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Bolivia

Ok, so I am going to be in Bolivia next week - or so I hope ;-) I don’t usually take care to do this, but being it Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano (more on this later), and having heard first-hand and even almost lived stories of ticketing errors, I decided to call the airline to confirm my flight details. …Only that the airline does not have a web site any more - It was grabbed by an online casino. Or maybe… Am I getting a casino ticket? Holy crap, no, it’s a casino evangelism blog, explaining you how fun and interesting it is to lose your money online, how fair are the online slot machines, and such crap… Unbelievable. Anyway, I found Lloyd’s Mexican office phone number in some online directory, and called. My ticket was, yes, reserved - It was not paid, though. Or maybe yes - the clerk told me that sometimes tickets get paid in Bolivia and they don’t know about that. That could explain why Álvaro almost lost his flight. Ok, we got that point fixed in ~20 minutes (thanks to Dydier and Ramiro, in Sucre and Potosí respectively). I called again Lloyd, and yes, I’m confirmed. Phew. About Lloyd: I flied with them two years ago, when I went to the IV National Free Software conference in Sucre. The only problem I had was due to myself: I spent some days travelling around after the conference, and my plane back was set to depart from La Paz, change planes in Cochabamba, then change planes in Santa Cruz, then on to Mexico. As I was in Cochabamba already, I decided to skip the first hop - Well, that accounted for a couple of hours on the phone getting my ticket back to life once it had been cancelled as a no-show :) However, Lloyd has went through a serious financially troubled period, and its reliability seems to have gone seriously down. Even two years ago, when we both were in Bolivia (in the conference I just mentioned), Álvaro had to spend over a week he didn’t plan on in Bolivia, as Lloyd’s transatlantic plane was being repaired (!!). I found a similar report about an Argentinian passenger stuck for a day in Mexico and three further days in Santa Cruz due to broken aircraft… I can only hope for the best ;-) Anyway, in Bolivia I’ll have quite a packed schedule. As I’ve told to Dydier, I don’t care too much about the details on what will we do each day (my hosts are free to own 100% of my time), but I’ll give at least five talks (three in CCBOL in Potosí and two to diverse auditoriums in Sucre). Of course, this is prone to change somehow, but the plan is I’ll have a tutorial on PostgreSQL, a set of talks regarding computer and network security, and a talk about Free Software as a model of knowledge production rather than as a technical or social movement. Of course, wherever I go I talk about Debian as well at every possible chance ;-)

Comments

Malte Cornils 2006-10-12 07:15:13

Re: Bolivia

Be careful flying with LAB, I also got my flight canceled (no reason given, likely due to financial problems) and am still waiting for the refund (months later). I had to take the bus out of the country to the closest non-bolivian airport and fly from there. At least make some emergency plans… Though, Bolivia is an absolutely interesting country, and Sucre is a beautiful city. Have fun there!


Nadezhda 2006-10-21 12:57:17

Re: Re: Bolivia

Y esta pagina, ¿es apócrifa?:

http://www.labairlines.com.bo/

:P :*

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