We landed in Santiago at 5:30am and after paying the $130 landing fee in only perfectly clean $20 bills, we were met with one of the best sights ever…our bags!!!! We really thought our luck was on the upswing. With our bags in hand, we waited for 3 hours for the SkyAir counter to open. With the flight boards finally lit up, we happily gave our new e-tickets, that we re-booked the day before, and upon handing the tickets to the counter clerk, here is the conversation that followed…ALL in Spanish:
SkyAir: Oh Calama, that flight is cancelled. We are not flying to Calama today.
Suzanne: But we just booked this ticket yesterday with one of your employees.
SA: Sorry, we can fly you to Antafogasta and you can take a 3 hour bus ride to Calama and then catch a 90 minute shuttle bus to San Pedro.
Suzanne: But I don’t want to spend another 4-1/2 hours on a bus.
SA: That’s all we can do for you and there are no other flights to Calama today and only 1 flight to Antafogasto today.
Suzanne: Can you tell me why the flight was cancelled?
SA: The Calama airport is CLOSED.
Suzanne: What does that mean?
SA: I don’t know, the airport is closed. It is just closed.
Suzanne: Ok, I have to talk with Matt, we will return.
We then headed over to the LAN counter to see if they were flying into Calama today and what the ticket price would be. Here’s my conversation with the LAN counter in Spanish:
Suzanne: Are you flying to Calama today?
LAN: Yes, do you want to buy a ticket?
Suzanne: So the airport is not closed at Calama?
LAN: No, but I will check with the manager.
Suzanne: thank you
LAN: Ah yes the airport is closed, maybe our 4:00 flight will be able to go today.
Suzanne: Is it closed due to weather, wind, rain, fog, clouds?
LAN: No, I don’t think so, just something probably little…(followed by a shrug)…just a little something maybe wrong. I don’t know. Do you want to buy a ticket?
Suzanne: No thank you.
So back to the SkyAirlines Counter:
Suzanne: We are back, we will take the flight to Antofagasta along with both bus rides. LAN said the airport might be closed due to weather or “a little something”. Do you know yet why the airport is closed?
SkyAir: Yes, a plane crashed on the runway, so the airport is closed.
Suzanne: Well that’s something that everyone should know about right?
SA: (just a shrug) Can I put your ticket through and have your bags?
Suzanne: Ok, thanks.
Matt and I were so bewildered by the mystery surrounding Calama airport. I was worried that since it was a plane crash, my family would hear about it on the evening news and be worried since they knew we were flying to Calama. We landed in Antofagasta and after yet another near snafu with our checked backpacks, we were on our way (via bus) to Calama Airport to catch the second and final bus to San Pedro. Upon arriving at Calama, we discovered that there was no plane crash. The day before, an Argentina Airlines plane stopped on the runway due to “bad brakes” so they just left the plane on the runway and tried to fix it there instead of towing it off the runway. Since it was stuck on the runway, they closed the airport.
After 52 hours of travel time, we finally made it to Hostel Elim in San Pedro de Atacama! The hostel is great, although the “beautiful garden” spoken about online is under some massive construction, but the hostel and its owner Maria are really friendly. The hostel is only 2 blocks from the town square. There are street lights that the new Municipality just installed, but they don’t get turned on until after 10pm, which is useless for those walking around in the dark before 10pm.
We spent the remaining daylight hours getting our bearings in the little town, setting up our day trips and ending the day with a nice dinner on the town square with American one-hit-wonder songs from the 80’s playing in the background.
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