Roads possibly washed out to Medellin...

So, back at the airport in Bogota. We were warned that parts of the road to Medellin (8 hours) might be washed out due to some torrential downpours over the past few days... We decided to spend a little more (about $75 dollars) to catch a 35 minute flight. Although we miss the spectacular scenery, we do guarantee that we arrive in Medellin for Thursday. See, we have some doctors and dentists appt that we had made, and we wanted to keep them. Basically we can get some full check ups and I can get my wisdom teeth pulled for a fraction of the price in NYC (especially now that I am not working and living without proper health insurance).
The flight leaves soon.
NOTE
Gracias a Paola (my wife Paula's good friend here in Bogota) and her mom who picked us up from the airport this morning, fed us breakfast, paid for a terrific Japanese ( a la Colombiana) food, and brought us back to the airport just now. Nos vemos el 19 de Junio Paola!! ciao!!!
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Arrived in Bogota...what comfort and speed...

Had this been a bus trip it would have taken about 5 days to get from Lima to Bogota!!! Luckily we opted to fly and it took just about 2.5 hours!! I forgot how comfortable planes were...the food even tasted great to me.
We are meeting up with one of Paula's friends who is also called Paola and from here she's taking us to her home. Gracias Paola!!
Later on this afternoon we are heading to Medellin (on a bus:-(( ) which is only about 8 hours, see we'll be taking a trip around the country (places we don't even know in our own country) and on June 19 coming back to Bogota, to then fly home to NYC on June 23.
I am leaving my computer and back up drive here in Bogota, rather than risk losing it on the final leg of this trip. We've been told that some of the bus routes in Colombia might get a little dicey, not so much that we will get kidnapped but that perhaps they inspect our bags and surely my 8.9" touchscreen laptop would be a nice gift for anybody searching!
About to get off the plane talk later.

Agente C4- la reunion ayer estuvo muy buena...pude poner los documentos en orden! Mando mas detalles en el nido de oro que esta debajo del explosivo...
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Leaving Lima...

The day has arrived...we are leaving from our last destination on our 'originally' planned trip, Lima...we are headed to Colombia on a plane...It is incredible because we have travelled strictly by bus from the Southern most city in the world, Ushuaia, to Lima Peru...a trip of (my Garmin GPS broke down on me in Mendoza Argentina) thousands and thousands of kilometers.
Well, we will spend the next three weeks in Colombia getting to know a little more of the countryside. Let's hope the FARC and any other guerilla groups keep clear of us...the plane is leaving this second...later
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Out of Nazca...our last bus!!!!.....

This is our last official bus ride on our trip around South America!!
We have travelled thousand and thousands of Kilometers on buses in South America. From Lima we will fly to Bogota and then hang out for a few weeks around Colombia seeing some friends and family. This sort of marks the end of our trip around South America. We'll be back in NYC on June 24.
By the way the flight over the Nazca lines was in a 5 passenger Cesna and was worse than riding a ricketty roller coaster with no seatbelt, traveling at 200 miles an hour on a crumbling wooden track! The Cesna moved in the wind like a paper plane and after a few minutes the fun was over, imagine going for another 35 minutes!!! For what seemed like an eternity the pilot was literally flying the plane sideways on each side so that we could all look below at the gigantic lines below! Honestly the first time that I have ever felt motion sickness! Paula did much better that she thought she would and never had to use the plastic bag she held onto for the whole flight!! In the end the Nazca lines was interesting but I had unfortunately very high expectations of this place and the Lines did not live up to them...bummer.
One thing that I would suggest if anybody does this is to learn about the history, origination, theories and then request that some scale be used to put everything into perspective. From hundreds of meters in the air it is literally impossible to really appreciate the expanse and precision of the lines because they don't seem so big since all you see is sand and rocks for hundreds and hundreds of miles around. We sort of jumped in before knowing more and only afterwards did we realize how impressive and huge they were...by then though we had no desire to go up in another plane. Bottom line...they are cool but see a video or something before hand AND don't eat anything before the flight!
The bus gets into Lima in a couple hours, later.
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