Day 27 - Cali

Today was a travel day from Barranquilla to Cali.  I was on the first flight out, which meant that we left the hotel at 7:30 am.  We drive all the way out to the Cartagena airport (a 2 hour-ish drive) and there was a little drama, where one of the musicians didn't have her passport because another musician borrowed her computer and the passport was in the computer bag, and the girl who borrowed it didn't bring it with her on the bus, etc., etc.  It was pretty dramatic.  There were tears and angry people all over the place, and lots of Spanish I couldn't understand, but I tried to calm everyone down, and it turned out fine because the passport-less girl made it through with just her ID, and someone on the next flight brought the bag with them.  Anywho, we sat around at the gate waiting for the flight for a while.  I ended up getting a mocha cappuccino (that totally burnt my tongue, but it was delicious).  There was free wifi, so I got a ton of work done, sending out emails and updating spreadsheets.  I also got more facebook photos coordinated with my counterpart at FJC, which has been really hard to do because we are both so busy and don't see each other very much.  Anywho, after a while, we got a few announcements saying that the flight was delayed.  I don't really know why (dang language barrier again), but it seems pretty common for flights to be late around here.  I ended up getting hungry and decided to get my lunch, but with the slim pickings (one convenience shop and one cafe) to choose from, I ended up just having an empanada.  It was delicious, but not very much food.  After about the third time our flight was delayed, we finally had to start worrying about missing our connecting flight, but they were all over that.  They were holding the connecting plane for us so that we could still make it on time.  We finally board the plane and take off, and make it to Bogotá only about half an hour late for the next flight's departure.  We quickly get on to the next flight, and they load us and start taxiing, but then we find out that there is an issue with the plane's exterior lights... So we taxi back to the gate and offload.  After waiting not too long, we get on another plane that they have arranged for us to take instead, and this time, finally, we take off for our final destination of Cali.  We make it to our hotel at 7:30 pm, a full 12 hours after departing from our hotel in Barranquilla.  What a ridiculously long day!!!!  At least the hotel here is extremely nice.  We had an awesome dinner, and I am very much looking forward to sleeping in a little bit tomorrow.

I put a bunch more pictures up on my Picasa album!  Check um out!!!!