Colombia: Triumphant Return

Thursday
This was our last day/night in country. We had planned all along for this to be pretty much an all night out on the town event where we would get just enough sleep to have a hard time getting up in the morning and potentially missing our flight.

Work wrapped up nicely. The system implementation was successful and our sponsors were out of the country, spread across the continent -- so we didn't have to worry too much about the niceties of things like verifying that everything worked through actual use. Mission accomplished.

For the evening, I still had to pack. Normally this would be no big deal, but I wanted to get through the added challenges of having 1) glass items, 2) large pieces of art work, and 3) I really didn't feel like it. The latter would prove to be the biggest challenge the next morning at 4:30 when we were to meet in the lobby around 5ish.

Since we had been so successful in the past with our taxi service -- and by successful we meant that we were 1) still alive, 2) not kidnapped, and 3) in the general area where we were supposed to be -- we decided to take it easy and simply go back to our local hang out, the Bogota Beer Company. This time it was kind of nice as when we came in (Note: my credit card did eventually work!) the wait staff all greeted us with handshakes (men) or the Latin cheek kiss thing (women). I felt like I was in Cheers. We talked until around midnight and left to get ready back at the hotel.

Friday
We get up really early and I am prety dehydrated and I am starting to get what would become a nice little sinus infection. I should mention now that I strongly recommend against flying with a sinus infection unless you enjoy the added excitement of wondering whether your head could actually explode.

The airport was interesting. First -- traveling with a Platinum airline member (Coby) rocks. The line for the normal folk was literally about 150 deep -- Platinum line 2. We get through that line and queue up for the immigration line. I don't mind this one so much as it means I get the little reward of a stamp in the passport. From this line we go through a very personal and intimate pat down and metal detection of the security line. We then go to our gate to wait until they make us leave the area, search/clear the room and then have us go back through security at the gate.

On the plane, we had to wait for a while as we were randomly selected to have our plane weighed. I will say that taking off in the middle of the mountains, the choice between ensuring our plane was of the proper weight or acting out the key scenes from "Alive" would always have me choosing the former. However, whenever I get a cold I start pouring in the fluids and there was not a bathroom between security checkpoints 3 and 4. The good news was that this took my mind off my head. I finally got up and stuck past the attendant and made it. Life is good.

We landed in Atlanta and Delta, realizing that my trip was going too smoothly -- decided to do emergency work on a runway and delayed my flight 3 hours. This after I made it through customs, Coby checked me into the Crown room and I left its warm free comfort to go to my gate. Sigh.

The flight home was uneventful minus the lightening storm and the most abrupt landing of my life. All is well -- and about 5 days later I was finally well.