Bogota to Medellin, Colombia

I am still sitting in the Bogota Airport waiting for my connecting flight to Medellin. I am not suppose to be here.  I  am  supposed to be in a hotel or hostel sleeping in or enjoying a refreshing shower.

Let me preface by saying I hate late arrivals to airports, I always feel under pressure to find transportation out of the airport quickly. But that doesn't fully explaiin the  boondoggle of  the last few hours. I'm not exactly sure where I  should start at the beginning, middle or end they all play a part in this self depreciating saga.

OK, I am  going to start in the middle, my late arrival into Bogota for an overnight 14 hour layover waiting for my next flight to Medellin. 

I was on a national flight so I  didn't need to go  through immigration.  I am traveling with a personal item only, my small backpack, so I also didn't have  to wait for baggage. I  head out to catch a taxi  to my overnight stay. This is where the middle of the boondoggle starts. I show the taxi driver the  address of where I am going and off we go.

Here I have to take a step back. I made a reservation for a hostel, but then realized  it  was too far  from  the airport, so I  cancelled that reservation and made a new reservation at a closer  location  to save on the cost of the taxi. This is the address I thought I was giving the driver.

Back to the taxi, we are driving too far into the city, so I go  back to Bookings  on my phone and at that point, I am thinking I gave him the directions to the wrong hostel, which I had. I gave him what I thought was the correct address,  much closer to the airport. So we end up backtracking, a lot.

We  arrive at the next address, I got out, paid  too much  for  the taxi because of  the  backtracking. The driver was  pretty forward about  asking  for a tip on top  of that.  This trip ended up costing 120,000 Colombian  pesos, about $30 usd. 

I get out, ring the bell, go into the second  door and nobody comes to let  me in. It is after published check-in hours. I am not in the best neighborhood. I go back out and lucky for me, the taxi was still there. Now I have resigned myself to going back to the airport and just sleeping on the floor. The driver  wanted to take me to a hotel, I declined, I had already blown my budget on the taxi and lost accomodation. I told  him to just take me back to the airport. Another 40,000 Columbian peso, about $10 usd.

So I am out a long expensive taxi ride to nowhere, and cost for accomodations for the night.

Back at the airport, I got a bite to eat and then started looking for a place to sleep for a few hours. Lucky for me I found some benches without arm rest so I was able to sleep for a few hours.

So that is the middle and beginning for this story. Now for the end.

After sleeping for about 3 hours, about my maximum in between visits to the baño, I decided to get a coffee and cinnamon roll for breakfast.  It was only then that I revisited Booking to discover I had not only made 2 reservations, one of which was cancelled, but also a 3rd reservation only a couple miles from the airport in a private room with bath.

I only have the lamest  of excuses. On Bookings on the list of current reservations it only lists the name of the lodging, not the city. You need to open each reservation to see the city.

If I had given the driver the correct address, I would have spent a quarter of what I did on the taxi and I would either still be sleeping or enjoying a morning shower. Instead I am sitting here in my layered clothing that I flew in with and will fly to Medellin with, typing this self depreciating story.

The tab for this boon doggle. The taxi to nowhere the cost of 2 comfortable accomodations and an uncomfortable extended layover in the airport. The End.

In the big picture, these little snafu's have not had a major impact on the total cost of my travels. 

Not  really the end. It is only 9 am. My flight to Medellin is at noon, and I will arrive there in the early afternoon.

In my defense, I did a count of all the connections and stays so far on this trip. I have successfully taken 12 flights, 24 stays, 10 buses and 5 boats. I still plan 5 more flights, about 6 more stays, and at least bus.

************ Flight to Medellin**********

So all this grief was created by the layover included in my ticket to Medellin. A 14 hour layover waiting for a 40 minute flight to Medellin. That's what I get for going for the very cheapest flight I can find. 

Once on the ground, I knew there was a regular shuttle bus to the city. From where I got off the bus, I should be able to take and Uber or walk to my hostel.

I found the bus and paid the fare, about $4 usd. A young guy from Medellin, Mario, sat next to me. We struck up a conv5ersation for the whole tim6e trav5eling to the city. A major challenge for my very limited Spanish. We had to use google translate for more detailed conversation. He was very helpful and very interested in making sure I got to my hostel. He also pointed out many of he nearby towns that I should visit while based in Medellin. 

The bus stopped outside of the city center, earlier than either one of us anticipated. 

Mario arranged a car to take me the rest of the way into the center. About $2.50 usd. This driver was definitely google maps challenged. I ended up getting out early and walking the last 15 minutes to my hostel.

I found my hostel and checked in about 2 pm. The first thing to do was try to take a nap. I wasn't totally successful with that. Next was a shower, then out to find a place to eat. 

It started to rain while I was out eating. That was nice cooling down from the day rain.

Back at the hostel, I tried doing some Medellin research, but I was too tired to do that for long. I ended up sleeping before 9 pm