HOME! And what a trip home it was. It began with a bus ride from Ibagué, on which a boy in the back was quite sick, and wound up vomiting right before getting off at the South Terminal in Bogotá. As always, the seat I had was designed for a smaller human than me, and so my legs were cramped and fell asleep about 20 minutes into the 5 hour bus ride. When we arrived in Bogotá we had made good time, but the traffic in the capital is literally the worst I have ever seen in the world, and we spent almost 2 hours making our way to the terminal. I had taken the bus with host-brother Sebastian’s school friend (who had been visiting us in Ibagué), and we joined the epic line waiting for a taxi even farther into the northern part of the city, which was the source of the traffic. It took me another hour and a half to get from the terminal to the apartment, the whole time chatting with my taxi driver, who seemed to love me. He babbled about how he loved his job for this reason – meeting people, chatting, learning. Interesting.
I arrived at the apartment and almost immediately Juliana picked me up and we drove to Santiago’s house (her boyfriend), and then to the T Zone of Bogotá. We ate at a food court that was to die for: I had an $18 salad from a salad bar at which I basically said “a little of everything please” followed by passionfruit mousse and a cappuccino. YUM.
We took a walk through the T, a T shaped pedestrian street lined with upscale bars and restaurants, and noticed an incredible crowd gathering on one length of the T. Santiago explained that TELMEX, a local telecommunications company, had sponsored Christmas decorations in the Zone that included fake snow, which was dispensed every half hour from bird-house type contraptions on top of the light poles. Luckily we were 5 minutes before 10, and were able to see the sheer joy and excitement that was Colombian families standing under falling “snow” (which was actually foam….)
I knew Wednesday I would have nothing much to do, so I tried to sleep in. That didn’t work out too well, since the apartment is on one of the main streets of Bogotá, at ground level, so the traffic sounds crept in starting around 5. I was in and out of a light morning sleep. At around 8 constructions crews began work in the apartment above Laura and Sebastian’s apartment, which meant that I was more out than in that light sleep. Finally I got out of bed at 9:30, and tried to shower. No hot water. Wet my hair and nothing more – Bogotá is too cold for a cold shower.
I was in and out of the apartment all day, trying my best to pass the time until 8:00PM, when I had decided I would head towards the airport. It was a long, boring day. Finally I left the apartment with my body-sized suitcases (2) filled with the things I don’t use in Ibagué that I will leave at home, and headed to the airport. We hit traffic, so I arrived a bit later than expected, and as I hadn’t eaten yet I was bummed about that.
When I finally made it to the Delta line at the airport they directed me to a counter at the complete other side of the terminal to get some sort of tax waiver, but after I lugged my weight in bags over to the counter I was told that I wasn’t eligible, since I had been in Colombia for 4 months. So, back to the Delta line without the waiver, and to pay 64,000 pesos in departure tax. They sent me to a different counter to pay, where I waited behind a young couple seemingly backpacking their honeymoon (very touchy feely), who were taking FOREVER to be helped. I waited 20 minutes, and then I was told that I had to go back where I had been to pay. Great.
Finally made it through, ate a hamburger (it was the only option at 10:30 on a Wednesday night) and headed through to the gate. The plane boarded 15 minutes before scheduled departure time, and then we sat for about an hour waiting for approval from air-traffic control to depart. What is it with Bogotá’s ATC and thinking that clouds = un-flyable weather??? Finally we were off at around 1:00AM. The plane was almost empty, so I relocated to the first row in economy, which turned out to be a mistake. A whale of a man was in the row behind, though he was in the aisle and I was at the window. Right after the seat-belt sign was turned off he tried to lay down across the entire 3 seat row – though as I said, he was a whale of a man. This resulted in him kicking and pushing my seat consistently throughout the flight, waking me up every time I was able to actually fall asleep. Oh joy. Also, there was a 4 or 5 year old girl a few rows back with the most wicked cough I have ever heard, which made sleeping all the more impossible. So to sum up the red-eye from Bogotá to New York: Sleepless in the Stratosphere.
But who cares, I AM HOME!!!!!!!
After that marathon trip home, there was nothing but pure joy at being surrounded by my family, and to boot, we had snow that I got to play in. Christmas passed so quickly, and soon Mom, Lauren, Finn, and Deb were back westward and I was at home with Dad, Laurie & the boys. I had a girls' night out with life-long friends, and then took a quick trip up to Boston to catch up with a couple of groups of friends, but otherwise stayed in Ridgefield the entire trip back, which was heavenly. Somehow I was able to slow down and just hang with family, which was so heavenly I dreaded returning to a land far far away. We had a blast together, and I have learned that no matter how much I love to travel, and how passionate about international affairs I am, I can never live far away for any length of time, my family is just too much a part of my happiness!
winter wonderland
familia :) <3
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