You know that feeling, you know the one that you just want to punch someone in the throat..... well I had exactly that feeling this morning. I just had to suppress it..... which took a lot of will power!
Well it all started with Simon picking me up from the hotel, and driving me the short 5mins through town to the airport. He was such a brilliant driver, and helped me in with my bags. I said farewell to Simon and joined the small queue at the one and only checkin counter.
As I stood there I could see that it was a slow old process. There were two girls working behind the desk, however I couldn't see why things were moving quite slowly. As we slowly edged our way closer, there was now only a couple of Japanese girls in front of me before I made it to the desk, and I need to point out that I was still the last one in the queue at this stage. Behind me the door opened, and a group of 4 Japanese and 2 Dutch tourists turn up, they bypass all of us and stand directly behind one group of passengers being booked in by one of the girls. What the hell. It took all of my might not to do a flying scissor kick across the queue!!! I was livid!
As the checkin lady finished with her people, the 4 Japanese just went and pushed in. The 2 Japanese girls in front if me said nothing, just stared at them. Meanwhile the steam was combusting out of my ears. The slow old process continued and the 4 Japanese passengers were taking a while to be checked in. The second checkin lady had just finished with her passengers, and the Dutch tourists went to cut in front of the two Japanese girls in front of me, quickly rushing to put their bags on the weigh machine. This is when I completely lost my s***. The Japanese girls were too polite to say anything, however I wasn't. I looked at the lady and said 'these girls are first'. She just looked at me with a shocked look on her face. Don't play dumb with me lady.... 'wait your turn like everyone else'. She then said, 'oh, we wait here', yes best you do that considering you already pushed in to be there in the first place. Ooooo if looks could kill, she would be 6 foot under.
The Japanese girls were processed quite quickly and I made my way up to the checkin counter. As I was being checked in, a good dose of travel karma was dished out to the Dutch couple, as the baggage handlers took their bags before they were ticketed. The Dutch man was going nuts and started to follow his bags and make sure they were ticketed. It ended up taking them a lot longer to be processed than what I did. Serves you right for pushing your bags in before everyone else's!!! Rant over!!
So, whilst I was being checked in, I could see why it was taking so long for everyone to be checked in. The checkin staff had to manually write up airline tickets for us. Like hand write them. So they were checking the list of passengers, then checking the allocated seat number, then writing out the tickets, then writing out the baggage ticket, finally handing my passport and ticket across to me.
I headed towards security, only to find a baggage X-ray machine that wasn't working, and a guy with a metal detector. So first job, take everything off and hand it to the security guy. Then walk through and be metal detectored. Finally, I had my bag opened and searched by security. I passed with flying colours.
I watched as the plane arrived, and let it's passengers off. They all looked so excited about what they were about to see. I thought back to a couple of days ago, when I was one of those excited tourists disembarking the plane. As the arriving passengers went in one door, the check in staff then reappeared at the door closet to us, checking our tickets, and directing us out towards the plane. I climbed up the stairs to the plane and found my seat.
I was soon joined by a man who was sitting next to me. Not a word was spoken between us, probably the language barrier was the biggest reason why. Although, it could also be the fact that he may have had a big night last night. The smell of booze permeating from his pores, often a waft would overcome me, and I spent much of the 45min plane trip tilted away from him.
I soon arrived at La Paz airport, to an amazing sunny day!! I collected my bags, and found my name written on a board. The lady holding it, was the same guide I had for my lake Titicaca tour a few days ago. She led me to an awaiting van, and I was driven into the heart of La Paz. It all looked so familiar!!
I arrived at my hotel, and was lucky that my room was available, even though it was only 9am. Normal checkin time is 2pm, so I counted my lucky stars, and rapidly made my way to my room before they changed their minds.
I collected my bag that I had stored at the hotel whilst I was enjoying my time at the salt plains, and was glad to find that it hadn't been tampered with!! Phew.
I spent a good couple of hours unpacking everything, and then trying to stuff everything into their allocated bags. It is getting harder and harder to fit everything in!! Let's just hope I can zip my bag up tomorrow when I put my last few items in!!
Having seen everything that I wanted to see in La Paz, I spent my afternoon just lazing around my room, reading my newly downloaded book in the sun.
My plan tonight was to have a very early night, as I have an extremely early wake up tomorrow morning. However, my plans look to be derailed. As I looked out of my window, I could see the football stadium slowly filling with football fans. My cover photo shows just how close the football stadium is... Maybe 100m away. All I can hear is cheering and chanting!! These fans are passionate!!
Heres hoping I get some sleep!!! Otherwise I could be one very grumpy lady tomorrow!!