La Tierra de Juan Valdez

(Dated March 23, 2007)

15 hours of flight, 33 hours later, I am still NOT in Quito. Have never spent so much time ever in transit. From BCN to CDG to BOG (Bogota) to CAL (Cali) and back to BOG: the plane had to turn around twice due to heavy rain and fog in Quito and we ended spending a night in Cali (well, more like a three-hour sleep at a local hotel). Tried to make the second attempt this morning from Cali to Quito and failed again. So here I am sitting in the airport at Bogota waiting for a larger flight. At least I learned and got to see a bit of Colombia, la tierra de Juan Valdez. Bogota, a city of 2 million people and hundreds of high-rises is surrounded by farms and cattle and Andes in afar...what a contrary! What truly amazed me is that how heavily guarded the airport is: behind the lush green landscape and great hospitality and smiley faces, the airport (or the city itself) probably has the highest number of armed police per capita, thanks to the Uribe's determination on cracking down crimes in Colombia by deploying 20,000 troops and police to secure the city.