London-Bogotá

Thu 0633 On Thameslink train a few minutes out of London Bridge to Gatwick. So far so good. Probably got to sleep (deliberately not trying that hard) 2-230ish, woke up possibly before alarm but possibly not at 5, mild disorientation, light snoozing and got up about 510. Checked round flat etc, followed my checklist so touch wood everything OK. Left flat shortly after 6.

Swapped SIMs last night; have Three ("travel") SIM in Priv and my normal UK SIM in HTC. This makes sense now as I want to be able to use WhatsApp on Priv at Bogota airport to tell pickup without relying on airport free wifi. I will probably also leave it like this; the Priv and that Three SIM are relatively valuable (SIM offers me good chunk of data and unlimited calls back home) and will live in my hotel room a lot of the time, I will try to buy a Colombian SIM for HTC (that plus finding somewhere to eat will probably be my main goals tomorrow) and carry those two round, and until I get the Colombian SIM I'll probably carry the HTC simless,  but might as well leave UK SIM in for now.

Have realised I *could* have got Overground down to Norwood Junction and picked up this train here. But I suspect it would be much slower and not much cheaper and I note TfL journey planner didn't suggest that.

0813 At Flying Horse (Wetherspoons) airside at Gatwick. Got rather pricey but nice IPA - 5.95, not ideal, did check menu and saw prices were high (4.50ish) but this is one of the guest ales "from" 4.15. Not to worry. Feeling a bit extravagant but everything has been going so well (touch wood) and I do have an hour before my gate is announced.

Refilled water bottles after security at a fountain. No problems at security, put most stuff in bag before going through. My bag paused at the "divert to channel where you can't just pick it up" bit after the scanner but it wasn't diverted.

I actually feel fairly good - if a little bit bad about spending six quid (or even my planned 4.50ish) on a single pint - at the moment. I hope fate isn't waiting round the corner with a sandbag. I think it's probably having got the first (I assume there will be a repeat in Madrid) lot of security over and the journey to the airport over and predominantly the fact that I am now "on holiday" and it's too late to worry about making additional preparations - it is what it is, so to speak, if I've forgotten something (except my passport, which I *haven't* needed to show anyone yet -  but I do have it, I just checked again) I will have to do without it or buy a replacement once I get there.

Incidentally, what I really should have done is packed properly - like I did last night - a few days or a week ago, then put all the stray non-packed stuff I had lying around somewhere out of the way (as I did last night) and then (perhaps) lightly unpacked so clothes were crammed in the bag for several days. That way I would have avoided packing at the last minute and also naturally checked to see if there was anything I desperately needed to buy. I had put off the "proper" packing partly out of procrastination and partly because I didn't want the clothes stuck in the bag (I was also washing some of them) for days, which was a silly reason not to pack *everything else* properly until the relatively last minute.

Saw a poster for a William Blake exhibition shortly before train got to Gatwick, which put "Jerusalem" in my head. But I now seem to have "With My Little Stick Of Blackpool Rock" playing in there.

0850 Changed table so I can see the departure screen; this table is a bit less cosy somehow, but still. Feel lightly pissed. Really should probably have had coffee (cheaper, free refills) but couldn't resist temptation to have an early beer before they decide to ban such things.

Am reading on phone quite a lot but have done minor bit of phoneless meditating. I did wish my Spanish were better, but I console myself by thinking it's relatively good - compared to eg going to India or Thailand I am not depending on luck and goodwill to find people speaking English, even if my Spanish isn't so good I know I can speak with anyone with no issues whatsoever.

Sky News (silent but with subtitles) on a TV nearish where I was sitting before, but I'm mostly managing to ignore the bilge they're pumping out.

0915 Finished pint. Gate announced on schedule (14), will head over now. Feel lightly pissed but a bit ago felt less pissed. On the whole enjoyed this pint and probably not a bad call, though I could have gone for something "standard" and cheaper (eg Doom Bar at IIRC 4.15).

Pint was Uprising White Riot 5.3%, checked taps as left.

1010 On plane, got on few mins ago. Enormous slow-moving queue to board, we are scheduled to depart 1010 so no way are we on time. Fingers crossed it's all OK for the connection, I hope this doesn't mean a harried pass through fucking security in Madrid. Woman at boarding desk wanted to see my return ticket because I'm going to Bogota, I don't know why - maybe some vague chat re this coronavirus thing but not necessarily related. Seems odd when the return flight is with them and on their system but whatever.

