Colombia is next on the list! We choose it because it’s somewhere we know little about, and it’s close enough to Nova Scotia to make a short week-long trip worth it, but we did find out during the planning, that a week in Colombia is nothing. We won’t be seeing a fraction of what Colombia has to offer.

Our Flight to Colombia was not Without Some Hiccups

We booked our flights with Avianca. Don’t fly with them, please. We had a Montreal to Bogota on an Avianca jet. We paid for some extra room, the “plus” seats. Thinking this was similar to Premium Economy with Air Canada. It’s not. What we got extra, as far as we could tell, was a little phone/tablet holder on the seat in front of us, and an adjustable headrest. There was no room in front of my knees. None!

So fine, the next flight from Bogota to Medellin they managed to provide even less room! My knees simply didn’t fit. This was discount airline type of shit. Good thing that flight was only an hour. The other was 6 hours, which is still shortish, so fine. I’ll never book another. Back to Lat Am Air for flights in this region.

Then, in Bogota on our layover, my drone was confiscated. I didn’t get into any trouble per-se, but it did go into a bag somewhere in the airport in Bogota. Hopefully there for my pickup at the end of the trip. Hopefully Colombian customs has some fun using it.

In Medellin we hopped into a car arranged by the hotel, and the cops immediately pull us over at the airport and question the driver for several minutes about his paperwork. It was all in Spanish, so we have little clue as to what was happening. And that’s how our trip started! There was also some boarding pass issues, that luckily we figured out and resolved, but the stree was starting to rise for both of us, when my pass popped up as a duplicate in Bogota and was no good. Fun times. Air Canada screwed that up in Halifax, but we made it.

Comuna 13

Day 1 was a tour of Comuna 13, and a trip on the cable car, which is used as public transit in Medellin and Bogota. Comuna 13 is is one of the many communities in Medellin, and one with a dark and violent history. I won’t do the history justice by mentioning why, but what remains is evidence of resilience and hope. An area toured around from violence to tourism. A vibrant part of the city full of art, performance, music, and food.

The Pablo Ecobar Tour

Today is the Pablo Escobar Tour!