On the Thanksgiving Day in 2021, I woke up extremely early at 6am. Everything was all packed up, I have a week of clothes, my laptop, rain gears, a small bluebooth speaker for music (hello!?), some candies for my friend Carlos in Bogota, and not one but two speedos… priority, priority! Bogota is located on the Andes, it is not cold by all means compared to Boston, but it is not really swimming weather right now. Nonetheless, some beach fun is anticipated in Cartagena, and I will probably do some swimming in Medellin which I booked an Airbnb with a pool. In fact, Bogota is in the raining season, which is why I am bringing the rain gears. I think I am getting rusty on travel planning, I have mis-calculated, because I am traveling overseas, I thought I should be arriving at the airport 3 hours ahead. But I forgot my first lag was just going to NYC. I got to the airport before 9am, while my flight did not leave until 11:40am, so I have so much times waiting. The terminal is not quiet quiet, there are still a lot of people traveling on Thanksgiving Day, but probably not as crazy as the past few days. Anyway, all is good. I could not wait to be traveling again anyway. I once told my boss, I live to travel, I am happy to see my traveling days are coming back, slowly but surely.
This is my very first out of country trip since COVID. I
originally planned to go to Colombia in Apr 2020, it was cancelled just a week
before I supposed to depart. So many things had happened since. From a
partnered man becoming a single gal again, from talking to my mom in Hong Kong
every 2 weeks or so became talking to my dad every month after she passed away.
I became a US citizen officially after Hong Kong political climate has
deteriorated to a point of unrecognizable. When the COVID condition seemed
improving, I thought I planned a grand trip to Antarctica this December to
bring me back to life, trip got canceled and postponed to next December. Full
vaccinated plus a booster later, as an alternative to Antarctica trip, I
decided to pick up this long planned Colombia trip again. Not exactly sure what
to expect really, in term of what I will feel comfortable doing. I guess I will
find out soon enough.
I doubt I would be exploring as much as I would normally do
when I traveled to South America, in a way, I just want to relax, I have been
mentally exhausted, if you will, from this year and half of oppression from
passively seeing things happened out of our controls. I think a lot of people
do. I want to see something new, inspiring, meet some new people, and refresh
my mental state. Practice mi no bueno espanol. Eat some Colombiano perro
haliente. I don't think there is such a thing. But why not.
…
When I wrote the first part of today’s blog, I was in NYC around
4pm, about 20 mins before boarding, another 2 hours later I was still in JFK.
We were boarded, but because of the issues with someone’s luggage they said, we
had to be held up until that situation was resolved. Another 1.5 hours later
still sitting on the plane at the gate unmoved. When we finally took off, it
was already dark. Carlos arranged a friend of his, a taxi driver named Fabian,
to pick me up at the airport. I managed to give him a head up. I did not land
until well after 11pm, close to midnight. I passed the custom without no
trouble and have successfully gotten my first stamp in my US passport. However…
However, when I got out to find Fabian, a chaotic scene in the making is an
understatement, there were like sea of yellow cabs mixed in with white cabs. I
had absolutely no idea how I was going to find Fabian, and he sent a message
saying “I am at the point.” I could not imagine what that supposed to mean.
Between my phone is losing the internet connection, trying to keep an eye on my
belongings, and walking around sea of yellow cabs aimlessly trying to find that
the yellow cab of my life that will bring me to my Airbnb. It probably took us
another 30 mins to find each other. At the edge of parking C is where my saver
Fabian was located.
Arrived at my Airbnb at 1:30am or so, took a
shower, I thought I would try to catch some sleeps since Carlos is coming in
the morning to show me around. But after all these excitement at the airport, I could not sleep. I laid on the bed, even took some Melatonin, still wild awake.
My Airbnb is on the 6th floor, but I could still hear the traffic in
the middle of the night, it is not unlike Hong Kong, but very different than
Boston. The altitude probably plays a little role too, my body is definitely
reacting to this new environment. I had both of my eye plugs on, maybe 4 or so,
I fell asleep, but woke up again around 7am. Anywhoo, here I am, back to the
South America. That is exciting! I like this Airbnb room, I will stay here for 2 nights, and then 5 more after I come back from Cartagena and Medellin.
