Bounce Bounce Bounce
The day after the trek was a designated recovery day. We did nothing. Stayed in the hostel, lounged in hammocks or couches and caught up on the correspondence, wrote the blogs and occasionally snoozed, went for a walk for lunch, got a cab back, we were shattered. Later we ran into Eddie and Sandra from our boat trip and went out for dinner and a beverage and a catch up.
Tuesday began 3 days of bouncing from city to city. Santa Marta to Bogota, Bogota to Quito then Quito to the Galapagos. We had gone with a dodgy looking local Colombian airline to save money, around $400 US each in savings so worth the risk, after all, its an airline, it can't be that bad. We got to Santa Marta airport around
2:30pm, 3 hours before the flight as they recommended, but no check-in staff ! Apparently they only open 2 hours before a flight but you must be there 3 hours before ???? Anyways we had a drink over looking the ocean and headed through. Santa Marta airport only has 2 gates, our gate had a coffee shop and hotdog stand, just as well. Long story short we got delayed by nearly 5 hours, the airline continually reviewing the take-off time . Tempers of the locals flared, police were called, an agreement was reached. Free hotdogs for all ! We landed in Bogota well after midnight and grabbed a taxi, hoping like hell that a) our hostel was 24 hours, and b) they hadn't given our room away. We got lucky on both. The only thing we didn't account for was that Bogota is at 2600m above sea level, 12 degrees and pouring rain, singlet and thongs all the way.
The morning greeted us with hotdogs revenge ! Enough said. We headed into the old town for a walk and breakfast. With only 3 hours before heading to the airport again we packed it in, taking in the main plazas and markets. There's a lot of reconstruction going on but its a bustling town with a very cool vibe about it, locals were friendly and a rich culture. We both think we'd like to go back and spend more time. Took some cool photos and bought some souvenirs. There's a lot of graffiti in Bogota, but saying that, a lot of it is really good street art, very colourful and interesting pieces, sadly we saw most of from a car window and couldn't get any pictures.
The airport process was painless, scored a duty free bottle of Havana Black for US$11, bargain, and again hit the waiting area for our flight with the same dodgy airline. Viva Colombia stepped up. No issues this time, smooth flying in fact, landed in Quito on time and were through customs with our bags about 10 minutes later, result. Plus we were getting picked up by a free shuttle to our accommodation for the night. Now where's that shuttle ? There's no free wifi at Quito Airport so after an hour we gave into to TGI Fridays, ordered an $8 milkshake in order to use their wifi and emailed the accommodation to find out what was going on. Turns out they were on time, according to them, they just got our flight time wrong. They were lovely folks though and the country house we stayed in for the night was gorgeous. Eduardo showed us around the farm grounds, made us a local dinner, we had a hot shower for the first time since San Jose and crawled into a huge bed in our room. Early night, early rise.
Back to Quito airport
at 7am, bags checked, but then re-checked. As the Galapagos is a protected national park you need to get your bags inspected by officials before you can check-in. Sorted. Breakfast, sorted and waiting at the gate. We heard several announcements for the the Galapagos flight but not much movement at the gate, in fact none despite the final call announcement, because the gate had changed and we didn't know ! I casually wondered over and asked the question and the attendant looked at me worried, pointed across the lounge and we were hurried onto the plane. That was very nearly an oopsy !
The flight was in 2 parts, via Guayaquil. Tame was a lovely airline, above all else with legroom, a luxury we haven't had for a while, a smooth flight and on time. Happy customers, and after all, we are now on the Galapagos Islands !