The "slow boarding" is not inherently a terrible idea - nice and unhurried getting on plane itself, not an enormous glut of people boarding simultaneously, but things seem to have been excessively slow given there were people behind me in queue and we're not leaving yet.

1034 We're off, estimated arrival time looks OK. Annoyingly (and TBH fucking ridiculously) we have a passenger onboard who is seriously allergic to nuts so we're not allowed to eat any we've brought with us. I have a horrible feeling said passenger may be on the Bogota flight too. Wasn't necessarily planning to eat any of my fruit+nuts on this flight (less risk of shit at security in Madrid if packets are sealed) but still annoying.

(If they're sitting next to me, semi-fair-enough. But *nowhere on the same fucking 737-800* can it be permitted to eat nuts? We're not in a tiny four seater here.)

1326 At gate in Madrid.

1448 I think phone has updated to Madrid time now I've left aeroplane mode. On plane. All OK. I slept (fitfully, it felt, but in reality I probably did drowse the bulk of the flight) on London-Madrid flight. Was surprised when we got announcement we'd be landing in 15 mins. Didn't feel I could use bog then altho was busting (OK, that's a bit excessive - but I *did* want to go, it a few notches below "busting"), and was a bit edgy about the connection, though we weren't that late. No problems really, chugged my refilled water prior to security and no issues there, finally had a slash, then got to gate and had a few mins to sort myself out before they called my boarding group. Not exactly speedy (quite a queue etc) but not insanely slow like in London.

Both flights seem quite busy, my row of three fully occupied on both, but I have my reserved seats so no problem.

Was cold on flight into Madrid at times, bit warm (wearing fleece) right now. That pint (plus only having 2-3h sleep last night) may have helped me sleep on flight, then again it may also have caused me that minor suffering re needing a piss.

1454 Just done Duolingo really quickly. At least here in Madrid Three roaming is fine, both for quick call to parents and for this little bit of data.

Seems to be a rule that you have to keep your liquids in bag under seat in front of you, not in overhead locker. I didn't do this on flight into Madrid but have done this time.

Am understanding bits of overheard Spanish conversation but not just automatically understanding everything and not trying (out of laziness, not really " politeness") not to actually concentrate on these conversations.

Oh, not that I'm hungry right now and I think there's food on this flight but due to being rushed I didn't get a chance to eat any of my fruit+nuts in Madrid.

Battery is at 54%, I will probably top up from the powerbank once we're in the air and no food is likely to be served.

Didn't wear noise-cancelling headphones on previous flight, sort of laziness and sort of due to falling asleep shortly after takeoff.

Taken fleece off after all.

This is a 787-8 Dreamliner FWIW.

Seat-back screen says it is "NaN degrees F" . :-)

1532 We're taxiing and have been for a bit. Have skimmed films on offer; nothing massively appeals, though this is more down to me (and my deep reluctance to expose myself to preaching and moralising from an unknown film) than the airline and what they're offering. I might go with "Lying and Stealing" in a bit.

1810 LaS OK, bit overly stylish but OK. Part way through watching Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (which I have seen before) in Spanish. I don't understand everything (no subtitles either) but I'm getting the gist (aided by faint memories of original viewing in English some years back) and it's all practice and it passes the time.

Lunch surprisingly decent chicken with rice and a few vegetables, also got a small beer and a strong coffee and a fair quantity of water. I did crack and eat one of my 200g fruit+nut before the meal though (there was no announcement about nut allergies this time - incidentally I could *swear* that both times this was mentioned on the last flight, the Spanish version said allergy to dried fruit but the English version said nuts, maybe I imagined it).

Left lower leg hurts a bit, this was happening on previous flight too. Weird how it's only the one leg.

Feeling OK generally (if lightly bored), while I am *moderately* confident of a painless transfer to the hotel, I think the main thing is that for better or worse there's still a lot of flight  time left so I am safely cocooned here and don't have to worry about it yet.

While the early start was a bit crappy I don't feel too bad now and this daytime flight does at least mean I don't have to get a broken night's sleep on the plane.

Yawning.

