 minutes to get there and took another 15 to walk out to the plane, get our bags, and get back to the luggage area.
We walk out and someone approaches us and looks at my boarding pass with a name on it and he can't read it so he walks off with it. Yikes, what if he's absconded with it! I find him and he's just verifying the hotel name. apparently Latam has put all the business class and the crew into Hanga Roa Eco lodge which is actually much nicer than the hotel we had stayed in for our holiday. Luggage is loaded into a truck and we are hauled over there. Thank goodness this is not high season. Had it been high season, I think there is a good chance we would have been sleeping in the airport but since it wasn't, the hotels had rooms, apparently already shut down for the season so it took them awhile to open up the rooms and get them ready again but at least we had a nice room to sleep. So we wait for maybe another hour and finally get a room and then are invited to dinner at the hotel as well.
Latam really did a class act for us and the other business class passengers at least. We did not have full range of the dinner menu as they chose a standard meal to feed all of us but we had wine as well and they picked up that tab too. There was a lot of confusion as to when we would be picked up the next morning but we still had a place to sleep and a meal and a shower and we weren't on a broken plane. In my opinion, always fix the plane. never put me on a plane that has problems. I'm willing to wait however long it takes.
So an extra night in Easter Island, albeit we didn't see anything more except the hotel lobby and dining room and our overnight room, became intimately acquainted with the airport restrooms, and oddly enough, a protest outside the dining room of the hotel but just a posters protest, no people marching and shouting.
What an end to a lovely holiday. My travel agent, SouthAmerica.Travel was magnificent. Latam airways was fantastic. we will use all these sources again. and I will write about the rest of the trip as well. might take me awhile as I am still labelling photos.
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