It Not Over Till It's Over

You know how they say it's not over till the fat lady sings? Well, she's still belting it out loud and strong here in Bolivia. We got up yesterday and had a nice breakfast and finished packing for the trip home. We left the apartment to go have lunch around 2:00 p.m. We wanted to go to Gattapardo for their well reported on steaks. The car started and was running fine and then all of the sudden just kept dying right in the middle of the road. Thankfully, it kept starting. So we made it downtown. We had a very nice lunch. We wanted to treat Bob and Reenie for showing us such warm hospitality. Mike went to pay with our credit card. Their system was down...no credit cards! And by the way, no sign on the door to indicate that their machines were down. So between Mike and Bob they scraped up enough Bolivianos to pay the bill. Some treat for them huh? 

Now my fear was that the car wouldn't start and we would miss the flight or at least be cutting it close. It started up and seemed to be running fine. We made it to the airport in plenty of time. We checked our bags and got our boarding passes. We told Bob and Reenie they didn't have to wait. They said," No we will wait until we see the plane actually take off. This is Bolivia you never know what might happen!"

I think they must be prophets! We went through security, no problem. We are waiting at the gate( there are only two in the Tarija airport) It is about ten minutes until boarding time when they make an announcement in Spanish. Well I didn't exactly understand all of the announcement, but I'm smart enough to know when you see about 125 Bolivians all get up and start running, you better get up and go too. I tried to find somebody that spoke some English (hard to do). In her broken English she said we needed to go back to the airline desk. At this point we knew this was not good. But true to their word, when we came around the corner, their were Bob and Reenie! The prophets, true to their word had not left the airport! 

Bob went with us and the other 125 Bolivians to find out what was going on. It seems that the plane that was coming from Cochambamba refused to land because of the extremely low cloud cover. It was in the air right above us, but wouldn't land. It was full of people who were coming to Tarija and it turned around and went back to Cochambamba. There would not be another flight until the next morning. So you know what that means. We had no way to get to Santa Cruz to catch our connecting American Airlines flight back to the states. So they rebooked us for a flight this morning from Tarija to Santa Cruz. Great right? Wrong! There were no available flights back to the states from Santa Cruz until Wednesday morning. So we had to book a hotel room close to the airport for tonight. Tomorrow, if all goes well we will be on the 9:00 am flight from Santa Cruz back to the US and should be back in Nashville at 10:30 pm Wednesday night.  Of course we had to have proof for American that missing our connection was not our fault, so we asked them at the airport for a letter stating it was the local airlines fault. " Sure we can provide that. But you will have to go to the BOA office downtown. It closes in an hour." So off we go to downtown Tarija, when everyone is getting off work and traffic is crazy. Did I also mention that yesterday the weather took a drastic change and the temperature was only in the low 30's with a very cold wind chill? We got to the office and took care of the paperwork. But they could not change our airline ticket for us. Not their problem. So Reenie and I walked to a travel agency nearby to see if they could help. Thankfully Reenie was able to communicate our dilemma to the agent, as she spoke no English. She called the airlines for us and was able to get it changed. Of course, American Airlines was happy to change the reservation, for a small fee ( Their idea of small and mine are two different things...but AA did post a gazillion dollar profit this quarter...So I guess in some small way Mike and I helped add to their profit) but when you have to get home, you do what you have to do. 

So we make all the necessary arrangements, hotel in Santa Cruz, transportation in Santa Cruz and emails and phone calls to Joe and Clarinda, who have so graciously consented to still come pick us up at the airport. So I'm hoping today goes smoother and that tomorrow night we will be back in Glasgow.  But for now, if you listen closely, she's still singing ( the fat lady) I just don't recognize the song. It's in Spanish!