Transit in Iqique
Iqique is a small airport nestled amongst the sand dunes. A low one on the seaward side, a medium one at one end of the runway, thus you takeoff in the opposite direction as you landed, and towering dunes and rock across the road on the inland side of the airport. The town itself is a short distance away and is not at all visible from the airport which feels like it has been plonked down in the middle of nowhere, except for the presence of a surprisingly large number of passengers on several flights.
At first passengers continuing on the same flight & aircraft were asked to remain onboard. However a few minutes later we were told to disembark because the onward flight has been delayed for a couple of hours for operational reasons. We can leave our carry-ons onboard if we wish, but I take mine off the aircraft. I did some quick thinking - a 2 hour delay is not critical, based on certain assumptions about my subsequent flights, although if it gets much longer there may be a problem. Thus I took all my stuff off the aircraft with me in case things turn bad, so it would be easier to make changes on the run if required. Having said that, it was a small airport thus the staff may be unused to complex tickets (or crazy itineraries like mine) and I don't speak Spanish so I wasn't confident of easily making any changes if they were required.
We were not connected to either of the airbridges thus down stairs and then back up a ramp to get into the terminal. We are handed plastic transit passes, which together with the schedule tweaks I'd observed leads me to believe this kind of delay isn't uncommon on this particular route. It kinda makes sense - the flight times are such that there must be a crew change somewhere along the way. We enter through departures. The departures area is devoid of all but some chairs and a bathroom, thus we all head landside. No need to be processed for immigration.
We were also given a non-denominated voucher for food/beverages with alcohol not allowed. I guess LAN has some agreement with the airport vendors about the maximum payment they will make on the voucher.
An hour before our rescheduled departure time we were directed to pass through security and back through immigration (transit passengers from Santiago waved through but passengers joining in Iqique had to be processed as normal). Then we waited. Close to the rescheduled departure time it was clear the delay would be more than 2 hours. I started thinking about if I needed a pull out time. We waited some more. I spent most of this time up against the one window that opened, for it was a hot day and quite stuffy with so many passengers in a confined space.
Eventually boarding started. There was another small delay as the first passenger in line was trying to bring onboard a huge childs game/toy that clearly would not fit any bin or closet. There was only 1 agent so we all had to wait. I guess this shows the benefit of security paying some attention to carry-on sizes - if they had the passenger could already have checked it in and not held everyone up.
Boarding was slow and we ended up leaving over 2 1/2 hours late, and after the departure time for my next flight.