Amazing. My flight in was delayed past midnight, so the wisest thing to do was to wait in the (24x7) airport terminal until the Metro opened in the morning. I'm walking through the usual cavernous airport lounge, right next to dozens of humans, some in a catastrophic state, sprawled out on benches and the floor, and I'm carrying a package of overpriced crackers that I had just bought at the newsstand, and carrying a mid-sized backpack. A border patrol fellow (Border Patrol apparently is in charge of security in the airport lounge) stops me and questions me. (Literally, "dokumenti") He then takes my passport and radios up the information in military initialisms (side note: apparently folks in this country have trouble pronouncing the word "Romeo") and explains that they need to keep people from just showing up here. (I had arrived on the shuttle from the other terminal, and had explained my reasons for being there at the beginning.)
The reality of it, of course, is that I'm wearing aviators, and milspec boots and cap. Perhaps people in this part of the world learn that they need to actively demonstrate their harmlessness in order to be left alone.
This was a very difficult journey following a very difficult time, and the embarkation day was 100 in the shade in midtown, so at points I likely haven't exactly come off as Phineas Fogg fresh from a rubber or two of whist at the captain's table. Through the course of the three days, I tried to keep some distance when I was at my most run-down, and tried to keep as civilized an appearance as possible. (But again, showering after working out at the discount gym, then a day running around in a 100 degree city, and then three days of flights and layovers -- I'm honestly not sure how I compare, in an olfactory sense, especially against a planeful of folks fresh from their McMansions.) Perhaps I didn't cover myself in glory, but appear to have gotten here. (Though there's still the final leg of it, so I won't post this until I actually get to the mountains.)
An unreasonably difficult life, and unreasonably difficult journey. It teaches one to query the basis of reasonability.