On Our Way!

We are currently in Bogota Colombia! Our trip started later then planned due to late arrival of our visas and bad luck with flying standby.We arrived super late Saturday night after not getting on a flight Friday night, causing us to spend a night in Houston and try again on Saturday at 3:45pm. On Saturday, the whole plane loaded and we were told there were 3 open seats, but due to weight restrictions we couldnt get on. We were super bummed and after 20 minutes of just waiting by the gate they let us on!!! Yay! Colombia here we come!

We arrived at the airport, a little nervous because we were arriving at 11:00 pm, exactly how we did not want to enter Colombia, but oh well. We went through customs, exchanged money and jumped in a taxi. Within a couple minutes of being in the taxi Laura, who I am traveling with, was car sick and I was wishing that all of you back home who think I am a horrible driver could see this guy.... he makes me look like a SUPER safe driver! We quickly realized that red, yellow AND green lights mean go, stop signs are disregarded, you honk at everyone for everything and there are no speed limits! For anyone who has traveled in foreign countries you may understand some of this!

We made it through the cab ride and finally arrived at our hostel; we are staying in a hostel in Bogota called the ¨Platypus,¨ a common place for young backpackers, in an area called El Candelaria. Here is where we made our first BIG mistake! We paid the cab driver, said gracias and approached our hostel door. The door was locked and we couldnt see any doorbell, but did see some creepy men hanging at the end of the street. A feeling of panic quickly came over us, as we tried to flag the cab back, hoping he could wait for us to get in, but instantly after us paying him he vanished! Luckily we spotted a doorbell, rang it and got in our hostel! We got into our room and pulled out our money. It was then that we realized we had been ripped off, either by the airport or by the cab.... We were missing $60 dollars. We couldnt figure out how we had been so stupid, only to find out later that in Colombia their bills are 1000, 2000, 5000, 100000, 20000 and 50. So...... when we thought we were paying 50 Pesos we were paying 50000. What a great way for Colombians to rip off tourists. I am sure that we are not the only ones to make this stupid mistake!! Now it all made sense why our cab driver drove away so quickly! He probably was thinking ¨Score! More stupid tourists!¨ A couple days later we are still upset with ourselves for making this mistake, but now we will be more aware and you better believe, this is NOT happening to us again!

We went to sleep, and couldnt wait to start exploring Colombia the next morning!!