This morning I woke up.... Again the lingering feeling of homesickness still present. But today was going to bring a change. I was heading to Bogota in Colombia.
After breakfast, I grabbed my bags and headed down to the lobby to check out. I was super stoked to see that the guide was sitting on a couch in the lobby checking her phone. Yay, she not only got the date right, but also the time!!
We waited for 5 mins for the bus driver to arrive. We threw my bags in the back, I jumped in an it was off to the airport.
We did have to make some slight detours, as a lot of the roads in Guayquil had been closed off because of Foundation Day celebrations. Apparently a parade had been organised for later on that morning. It's a shame that I wasn't staying in Guayquil one more day, just so that I could have enjoyed some of the festivities that they had planned. But in the end, Colombia was calling my name... plus my airline tickets were already booked!!
The drive out to the airport wasn't too bad, and before I knew it I was grabbing my bags out of the van and making my way to the avianca checkin counter.
I was slightly nervous today about the weight of my bag. It just seemed heavier... maybe because I added a few more things to it. So I put it on the scale and watched as it flung up to over 23kg, but then it came down and settled on 22kg. Phew!! I made it!!
Ticket in hand, I made my way towards the gate. Well, it's what I thought was the gate anyway. It wasn't until I heard the voice of the guide who had dropped me off at the airport asking me where the hell I was going, that I thought to myself obviously the wrong way. As I swung around, I tried to act really cool by saying that I was just going to check out the coffee situation.... she was so on to me. She pointed me in the direction of the international boarding gates. So, just as coolly as I had told my coffee cover up story, I did a u turn and headed in the correct direction of the boarding gates.
I headed through immigration and was asked a million and one questions about Ecuador. I think someone forgot to tell me that there was a pop quiz at the end of this leg of the holiday. I would have taken notes otherwise. After I had finished telling the immigration officer, that I had been to 3 Ecuadorian cities and gave them a ranking, and confirmed that I hadn't been to this other city, and then promised to come back to Ecuador did she allow me to leave. I may need to reconsider the whole coming back to Ecuador thing though, if they make it this hard to exit the country!! I almost needed to extend my 90 day stay!!
Next stop.... Security. These guys are always a bundle of laughs!! Everything on the conveyer belt, it went through the X-ray machine. I then went through the human version of the X-ray machine, where you need to stand on the yellow feet, and a magnetic filed swings around you. As I get out of my force field, I was greeted by a security guard. He was putting gloves on..,, great he wants to search something. 'Excuse me miss, I need to search your bag'. Ok, who am I to argue. He knew exactly what he was looking for, as once he had finished putting on his gloves, he grabbed a zip lock bag from a stack of them piled up along side the X-ray machine. He dug straight into my bag, and asked about the bottle of perfume I had. I said that I sure do have a bottle of perfume, and the instant he saw that it was already in a ziplock bag, he said that I was good to go!! That was painless enough.
Now for the painful part.... Waiting. At least the airport had free wifi, so I just checked out a whole heap of stuff!!
Soon the call went out to board the plane. So we all lined up and patiently waited as we had our tickets checked and scanned.
I walked on to the plane, and the first thing I did was check the back of a head rest for my inflight entertainment unit. Damn. No screen.
So I made my way down to my aisle seat, and started to make myself comfortable. I made room for a mother and her adult son, to pass through to the window and middle seats, and again made myself comfy. As I pulled the arm rests down for my seat, a slow realisation dawned on me..... there is nowhere to plug my earphones into. What.... where's the channel selector?? Oh my god, there is no in flight entertainment at all. This is going to be a loooooonnngggg flight!!
Everyone settled in their seats, and it soon came time for take off. I started to get the feeling that the guy next to me wasn't the best flyer. Especially when his mum started to hold his hand. As we rounded the corner to the runway strip, he buried his head into his mums shoulder. Ok, he really doesn't like flying. He stayed in this position until the drink and meal cart made it's way down the aisle, which was probably a good 10-15 mins into the flight!!
It was a good flight, hardly any turbulence. It actually went quite quick once I plugged my earphones into my iPhone and listened to music for the entire flight.
Before I knew it, we had landed in Bogota. Now, to say that I was a little nervous about heading to Colombia today, wouldn't be wrong exactly. After speaking to my mum and dad last night, they let me know that Australia has issued a warning to australians travelling to Colombia to be super vigilant about kidnappings. Ok!!! Check!!!
So I made my way to immigration. As I found the right queue to join, I started to walk down the pathway to see the craziness unfold. The line to clear immigration was crazy long. I think about 4 or 5 flights must have all landed at the same time. The line curled it's way around like a massive anaconda, and we were all guided by the endless rows of ropes. I think it took close to 40mins to get to the front of the queue. I heard a few people being asked some tough questions, so I started to get all of my paperwork sorted. I wanted to be ready for any questions that they threw at me. Finally the arm of an immigration officer went up, it was finally my turn to face the firing squad. I walked up and handed my passport across, she scanned it, stamped it and I was through. Not even a question!!! Probably the easiest border crossing I've been present at!!
I then headed down the escalator to go and retrieve my bag. It wasn't hard to spot. My purple bag looked so lonely doing laps on the carousel. It was the second last bag left up there, so I grabbed him, then high tailed it to customs.
