Days 1-2 (February 17-18, 2023):

“South America, here we come!”

When the alarm went at 5:45 AM, the reality hit me that the long-awaited day of the Compassion Canada Board field trip to Colombia was finally here.  All that stood between that moment and what we assumed would be a flawless trip to Colombia was a day of work.

I was at the office at 6:45 AM, and Pam was at school before 8 AM, as usual.  At 2:45PM, we were both at home waiting for our good friend, Mel, to pick us up for a 3PM drive to Halifax Airport.  With a freezing rain storm about to start in Halifax, and a snowstorm just ending in Montreal, the timing seemed perfect to get out of Halifax before things got bad, and to land in Montreal after the snowy mess had been cleaned up there.  We had a four hour buffer to connect from one flight to the other, so we set off with a “what could go wrong” attitude.  Sitting in the Maple Leaf Lounge and enjoying a late lunch, however, the cracks in our seemingly flawless plan started to appear.  One delay after another started to be posted for our flight to Montreal.  As Board colleagues started sharing their Montreal arrivals in the group WhatsApp chat, the likelihood of us making a connection became bleaker and bleaker.  

In the end, our 4:35PM departure pulled away from the gate exactly four hours late, and then headed for an excruciating de-icing procedure that added another half-hour to the delay.  We finally landed in Montreal at 9:45 PM local time, at the same time as our Bogota connection was to close its doors.  We bustled our way to the front of the plane and as soon as the doors opened, we ran from gate 4 towards the international departures area (our flight was departing gate 57).  Encouraged by a 30 minute delay posted on the flight information screen, we had a glimmer of hope that we could make it.  At the international checkpoint however, we hit a wall:  our boarding cards would not scan.  We could see gate 57 in the near distance, but the security guards would not let us through, and there wasn’t an Air Canada agent to be found.  Another couple from our flight actually made it, but we were out of luck.  It turns out that, while we were enroute to Montreal, the Air Canada system automatically moved us to a flight out of Toronto the following night, and cancelled our Montreal-Bogota seats, making our boarding cards useless.

The next two hours were spent trying to track down our bags and find a more efficient flight routing to Bogota.  One bag showed up, and we secured a flight to Miami for the following morning and a connection from Miami to Bogota.  We waited in a long line-up for a taxi, and headed to a hotel.  Due to the storm and so many cancelations, hotel rooms were in short supply and were incredibly expensive.  It was almost 1AM when we got to bed.  

We were up and at breakfast at 8AM, and by 8:30 were in an Uber back to the airport, where we filed a lost baggage claim, and manoeuvred the processes of clearing US customs and security for our Miami flight.  We landed a little late, but with plenty of time to enjoy the Turkish Airlines Lounge before heading to an Avianca flight to Bogota.  We arrived in Bogota half an hour early, endured a long Customs line, and made it to the Grand Hyatt by 11PM - 16 hours later than we would have arrived, had we not missed the flight in Montreal.

All is well that ends well, but it was certainly not an easy journey.  And arriving with only one of two bags only added more angst.  Sadly, we missed out on a planned afternoon with our friend, Ivan and his family, as well as a dinner with the CEO of Compassion International.  But at least we made it.

One of the joys of visiting Quebec or any part of la Francophonie, is freshly baked ‘pain au chocolat’. The ones above were particularly chocolatey! And yes, there is one missing: it ended up in my tummy.

Starting Saturday with an attitude of positivity and a smile, after the disappointment of missing our flight to Colombia last night.

This is the winter 2023 mountain of runway snow at Montreal Trudeau Airport.

A view of Montreal Trudeau Airport upon takeoff for Miami. After yesterday’s snowstorm, it gives you an idea of how much area has to be cleaned of snow at an airport of this size.

Pizza and wild rice salad provided a great lunch enroute from Montreal to Miami.

That is Cape Hatteras, the closest point in North America to Bermuda. The outer banks off Cape Hatteras are known as the “graveyard of the Atlantic”, with over 600 ships having met their demise there. 

Upon descent into Miami, you get a really good sense of the high rise condo towers lining the beaches north to Fort Lauderdale and beyond.

A hazy view of downtown Miami just before landing.

One often hears of luxury housing developments in Florida built on golf courses. Above is a typical example.

Avianca, the state airline of Columbia, offers several flights to and from Miami every day. This Airbus A320 Neo was our aircraft from Miami to Bogota.

As we took off from Miami, the lights of this glamorous city were just starting to come on. 

It's official!  We are on South American soil!

We are quite used to seeing CIBC and Scotiabank ATMs throughout the Caribbean. But it was a little surprising to see Scotiabank here in Columbia when we landed.

The interior of the incredibly modern Grand Hyatt in Bogota, where we are staying.