jmayuk has left 4 comments

jmayuk comments on Iberia to Colombia

The first time I flew with Iberia, I flew the same route as you, my London to Madrid flight was VERY delayed and somehow I got bumped up to first class on the Madrid-Bogota leg. I actually found the food passable, a small choice of films and a leather seat. I thought, "What's all the fuss about?" The flights were delayed (all 3 of them - I continued on to Pereira. But technically that was with Avianca...) and the check-in process was overly convoluted, but hey, they bumped me up to first class, right? I soon found out that the joke was on me. On the way back, I tasted the true Iberia experience and decided then and there that I would rather swim to Colombia than EVER fly with Iberia again. The problem isn't so much that you are crammed in and given bad food. But the real issue is that you are actually treated with an almost palpable contempt by the Iberia staff. Honestly, I was treated marginally better than the Colombians (being a "rich" gringo), but even that was rude at best. If you have the bad luck of being Latin American, you are spoken to almost as if you are an animal. Disgraceful. And the tickets were jaw-droppingly expensive to boot.

jmayuk comments on Wire Transfers to Colombia

I transfer money all the time from my British bank to my wife's Colombian bank with no problems of any kind. Even considering the whole "differences in the British vs American banking systems" issue, this just seems excessively intrusive. Get a new bank. Today.

jmayuk comments on The Tooth Fairy in Colombia

When I was growing up in Louisiana it was a mouse who traded coins for teeth. And the going rate was a quarter...

jmayuk comments on Personal Safety in Colombia

common sense? Though I have travelled throughout North and Central America, North Africa and Europe, I am making my first trip to Colombia in June 2006 (hooray!) and from reading all of the security suggestions, it sounds suspiciously like common sense and the type of precautions that you should take on any street in any city. As a point of reference, I have seen far more crime on the street of London than I ever did in the year and a half that I lived in Mexico City. Food for thought...


donde comen dos, se comen tres...