I have a US Visa! Finally… What a pain in the neck that was. I shouldn’t normally need one with a UK passport, but the fact that I will be leaving the USA by land to Mexico, rather than flying back to my home country, is apparently something that our dear cousins across the “pond” cannot comprehend, and makes them suspicious. So I need a visa. And it took 2 separate visits to the US embassy, in person… and yesterday’s visit was just to tell me to come back today with a bit of paper.

With the air tickets paid for 2 weeks ago, top priority from a logistical point of view should have been getting the visas. However I also needed to cruise round visiting friends in different parts of the country, and immerse myself in their positive vibes, to cheer me up. This road trip has been most therapeutic. Nicki, Andrea, Ben, and in particular Alex have been a great help in reorienting my thoughts to a more positive outlook in preparation for the adventure to come… and for my eventual return.

The other visas I will need were easy. Australia was a formality, and Guatemala I wandered in to the embassy and a young lady appeared delighted to immediately stamp the visa in my passport. Given the recent Falklands war, I’d expected I’d need a visa for Argentina, but when I called the Argentine embassy a friendly man assured me that I didn’t. Given my tribulations with the US visa, I warned him that I will be arriving by land, not flying from UK. He laughed and said “you can arrive by submarine if you like – you still don’t need a visa!”.

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