Another Day, another RTW trip: Part 4

Welcome back! 

We were thankful to have caught our flight to Santiago and to Easter Island. The movies were great (though I was starting to run out of palatable options) and the kosher meals catered out of Bogotá were Stogel Long Life meals, same as what was catered on LATAM from Madrid and just as...well...I'm gonna call the food "undefinable," despite the noted labels. Most of the other kosher meals were great. The meals from Hong Kong to Johannesburg were excellent (catered from London). The ones out of JFK with Cathay, less so. The meals from MPM-DOH-FRA were Qatar kosher meals from WAM Catering. There's only one kosher meal with them. Fish. Frozen since time immemorial. It's fine once...less so four times. They bring it with them from Doha, so even if you're coming back to Doha, you can look forward to the same meal. Only with long flight and layover times (like the time I flew them from Chicago) are they forced to cater out of the departing city. With their meals, you don't forget the taste easily, but the smell of that fish out of wrapping especially (or the fish in a glass canister that comes with the fish meal). Still ate it all, though, or at least what was edible. 

Anyways...

After yet another miserable connection in Santiago (flights to Easter Island-IPC are considered international, and we seem to always be traveling in Santiago where the lines are the longest) and a stop in the Pacific Club lounge with the Priority Pass, we walked to our gate for our flight to Easter Island. This was a newer 787 Dreamliner with all of the trimmings. Interestingly enough, every non-domestic flight we had taken with LATAM was on a Dreamliner. We boarded and got ready for an adventure. There were even a bride and groom aboard. Must not be super comfy traveling in a wedding dress, though.

Approximately five hours and a very short nap later, we touched down at IPC. The kosher breakfast option catered out of Santiago was gross (the lunch/dinner option catered from SCL was totally passable and just could've used a bit of salt). 

Welcome to sunny Hanga Roa!

Easter Island is a fascinating place.Cars are necessary to reach the more remote parts of the island, but there is a more "downtown" area as well at which the majority of hotels and hostels lie. Once we arrived, we dropped our bags at our hostel and made our way down the main road toward Tahai.

Tahai at sunset

We split a car with some of the locals for a sunrise view the following morning. The day was rainy and misty, but it's an island and these things happen. 

Animals in the road

A mountain of moai

Kneeling moai

Though we saw a good portion of the island, and we very much enjoyed the beach in the northeast, we didn't get a chance to see everything that day. The following day, we headed to Orongo, a beautiful location with an incredible crater-like chasm.

The greatest find--Pap y Bilz popsicle

We tried to take the island in stride. We gave ourselves four days on the island, and I think that was exactly right. We got to enjoy it without feeling too pressured to see everything or do everything all at once.

In some sense, Tahai became our center. We walked there almost every night for sunset. On Saturday night, after the sun went down, we watched a pretty incredible coming-of-age (or possibly pre-marriage) ceremony. We quietly watched them as the dusk settled around us. The ukulele played, the people sang, and the family was all dressed in white. For me, that was an extraordinarily special experience. 

Do not try on moai as shoes

Finally, after checking our bags and one last ice cream, we made our way on foot to the airport for our flights home (IPC-SCL-LAX-ORD). Finally, we didn't need to grab our bags and recheck at SCL. That was nice. And two out of three of the kosher meals were passable (the dinner options). The breakfast was the same as the flight to Easter Island and just as nasty. 

Victory indeed

We even got a special treat and were able to use the Qantaas First Class Lounge upon arrival into LAX. It did not disappoint.

Plus, I was finally able to finish the movie I started on my very first flight of the journey: How to Train Your Dragon. And it did not disappoint. Neither did many of the other 20+ movies I had watched on the journey (I think Evan maybe watched 2? He's a much better sleeper than I am!).
We are indeed living in incredible times. The trip took an obscene amount of planning and calls to the RTW desk at American Airlines. Those agents are some of the most incredible people I know, and this trip as we had it would not have been possible without their help. I am so grateful to my travel buddy Evan as well for making this trip very special, and to the travel gods for making sure that we made all of our connections (baruch Hashem!).

