Because they're not together.

Two things absolutely have never ever ever happened to me while flying:

1) Miss a flight

2) Airline loses my luggage.

And now, I can proudly say, that BOTH of these things have happened to me on this trip.  Whenever something particularly shitty happens to us, we always have the same response, “good blog material.”

The worker/attendant/LAN Argentina representative/my new best friend woman was awfully friendly, but not entirely helpful.  Yenny and I were at the airport SIX hours before the flight (we’ll be damned if we miss another flight), and both tickets were bought together – same credit card, same confirmation number.  But as the travel gods have not looked upon me favorably thus far on this trip, Yenny’s bag came tumbling through the baggage claim conveyor belt, but sadly, mine did not.  I couldn’t quite follow this logic in my mind, so I asked the representative,

L: “Por que las maletas no están juntas?” (Why are the suitcases not together?)

Woman: “Porque no están juntas.” (Because they’re not together)

Well when you put it that way….

Then she asked what my address was in Bogota – didn’t know it.  Then she asked my phone number – don’t have one.  This is going to be tricky.  We finally decided that I would pick my suitcase up at the airport in Bogota tomorrow.  She gave me a LAN phone number to call, an email to contact, and interestingly, her personal hotmail email account.  I mean, I’m not looking especially dashing in my Nike shorts and Chi O pull over (God, I need to grow up. I really shouldn’t be dressing like this anymore), but I was quite charming.  And I think she recognized that and saw the potential for a new beefie in me.  Her thoughts, ‘Here’s a girl who’s down on her luck, but has still got a smile on her face.  That’s what I want in a friend.’  I’m totes gonna look her up on Facebook.

Did LAN let me down by losing my luggage?  Yes.  But they totally made up for it by playing Gags! I was thrilled!!!

Gags! This is the moment where they point out the hidden camera.

In the Buenos Aires airprot (be mindful, there are two.  And we almost went to the wrong one).

This was too good to be true.

Woooow.

So now we’re waiting in Cordoba, Argentina for a flight to Panama City to connect to Bogota.  Yep, makes perfect sense.  And yes, we too had to look up where Cordoba is on a map.  But it sure looks lovely…

Our only view of Coroba

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Cordoba IS lovely!  We got to experience this first hand because our flight to Panama City was CANCELLED!! Oh jeez, what is that about Murphy’s Law?  Everything that can go wrong will go wrong?

They announced that the flight was cancelled and offered to put us up in a hotel for the night.  Hell, better than sleeping in the airport.  Our flight was supposed to take off at 4:15 am, and it was 6:30 am by the time we get to the hotel.  And we hadn't slept a wink.  We were tiiiiiiiiiiired.

The good news: the hotel is AIR CONDITIONED (love it), has INTERNET, we get our meals FOR FREE, and they have a POOL!  Baller.

View from our window.  Stunning.

Getting ready to enjoy a nice, romantic dinner for two.

 Did I mention this was FREE?

The bad news:  We’ll only get like 4 days in Colombia, if we ever get there.  Oh yeah, and I still don’t know where my luggage is.  But I’ve got the essentials: my computer (blogging away), two magazines that I’ve already read, the wooden box I bought for my grandpa in Buenos Aires, and the gifts that Eduardo gave me.  I never believed in the, “pack a change of clothes in case your luggage gets lost.”  To me, that’s already accepting defeat.  If you expect bad things to happen to you, they will happen.  My theory has now been debunked as my luggage is somewhere in South America – I think it was going to Bogota by way of Lima (my favorite place).  Fingers crossed on that one...