06.22.03
Arrival in Bogota
Sunday, June 22, 200310:34 AM – Bogotá
The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. For the second leg I had to sit for five hours in an airplane seat that I eventually realized was smaller than most (I think the back of the plane flared inwards so the rearmost seats had a bit less width to them). The International airport in Bogotá is very well set up, getting in and through customs is very easy[1]. The hard part is coming out into the throngs of hundreds of people all waiting for their friends and family to arrive. My mother has been collecting baby clothes and toys for my sister’s kids for months so she had three huge backs to haul through the airport and into the tiny Chevrolet that picked us up.
We got to Bogotá late enough that I got to see my nephew Nicolas and my new Niece Catalina asleep. Maite (my sister) served us some nice tea and tropical fruits that I have not had in years. I got to eat Granadilla and Mamonsillo, two of my favorites.
This morning I woke up and got to spend time with my nephew. He turns three years old today and is simply delightful. Last time I saw him was almost a year ago and he was barely starting to speak. I have a hard time understanding him at times but love all the ideas he has. He is delighted with fire trucks, dinosaurs, elephants and movies. Nicolas will watch movies over and over never tiring, a man after my own heart!
Maria Catalina is only six weeks old and very beautiful. She is still too young to make sense out of what she sees, but will look around her and go through all kinds of expression changes. She just learned how to smile a few days ago but does it pretty indiscriminately. At times she just decides to smile for no reason, almost as if she is trying out different expressions to see what they are like. Right now her life consists basically of eating, sleeping and pooping.
Bogotá is at 8,600 ft. For anyone who has spent time at this altitude knows that it takes some time to get used to the thin atmosphere. I did not really notice it last night but it hit me hard today. Going out for a short walk totally winded me. Just going up a few sets of stairs made me feel faint. I knew this was coming and that the only thing to do really is to take it easy the first couple of days and get used to it.
1 = If you take a plane into El Dorado use the leftmost line for moving through customs. There is a special line for I am not sure what purpose next to it that is seldom used. That official will if not busy take people from the nearby line thereby moving it twice as fast as most.