Canceling my journey and ESTA problem

La Paz  2024-02-05

Since a few days ago, I have decided to cancel my trip. It is not with any joy that I do this, and you may be wondering why.

The loneliness, insecurity, and language barrier became too much for me this time.

I have previously cycled through three continents, Europe, Iran, through Central Asia, across the Pamirs, through China, Southeast Asia, Borneo and New Zealand but never felt the way I do now.

My joy has disappeared and I tried to get it back, but I couldn’t find it. No matter how I tried. The day before yesterday I bought a flight from La Paz and El Alto to Madrid with a stopover in Miami, Florida. So far so good!

Before I crawled into bed last night I checked that all the tickets and reservations were OK. Then I discover I forgot to fill in an Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) till USA.

I thought it was not necessary because it was only a stopover in Miami. You are able to fill in this document from the web (https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/)

The procedur was quite easy, my name, age, nationality, passport number, my home address and so on. 7 pages to fill in.

On the page called Answer Eligibility there where two or three rows asking me If I since september 2001 (9/11) had visit Jemen, North Korea, Iran and Cuba.

For a few seconds, I hesitated between answering Yes or No. I knew that I had visited Cuba in July 2013 and Iran in July 2017.

I also knew that U.S. authorities have the ability to check almost everything. What happens if I write NO, and they have records showing that I’ve visited some of these countries?

So I decided to be honest. I filled in Iran July 2017 and Cuba July 2013 and also why I vistet these countries .

After filled in rest of the pages only thing left was to pay,  OK.  A few tens of seconds later I got a response….

TRAVEL NOT AUTHORIZED

I went completely blank in my head, It can´t be true? I checked again if I filled in something wrong, but no. Everything was OK.

The only explanation I could come up with was that I filled in that I had been to Cuba and Iran after 9/11.

What to do Now. My trip and flight was booked to february 7!  Time has past 12 pm, just wait until tomorrow morning.

First thing next morning i took a Taxi up to El Alto and international airport and visited the airline Avianca and heard if it was possible to rebook.
The answer was negative. Instead I had to book a new trip via Bogota to Madrid instead and this time no stopover in the US. The departure was on the 6th instead of the 8th.

My old ticket was now expired, no money back, 1500$ just fly away and my mental state was not at its best.

I took taxi back to my hostel and start preparing for the journey home. Now all I had to do was get all the stuff down to a checked luggage and not more than 23 kilos. Had to throw away a part that didn’t have much value. It barely succeeded.

I woke up in good time,  both with breakfast and a shower before the taxi showed up at 10 am. El Alto is only about 7 km from my hostel and the road there is steep and very busy.

The airport itself, on the other hand, is not particularly large. The check-in went well, my luggage that was to be checked in weighed 22.8 kg, i.e. 2 hg below allowed. The same applied through all other controls. Departure was 3.25 pm.

The plane made a stop in Cusco but we who were going to Bogota didn’t have to get off the plane which was convenient.

Just before 9 pm we landed in a pitch-black Bogota and after the usual check of baggage x-ray I looked up a bar for some coffee, beer and a hamburger.

While I’m sitting at the bar La Belleza, I also booked the flight home from Madrid to Arlanda. On the 9th at 10.15 am I on my way to Arlanda. I feel pretty mentally tired and it will probably feel good to come home after all.

See Yeah Later
// P-G,  The Global Cyclist 1726