This is a low

Auckland airport - Wednesday morning 11am NZ time. Should be in Santiago...

Sooner or later I guess there had to be glitch.

I get a call from Qantas late Monday to say my Tuesday afternoon flight from Auckland to Santiago, which is a codeshare with LAN, has been delayed 10 hours. Not great, but I can still make La Paz connection at the other end, just an inconvenience. So being smart I (a) book myself into a cheap hotel to get some sleep instead of mooching around the airport, and (b) call them back Tuesday afternoon just in case - yes, flight is still confirmed as delayed 10 hours, please get to airport at 1am. Which I do - to find flight went on time 7 hours previously. Of course the place is deserted but eventually pin down unsuspecting Air NZ employee who finds me a phone and I get to speak with Qantas in Brisbane. Apparently LAN hadn't told them it was going on time after all. I am now booked on the flight 24 hours later to Santiago (I think - the worrying word 'standby' was used when I turned up this morning) but this means I've missed La Paz and can't now do the Bolivia part of the trip. Oh well, just have to be philosophical about these things. I make it a promise to go there with Kate some day - and for longer than 4 days. So if all goes OK from here, I shall have 4 quiet chill out days in Santiago instead, which may be no bad thing either. We shall see - all bets feel like they're a little off right now.