Ok, surely this is going to be harder than immigration. I handed my form in and as I continued to walk, a second customs officer pointed at me. I started to think the worst... I've been picked out for a complete bag search. I started thinking about how the hell I was going to fit everything back in my bag. He waved me through to a separate area. I actually had to do a double take as I realised that he had sent me to the straight through line... Yay, I was finally in Colombia.
First stop, money exchange. I had read that they don't except US dollars in Colombia, and as I was catching a taxi from the airport to my hotel, I needed some Colombian pesos. I changed over just enough to see me through for the next couple of days... The rest I can get from an ATM.
I know needed to find the regulated taxi booth. I had read on multiple sources that there was a booth at the airport where you need to organise taxis from. So I started looking for it. I looked everywhere and I just couldn't locate it. Some random guy came up to me and asked if I needed a taxi. The guides all tell you that you should never get in a taxi with someone who approaches you in the airport. So I was all ready to blow him off, when I looked down and read the writing on his pocket.... He worked for tourism Colombia. So I asked him about the taxi booth, he shook his head and said that there wasn't a taxi booth here. Ok, so the 3 different guides I read were wrong!! He advised me to join the taxi queue and to wait for the next available taxi. Sounds easy enough. I was all prepared with my hotel address written out... so it was just a matter of handing it to my driver. Thank god I did, as he couldn't speak a word of English. I had just enough Spanish to ask him how much he was going to rip me off... And he said $25000 pesos. This works out to be equivalent to $12.50, which isn't too far away from the $10 that was quoted in the guides. Sold.
The taxi driver drove me from the airport, through the city until we arrived at my hotel, about 30 mins after. He dropped me off on the other side of the narrow street across from my hotel. As I waited for the traffic to slow, I saw another guy getting dropped off at the same hotel. He was let out of his cab on the same side as the hotel, so he easily walked up the footpath. I on the other hand patiently waited, as car after car drove past me. Eventually a car slowed enough for me to quickly cross the road.
I walked up to the hotel... however all of the doors looked locked. There was no obvious entry into the hotel. I tried pushing open a few doors, without any success. Maybe the entry is around the corner. So I carted my bags around the corner. Nothing obvious here either. I came across a couple of guys doing some dodgy dealings, just as they exchanged the cash, one of them looked at me. I asked about my hotel, and he pointed me back in the direction I had just come from. I must be missing something. So I headed back around the corner, and I started looking a lot closer at each of the doors... then bingo, I saw it. The tiniest little call bell button high up on the door frame. I rang the bell, and next thing the door buzzes open.
I was greeted by the nicest guy Roman. He offered me a complimentary beer, as I waited for him to sort out my check in. I heard the door buzzer go off again, Roman clicks the button and the door flings open. The guy I saw getting out of the taxi earlier walked in. I said a quick hi, and asked if he was on a Tucan tour, and he replied yes. Great... I met my first tour mate!! Bruce is from Canada, and he is a retired teacher. He seems lovely, and happy to have a chat. We compared our Colombian entry stories... both sounding very similar. Long immigration lines, unable to find the promised taxi booth, unable to find the door to the hotel and Bruce was charged $30000 for his taxi fare.... So all in all pretty close!! We ended up chatting for a while, and made tentative plans to meet up for dinner later that night.
I was led to my room, and its really nice. I would say that my rooms decor was inspired by a cottage theme. It is really cute, and I'm happy with the digs.
I sorted out some of my stuff, and then decided that I would go out and explore this city a little. On the way out, I saw Bruce sitting on one of the hotel computers. So I approached him and said that I was going out for a walk.... and he was super keen to join me, which was great.
We didn't really have any plans on where we wanted to go, we decided to just see where life takes us. We started to walk around, turning down streets that looked interesting. We eventually made our way to a Main Street and had a look at some beautiful buildings along it. We came across a coffee place, and decided to stop in there to have a quick drink. Some how we managed to bumble our way through the ordering system, and sat down with our boiling cup of coffee. We talked quite easily, about travel and life. I think Bruce is going to be a good travel buddy!!!
We continued on our journey, taking in the sites and sounds of Bogota. We had a mutual respect and appreciation for some of the most amazing graffiti art work painted on the walls of buildings!!
We walked around a couple of very small markets, and then decided to head back to the hotel.
I relaxed for an hour or so, and I manage to call my mum on her actual birthday which was great.
Then Bruce and I met up for dinner. Bruce had done a little research on our hour break.... he had found a hamburger place that played jazz music, that was located about 6 blocks from our hotel. Sounds good to me.
So we walked up to the restaurant. We watched every step we took, being very careful not to fall down any of the many holes that lay waiting for unsuspecting customers!!
We found the restaurant, and grabbed a table just near the fire. The warmth of the fire was so welcoming, considering that the weather in Bogota is cold. I actually read that the hottest temperature it has ever risen to here is 25 degrees.
As we warmed ourselves up next to the fire, the waiter approached us and was amazing. Even though he didn't speak a word of English, we knew exactly what he was asking. I have started to pick up a little Spanish, but when it comes to comprehending what someone is telling me I still struggle a little. However, even though the waiter spoke only in Spanish, I just seemed to understand exactly what he asked, and was able to answer him in Spanish. Success!!
We enjoyed a really delicious meal together... And happily exchanged stories about travel and life. Before we knew it, it was 8.30 and it was time to head back to the hotel.
This evening I just relaxed in my room, and wrote today's blog. I'm looking forward to a good nights sleep, and ready to see what tomorrow brings!!!