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.