Saturday, May 24,1997 When I arrived at Houston Intercontinental Airport, a very heavy rain was falling. As a result, the airport was closed temporarily and a number of flights were delayed. However, soon after the rain stopped, my Continental flight started boarding, only 15 minutes later than scheduled. Since the flight was originally scheduled to arrive in Miami at 10:07 PM, I thought there would be no problem making the 11:59 PM Lloyd Aereo Boliviano (LAB) flight to La Paz. Soon after all passengers were on board, a Continental representative issued an apology. She stated that, prior to boarding, they had thought they had an entire crew for the flight, but had overlooked getting a captain. We sat on the plane for at least 45 minutes until a captain was found for the flight. The Houston to Miami flight finally commenced, over one hour late.
As the Continental flight arrived in Miami at 11:15 PM, the stewardess announced a Continental representative would be at the arrival area to direct us to our connecting flight. Welcome news, since I was unfamiliar with the Miami airport. Emerging into the arrival area in Concourse G, I looked for the Continental representative, but saw no one. I ran to the main terminal and asked, anyone I saw where LAB might be. The consensus seemed to be Concourse A, where I ran to, but the gates to Concourse A were locked. I ran a short distance to Concourse B, where the LAB flight was taking off from. The security personnel would not let me into Concourse B without a boarding pass. They directed me to LAB's baggage & reservation check in desk, about another 2 to 3 minute run.
Arriving breathless approximately 11:25 PM at LAB's check in desk, I was relieved to see three representatives at the desk. I presented my ticket, but was told that all the seats were sold and there was no more room on the flight. ! showed them my baggage was checked all the way to La Paz, but they said it was too late for the baggage to make the flight and the baggage would be on the next flight. The next LAB flight to La Paz was the 11:59 PM flight the following day.
I then asked the LAB representative to call the boarding area, to see if I could talk to Mary or one the others that had flown in from Rapid City and were on the flight to La Paz. He refused to do so, saying that the flight was loaded and there was no way to contact them. He told me to come back at 5:30 PM the next day to check in for the evening flight.
I walked to the Continental baggage office to get a voucher for a hotel. When I arrived at the hotel, at approximately midnight, I was informed by the hotel desk representative that their computer had broken down, and they could not check anyone in until it was fixed. Apparently this was a common problem for the Miami Intercontinental Airport Hotel and the problem usually took about an hour to resolve. At 1:30 AM the computers were working again and I was able to check Into the room. Needless to say I slept very poorly because of the many delays.
Sunday, May 25, 1997 While I lay in a Miami bed wondering if and when I would connect up with my friends in Bolivia, my backpack was doing laps on the La Paz baggage carrousel. Eventually Bernie recognized the beat up nylon bag I use to cover my backpack, checked the ID tag, and put it with his luggage. The Bolivians did not check the baggage claim tags.
In the afternoon I took a bus, to the South Beach area of Miami. The traffic to the beach areas was very heavy and congested. The numerous art deco pastel colored buildings reminded me of the Miami Vice TV show. I did take the night LAB flight to La Paz. The plane was only about 2/3rds full.