Another early start this morning so we could check out of the airport hotel and wander across the road to check in for our flight. Wandered around the airport for a while and got some breakfast while waiting for our flight.
The flight was just over 5 hours of flying time – a bit bumpy in patches, but not too bad. There was some spectacular scenery over the Andes, including flying quite close to a volcano cone which was belching smoke and ash.
We landed in Bogota around 2pm local time and managed to pass through immigration and customs without too much difficulty. Our driver from the hotel was waiting for us outside, so we didn’t have to worry about trying to get a taxi driver to understand where we were going.
Bogota is an interesting city – not as clean or developed as Santiago or Buenos Aires, but it seems to function quite well and they have some decent infrastructure. It took less than 30 minutes to get to the hotel, and after checking in and getting settled, we headed downstairs to get a map and wander around the area before it got dark.
The hotel is in the northern part of the city which is considered much more wealthy (and hence safe) than the southern regions. The lady at the hotel said we’d be fine wandering around this area during the day – they generally recommend taxis at night though.
We headed up the road and eventually found the supermarket they had told us about – we bought some bottled water and snacks for the room and then wandered back to the hotel. Lots of interesting little shops along this road.
After a snooze, we ordered some room service for dinner and I spent some time catching up on work while Leanne watched TV.
We have a free day here in Bogota tomorrow – time to do some sight-seeing.
Tweets from today
- mmm – empanadas
- 14th May, 2009 11:02 AM from TweetDeck
- Where did all the @ replies go? They were nuked by the PTB: http://bit.ly/Lx8sX … #fixreplies for more discussion
- 14th May, 2009 9:20 AM from TweetDeck
- http://twitpic.com/548eu – TimTam travel survival pack (6x 500g packs) at Sydney International Airport
- 14th May, 2009 8:09 AM from TweetDeck
- http://twitpic.com/547l5 – Santiago Airport terminal from our hotel room (Holiday Inn).
- 14th May, 2009 7:59 AM from TweetDeck
- experimenting with Pixelpipe – not sure if this will work as expected …
- 14th May, 2009 7:58 AM from TweetDeck
- At the Holiday Inn Santiago Airport, literally 1 min walk from terminal – very convenient. Feeling better after a hot shower. Free WiFi too.
- 14th May, 2009 2:52 AM from TweetDeck
- Arrived in Santiago – long queues at immigration. Need some sleep.
- 14th May, 2009 1:54 AM from TweetDeck
Espectacular shot of the volcano!!!
They have cable here at this hotel with about 80 channels. There were about 5 of them in English that we found – they were even showing Getaway on one channel!
Most of the English language shows are dubbed into Spanish rather than using subtitles, which is rather annoying. Although it can be funny watching some of your favourite shows or movies with strange voices.
I’m not expecting quite as much choice in Cali – which is why we brought a lot of our own viewing material with us.
I assume that Leanne’s grasp of Spanish would help her understand what was being said on television.