That's it for this journey. Just finishing up this log on my return from FLL. I am flying ORD-FLL-PHX-ORD. That makes the segments I have used so far MPM-DOH-FRA-SCL-BOG-SCL-IPC-SCL-LAX-ORD-FLL-PHX-ORD. Next up, SFO, JFK, and the wrap-up. What a time!!!

Another Day, another RTW trip: Part 3

After that whirlwind of connections, we made it safe and sound into Bogotá. I changed some money into hundreds of thousands of Colombian pesos, which was pretty cool (until you note that everything you buy is in the hundreds or thousands). We hailed a taxi and made our way to the crowning hotel of our trip, the Hilton Bogotá.

Our room at the Hilton

The view from the window onto Carrera 7

Now, let me explain myself. You might be saying, well, a Hilton, sure, it's a nice hotel, but the "crowning" hotel of the trip? Yes, yes, yes.

We arrived at 7 A.M. Check in wasn't until 3 or 4 P.M., but the management was unbelievable. They recognized my gold status (thank you, HHonors credit card) and checked me in early. This was me gross, smelly, and without a shower in like 5 days, and without batting an eyelash, we were given the red carpet. We were offered a choice: we could immediately go up to a room or we could take breakfast (which would be included, even though, again, we weren't actually supposed to check in until that evening) while they prepared a club room for us. Moreover, even though we had paid for the one king bed, they gave us a room with two beds instead. And so we ate!

The happy hours at the Hilton were equally fantastic. Every evening from 4-7 P.M., the bar would offer free drinks and a full platter of appetizers. Between this and the full breakfast, we spent nearly nothing on food during our time in Bogotá. And the bartender was phenomenal, but more on that later.

Our Friday involved eating breakfast, a long nap, and a bit of shopping. We tried some of the local sodas and fruits. Such a huge variety of things I had never seen before! One lady suggested in the supermarket not to take a particular fruit, lest all we do for the remainder of our time in Colombia is sit on the toilet. That was much appreciated. As far as the drinks go, however, I'm not gonna lie, Colombiana has nothing on Pap or Bilz. And the pineapple flavored drink we tried wasn't close to Kem, either, the third of the Chilean trifecta. But don't worry, Colombia--we still love you!

On Saturday, we took a walk all over town, down from our block in the 80's to 6th (and blocks are long and not super well marked!). We went into a few old buildings, appreciated the art and architecture of some of the churches, and made our way back in time to enjoy the rest of our Shabbat. What a walk!

On Sunday, we made our way around the city to see some of the museums, including the Gold Museum and the National Museum. The National Museum was especially worthwhile and dynamic, and I appreciated the layout. We also purchased a fruit shake, our sole food purchase in Bogotá (besides the sampling of sodas and fruits). That evening, we returned and had a lovely conversation with the bartender about the canelazo (which was delicious--I'll take it over a hot sake any day), a local popular beverage, and its component parts (aguardiente and aguapanela). He explained that the aguapanela is a solidified mass of sugar, and that it is often traditionally served over a cuajada, or curdled cheese product, along with fresh jams. It sounded tasty! This is where the customer service kicked in. He asked if we were coming back tomorrow. We indicated that we were checking out (we had a 12 P.M. checkout that was then extended to 3 P.M. that was then unofficially extended to 5 P.M. due to the fact that we were visiting some sites farther away) and he told us to come back to the bar the next day after checkout.

Monday was quite the adventurous day. We could've hired a private car for anywhere between 250,000-400,000 COP (which sounds like a lot even before the conversion!). But, after talking to the amazing front desk staff (hearing Señor David every morning was the most amazing thing ever), we planned a route by public transportation around the areas surrounding Bogotá to visit the salt mine at Zipaquirá and the active mines of Nemocón. We had no idea what we were doing, but between GPS, asking questions, and just getting on buses and sitting down and waiting for them to tell us to pay, something that we learned is quite standard, we were able to find out way. We even managed to find the direct bus back from Nemocón to Bogotá, saving us time and hassle. And all for about $10/pp.

