It was my last full day in-country. I was moving to a new place back home and wanted to decorate it with various American works of art. I figured this was my day to find it. I had picked up one small painting which I sent home with my brother. I wandered the old city and found a watercolor painting that would work. I had them roll it up. All of the paintings in Colombia have those aged wood frames that I knew would be tough to find back home. I had heard of a framer up on the 3rd floor of an abandoned building. I climbed some floors and walked into this huge loft full of paintings and frames. I met the framer and showed him the picture. We found a frame that would work and broke it down and stuffed it into another tube. On the way out I saw another large painting that I wanted. This one was not able to be broken down so I was going to have to take my chances on the flight.
That night I went to bed early and got up and walked around before heading to the airport. My flight was expected to leave at 1pm. Before heading to the airport, I checked the Internet and saw that the flight was delayed 2 hours. I decided to get to the airport at 12:45, which I figured was plenty of time for the new 3pm departure. When I walked in, Spirit was shutting down their ticket counter. I said I needed to check in for a flight and she said the flight was closed. I told her that was fine as I was flying on a 3pm flight. She told me there were no more flights. She said that when checking in for a flight that was delayed you still had to check-in at the original time. I looked around for the hidden camera before realizing she was serious. I was led into the manager’s office and after some outburst I was allowed through security, where, of course, I had to stand for another 2 hours before the flight left.
I met some people from Detroit, traded information, hoping I could convince on of the Colombian passengers to teach me Salsa dancing when we got home.
The trip was a major success. I spent more than I wanted, but the experiences will last longer than the debt will. I was amazed my painting made it back as well, and cannot wait to move into my new place to get the wall art up.
I am scheduled to go to Peru in a bit, but early next year I have scheduled a return trip to knock of the southern half of Colombia and explore the source of the Amazon and into Northern Peru.
No Zen musings at the end of this one, but this trip has helped to solidify my plan to focus on Latin America for the foreseeable future.
Until next time,
Darren
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