I arrived early at the airport and paid a whopping 80US dollars (more than they charged me at JFK, for goodness' sake!) because my suitcase was overweight. Thank goodness Jorge, my jefe, had taken some of my luggage on the bus with him the day before, because they charged per bag as well. I had a quick tinto (coffee), and then headed to the "regional gate" to catch my flight to Ibagué. The flight was scheduled to leave at 8:10. At 9 they let us enter to gate, which was a hallway leading to a staircase. We waited there for about 30 minutes while they chaotically arranged one of the 5 airport buses on the tarmac to come pick us up... No clue why that was such a challenging task...
We drove for 2 minutes to the 70s era prop plane that was bringing me southward. There was a group of people on the tarmac, taking photos of the captain in the cockpit, as he waved and took pictures of them taking pictures of him...........................
I had seat 6A, which, contrary to assumptions, was in the back of the 9 row plane. They announced that it was the captain's first flight............................
The country below was absolutely breathtaking as we flew the 16 minutes to Ibagué. The flight attendant didn't bother getting out of her take-off/landing seat. She did announce a few minutes in that approved electronic devices were now usable. 3 minutes later she announced that all electronic devices must now be shut off..........................
The only sketchy part was coming into the landing, he went a bit nose-heavy, and we plummeted a bit. But he rectified the nose-dive pretty quick. All in all, a successful first flight for our pilot. Yikes.
I arrived & couldn't stop smiling! I'll post later pictures & thoughts on WHY I can't stop smiling.
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