Ok the good news........
I got access to Hotmail, my main email address, which gave me access to my EU vaccine QR code and my permission to stay in Colombia until March. I can cross the border.
After a lot of stress I finally managed to register my phone for online banking. Without that I would have had to tap into an emergency reserve left with a friend and had to change my plans.
The landslide of offers of help, assistance, money and goodwill from a pretty wide part of this little planet is probably the best bit of good news from all of this. Thank you seems so inadequate.
The bad news.....
I'm still locked out of Google. In fact, I can't even begin the "account recovery process". It's a frustrating, never ending series of loops.
In practical terms this means I'm without any photos. If I don't get the account back all the photos of this trip are gone. I'm not dwelling on that too much although I imagine some friends of mine are breathing large sighs of relief! :-)
It means that Osmand and Google Maps are blank in terms of any places I've saved - all that data is tied to Google.
They still work, Osmand will still be my planner but any places that tickled my fancy and had been marked are gone.
My contacts, WhatsApp etc. are gone. Remi, the French bikepacker? Lost in Cyberspace. A pity. And lots more.
My notes, original copies of my travelogue are all behind the Google wall. My voice memos (for those special moments in special places) are gone with the phone for good.
There's more but I couldn't be bothered listing it all. Let's just say it's been a major inconvenience.
But it could have been so much worse.
I'm very glad that I started to develop what I call the "gratitude habit". Look, however hard it may be, for the things to be grateful for.
There's you lot on here posting supportively and helpfully and messaging privately. Not for the first time @cwaskas Willie, in his understated way, stepped up.
I didn't know Willie when I set off. Willie, and people like him, are one of the reasons for doing a trip like this.
I think poor @pat5mph was more stressed out by the whole thing more than me - and that's saying something.
You others who have contacted me. Thank you.
The girl in the shop where I replaced my phone was efficient, honest and fair. The guys in the hotel were good too.
The Police were helpful in a practical way, less interested in the details of the crime than making sure I got the best advice in relation to cancelling the old phone. They were wrong but there was no doubting the enthusiasm.
The guy in the Claro shop (telecom) who got me set up for international calls (for the Bank), personally escorted me to the cashier to make sure I got the right type of credit and who then dropped everything when I returned half an hour later with the phone still not working. He discovered I needed to dial an "exit code" before the international code.
The guy in the hotel in Las Lajas who recognised me, listened and set me up (again) on their WiFi so I could attempt to log in to Google from a familiar WiFi location. (It didn't help).
And I'm OK.
Lots to be grateful for.
And to the Travelogue.....
More bad news.........
I have neither my notes, write ups nor photos for the next posts in the Travelogue.
I could recreate the text. I have a handful of photos on my camera. I could throw something together but I'm not going to do that.
Not meaning to build up the suspense but the next day was one of the most satisfying on a bike for me. It involved mountains, roads, heights and incredible satisfaction.
I took the loop from Pasto along the road that inspired me to take a selfie. More great days if it didn't quite work out as planned.
Even the day to here, Ipiales, that ended so unpleasantly, was good up to that point. Good, tough and satisfying.
Those posts deserve better than to be "thrown together" and to be influenced by what happened later. So there'll be no more posts for a while. I'll still write them up and sort photos but I want to keep the sequence correct.
It shouldn't be too long, I hope. In any case the flight ticket is booked.
I'm going to cross a big imaginary line and that'll be the end of the Big, Big Trip. Part One.
