first news from Bogota

I made it! After 17.5 hours of traveling, I'm now ensconced in a charming hotel somewhere in Bogota, apparently just down the street from the congressional offices. So as long as there's no coup I should be alright the few days I'm here.

Ugh, what a long trip. It started out with me almost missing my taxi. Apparently I'd forgotten how to correctly set my alarm (or wake up early) after only 16 days of vacation, but I made it out. When I got there, the airline was asking for volunteers to be bumped to a later flight, in return for a $500 travel voucher. Eager traveler that I am, I ran over to volunteer and would have happily gone through Texas and still ended up in Bogota at the same time, but they didn't need me. I was crushed. The payoff though was that I did get to see the Miami International Airport! All you need to know is that it's probably the only major international airport in the developed world without (at least paid) wifi access in every terminal. It was barbaric and traumatizing. I eventually managed to find an airport hotel and got the travel insurance I had neglected to purchase before leaving. Whoops.

The plane ride to Florida was uneventful, and the highlight of the Bogota leg was an interesting discussion with my neighbor of the effects of skyrocketing commodities prices on the production of Caterpillar construction equipment. Damn those Chinese! I won't bore you with the details, but here's a random fun fact: the materials needed to make a penny now cost 1.4 cents.

Landing was totally boring, it was 11:30pm so I couldn't see anything. For some reason, my heart was pounding as I went through immigration but the lady didn't even ask any questions and the whole deal was surprisingly efficient. At the baggage claim there was a whole in the wall out to the tarmac where the luggage trucks pulled in. They basically tossed the stuff onto the conveyor belt right next to the opening, which would be nothing special, unless if you remember the opening of the Denver airport with its super-high-tech baggage handling system that wreaked tons of havoc in the early 1990s. People power is still a good way of just getting shit done.

Customs was very quick, but for a change they scanned all the luggage leaving the airport. Rather odd to do it then, but why not? They're the ones dealing with guerillas and whatnot. My ride had been there for an hour but was super nice and got me to my hotel in 20 minutes (ignoring red lights is definitely a time saver late at night). The guy was very nice and spoke good English but thankfully endured my Spanish without complaint. I managed to make myself understood. It sucks to have regressed to a level where it gives me confidence when someone humors me about how well I speak the local language.

I'm going to bed. On a side note, a big thanks to all of you who made my short return to the Bay Area so delightful.