here is an airport story that will amuse you. we were arriving in Peru for a 6-7 week trip about 20 years ago ... we were to fly directly to Iquitos, in the jungle, with a change in Lima, as is usual. Well once through immigration we were sent to the gate for Iquitos ... there were 2 other couples with us ... we didn't know them, we just all ended up at the same gate.

well we spoke about what we were doing ... the others were on a 7 day plan and so were pretty tight on time. anyway, after awhile, we noticed that there were fewer and fewer people and no one else for Iquitos ... strange we thought so went to inquire.

"Iquitos left a half hour ago" we were told ... well you can imagine what that generated especially after hearing that the next plane was in 2 days. We all ran around, blustering away. While we would be only moderately effected the other couple's trips would be ruined. We talked about chartering, begging, etc.

Anyway, after another half hour of this, one of the airline representatives came running over laughing. We were ready to punch her out until she told us that there was a problem and the plane was coming back and then would leave again. No idea what the problem was - i suppose we should have demanded to know - but the people with sour expressions filing into the gate area must have been really pissed at the 6 of us laughing like crazy, relieved to be on our flight again.

Harold Goldstein; Washington D.C. area