Another free buffet breakfast, same offering as yesterday.

 

I spend the day relaxing by the pool and reading.  I ask for a late checkout and am informed that if I have lunch at the hotel restaurant I can check out as late as 5.  Another salad, steak and fries (no wine) for about $8.

 

I am determined to make everything go smoothly from here on out.  So I get a cab to the airport at 3:00, fully 4 hours early for my flight. I arrive at 3:15. This is perhaps the funniest moment of my entire trip.  Are you ready for this?  Do you think you can guess before I tell you?  Yes, that’s right, the airport is empty.  Everyone is on siesta until 5!!!!

 

 

I proceed to a window to pay my exit fee.  I meet a guy who was on Aconcagua, came close (turned around on summit day due to high winds) but didn’t summit.  He screwed up the dates and stayed at the hotel an extra day only to arrive at the airport a day late for all his flights.  When they announce my flight I go through security.  When they announce the rows to board, I’m right there at the front of the line.  So off I go to the plane, seat 23L a window seat on the left side as I head down the aisle.  …17, 18, 19, 20, 21.  That’s it, there are no more rows.  No I am not pulling your leg.  I have been assigned a seat that doesn’t exist.  I go to the flight attendant and I must say I am on the edge of freaking out.  In fact, from his perspective I might have freaked out.  Now I’ve got no seat for a flight I had to pay $310 for when I should have only had a change fee.  And I have to be on this flight because I’ve already paid a $250 change fee for my other flight.  I tell the flight attendant that I’m just going to take a seat rather than be denied one.  He tells me that anyone with a ticket for a seat I will in will force me out and I should just wait.  He assures me that they will get me a seat.  I throw my carry-on in the overhead bin as I don’t want to have to check/lose that.  Finally, everyone is seated and they have one seat left.  It’s in first class, but that means nothing on this 40 minute flight, no drinks, no food, same size seats.  I ain’t complaining, I’ll take it.  So I ask if he can bring up my bag.  He clears a space first to make sure he can do it, then goes back to get my bag.  While he is gone, the other flight attendant puts someone else’s bag in the space he had just cleared…I just about popped her in the mouth.

 

I get home on the next day.  New Year’s Eve.  Tomorrow is not just a new day, it’s a whole new year.  And believe me, it will take about a year to wash the sour taste of this trip out of my mouth.