Had the usual dramas prior to leaving Albury. The discovery of white ant damage (fortunately the critters were dead) at David's place and a day with the pest control guys to reinforce termite protection, one of the tyres on the car was down requiring a quick fix, etc, etc. Life goes on even if you are travelling.
Duly arrived in Melbourne Tuesday evening.
My Friend is already in Action Mode. Alison suggested he activate his taxi App to make booking for the next morning to the airport. He managed to successfully book a taxi - which promptly turned up at her place within minutes - approximately 8 hours before it was required (on the Tuesday evening). There was a very confused taxi driver and a follow-up phone call from taxi company with a polite suggestion that My Friend just ring directly in future rather than use the App.
We are now at airport (Wed morning). Up at 3:00 a.m. after the usual last-minute re-pack.
Waited half an hour before International gates opened after check-in; seems the airport doesn't function round-the-clock 24 hours. It was our lucky day and we both got screened for explosives. What a drag.
Four flights to get to Bogotá in (Colombia) today. Should be interesting. Departure scheduled for 7:15 a.m.
Auckland Airport:
Straightforward flight. Very tall, large Maori-like flight attendants that made the aisle seem more narrow than usual back in sardine-class. But very friendly disposition and good service. Had a sleep & watched excellent film (2014) The Judge with Robert Duvall and Robert Downey Jnr.
Plane leaves Auckland an hour late. The LAN service is excellent: pleasant and attentive. I spend the flight to Santiago alternately sleeping and reading my Beyond Bogotá book which I had ordered from the UK a couple of weeks ago and which arrived just before we left. It provided some background on the war on drugs (notably cocaine) waged in Colombia through the eyes of a US journalist who, unlike many of his colleagues, travelled rural areas extensively and refused to "buy" the official line. He paints a sad picture of life for the ordinary Colombian: usually poor, but unionists, community leaders, students, teachers, leftist politicians and human rights workers were also targeted by guerrilla and paramilitary groups, often aided and abetted by the Colombian army and with financial backing by the US. Many thousands of Colombians have been murdered, forcibly displaced from their land, kidnapped, arbitrarily arrested, mutilated by land mines or simply disappeared. Widespread fumigations of cocaine plantations also wiped out food crops and caused health problems but failed to deal with the cocaine laboratories and made life a misery for peasants without providing a viable social and economic alternative.
Santiago to Lima:
Heading north now from Santiago to Lima (in Peru). We have managed to secure exit row seats so more leg room. It is very dry and dusty looking in Santiago today with the Andes mostly obscured. Depart about half an hour late.
Lima to Bogotá:
Final flight of the day. We have been flying for hours of course but it is still 18 Feb due to crossing the International Date Line somewhere over the Pacific. Since arriving into Santiago we have zigged and zagged in and out of several time zones so that by Bogotá we will be 16 hours behind home. We arrived on time despite getting away about half an hour late after a sometimes bumpy flight - at about 10:20 p.m. (still Wednesday 18 Feb) which is 14:20 Thursday 19 in Albury.
Spent the flight reading the popular Wild by Cheryl Strayed which is currently showing at cinemas - about a young woman who walks the PCT trail in the US in order to piece her life back together following her emotional disintegration after the death of her mother: a bit of a tear-jerker.
We are met at the airport, thankfully, and are whisked through the big city into dark and unknown parts - away from the centre! It is garbage night and the workers run across the streets picking up the bags and tossing them into the trucks. There is interest in the rubbish by others also and in the darkness the contents of the bags are being picked over.
The hotel is quite plain, but clean. We connect to wi-fi (it is now something like 1:00 a.m.) and there is a message that we have lost our dear friend Kim earlier today. I saw her just a bit over a week ago. She had just had delivered a Clare Leeuwin-Clark painting the family had commissioned: Kim and the kids Mim and Ed and husband Graham standing around the kitchen bench. It was wonderful and Kim and Mim the day I visited were wearing the same dresses that were in the painting. We exchanged texts a few days later where she said that her brother's wedding had been "lots of fun". I am very sad. Dear Kim.
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