Chile, Day 14: Bonus day in Chile

Surprise, surprise. We did not fly out of Santiago as planned tonight at 7 pm. We boarded Air Canada flight 93 as expected and sat at the loading bay for a half hour or so. Restlessly. Finally the captain announced that the flight had been cancelled because of the Tungurahua volcano in Ecuador. Apparently the volcano erupted and spewed an ash cloud that obscured vision at the precise altitude at which our plane was supposed to fly. So they tried for a while to route us around the ash cloud but couldn't (for some reason), so they cancelled the flight. I won't bore you with details of the extreme confusion which followed. If you have never been in this sort of situation before I will warn you: there are an awful lot of lineups and frayed tempers involved. But Air Canada put us all up in hotels for the night, complete with taxi transportation to & from, and a [late] supper and a breakfast tomorrow as well. So I am staying at the Radisson which is definitely not down to my usual standards. We are supposed to fly out tomorrow morning at 10 am. We'll see. Meanwhile, I get an extra night in Chile, compliments of my good friends at Air Canada. Esta bien.