I’ve written about this before, but I have a gift. I am so lucky and so blessed to be able to fly for free, on two airlines. This effectively gives me the ability to travel the world at no cost.
But yeah, two kids and deadlines and LIFE tends to get in the way… so there hasn’t really been a whole lot of international travel for a long time. So when I had the chance to fly to a wedding in Colombia, last minute, I jumped on it. After all, when would I ever have gone to South America?
Forget about the fact that a group of my best friends from high school reconnected in a South American country. Forget the fact that we fell back into things like we’d never stopped hanging out, or that we all got married, had kids and became grown ups with big grown-up jobs. Forget the fact that I saw some amazing things and ate some even weirder ones. Bogota was incredible. It was beautiful and interesting and a HELL of a lot cooler than I thought it would be. Who knew the city was at 8000 feet? (Mental note, do more research before leaving the country.)
It was safe, it was amazing and it was awesome to see it with a group of people that I’ve known since I was 13 years old.
It was also a whirlwind. Because when I talk about how blessed I am to be able to travel for free? Traveling for free is not always the easiest way to go. Case in point, my travel itinerary in getting to Colombia.
- Southwest flight to Houston, Hobby 9:00am Wednesday morning. (This was because my flight to IAH was cancelled and all the other flights were full)
- Super Shuttle from Houston, Hobby, to Houston, Bush.
- Sit at Bush Intl for 9 hours. (A huge thank you to my parents for buying me a pass to the United Club where at least I was able to eat free snacks, drink free wine and work/surf the web.
- Hop onto 12:00am flight to Bogota and get one of the last seats on the plane… a seat that does NOT recline. So I awkwardly slept/head bobbed on the “all-nighter” that was only 4.5 hours long.
- Arrive into Bogota at 6:00am, clear customs, get into cab, arrive at hotel at 8:00am, room not ready (obviously), brush teeth, change clothes, meet friends in lobby at 8:30, drink coffee, get on tour bus at 9:00am.
Yeah. And that was the first day, which lasted until 3:00am after a night of dancing and taking shots of Aguardiente. (NEVER NEVER NEVER again do I want to see that stuff. *shudder*)
It was one of the most enjoyable and intense “vacations” of my life but I’m feeling a little tired. Ok, maybe a lot tired, since I partied like I was 21 for 4 damn days.
But it was worth it.
Of course I have 8 gazillion pictures… so I’ll be throwing them up over the next few days. Enjoy!!
