Stuck in the Atacama desert

It was the noise that woke me up. It sounded like a pop, short and distinctive. The driver of our shuttle bus looked a little worried then not so worried as he looked in the passenger side mirror. There was silence for about 40 seconds and I thought everything was ok. Then another noise started and this one I knew well- it was the sound of a newly flat tire. Great I thought. I have a flight to catch soon. The driver pulls over, gets out and sees the damage. Then he grabs his phone and quickly exits the vehicle. He says something to the lady in the front row, but he says it so softly that barely anyone can hear it. He calls the bus company and I assume they are sending another bus for us.  The driver doesn't make any announcements or say anything to us. This is such a culturally different way of handling things.
 
Even the other passengers are very cool about the whole thing.  Am I the only one who's wondering how I'll make my flight? Indeed the other passengers' first reaction is to take a pictures of the flat tire (it's the rear passenger tire if any of you are wondering).  And since there is nothing else to do, I join them.  One lady is taking pictures from all different kind of angles like she's on CSI and the tires are a dead body. It's not like we're going anywhere for a while. Some people are standing outside, which is crazy to me because we're in a desert. The sun is beaming down and it's hot out there. But if you want to stand in the sun go for it. The other cars, trucks and buses pass by and I am jealous, wishing that one of them would pick me up.

  Here we are waiting to be rescued. Like I said the driver hasn't given us much information, but in reality knowing all the details of the rescue doesn't make it happen any faster. So I guess I'm ok without knowing which bus is coming to pick us up, from where and how long it will take to get here. So I'm going to handle this like a Chilean, and no that doesn't mean going outside for a smoke. The others on the bus stretched their legs outside for a little bit then came inside the bus, pulled out books, magazines or cell phones and settled in to wait. I pulled out my iPad and started writing. And wait we will.

About 35 minutes later the rescue bus showed up.  We were back in business and a half hour later we arrived at the airport and boarded our flights.