Zipaquirá is a fascinating place. It was an old mine that was repurposed into an underground cathedral, complete with twelve stations of the cross. While I don't religiously identify with the site, I do appreciate the architecture and attention to detail, and it was nice to have an English guide for no extra charge. Nevertheless, it was far too touristy. Like, FAR too touristy. A light show, shops galore, a fake emerald mine, and so much more. After getting muy lost back in town, we were able to find a bus to take us on the windy path to Nemocón.

Nemocón was a true gem. Part of that mine is still in use, and the remnant pieces of the old mine are still intact. The salty waters and the lampposts placed below ground for reflection were beautiful. There was almost a sort of peaceful calm in the mine. Our tour here was in Spanish at 80 miles a minute, but it was still informative. Plus, it was cool seeing the set of the movie The 33 that was shot in this very mine. After Nemocon, we wandered around the town a bit. We were asked to take photos with the kids of locals (I am dubbing this the "gringo effect") and saw some nice views of the town before returning by bus to Bogotá. We connected buses in the rain and walked the rest of the way back to the Hilton, arriving just a few minutes after our 5 P.M. unofficial official check out. Yet, when we arrived, they told us not to worry, to get some food from the bar, and to go up to the room at our leisure. Truly 20 star service. And then, we take a seat at the bar, and the bartender pulls out a covered plate and two small containers. Yes, he made cuajada, aguapanela syrup, and fresh strawberry jam only for us. Unreal, and solely because we were actively interested in the culture and had great conversations with the locals. After all, think about all the people who come, take photos, and leave without caring about local customs or traditions. I think the lack of pictures of our time in Bogotá is a testament to the desire we had to really immerse ourselves, despite the luxury of the hotel (our only really nice one all trip). It was a wonderful experience.

We left our hotel by Uber (man, was getting an Uber Pool a bad idea...it took over an hour to get to the airport with one cold and uncaring driver) and made our way for the night and day to Medellín, home of none other than the infamous Pablo Escobar.

Our flight to Medellín in the old LATAM livery

View above Medellín by night

We arrived quite late into our hotel (Hampton Inn) and went to sleep. The weather was stormy for the day, so we had to figure out good options. And I think that the Botero Museum was the greatest thing we could've done. Below are some of his art and sculptures. Fantastic!!!

We took the train around the city, but many things were either closed or not something we intended to do with the on-and-off rain.

We decided on getting off to take the cable car (Metrocable) up through the not-so-nice neighborhoods of Medellín. This unique project allowed more remote and dangerous parts of the city to have more ready access to the rest of the city and hopefully find jobs and connectivity. Certainly, the areas right at the bases of the stations were a bit nicer (by comparison) than the others we passed on the ride, but the poverty is dire and stark. And Medellín is in much better shape than, say, Cali. 

Cable Car View

Cool bird! Can you see it?

Chicken flavored Pringles. Good stuff.

We still had time to kill after buying some food for lunch, so we grabbed out packs and made our way to Museo El Castillo, a museum and grounds of a wealthy home. It wasn't as kept up as the grounds of some of the mansions of the Northeast, but it was still a good way to waste some time. After that, we hailed down a cab (after quite the effort) back to the airport. For a $63 round trip ticket per person from Bogotá to Medellín with LATAM, I would certainly say money well spent.

The view at day from the lookout on the way to the airport

Our plane back to Bogotá, mercifully on time

Once we landed in Bogotá at 9:00 P.M., we had a small panic attack. We picked up our stored bags and ran them to check in. No one was in line, and even though our plane was to take off at 11:10 P.M., the boarding passes read that boarding was at 9:35 P.M. We ran through security, but the lines were outlandish. Still, after being cut a few times, we made it past security (I had to explain why Evan's passport looked so funny) and rushed to our gate, only to find that, no, boarding wasn't going to be starting for another hour. So, out of breath but grateful we had made our last non-RTW connection, we walked back to the beautiful LATAM lounge, swiped the Priority Pass, and relaxed for a bit before the flight.

LATAM Lounge Bogotá

LATAM Lounge relaxation area

My my, what an incredible journey Colombia had been. But, we had one last and very isolated place left to go before wrapping up this part of the journey. Nos vemos, Colombia.