Día de la Marta

¡Hola from Bogotá!

Well, after a slightly ridiculous series of bumps on our South American road, Jenny and I have arrived safely in Bogotá. Our flight was delayed about three hours due to exceptionally strong winds in Newark. So strong, in fact, that the catering company´s little food truck tipped over (at least, according to the Spanish account. The english explanation left that part out. It´s fun to be able to understand the flight announcments in both languages). Anyway, we waited an hour and a half on the runway, buckled in safely, for the catering company and the airline to make a decision about whether or not we´d even get food. When it was decided that we would be fed, it was another hour and a half of waiting for them to manually load the carts onto the plane. It was quite the production.

Silver lining: The extra time spent on the plane allowed us to meet Marta, the woman with whom we shared our row. She was about the age of our mothers, and we struck up a conversation with her. What an amazing woman--so warm, so loving, so funny, and so welcoming! After five minutes, she had given us her phone number and address and told us if we needed anything, to please call her. I think she was kind of worried about us, simply because we are two young women traveling alone in Colombia without any big strong men to fend off the rif raff. She would not leave the baggage claim until we both had our stuff, and then she waited outside the airport to make sure we went to the ´´official´´ taxi stand. She didn´t get into her husband´s car until we were safely inside the taxi. Nice lady. But this was not our first lovely Marta, oh no.

In the airport, back in Newark, a woman asked Jenny if she´d take her picture. Jenny took the photo and as we were waiting in line to board, we started chit chatting. I kid you not, after no more than 32 seconds, she let us know that if we needed anything, anything at all in Bogotá, that we could call her. She gave us her number and trust, and off she went. Her name? Also Marta. I really love Colombians. I feel so good about this trip.

Our hostel is warm and plant-filled, and it perpetually smells like a wood burning stove and spices. There are sunsplashed patios and multi-colored hammocks hanging from the pillars that surround the little courtyards, and there always seems to be a hot kettle of tea or coffee sitting around somewhere. I´ve met the most lovely poeple and eaten some delicious food (today´s lunch included chocolate completo, which is hot chocolate served with bread and cheese for dipping). We are in the old part of Bogotá, called La Candelaria, up on a hill, and when you start to walk down the hill towards the main plaza and turn around, the view uphill is breathtaking. In the foreground you see this palette of pastel-colored buildings with balconies and spanish tile roofs, and then in the background it´s the rolling green hills that surround the city. Romantic doesn´t begin to describe it.

This has been a fantastic start.