Tough Travel Day

My mom, as always, was amazing and drove us to the airport at the bright and early time of 5 am. She's our reliable, amazing airport taker. We have felt a little out of sorts packing the last week or so. This trip just happened so fast that it's been kind of a whirlwind. Normally, we bought our plane tickets up to 6 months in advance and we have lots of time to think and plan. We were lucky to have lots of Christmas celebrations the week before our trip so it just kind of snuck up on us. 

That being said, we got on the freeway to the airport and I realized I forgot my contacts. So we zoomed back, grabbed some spares, and then went on our way again. Luckily, we always leave very early for our flights so it worked out. When we got to the airport I found out I forgot my silicone wedding rings so I'd have to wear my metal one the whole trip, that's fine but the silicone is nicer for warm weather. 

We checked our bags easy peasy and went through security. Our friend Celia happened to be in the exact same security lane as us! She was on her way to Charlotte to visit another friend. We talked for a minute then went our separate ways. 

I'm a weirdo so I always like to find out the exact gate before doing anything else. We have flown American Airlines many times in the last few years so it was like coming home to our normal gate area. The flight to Chicago was only an hour and very easy. We were lucky because the day after we flew through MSP and CHI, it snowed quite a bit and some flights were canceled. We didn't have to deal with that though! 

We had a 5 hour layover in CHI because our flight was a little early. Our early morning made our hunger spike during the short flight. There was a bagel shop right when we got off the plane so we snagged one, yummy! We wandered up and down just about all of the terminals of the American wing of the airport. I'd say we walked at least a mile or two inside of the terminal. It helped pass the time. We ate lunch at Subway in the terminal. Honestly, the 5 hour layover didn't seem that bad. 

Our flight to Miami was easy and went off without a hitch as well. I read a Colombian fictional novel that won the Pulitzer prize I'll be honest, we don't really love the Miami airport. The food options are pretty bad and they're super spread out and yeah. You basically have to go there to fly to South America but we wish we could go somewhere else. 

That being said, we landed in Miami and walked around some more to stretch our legs. We couldn't decide what to eat for dinner for the life of us. Eventually, we settled on some pizzas in a small stall. They were.... fine. Lacey's was actually pretty good but mine got very crunchy. 

Our flight got delayed because the flight at our gate before us took too long. So it was delayed about an hour. Normally that wouldn't be that big of a deal but we were originally going to land at 12:30am. Instead, we landed at 1:30am. Because it was new years eve and our flight was delayed, we had a celebratory beer/wine before the flight.

 

The flight was easy, Lacey and I both watched movies. Landing in Bogota was painless. The customs situation was very quick because our flight was late and landed at such a weird time. We grabbed a yellow taxi (which has a meter) to our hotel. It was only about $8 for a 30 minute taxi ride. Crazy. 

We stayed at the AC Hotel Zona T. The hotel is located in an upscale neighborhood of Bogota. Checking in was quick and we finally got to our room at around 2:50am. The room was standard with upscale features like a rainfall shower and a king-size bed. But there was a problem. 

It was 2:50am on New Year's Eve night. There was a club across the street with a rooftop bar. Normally, not a big deal. Except.... They were having a new year's party with BLASTING music. Like we could  perfectly hear the music because our window faced the street where the club was. We could feel the bass. Not trying to be a jerk, we tried to sleep for about 15 minutes. That did not work. 

I went down to the desk and asked the guy if there was anything we could do. If he had earplugs, or if there was another room for us to use. He said no to both and said that the bar closes at 3am so it should be done soon. It's worth noting it was 3:20am at this point. We tried to sleep again. We turned up the tv, played white noise, showered to relax. Again, we tried everything. At 4:45am I gave up and went down again. I pressed the guy to give us a better room and he finally relented. 

The new room was QUIET. It was 5am by the time we moved our stuff and actually laid down. We had been awake for 24 hours.