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Flight to Sea Level
Charts our Journey from Lima to an even Better Place
Having stayed only one night in Lima, we were again up early to get to the airport for the first of our two flights to take us back to sea-level, and civilisation for some much needed R&R. (yes I do know Lima is at sea level, but I'm using poetic license here to make the story better!). Flight number 1 was Lima to Bogota, capital of Columbia. The flight was a mid-afternoon one and lasted only a couple of hours, but because of the usual security checks we had to get to the airport quite early. Once we arrived, our bags were checked through to Cartegena, our second destination of th day, so we only had to enter the country, wait for the internal flight and arrive. Of course, we had to wait for a couple of hours at Bogota airport, so we didn't get a chance to see anything of the city. The flight there was uneventful, and, once we had cleared immigration, we could only wait for the next flight to be called, though the immigration officer was slightly bemused that we were transitting through his country to the US, rather than having a direct flight from Lima. I explained that this was because the flights were much cheaper with stops!We only waited a short while before we had to board our internal flight to Cartegena, which was due to arrive around 11pm. We then had an overnight stay before boarding the next flight. However, we didn't have a hotel booked, a we figured that there was bound to be an airport hotel, and, anyway, if push came to shove, we could always spend a few hours in an airport chair. HOW WRONG WE WERE!
The plane duly arrived, and, of course, being an internal flight, all we had to do was pick up our bags, no customs control to go through! We were a little surprised about this, but there you go. Clearly, international transit passengers weren't expected to take this route.
We were somewhat dismayed to discover that although it is an internaional airport, it is one which closes as soon as the last flight has arrived, and we were it. Plus there was no airport or near airport hotels. Eventually, we asked for help, and a kindly lady told a taxi driver to take us to a nearby hostel. Although near by, it was also full, so he took us into town to a fairly swish hotel, where we were told the only room was a suite, and quite an expensive one at that (no surprise, given that it was now after midnight, and it was obvious we were desperate, so he knew he could charge whatever he wanted. Even given that we would need to be away from the hotel by 6.30am, so would have less that six hours use, we still had to pay the full price. The room, however, was lovely.
The next morning we took a taxi back to the airport, and we discovered what a lovely walled town Cartegena was. A real shame that we didn't have more time to explore this city, which we have learned is known as the prettiest city in the whole of South America. But our plane wouldn't wait.
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John&Lynnette |
Latest page update: made by John&Lynnette
, Aug 28 2008, 1:47 PM EDT
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