Thursday, April 25, 2024

Monday, April 22, 2024

Last night we went to bed at 10:30. I got up once during the night finally waking/getting up at 6am.

Now we’re in “use it last and pack it” mode. We had a delicious breakfast in El Matador.

We finished our packing, stopped in the VIP reception desk to check-out and had our bracelets removed, and ordered a bell hop to pick-up our bags. We sat in the main lobby a while because we were so early then I ordered an Uber which again was a minivan that took us to the airport. Later online I saw that our 30-minute ride cost $38.

At the Avianca machine I checked-in and printed our boarding passes but not the luggage tags because I’ve yet to see exactly how they attach to the suitcases. An Avianca employee soon repeated the process, much faster, and printed our luggage tags and boarding passes (again). At the next station we had to download that stupid form again but this time the Avianca rep did it for us in between helping others. We dropped off our bags – 20# for Teresa and 19# for me.

We went through rather long immigration and TSA lines and finally found our gate. We still had about an hour to kill so we looked for someplace to eat. They had a Wendy’s and Pizza Hut but Teresa chose Nathan’s (hot dogs) because they had chicken wraps. We each ate one and she wrapped one each to go.

We went through immigration and TSA and with 30 minutes before departure they changed our gate.

We took our seats, 16C & 16D, on the plane. The flight was 2 ½ hours but we saved an hour when we crossed a time zone.

I texted Manuel (Bryan’s 2nd) after we landed in Rionegro. At immigration Teresa had a short line but I was in a very long line.



It took me 1 hour and 45 minutes to get to the front and then it took only a minute to approve my Visa and stamp my passport. Almost two hour standing with a heavy backpack really wasted me. At customs the girl just waved me through and I found Teresa sitting with our suitcases. I’d been in touch with Manuel the whole time (although at the end of the immigration line there’s a sign that says cellphones are prohibited). We had to drag our suitcases from Door #1 to Door #4 and across the street where Manuel soon met us. The drive to Envigado in a light rain took about an hour.

We had the porteros turn our water back on, we unpacked some, and it was still raining when I went to bed at 10pm.

 

EL ARROYO SIGNS



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