21st July... in tranit.. yet definately leaving South America

And here I am. In the slightly nightmarish bubble reality known as being “in transit”.

Having left my room at 03:10am Chilean time, sans sleep as packing till the end, it is now 9 hours later and, post baggage-weight, lack of Chilean ID and too-much hand luggage troubles, I am in Lima. Hoping to somehow make it to San Salvador and then New York…

I Have thoroughly completed the undignified 'leaving-a-country-which-almost-became-home' experience.

I... packed until the LAST minute. Yes.

Was sent to the wrong desk. Yes. (although luckily the lady allowed it, as I would have looked really stupid if, after sauntering past triumphantly, I’d had to go back to the back of the queue again…)

Was made to undo bags in the airport to balance weights. Yes.

Had two bags, eventually, of EXACTLY the right weight. Yes!

Will be fucked over in New York as baggage allowance there is stingier. Yes….

Lost ID card so immigration guy actually uttered the words. “IF you haven’t reported the loss of your ID card to the police you can’t leave”. Yes.

And finally, I almost cried. Yes.

There are rumours of only one hand luggage being allowed here. I have two bags which stretch the concept of hand luggage to its very breaking point.

I have a hostel in Brooklyn which is wither a three train one hour journey away, or a $50 cab…

I have about my body weight in luggage with me (this MAY not be an exaggeration.. I have 46 kilos of checked luggage and two mahuuuuusive hand luggage bags, which could quite possibly weight ten kilo a piece. In which case I have more than my body weight with me…)

a post-post-scriptum.

And to round it all off nicely, although I did make it to New York in one piece with my 66+ kilos (146 pounds) of luggage, I lost my visa-waiver rights to combined stupidity (my own) and ridiculous bureaucratic inflexibility (US immigration, need I say more?).

Needles to say I took the taxi!