Saturday, October 3, 2015

Day 0

Well it's technically Day 1 now, however, since I have not slept yet, I guess it counts as Day 0. So here I am in Bogota, Colombia!

Rewind 12 hours and I was sitting in the Philadelphia airport cursing my luck due to the delay in the flight to Atlanta. I feared that I would miss my connection given the fact that I had a very short layover. Anyhow, the flight departed 45 minutes late at 2:45PM local time.




Leg 1 of the journey: Philadelphia to Atlanta. I had no idea that some airplane seats do not have a window! (Yes you heard me right). Seat 36A on an MD-88 flight = Last seat + no window + no recline + next to the toilets + God_save_you_if_you_are_Claustrophobic.













Leg 2 of the journey. Atlanta to Bogota. Barely made it to the gate, thank god, I have been running, of late. I was expecting a great view of the Andes while descending into Bogota. Ahem.....



.......Well at least there is a window.
















Now some of you might be judging me, that I am a pessimist, but I'm not. I promise the flight journey did not affect me at all! In fact, I had a very comfortable flight.. I even brushed up some project management formulae with my PMP training manual. And watched a movie, partly (Mad-Max Fury Road) ..... with the older lady sitting next to me. I had to turn off the monitor mid-way because I had the feeling that she felt some scenes were objectionable. Let me leave it at that.

I landed in El Dorado International airport Bogota, 4 hours ago, 10 minutes earlier than scheduled time. At this point I'm feeling really excited!! I'm really impressed by the infrastructure already!
The airport looks very similar to the International Airport back home in Bangalore.

I was greeted by a very warm and friendly Taxi driver, Wilson contracted by Pyxera Global who took me to the Apartment where we will be staying for a month. It's called Nico Aparta & Suites. I had a good chat with the driver in broken Espanol. He spoke a little English and I speak a little Espanol. Un poco de Espanol. I will admit it, I had to use my English-Spanish dictionary a few times. Meanwhile, if you read my previous post you will know that people adviced me NOT TO TAKE taxis from the street. The image in my mind of these dangerous taxis were big black cars with tinted windows. Instead this is what I found:

Cute little yellow mini cars! Thanks for the advice people! I would have definitely jumped into one of these without a second thought.











What a warm welcome by Amy Crumbiss and Maia Wagner when I reached the hotel! Thank you Amy and Maia! I was the last to reach the hotel and missed a trip to Monserrate, Coffee at Juan Valdez and dinner at.. <I'm sure another great place>.. I was told. Anyway, it was nice to also meet my partner Gerda Slagter who was checking in at the lobby.

The apartment/Suite is lovely!




Devoured most of these sweets in 5 minutes!


















Agenda for tomorrow: Meet in the hotel meeting room at 10 AM for the orientation.. which is less than 8 hours away. So I'm signing off for today. Ciao!

No comments:

Post a Comment