Let them all tell you what happened. Mercedes Pescador

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      A Spaniard trapped in Colombia

      Anonymous

      Mocoa, Colombia

      At the beginning of February, when the virus wasn’t a concern for me, as it was happening very far from here and I thought that, like Ebola, we would end up forgetting about it, I was about to start the biggest trip of my life. I was going to Colombia and Peru for five months with my partner. More than a simple trip, it was an initiation, an experience of self-growth. The adventure was great: we found the perfect place and we got what we wanted. We stayed with a guy whose country house was in a mountain, one and a half-hour walk from the capital of Putumayo, where the Colombian Amazon starts. In that magical place, where we worked a bit in exchange for accommodation, there was no electricity, so I could only communicate with my family every now and then. We were very disconnected from civilisation, but they kept me a little bit up to date on how the situation was developing.

      The quarantine arrived to Italy and Spain; the borders of some countries were closing… By mid-March, the Spanish embassy recommended all Spanish people abroad to return as soon as possible. My partner had doubts, as for the first time she was really feeling home somewhere. I chose to follow the advice and return. I bought my flight ticket for the 27th, not rushing much, as the president of Colombia had informed that the air borders wouldn’t be closed despite the already effective closure of land and sea borders. The next day, my partner bought her flight ticket at the same price, 400 €, with the same airline, Air Europa. A few minutes after making the payment, she received a message from the company informing her that the fee had changed and she should pay another 400 € if she didn’t want her ticket cancelled. Panicking, she decided to do it. A few hours later, again the same thing, and she ended paying a total of 1200 €. The next day, the Spanish embassy announced that from the 23rd there would be no more international flights from Colombia. We understood that we had to stay until all this would pass, initially in a month’s time, although it is still unknown.

      Soon after, Spain announced that they would arrange for a special flight, but it was badly organised and they were not giving out many details…. They said that they didn’t know yet when the flight would take off, but we should all be in Bogotá before March 25th. When they gave the details about the flight, it was on the 24th, internal transportation had started to be affected and not running so we couldn’t make our way out of the city we were in, Mocoa.