1900 Phone down to 42% so topping up from powerbank, doesn't seem to want to charge from USB socket on seat back. Went for a walk and queue outside one of bogs, left leg still hurts a bit but feels better.

2038 I changed my phone PIN two days ago and keep entering it wrongly.

Didn't understand a lot of the dialogue in BEMH but got gist. It's a bit cheesy but was oddly touched. I bought and watched it it on DVD years ago on recommendation from someone, but (cheesy though it is) some of the "taking a chance" kind of message feels very appropriate for my current situation, and that appropriateness also feels kind of familiar and I wonder if I watched this on a flight at some point before.

Sort of vaguely muscular tensiony pain in gut. I think it's probably something to do with sitting so much and maybe a bit of built up tension around the flight. I think I've had it before and not deeply concerned about it. TBH it will be nice to go to bed tonight and not have to worry about getting up except for breakfast (assuming it is included). No idea if I will be able to eat tonight but assuming I don't end up giving them up at customs I will have the fruit+nuts if I really feel hungry and I've eaten enough it won't hurt me to do without any more food today. I have no idea if the hotel has a restaurant of any kind, or what the area is like. If there's a cheap looking place practically next door I might venture out but don't really want to be going out exploring after dark. I think the timezone difference might work in my favour, it will be 2amish body clock time when I check in and probably 8amish local time when my body clock tells me is 1pmish and time to get up. :-)

2151 Part way through watching Argo (saw it before on IIRC flight back from Mexico). Started with Spanish soundtrack (no subtitles available) but it's pretty dialogue heavy and although I was getting the vague gist plus I have seen it before it was painful and I've switched to English. Seatbelt sign was on for a while a leg/"gut" was getting a bit painful but couldn't get up. It's off now so went to bog more for walk than anything, did some made-up stretchingy leg jiggling stuff in space outside bog and come back to seat. About 3h30 til we arrive. Am thinking will eat other packet of peanuts in an hour or so; I don't need any additional shit with customs re these. I'm not hungry but not not hungry. Was yawning and feeling quite tired a bit ago but has diminished.

I don't feel great. Partly it's just the immediate low grade crapness of the flight, but I'm a bit concerned about security - am I going to be able to go for a walk near hotel tomorrow morning or is that going to be too risky? I have to assume it's not risky, but hard to fucking know in the face of some advice. I'm sure this will wear off one way or another after a week or two, as it did in Guatemala.

I don't feel terrible, this is really all expected, I'm trying and moderately succeeding to maintain a positive attitude but I knew the flight would be a little bit low-grade stressful.

2201 Actually am thinking about arrival in Guatemala. Was a bit different as I arrived earlyish and was killing time walking round and drinking coffee before allowing myself to go to bed. But I still remember (or think I remember :-) ) getting up the first morning and going having breakfast and the situation feeling novel and sort of exciting.

2128 (I think this is Colombia time now, we were on Madrid for last few entries) At hotel, everything is fine. I feel a little disoriented and not quite sure what to "sort out" next, but essentially I'm good til tomorrow morning.

Although immigration queue was long, no fuss with immigration (and it did move relatively fast), no forms to fill in (though I was asked to show my accommodation address) and I seem to have 90 (it's handwritten so there's a tiny bit of room for doubt) days on my passport stamp.

I completely missed the cash machines near the international arrivals and trogged around half the airport before finding some in departures upstairs. First two I tried didn't work (I think one of them I may have been confused  as to whether you had to enter a spurious .00 on the end of the figure and tried to withdraw an insanely large sum) and I was sweating a bit but the third played ball and I got COP600k for a 13.2k fee; this may not be optimal and I'll try different machines and cards over the next few weeks but at a bit over 2% on that 600k it is not insane. I think (had I had sufficient funds and/or been willing to risk further rejections due to not feeling up to the mental arithmetic to determine max wd) at least some machines will allow 900k wd and if the fee is the same that would make cash withdrawals even cheaper.

I do plan to try to use cards to pay directly where that seems feasible but we'll see how it goes.

2249 Took a break from writing this to try to put things like cash and cards in some kind of order; obviously I only just withdrew the cash, plus the way I distribute stuff is different when I'm in transit compared to when I have a "safe" place to leave my bag.

