What’s the worst travel experience you’ve ever had?
When I was 21 years old, I was on the game show Hollywood squares. One of the prizes I won was an all expense paid trip for two to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I invited my dear friend Michele to join me and we opted to go in late August which would have been the end of winter for them, but it has a temperate climate so the weather was good.
It was a seven day six night trip. We were young and when I was determining the dates I counted incorrectly and when it was time to return home, we got to the airport one full day late. We panicked because we had to be back to university in a couple days.
This was back in 1981 and very few people spoke English in Brazil and neither of us spoke Portuguese. No one at the airport could help us, because my tickets had no cash value since I had won them as a prize. Neither one of us could afford to buy new tickets, and our parents were not in financial positions to buy us new tickets. We decided to take a taxi to an airline office. It’s been so long ago that I can’t even remember the name of the airline.
Fortunately the agent spoke some English and we explained our situation. Being very emotional I started crying because I really didn’t know how we were gonna get home. The agent was so kind. She ended up giving us two complimentary tickets on her airline and I will say this airline was much better and nicer than the airline. We originally flew down on which was based in Columbia.
Again, this is before the advent of any type of personal cell phones and we had no idea how we were going to contact our parents about the change of arrival in Los Angeles. Another cab ride to the American embassy and we managed to slip in the door as someone was leaving.
By the grace of God, we were able to speak with someone in the U.S. Navy who allowed us to call home. We made one call to Michele’s parents with the new arrival information.
Back to the airport for a very long day waiting for our departure. We finally departed. We changed planes in Peru and finally reached Los Angeles.
Looking back I realized my mistake. We left the west coast of the U.S. and flew to the east coast of Brazil. There was a stop over with a change of planes in Bogota, Columbia. It never occurred to me our first day of the trip was the day we left and not the day we arrived. Hence, I began counting on the wrong day.
It was a stressful lesson but it’s also a a mistake I’ve never made again.
