Resting up in Bogota

Already winter seems far behind: we arrived in Bogota yesterday, and although it is a bit overcast it fels like a mild summer day at home.

All went well on the way here. At the airport in Toronto yesterday morning we had a nice encounter with a young woman from Ecuador, tiny with two big suitcases. We offered to help her carry a bag that looked much too big for her and started talking. She reminded me a lot of the two young women we're going to visit in Quito, and we have a new contact for our travels, this one on the coast.

The flight was unremarkable, and we landed very much on time at shortly after 2:00. After that came the unavoidable line-up at immigration, which did move reasonably fast, however. No problem at all there; we were sent on our way with a stamped passport and a friendly 'bienvenidos'.

Since we had booked a hotel with otherwise hard to use Aeroplan miles we didn't have to find a taxi, bus or minivan but could wait for the hotel's shuttle. Waiting, we encountered the first money-making scheme of our journey: a man in suit and tie was very interested to find out the name of our hotel, and proceeded to call the shuttle 'for us' - not that we weren't quite sure that it would show up no matter what. But then, one never knows, of course. Anyway, he had made this un-asked-for phone call, chatted a bit, and then asked for money; $20 would be adequate, he thought. Right! We didn't, and since he wasn't too happy that we gave him American coins instead of notes he pretty soon honed in on another hapless victim. No harm done, but I better get my Spanish a bit more in order so that I can communicate with more confidence.

The hotel, on the outskirts of the city and very close to the airport, could be anywhere in the world (well, except for the trees, the climate, the darker skinned employees and most of the guests); it is modern and ugly from the outside, but nice and clean and quiet enough in our room.

Bogota is at 2,640m altitude (8,660 feet), and when we stepped out of the plane we both felt a little weird. My heart seemed to be beating a little fast and I might have been slightly out of breath. But we noticed that everyone walked a little slower than in Toronto, and once we had waited in line at immigration for a while, the feeling went away. In fact, the weather felt really nice, around 19 degrees when we landed - warm enough, with a refreshing breeze.

In a few minutes we'll check out and will make our way to the bus terminal by taxi to find a suitable bus to take us towards Quito. We are not quite sure yet where we'll spend the night; one stretch of road towards the border is not recommended for night travel. We'll probably start out later in the afternoon, 5:00 or 6:00 maybe, and will ride overnight to Pasto or Ipayan. Ipayan is the town closest to the border, and after the border crossing it should only take another four or five hours to Quito. 

I'm glad we will come back to Bogota on the way home: we haven't really seen anything of the city. Then, we will not be on the outskirts anymore, but find a hostel right in the beautiful old core of the city. What stories might we have to tell by the time we are back here?