So anyway, after some very minor delay/not-seeing, I spotted the guy - hotel owner's son - who'd come to meet me. He struggled to find the car (another guy was driving) but not really a problem, it was quite nice out and seeing all the people in the car park etc not being threatening combined with the boatload of foreigners in the foreigners immigration queue worked as a fairly decent antidote to the "it's so dangerous here" idea some of the travel advice had been making me suffer from. As I've said before, getting the risk perception calibrated correctly isn't easy.

Made some smalltalk with those two guys in Spanish. Reassured to see eg a woman walking with her young daughter on street near airport, though some of the streets nearer the hotel were a bit quieter and a touch more run down. But not really badly so at all, and heartened to see some cheap looking eateries.

Got checked in no problem, I paid 200k for balance of room and the transfer and I offered to let the owner give me the change tomorrow. I asked about buying a bottle of water, shop couple of doors down was shut but she seemed to be on the point of sending her son out to buy some for me. I said I was happy to go myself if it was safe and she said he would go with me and show me the way, so after I got checked in and dumped bulk of valuables on bed we did that. More smalltalk, I took chance to ask him about safety, it's fine in this area in the day, at night maybe a bit of caution needed but it's not really a risk (my poor summary of what I remember him saying) and he said he would go out with me if I wanted.

Room is nicer than I expected, it's a bit rough round the edges but on the whole large and clean and the wifi works well. Owner also said I can have breakfast any time I want from 7am to maybe 10-11am tomorrow, just to let her know when I get up. I will probably aim for 8-9am but see how I feel.

I think plan for tomorrow is just to go for a wander, get some lunch somewhere and see if I can find somewhere to buy a local SIM.

Mildly posh English guy just behind me in queue at immigration - he obviously knows London but don't know if he lives there, as he seems to have a business creating organic fertiliser - talking to possibly-foreign-but-very-mild-hard-to-place-accent woman who does live in London (they were talking about Brixton/Oval/Stockwell and I used to live down that way). I found them mildly annoying for no really sound reason (perhaps jealousy; they seem to have some big nights out planned and she has her own startup but is doing something else too, almost stereotypically Smug Young Things) but then I ended up exchanging a few words with them over a baby's dummy which suddenly dropped onto the floor (in hindsight it had been perched on top of a tensabarrier post and it had just been knocked and fallen and attracted attention) and that made them seem more human.

I should say the cash machine gave me a mix of 50k and 20k notes, which is probably pretty good really - a 50k note is about £12 (mental arithmetic; TBH I am sure I'm going to work with 5k to the pound just for convenience even though that will make things seem artificially cheap; I will try to work with 4k in mental arithmetic when it seems important) and therefore not *insanely* large and could comfortably be used to pay for a meal or similar.

Oh, and I watched Bonnie & Clyde (Faye Dunaway version, not some modern remake if one exists) on the last bit of the flight; just got to the end before we landed. It was OK, not amazing but kept my attention fairly well and it was enjoyable enough.

2330 Shower and move towards bed, though I don't feel *that* tired. I haven't eaten tonight but I feel fine, I guess I really did eat quite a lot with the food on plane plus the two bags of fruit+nut.

While I remember the customs check at the airport was also no fuss. Moderate queue but not like immigration, again no forms to fill in, not even any scanning gadgets to pass bags through. A woman asked me two or three questions - something like "where are you coming from?" and "anything to declare?" - I answered them and was just waved through like everyone else. Really a pretty impressively unwanky process.

(To have a minor bitch though - it *always* seems so stupid to be asked for your address in the country when you arrive. Surely it can't just be me who is only going to be at that address for a handful of days before moving on? If the authorities want to get hold of me, they must already have a system to allow them to do that, because I'm trivially going to "evade" that tracking the first time I change hotel.)

2342 "Suicide shower", not that I'm surprised or really bothered, but although the flow was low it *was* comfortably warm, so fairly happy with that.

Bed in a minute. Occasional views of Bogota at night from plane as we came in looked quite nice, incidentally.

Feeling fairly good. Not ecstatically excited or anything, but certainly not feeling *bad*, having spoken to owner's son (Nicholas) I feel more comfortable going for a walk tomorrow during the day and I don't have quite the seige mentality I could see developing.

I'll send this now and anything I forget can always be shoved in the next entry.