Colombia Trip is Coming to an End :(

I’m wasting time here in Bogota’s international airport waiting for my flight to Toronto.  I am exhausted from the last 9 days, but it’s a good exhaustion.  This trip has been SO much fun and non-stop action.  From having dinner with Sylvia’s close friends, to exploring a church built in a salt mine to drinking way to much Aguardiente (a drink made from sugarcane which is served cold in a shot glass).  The time spent here was WONDERFUL.  A big thanks to Sylvia and Hernan for inviting me to their wedding and thanks to Rachel and Andries for inviting me along to Cartegena. 

One thing I want to talk about before my battery dies.  We (Andries, Rachel and I) flew from Cartegena to Bogota this afternoon.  About 20 minutes from landing the captain got on the radio and talked for along time in Spanish then the flight attendents started grabbing everyone’s under the seats and shoved them up top.  I didn’t have a clue what was going on, but I figured we were going to get into some bad turbulence or something coming into Bogota.  I took off my headphones and started putting stuff away preparing to land.  The girl next to me says, “I sure hope we’re going to be ok” and I tell her everything is going to be fine, there’s nothing to worry about.  She keeps going on about how she’s really worried and stuff and I keep telling her not to.  Then she says, “The pilot said there is going to be fire trucks waiting for us on the runway in case there is any problems”. That’s when I say, “Why? is there something wrong with the plane?” 

The girl tells me that a warning light has come on in the cockpit saying that the planes brakes were not operating properly.  That’s when it hits me, the flight attendants were preparing for an emergency landing! After the girl saw my reaction, she asked if I spoke Spanish and I replied, “no”.  She then made a comment about how she was amazed that I wasn’t worried about what was going on and was so relaxed.  Just after my English speaking friend tells me about the problems the plane is having, the captain gets back on the radio saying that the warning light was now off but the fire trucks were going to still be on the runway in case we had a problem.  Everyone on the plane was quiet as we came in to land, except for the girl next to me.  She was scared as hell and talked about how she has bad luck on flights and the stories of what happened until we made it to the terminal. 

The funny thing is that Andries didn’t tell Rachel, who doesn’t speak much Spanish, until after we had landed safely.  Rachel said it was a good thing because she would have been freaking out if she knew what was happening.  I have to admit it scared me a little, but when the captain said that the warning light was off, I felt a bit better.  Ah the joys of traveling!

Made it to Bogota

I’m at my hotel in Bogota.  I also just got done talking to Sylvia to let her know I made it in.  Even though she knows I’m a well seasoned traveler, she insisted that I call. I didn’t want to hear the wrath of Sylvia for the next week.  :)

I had a very nice surprise getting on the plane in Toronto.  I boarded, went back to coach looking for 4C and saw that coach started at row 15.  The first thing that crossed my mind was that the stinking seat was booked incorrectly.  Then I wondered back up to first class and tada!  There was seat 4C empty and waiting for me. 

When I checked in with Air Canada in Chicago this morning, they didn’t give me a seat assignment yet.  When I got into Toronto, 6 hours before my next flight, they wouldn’t let me go directly into the International wing.  I had to go out through Canadian customs, hang out for a while then go back in.  So, while I was waiting around I decided I would go up to the front desk and get a seat assignment.  I was wanting to get it as soon as I could because I didn’t want to be stuck in a middle seat.

So, when I was trying to get in line to get my seat assignment, I showed the guy in charge of the line my ticket.  He says, “The flight must be pretty full so you won’t get assigned a seat until 1 hour before the flight leaves”.  I thought, “wonderful, I’m going to be stuck between 2 people with no room what-so-ever.”  Then I’m waiting at the gate for my seat assignment and still haven’t received my seat assignment and they had already started boarding the plane.  The lady at the desk was really stressed, so I didn’t want to go up there and tick her off by asking questions.  You don’t tick off a stressed flight attendant, that’s just bad karma waiting to bite ya.  She finally calls my name and doesn’t say anything about where I’m seated, just hands me the ticket.  So, I got a first class seat for 75 bucks.  Well, it’s 75 bucks + 55k miles.  Can’t beat that now, can ya. 

