Madrid and Bolivia

After a 9 month break, I am back again to South America, this will be a shorter trip than last time, or maybe it is more fair to say I plan to be a shorter trip.

My starting point was the Tel-Aviv airport of course, it was interesting to go back there again, frankly after writing the article about racial profiling in the Ben-Gorion airport in Israel in my other blog, I was having second thoughts, did I exaggerate things, most people who tried to hijack or blow up airplanes in the past were young men travelling without family, and I do fit the profile. Anyway this time my experience was more pleasant than the previous time, I got the yellow sticker, which is an improvement over the read sticker I got the previous time, though it is still not the blue (or is it green) one, that entitles one to an express security check, that takes no more than a few minutes. Anyway they did a thorough check of all my items, but there was no lengthy security questioning, and no body check, those last two being what I find most intrusive in the security checks, I don't mind much that they scrupulously examine my luggage.

My flight was to Santa Cruz Bolivia, with a change in Madrid, I had about 9 hours between the flights, so I decided to check out the city of Madrid, I took the subway to the center, and walked around for a couple of hours, but that was as much as I can bear in the biting cold, I took refuge in a cafe, where I had a hot coffee and a cake, after absorbing some warmth, I took a walk to one of the Museums, showing works of famous artests, among them Picaso and Selavador Dali , I was quite impressed by the paintings of the later. I arrived back at the airport at 18:00, picked up my luggage from the storage and headed to catch my flight which was supposed to be at 21:00, but I could not see the flight on the monitors, and already started to get that bad feeling something was wrong, and when I asked the information about my flight, they told me the flight, had departed at 18:20, I ran in panic to the check in desks of LAB, but when I arrived there I found out that the flight was actually delayed until tomorrow, I did not know whether to feel relieved that I did not miss my flight, or angry because of the delay, I had flown with LAB many times before, and I got used to the fact that this is one of the most unreliable air carriers in the world. Anyway they put us in a nice hotel for the night, with dinner and breakfast, and this way I did not have to arrive early morning to Santa Cruz, though I arrived 14 hours later than planned, I did arrive in the end safe and sound with all my luggage, and I am happy about that.

This time I decided that my trip is going to be less rough and more hi-tech, and I took my laptop with me, and so far I don't regret the decision, it is amazing where you can find free unsecured Wifi signals, all I have to do is open my laptop and search for a network, I found one in the hotel in Madrid, and I found one here in the this remote resort, tens of kilometers outside the city, where I am sitting now updating my blog, checking my email, chatting with a friend on Skype, and pursuing job opportunities for after my trip.