Adrenalin rushes of the wrong sort

Welcome to Colombia

Bogota, I had allowed two days to explore you but alas my body decided against it and confined me to my hotel room with an awful head cold. 

During that time I saw a lot of the hotel restaurant, got to chat the the waiters, learned a bit more of the language and other than some great soup, ate some pretty uninspiring food. 

The staff were the highlight and I expect like most wait staff poorly paid. The average monthly salary is just (just behind Brazil) 737,000 peso (NZD 372), and despite things appearing cheap for us, it must be very hard to eke out a living on that much. 

Not feeling well and wanting the comfort of hot drinks when there was no jug in the room was tough. In my great wisdom and in the excitement of finding a jug in Chile I never thought that Colombia and Ecuador operate on 110volts so the 240v lovely jug was no use and so it stayed in Colombia. Oh well that was a waste.

My first venture out of doors was to go to the first trip meeting and to meet the group of people I will be traveling with for the next 10 days. Our guide Carolina gave us some insight into what to expect. Few organised activities and lots of spare time. That’s why I love traveling with Intrepid. 

My travel mates seem like a neat bunch with an Australian, a Canadian, three Americans and one Irishman that we have yet to meet. 

I chose to dip out of the orientation walk and dinner (even though they were going yo a restaurant that I really wanted to try) and figured keeping warm and resting were the best way to get shot of this nonsense. 

Next morning I woke to find most of the hotel ( including my room and the restaurant) had no power. I’d been dreaming of toast but with just an electric toaster available that wasn’t going to happen but oh well. Dreaming of food proved that I was feeling much much better and just in time for the adventure to begin.

The kitchen did, however, have hot coffee which I drunk and then hopped in the lift to go back to my room, number ‘cuatro serro dos A’. 

The lift had other ideas! It took off from the ground floor but decided not to go much further and stopped dead in between floors. I couldn’t get the torch on my fone to work so it was pitch black, and hot and stuffy. Luckily I could reach up far enough to be able to bang on the steel door. That seemed to be the only way to alert someone as the alarm bell didn’t work.

Anyway, after a lot of banging on the walls and calling out, with eventually some reassurances from outside and before I totally lost the plot, they opened the door above. I only just managed to haul myself out and pretty strung out by that stage, desperately needed a hug and some water. So the two people that helped me out laughed nervous laughs (as did I) and walked off and left me there, sprawled on the floor. Not a nice experience for someone that is claustrophobic.

Thank goodness for the wait staff who came to the rescue with iced water and smiles as soon as I walked into the restaurant. Whew! Seems everyone in the restaurant could hear me banging and calling out and a couple of lovely ladies showed concern. Once recovered (well sort of) I went out for fresh air noticing the cyclists and joggers out in force. On Sunday’s they close off many of the main arteries for cars and leave it clear for cyclists, joggers, walkers. It was so lovely to see. If Wellington ever got its traffic flowing smoothly they could do the same, but that’s not likely to happen. 

Most everything was shut and I’d recovered from my shock enough to want food. My only option was Starbucks which I will not normally frequent. The croissant would have been nice if it hadn’t been nuked, the coffee was like the usual Starbucks and lacking in substance - interesting in that I am in Colombia and they use coffee from Papua New Guinea.

But there is always a highlight:

Everyone I have encountered so far has been happy, welcoming and so eager to please. Love them. 

The time came to leave this city that I saw nothing of and a mini van collected is from the hotel for a quick drive through the city. I’m sad I didn’t get to see it because it looks like a beautiful place, but I know there are gems to come. We were dropped off at El Dorado airport for our flight to Armenia from where we will drive through to Salento, our home for the next day. 

I went to a bliss place while wandering the airport, when a taste tempter gave me a piece of Colombian Chocolate with coffee beans to try. Oh oh oh. Now I know why I chose to come here. The tempter worked well as I promptly bought a bag and after sharing a few round with the others I put them away for bedtime snacks. Too good not to share, a bit! Oh oh oh. 

Waiting for our flight at gate 71 we hear an announcement. Please go to gate 83. We get there to be told that our flight was delayed an hour. Oh well. Its a great opportunity to do nothing but to chat with the team. 

On boarding we are told that we could expect turbulence. It missed us thank goodness but we arrived in Armenia and were greeted by rain. A good wee drop at that. Only stairs onto the tarmac at this airport but as we stepped out of the plane not only were we given a pottle of juice, but also an umbrella to see us dryly to the terminal.

From there we boarded another minivan for the start of our next adventure, but as it turned out to be so special I have created a new post just for Salento.  

Watch this space.......