The hotel that Sylvia and Hernan picked for us is one of the nicest places I’ve stayed at.  The room is more like an apartment!  There is the downstairs which has a small living room, kitchen, dining room, bathroom and a bedroom with 2 twins.  There there is the upstairs which has a king sized bed, walk-in closet, huge bathroom and a sitting area.  Oh yeah, there are LCD TVs everywhere.  The people at the front desk are on top of things and extremely polite.  I’m talkin “Hong Kong JW Marriott” polite. I’ve never said that about any hotel I’ve stayed at, and I’ve stayed at a few in my travels around the world.  A big thanks to Hernan and Sylvia for taking the time the last time they were in Bogota to find this hotel.

Ok, I’m done typing for the night.  There is a bar downstairs which I plan to go and have a light dinner and a couple drinks.

Flying to Bogota

I’m half way through my 2 day journey to Bogota, Colombia.  Did the red eye flight from Portland into Chicago, got lucky with the hotel having a room available when I showed up at 6:00 AM.  Now I’m on a jet flying from Chicago to Toronto, Canada.  Yep, flying Air Canada on one of their smaller locally built jets.  The flight attendant has a cute smile and there is no one sitting next to me.  When I was checking in the lady at the front desk asked if I wanted to fly out on the 7:00 AM flight instead of the 8:30.  I figured, “what the hell, I can either sit in Chicago for 2 hours or Toronto instead.”  I haven’t been through Toronto before, so I have a new place to wonder around and explore.

I ended up sleeping most of the day yesterday since I didn’t get any sleep on the red eye into Chicago.  I can never sleep on the plane for some reason.  So, I didn’t go down town Chicago to see the sites.  Oh well, I’m going to be doing a hell of a lot of wondering around and exploring once I get into Bogota. 

I did go to a local pizza shop close to the hotel called Gino’s for dinner and tried out some Chicago Deep Dish Pizza.  It was a heck of a lot better then the Old Chicago Pizza joint back in Hillsboro.  :)  Also, it must of been good because there was a picture of President Reagan on the wall having lunch there.  If Reagan ate there, it must be good, right?  The service was, well normal for Chicago, but the pepperoni and cheese pizza was darn good. 

I forgot my USB cable for my iPhone, so I stopped off at a Brookstone at the airport to buy one.  I feel like I was violated after I saw how much the damn thing cost.  25 bucks for a cheap AC/DC converter and USB cable?  Probably cost a buck fifty to produce AND ship from China…  But what can you do?  I needed to charge my phone and there wasn’t anywhere else to go buy one.  Still feels wrong though…

That was a short flight.  We’re starting to descend into Toronto, so I better shut this down.  I’ll be posting later tonight when I get into Bogota.

Preparing for Bogota

I have a red eye out of Portland tonight to begin the 2 day journey to Bogota, Colombia. Yes, you read correctly, it's going to take me about 2 days to get down there. When I booked the flight, United could only find a flight that was 11:20 PM, Sunday out of Portland to Chicago. Arrive in Chicago at 5:00 AM local time Monday. Then the next flight is 8:00 AM Tuesday from Chicago to Toronto, Canada then arriving in Bogota, Colombia about 9:00 PM Tusday, local time. I can't complain too much though. I used miles for the trip and just had to pay 75 bucks for the booking fee and taxes. The flight home isn't nearly as bad. I fly out of Bogota at 11:30 PM local time, arrive in Toronto the next day then fly into Seattle. From Seattle it's a short hop to Portland. Still a lot of flying though... but I'm used to long trips with all the traveling I do for work.

For those who don't know, the reason I'm going to Bogota is that a very good friend of mine is getting married next weekend. They both now live in Hillsboro and work at Intel but her and her fiance are originally from Colombia and they wanted to be married there.

While I'm in Colombia, I'll be staying in Bogota at the 101 Park House in the Grand Suite with some friends of mine. The hotel looks, well freaking awesome. Probably over kill, but since there are 4 of us splitting the bill, it's not that bad. Wednesday night the soon to be married couple have invited me to a dinner at their friends house. Then Thursday night we're supposed to go to a famous restaurant just outside of Bogota called Andrés Carne de Res which looks like a great place to learn more about Colombian food and have a good time. Friday is still kind of open and then Saturday is the big wedding and party.

After the weekend a couple of my friends and I will be flying out to Cartagena, Colombia which is on the the Caribbean Coast in the northern part of Colombia. It looks like a beautiful place to visit.

Well, that's about all for now. It's time for me to finish my packing and go purchase some good clothes for the wedding. I'll be posting on here when I have time.