wrapped in plastic

this morning i waited around as the others went down to get some sandwiches since we probably won't be able to find vegan-friendly food at the airport and it'll be cheaper than airport food. then we took a shuttle to the airport shuttle and it cost more than we thought it would. we left early too because we didn't know how traffic would be. at least we're early enough that we're not dealing with long lines but this means we're waiting around for a long time doing nothing. we paid for luggage mummification, that is to say our bags got wrapped in plastic. this way the airline workers don't break into your bag and steal stuff. it seems like a crazy anti-theft measure but some people swear by it so we decided to give it a shot since now our bags are full of souvenir goodies. we also paid the airport departure fees. it's amazing how some places still make you pay in person for this stuff instead of adding it on to your ticket.

flying over buenos aires

i bought my tickets from lan but it turns out the flight was being operated by tam. there was no such notice when i made the purchase or on the subsequent emails i received confirming the flight. once we touched down in sãp paulo, we had to separate from dani who was going to return to the city and then catch a bus to rio de janeiro and stay in the country for another 10 days or so. we weren't allowed to go to the baggage claim as we were staying in the airport to take another flight. we had to hastily say goodbye as they shuffled us connecting flight people one way and those staying another way. i was concerned as hell about our bags because tam doesn't know we're taking a flight on another company. no one seems to know english or spanish either so we had a hell of a time figuring out what to do. one worker took our details and said she put in the request to have our bags transferred to our next flight but we were uneasy. we could not find workers from the company for our next flight either. afterall, we need to check in! we walked all over that damn airport. finally i said fuck it and went to the vip lounge to find out more info. the lady looked us up that we were on the flight but we'll have to check in at the gate which isn't for a few more hours. plus, she couldn't do anything about our bags.

tam airlines--i hope the pilot isn't new

our layover is for a few hours so we needed to eat. we had another difficult time dealing with the workers at the sandwich shop because all of the skills we had learned to communicate with people in portuguese disappeared once we entered argentina. plus, there's just no finding vegan food at the airport, especially in latin america. there were some sandwiches that looked like meat but the workers swore it was made from olives. we were very skeptical but hungry so we bought it. i tried a swab and you know what, it really is olives. it's pink and the outer part had gotten crusty so it looked like meat but the rest was all creamy. it's some sort of olive spread. i don't know if it has dairy but i took a gamble. we weren't able to go to the same souvenir shop that we had seen when we flew to foz do igauç. it must've been on the domestic side and now we're on the international side. over here, the souvenir shops have completely different items and the prices are outrageous. yet, there was one thing we couldn't resist so we bought a tambourine with the flag of brazil on it.

finally, workers appeared at the gate and we spoke to a person who knew english, amazing. he called around to check on the status of our luggage being transferred from tam. they found one bag only. they said they found twiddle thumbs's bag but they had not found my bag but to wait until the flight and check again. so we wait. i'm making a mental list of all that i've lost to file a claim and twiddle thumbs is trying to soothe me regarding the loss. finally it's time to board so we check again. no, they never found my bag. damn! he said to file a claim when we reach our final destination and gave us the phone number for tam in brazil. great! this is going to be hell when we get back.