The LAB affair continued

My flight affair seems to be coming to an end; I managed to buy a ticket back to Israel, but it cost me as much is my original return ticket.

There were quite a few people who were hit by the collapse of LAB and remained stuck in Bolivia. Some of them got organized and managed to convince AeroSur, the other Bolivian airline, to organize a charter flight for them to Madrid, which left last Thursday. AeroSur proudly announced on TV that it had arranged solidarity flights to Madrid, and when I heard the news I decided to investigate the mater further; I went to AeroSur, who pointed to the airport where some other group of stranded passengers were to trying to organize another flight. At the airport there was a big group of people who had moved to live there, apparently in a protest to get their money back; the money they paid for the tickets. They had mattresses to sleep on, and improvised field kitchen to make food, they camped in front of the now deserted LAB desks. Somewhere there was a sign announcing that there was a different group who are trying to organize a flight to Madrid, and that they were having a meeting in the afternoon of the next day.

I returned to the airport the next day, and I met the organizers of the group, they had about 70 people by then who were in the same situation as I, most of them Bolivian with Spanish residency, who have to return to their jobs soon or risk loosing them. I added my name to the list. The idea was to gather as many people as possible and then go with the list to AeroSur, and see if they would organize another charter flight to Madrid, for the cost of 800$ per person, like the first flight, which would be cheaper than any flight to Madrid I can get through a travel agency, the cheapest quote I got there was 1400$. After that I went along with the whole group to the offices of AeroSur, were we waited for the manager. The media was there and they interviewed some of the people in the group. When the manager arrived she talked to the representatives of the group, and promised to do her best to help.

After a few days of waiting though there was still no news from AeroSur. In addition I received a definite answer from my travel agency about my flight from Madrid to Tel-Aviv on the 15^th; El-Al will not respect my ticket, because it was bought through LAB. After assessing the situation I decided to forget about the Madrid option, and just buy a complete ticket back to Tel-Aviv. I went to a travel agency here in Cochabamba, Tropical tours, where they offered me some very expensive tickets, which I declined. in the end they pointed me to Natalie, one of the other employees. Natalie turned out to be some computer wizard, and quickly managed to find me a few reasonable options to fly back to Tel-Aviv. In the end I bought a ticket to Paris for 1170$, then bought another ticket from Paris to Tel-Aviv through my travel agency in Israel. The total cost was ~1650$. A lot of money but that was the best I could find, and I can’t stay here for longer, as my money is running out, in fact I bought the ticket with money my brother sent me through western union.

Considering my luck of late, it was of no surprise that the next morning I received a call from one of the reps of the group, telling me that AeroSur has granted them their wish, and that at charter flight was going to leave to Madrid on Thursday, for a cost of 800$ per passenger; that would have saved me around 300$ (assuming I could find a flight from Madrid to Tel-Aviv for 400$). Anyway it was too late for me. My agency in Israel forwarded an email to me, apparently El-Al has allocated money to compensate those passengers who had tickets, and maybe I could apply for a refund, and maybe I well get some of my money back. I start my way back in Cochabamba on the afternoon of the 23th of April, going through Asuncion, San Paolo, Paris, and finally I should arrive to Tel-Aviv on the early morning hours of the 25^th. This means I will probably miss the Man U vs Milan champions league game, bummer.

I was under a lot of stress for the last couple of weeks; I also caught a cold during that time, and was horribly sick. I mean I had colds before but this was quite severe. I was sick for about 12 days, which was the longest I was ever sick in my life. The worst part though was that I felt so awful, just my whole body ached. I was so worried by the severity of it, that I started looking in the internet for the symptoms of more serious diseases, that are common around there, Malaria and Dengue fever mainly. I had none of the symptoms, in fact other than a slight cough, clogged nostrils, and a slight fever, I had no other symptoms. I even went to see a doctor at some point, something I don’t do for just a normal cold, usually I just rest tell it passes. The doctor gave me a Penicillin injection, and prescribed me some anti cold medication. The next day I was already feeling better, I don’t think it has anything to do with the medication, it was just about time my body managed to fend off the flue virus, I think. I am feeling much better now, back to my good health, and all systems are functioning as normal.