Day 1

This trip didn't get off to the smoothest start, about 18 hours after I left my house in Houston I arrived in the Hostel in Bogota, Colombia. Before I completely pass out from exhaustion, quick summary of the day.

First, I didn't sleep at all last night too busy making last minute prep and making sure I had everything packed. Since I am taking 21 flights in 30 days, checking a bag was going to be a bad idea so I was really focused on packing smart to fit everything into a medium size backpack. Amazingly, everything I will need for the next month fit into a medium size backpack and small camelback for day hikes. Togetherthey weighed less than 25 lbs which makes me think I take way too much stuff for regular trips.

Left my house at 5 AM for the first of five flights today and the airport was packed with people flying back after labor day. I've never seen lines so long at Hobby Airport but security was humming and got through quickly. The first flight to New York was uneventful but a couple cool things about Jet Blue.

First, the planes are awesome with much more foot room in coach than other airlines, free Direct TV / XM Radio, and great snacks. If you haven't flown Jet Blue check them out. Second, at the start of each flight they showed this videos which were a promotional piece for "True Blue" which is their frequent flyer program. What was cool about the video was it made this pitch about Being True to yourself and they interviewed six people who were all doing things they were very passionate about. One of the goals for this trip was to find my next career and hopefully something I'm passionate about, these videos are pretty cool and seeing them 21 times over the next month I hope will be pretty inspiring.

The videos are here https://trueblue.jetblue.com/web/trueblue/betrue and I particularly liked Alexi's video.

Once I landed in New York there were some free giveaways for the All You Can Jet customers got a nice shirt and some custom luggage tags. Briefly met another solo traveler heading to Bogota and talked about some plans for the next several days. Flight to Orlando was a breeze and after an hour layover, boarded the third and final flight to Bogota. The flight was smooth and hit the ground around 8:30 local time which is where the fun begins.

After getting through two long lines for immigration / customs, I walked out into chaos with dozens of people trying to get you to come to their hotel, their taxi, etc. For security reasons in Colombia you are only supposed to get authorized taxis that are called specifically for you, which I was going to get... However, I needed some Colombian Pesos first and walked over to the currency exchange booth. That's when I realized there was ZERO cash in my wallet and the exchange place didn't take plastic. No big deal they said go upstairs to use the ATM which I have used a dozen times in other foreign countries, it's a breeze and does the exchange rate for you.

Go upstairs slide the ATM card in and attempt to navigate the spanish menus, three tries and it appears the machine has locked me out without giving me any money. No problem I see another ATM which I hit next and it has an english menu option, perfect and I'll have Colombian pesos in a flash. Put the card in, enter pin, request cash, and funds denied... Thinking it has to be a mistake I try three more times and it's funds denied every single time. That's when I realize my bank probably has a hold on certain countries like Colombia which means no cash for me.

To summarize where things are at this point... 9:30 at night, no cash, no cell service, no way to get the 10+ miles to my room for the night, and can't find anyone who speaks decent enough English to explain the situation. After about 20 minutes I find a police officer who speaks English and convince him to call the owner of the hostel. They talk in Spanish for 5 minutes, we go to the taxi stand, he hands me a receipt in Spanish, and tells me to get into this cab. It will take me to my hostel and the owner will pay the fare. I have faith and hope in this cab where the driver speaks NO english and we start driving through what appear to be some pretty rough neighborhoods. The thought goes through my mind that nobody knows where I am, the cab driver and I have no way to communicate with each other, and I hope to God this guy drops me off at the right place.

Finally, we arrive at the hostel around 10:30 and meet the owner who speaks english and pays the cab driver. Day 1 didn't go exactly how I planned but I made it to Bogota and have some pretty cool stuff planned for the next few days; including a 5 hour bike tour through the heart of Old Bogota.

3 Flights Down & 18 To Go