It's the second time in my life that I miss a flight, but I promise that this time it was not because I ate a donut slowly while "I waited for the check-in time to be done"; A series of unfortunate events occurred that didn't allow me to reach the Ultimate Frisbee tournament in which I was going to participate.
š· This stained glass is one of the famous works of art that serves as a wall at the Maiquetia National Airport.
Traveling in Venezuela has been a challenge for a couple of years; here people get up early or sleep days in the terminals to sign up on waiting lists invented by the same passengers.
The situation forces us to compete for a ticket, but the person who offers to pay with cash usually wins, which due to its scarcity has become very valuable.
I have chosen to leave it to luck; depending on the destination, I only arrive a little before the departure of the bus and I cling to the possibility of having a seat available.
That was how I was able to embark towards Caracas a few days ago, to be able to reach my flight to Merida, where I would play the 1st Invitational Tournament of Ultimate Frisbee Andes 2018.
But I did not exactly get a seat to travel, along with three other girls I shared the driver's cabin, which was approximately 2 meters long and 1 meter wide.
At that time I felt very grateful that my height was 1.57 cm, but still looked like a contortionist.
My flight was at 9:15 a.m, and I had to check in before 8:30 a.m. The bus had to arrive at 6:00 in the morning, then it would have enough time to board, from the terminal to the airport the time is 30 to 40 minutes depending on the traffic that there is.
It was raining a lot, and that caused that it didn't arrive to time. It was almost 7:00 a.m. As soon as I got off I ran to the subway station one block away to go to the bus office that goes to the airport.
But the subway didn't arrive, I already had half an hour there when they announced that it was not working due to electrical faults.
Fuck! I decided to walk to take the bus in a place that I thought was still the office; I was not even in the middle of the waywhen it started to rain, and that's how it was until I got to the "station", where I discovered that it had stopped working there more than two years ago.
A guard explained to me where the nearest bus stop was, and I had to walk a kilometer more in the rain, I was soaked and my backpack was also. When I arrived, the transport didn't take long to start, it was already 8:15 a.m. It took me half an hour, it was 8:45 a.m when I stepped on the airport, but 15 minutes before the flight closed and I could not reach it.
Since the competition was Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I spent three days trying to change my ticket, but I did not, and finally I returned home.
Although I kept the frisbee in my hand, the opportunity helped me to know places I had not planned to go and in another publication that I will share.
āļø What I learned on this trip:
- The floor of an airport is not that hard when you're really tired.
- Although it seems that it is not possible to find peace among so many people who frequent the airport, there will always be a special place. On this occasion I found a restaurant where they served vegan food, overlooking the airstrip and set with Jazz.
- We must be friendly and educated with the airport workers; It seems that many were in a bad mood (at least in Venezuela), but users influence that when we treat them like machines and not like humans.
- The walls of an airport can be works of art.
- In Venezuela it is cheaper and safer to travel by plane (the problem is to get tickets available).
- Don't travel with such a heavy bag, you never know when you will have to carry it constantly for three days in a row.
- We must not "worry", on the contrary we must "occupy ourselves", and if even in that way we do not get what we want, then we avoid getting attached to that desire and consider new options. Everything flows!
