All day we were crossing our fingers that we would make it on our flight to Buenos Aires on this second attempt. Our prayers were answered and sure enough, we were buckled up and cruising south. We were carefree and talking about how we couldn't wait to settle into our hotel and relax before heading out for a few beers and viewing the sights.
At the 3.5 hour mark when Teah was still sound asleep, movie number two was well into action, and dinner was already consumed; we got the news that sent disbelief throughout the cabin: "Ladies and gentlemen, we are sorry to inform you but due to the ash cloud formed from the Chilean volcano we will not longer be able to reach our destination and will have to return to Atlanta." At this point I looked up at the little plane on the screen following that yellow line and was able to see our plane doing a "U-Turn" at the northern tip of the South American continent. Jaws literally dropped and I truly thought hysteria would break out as it dawned on people that they would be sitting on a plane for well over 7 hours only to have consumed a meal and seen a couple of lousy movies.
It was no joke and we arrived back in Atlanta at 4:00 a.m. after having departed on an 8:45 p.m. flight to Buenos Aires. During the return back to Atlanta we reflected on the fact that we were now 3 days into our trip and still hadn't reached our destination and realized that the possibility of getting down to Buenos Aires in the next few days was very slim with all the displaced passengers and the uncertainty of the ash cloud. We therefore looked at Delta's "Sky" magazine, narrowed down the places we would like to see and chose to totally write off Argentina for now and make our way to Prague in the Czech Republic.
Getting new tickets for this next flight was our next big fiasco. After hustling to the ticket window to beat most of the other 200 or so Boeing 767 displaced passengers we began to give our sob story and request new tickets for Prague. Two and half hours later at around 7:00 a.m., we finally got our new tickets and were ready to head to another Atlanta hotel to try and get some rest before our 5:30 p.m. departure to Prague.
So far the trip has been a whirlwind, but we know it will get better. Keep reading and we hope you will agree as we finally make it somewhere and have some better pictures to look at then the three of us on planes and trains.
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