I So Won

Hola todos,

Currently, I am continuing my trip in Isla de Pascua (Easter Island). I got here yesterday morning on a flight that left Santiago at 8:15AM.
Getting to the airport on time for the flight, I woke up at 5:15AM, just to be on the safe side. Because I had spent the entire night packing, I only got about three hours of sleep. Therefore, I was not in the best mood for much of the day. I got to the airport with plenty of time to spare so I go tea. I waited a little bit and then got on line to board the plane. Side note: I flew with LAN, and though I was impartial to LAN prior, LAN has fulfilled my airplane-organization dream. They organized three lines from the last 15 or so rows of the plane, to the next 15, then to the first 15 rows on the plane. Then they boarded the last rows first!! Brilliant, because usually airlines are stupid and feel the need to do it the other way around and then there is all this mayhem because people who had just entered need to get to the back while people in the front are blocking the aisles. During my many years of flying, I have comtemplated this whole idea and have been waiting for an airline to discover this. Therefore, when I saw LAN succeeded in fulfilling my dreams, I thought to myself, About time!! Jeez what are the chances a Latin American airline would achieve this idea before everyone else?
So, while I sat in the waiting area I marvelled at this and then got on line. Because I feel no need to sit on the plane longer than I have to, I wait until the last second to board. I was in the last dozen people getting on, in a daze due to my lack of sleep. When the woman scans my ticket, she talks to the woman at the desk and asks me to step to the side with the woman at the desk. At this point my first thought is, Oh no. They think I´m a terrorist. My second thought is, Oh no. I have a nail file in my purse they think I´m going to stab someone. My concluding though is, Ok well now that I´m getting kicked off the flight, assuming I´m not in jail, what do I do for my next nine days before I have to go back home??
Before I had too much time to think about this, the woman looks at me and gives me my ticket with a different number on it and I´m thinking, Ok thank goodness maybe they accidently booked my seat twice. Instead, she gives me my ticket with the new seat number and tells me that I was just upgraded to first class!! Immediately I say, ´´Hell yeah. That´s how it should be.´´ She probably didn´t understand what I had just said.
I get on the plane and am sitting in 4L which is a first class window seat. I don´t know about any of you, but I´ve never really ridden first class. In front of me, there was enough space for a whole other row of seats. My seat was twice the size as my inferiors behind me, who were blocked with our first class curtain protecting us from the evils beyond row number 4.
We were greeted very nicely by our flight attendants; they basically were to wait on us head to toe. They started by giving us a hot towel to wash our hands with. I couln´t help but laugh to myself the entire time. The person next to me must have thought I was strange. The attendants said that they would be serving breakfast to us as soon as the flight took off. After they left, I went on to explore all of these strange gadgets next to me. It turned out, that my seat became a full blown bed, including a comfortable pillow (who would´ve thought), a big blanket, ear plugs, eye mask, head phones, our own private light. Basically anything we could possibly need.
I started chatting with the guy next to me because he only spoke English, (I refused to talk to the attendants in English) and it turns out, to my horrors, he was a math teacher from New Jersey! Anything worse out there? No. But I kid. He was nice. Apparently he flies first class all the time. I also asked, I had to, how much the seat cost. And he said that he had forgotten but he remembers it was twice the price of the economic seats. Basically they´re over $1,000 then.
While we were still on the platform, they came over and offered water or orange juice, and then once we had taken off, they offered coffee or tea. Then, the novelties began. They brought of an option of two breakfasts, I chose a mushroom omlette with a side of fruit (apple, pineapple, kiwi, and oranges), two pieces of chocolate muffin-type bread, little salt and pepper shakers, and a beverage of our choice. Then they came around and offered us a pastry, I swear, the best croissant I have ever had, with jam and butter. After breakfast, they dimmed the lights for us to sleep, so I put my chair into bed position and had a nice nap with an abundance of space. We then woke to them telling us we were going to land and if we wanted anything else.
The best flight ever! It was five hours, but the best five hours of my life. I told the math teacher from New Jersey that the seat was even more comfortable then my bed back home.
After we arrived, I realized that I had forgotten the piece of paper that had the name of my hostel back home. I´m thinking, ok well now I´m going to need to wander around for hours to guess which hostel is mine. But, it was my lucky day because after I picked up my luggage and was about to begin my trek around Easter Island for my hostel, there was a friendly man standing there with a sign that had my name on it. He greeted me and took my luggage and then three people and I went to a van and he drove us to the hostel.
Is that not the best travel experience ever?? I so won!!

First Class Breakfast