The Saga of Getting to Colombia

PART I: LEAVING THE ISLAND

I left the farm at 6:30 AM on Monday.

We caught the 7:00 AM bus to Moyogalpa, stopping to switch buses once. We ate at The Corner House and had eggs benedict and carrot cake, which we'd been anticipating for the entirety of our time in Balgues.

Made it to the ferry that took us from Moyogalpa to San Jorge in an hour. Didn't get sea sick.

Got on a 2 hour bus ride that took us to Managua.

Got out at a terminal, got in a taxi, made it to David's guest house in a rain storm.

David took us to a grocery store where I bought chorizo and we ate the whole package before we even left the parking lot.

PART II: GETTING TO BOGOTA

I left David's at 9:00 AM on Tuesday and took a taxi about 20 minutes to the Managua airport.

Thank God that the woman at the ticket counter asked if I had my return flights home, because I didn't have them printed and wouldn't have been allowed into Colombia. She was nice enough to let me log into my school email and print my return flight tickets from her Official Computer. *NOTE: #1 thing Katie forgot to tell me I needed*

My first flight was from Managua to San Salvador, El Salvador. This flight was about an hour and a half.

My second flight was from San Salvador to Bogota, Colombia. Had an hour layover and the flight was about 3 hours.

I arrived in Bogota at 7:00 PM. The woman at customs asked if I had my Visa.
Fuck. I didn't. I told her I was only staying for 3 weeks. She said that was fine, I think it's a minimum of a month stay to need a Visa for Colombia. *NOTE: #2 thing Katie forgot to talk with me about- a potential Visa*

My flight from Bogota to Manizales was 10 hours from then, at 5:50 AM. Not knowing much except that Bogota was probably as unsafe as the other cities I'd been in, I risked it and went with someone holding a sign for their hotel for a place to sleep for a few hours. The person said the hotel was only 10 minutes away and was the closest one to the airport, so I checked his license and pretended to use my phone as a paranoid safety precaution and went with it.

The hotel was way nicer than I would have liked, coming from living outside for 2 months especially, and looked like it was straight out of Canyon Ranch. Of course, I took pictures because I knew my dad would be proud that I for once stayed in a 'nice place.' I probably paid more than I should, but Bogota was expensive, and I was just happy to be in one piece after taking a taxi in a new city after dark on my lonesome. So the $50 for a safe stay seemed worth it to me.

PART III: COLD, HUNGRY, AND NOWHERE TO GO

Woke up at 4:00 AM from the hotel and hopped in a taxi with another person staying at the hotel headed for the airport.

Made it to my final flight with plenty of time to spare. Got my last ticket and got on the plane, ready to get to Manizales.

Then shit hit the fan. An announcement was made that I couldn't really understand (Spanish speaking only from this point forward), but I was able to understand that the Manizales airport was cerrado- closed- due to bad weather.

We all had to get off the plane we had just boarded.

So here I am, freezing in the Bogota airport; seriously, you could see your breath, and I'm just forced to wait to see if the Manizales airport opens. I end up putting on two pairs of leggings and tucking my leggings into wool socks I'm wearing with sandals, and have on a t shirt with a long sleeved shirt and a button-up shirt over that, and then draped my flowered dress over my legs to try and keep warm. I looked ridiculous, but coming from a tropical island climate to 50 degrees was a brutal shock to my system. *NOTE: #3 thing Katie forgot to tell me: How cold it is in Colombia*

After 3 hours of waiting, I venture out and buy cold arepas to add to the only food groups I'd been eating for two days: breads and cheeses. Then we were issued a new plane ticket to another airport in Colombia, Pereira  think, and were relocated in the airport.

Once there, we find out that this second airport was closed to. We had to wait more.

At this point, I spend too much money on roaming charges and phone my dad to tell him that he's right and if I want to be in a Spanish speaking place I'll just stick to Miami next time.

After 3 more hours of waiting, we fly to Pereira.

But the journey wasn't over, I had to take a 2 hour bus from there to Manizales.

By the time I made it to Katie, who now had to take off work to come and get me, I was exhausted, but mostly just happy to have made it!

PART IV: MANIZALES, JUST LIKE BOULDER, COLORADO

My first impressions of Manizales are that it's just like Boulder, which Katie seemed annoyed with. But seriously, Katie lives in the heart of this trendy down town area and residential houses and mountains are nearby in the distance.

My first day here was spent meeting Cesi, Katie's favorite member of her homestay family, Abuela and Madre. Also got to meet Katie's Band of Brothers: Rob, Jairo and Juan Fey and already love them.

Colombia is a foreign place to me with shops, grocery stores, cars, stop lights, and seems like this huge city to me coming from the remote island. Katie seems to have lots planned for us and in less than 24 hours of being here, we've already hit up two of her favorite coffee places. Shopping and morning dance classes await and I can't believe that this is my life- strutting around the city with my sister, a long ways away from shoveling pig shit in Nicaragua.

I just have to figure out a way to occupy myself from the hours of 1-6 every weekday while Katie teaches....but for now, I'm appreciative of the down time as I recover from all of the crazy travels it took to get here. I thought getting to Thailand, flying for over 24 hours, was as bad as flying could get- but I think I was proved wrong on this adventure to get here. Having three weeks with Katie, seeing her life here, is worth it!