And yet, another Travel Day

After waking early to catch the flight to Colombia, we sat down with the family to share a traditional breakfast of gallo pinto. The meal was prepared by the mother using her own mother’s traditional recipe. Gallo pinto is a serious thing in these parts, while simply beans and rice, everyones tastes a little bit different.

Calling an Uber while we finished with the last of our packing, we said our good-byes and were on our way… well, sort of. The Uber driver didn’t know how to get to the airport. Yes, you read that correctly. A professional taxi driver who lives in San Jose, didn’t know how to get to one of the busiest international airports in Central America. We drove around in circles - literally -around the city centre multiple times. Needless to say, I was beginning to lose my shit. When you have a plane to catch and leave with a little bit more than the time you need to get through customs and onto the plane, you don’t have time for someone to figure out where the airport is. I told him to drive us back to the home he picked us up at, since Mark and I don’t carry phones (yet), this was the only option we had.

We get dropped off at the house and I run into the house telling them what happened and they quickly ordered another Uber. The car arrived quickly and we were off once again, things were looking up, we were going to make our flight! Then a car stopped in front of us, blocking the entire one-lane street. It was smoking. Thinking out loud we figured maybe we weren’t supposed to leave Costa Rica after all. Thankfully, a couple pedestrians got behind the car and pushed it out of the way and we were once again moving. Our second driver not only knew where the airport was, but all of the wild backroads to avoid traffic and get us there in time!

Arriving in Bogota a couple hours later, we quickly learn that Canadians are special in Colombia’s view. We get our own separate line-up to customs! Unfortunately, this isn’t a good thing. Due to silly political nonsense, Colombia charges Canadians a $90 fee to enter the country! Having little choice in the matter, we pay the fee and entered our next country.

Having a couple hours to kill before our connecting flight, we grab some snacks and beer. We were surprised at how cheap, and tasty the beer and empanadas were we ordered another round. Soon we’re off again on flight number two, towards Santa Marta.

Picking up our bags, we headed out to the taxi and once again everyone is in a rush to grab our bags and go that they guy doesn’t even ask us where we are headed before we are already on the highway. Scrambling, I find the rather vague address that I was given and see that it only gets us to the general street the house, not the actual address. It does however include the host’s phone number which we should call for final details. Again, lacking a phone we’re out of luck.

Stopping in front of two gates where there were about ten townhouses inside each complex, the driver tells us we’ve arrived. Not knowing which gate is ours we start to get out of the cab grabbing our bags, still unsure of our next move. Thankfully, seconds later we hear an English voice calling towards us. Just by chance, our host happened to be stepping outside for a moment and saw the taxi. He opens the gate and shows us to our new home, once again we are exhausted.

We’re told about an outdoor food court that is highly recommended and we head out for a late night dinner. We sit down at a picnic table and order something unknown to us from one of the carts. Salchipapas soon arrive, a magical heart stopping pile of french fries, covered in two sauces, three types of meat, corn kernels and lettuce. It was a good thing we only ordered one. It was delicious and filling and cheap. A great way to end a travel day.