Life in DC: South America to North America

Home sweet home. Finally.

I left Colombia with my course certificate in hand and 12 bags of plantain chips yesterday. On Friday afternoon, it took us 4 hours to travel 90 km (55 miles) from our hotel in Fusagasuga to Bogota. Longer than the flight from Bogota to Orlando! As we entered the city, my iPod kindly told me that there were Wi-Fi connections available in the vicinity. However, the only one that was not password protected was “assassins and homicides”. Um, no thank you.

During our last night, we stayed at a new hotel, in the ZonaRosa, which is surrounded by upscale shops and restaurants. It would have been nice to stay there during the first week, but I guess it was considered too much of a distraction and you could hear people partying until the wee hours of the night. I had previously mentioned that Colombian food was good and I still concur. However after 2 weeks of very heavy meals, I’m afraid to face the scale.

Here is an example of a day's menu (oh, and all meals were sit-down, not buffets):

Breakfast

Coffee, juice and hot chocolate

Fruit

Pastries

Scrambled eggs

Snack 1

Juice

Fruit

Chicken and pork skewers

Lunch

Juice

Soup with avocado and corn

Fish, rice, potatoes and a side salad

Gelatin dessert

Snack 2

Juice

Empanadas

Ice cream

Dinner

Juice

Fruit

Steak, french fries, rice, plantain and vegetables

Dulce de leche (arequipe) and cheese

Obviously, I tried not to partake in ALL of these offerings; however, my stomach has still been screaming STOP, STOP, NO MORE.

Yesterday, I had a 5 hour layover on my way back to Washington. So, after going through the most extensive customs/immigration process (plus a drug sniffing dog JUMPING on me), I was able to have lunch with Gaby and the girls. It was a real treat!

Sadly, I never crossed paths with Shakira or Juanes; but it was truly an eye opening experience. Perhaps a little too much so. Is there anything called "post-trip stress disorder"?