airport chaos and drug dogs

up until yesterday, my airport experiences had been smooth and stress free. this string of good luck came to a crashing end last night in lima. i had purchased a ticket on the evening flight to santiago, chile. apparently the airline sold 30 more tickets than they had seats! when i went to check in, i found out that someone had already checked into my seat and i would have to wait and see. the initial discussion, in spanish, was that this happens all the time and i would just have to wait and see. they offered to put me on ´stand'-by´ with 16 other people! the flight was scheduled to depart at 8 PM. just after 7:30, i was informed that i had a ticket and needed to check my baggage, pay the airport fees, go through immigration, go through security, and board the plane before 7:50 PM! usually the lines are quite long at each of these, however, i was able to make it just in time. I was the second or third last passenger allowed on the plane.

when i arrived in santiago, i quickly made it through immigration. when i arrived at baggage pick-up, i thought i had arrived at a dog pound. there had to be close to 20 dogs running around. all of the dogs were searching for drugs. in addition to the drug dogs, there had to be 20 or more police officiers with bullet-proof vests in the area. although a very serious situation, there were two younger dogs that i think were still in training. the one kept jumping on luggage and then running over to people for attention. the handler would call its name and it would return to sniffing the luggage. after two or three suitcase, the dog would lose its attention and wonder over to some people. the handler was getting very frustrated and it was difficult not to laugh. i didnt think it would be appropriate to laugh in this situation. when my back pack arrived the dogs did their thing and i was cleared.