On Sunday morning, we were due to fly to Armania for the last two weeks of our trip. We had been warned to leave early for the airport because there was a Half-Marathon that morning. It was called the Media Maraton Internacional de Bogota and had around 45,000 people involved in the events of the day.
We could see the excitement in front of our hotel as they set up a Medical tent and hundreds of pedestrians on bikes, skate boards and non-electric scooters enjoyed the open roads…..
Just as we were driving out from the hotel we heard two gun shots that signaled the start of a mini parade with police cars and a small float carrying the Patron Saint of the race.
It was good that we left early because many of the roads were closed for the course and our poor taxi driver had to really work to get us to the airport.
Once there, we picked up a cup of coffee and “Dunkin Donuts”….Michael made me go in so that he can keep his record of NOT having US fast food while in foreign countries!!!
Our flight was delayed by about an hour but was a fairly easy trip. We enjoyed talking to the young man sitting next to us. He was a player on one of the Tulsa Professional Soccer Teams (Football Clubs). I didn’t catch his name, but figured that I could find him easily online. Little did I know that there were more than one club so I don’t know who he was!!
We were met at the airport by Henry, Victor & Katherine and they escorted us to our very nice hotel!!!
Our first impressions of Armenia were exciting as the mountains rose on either side of us. Armenia is the capital of Quindio which is a Department in Colombia. To the best of our reckoning, a Department is the equivalent of a state in the US. The city has about 200,000 people.
There was a huge earthquake back in 1999 that leveled much of the center of the city. It has now been rebuilt and is beautiful. However, the area is still tectonically active so we were told to expect to feel tremors.
We had a walk around our hotel area and were able to find the University that Michael will be teaching at. After a while, we decided to eat dinner at a place called “La Fogata”. We enjoyed a fantastic meal…..beef for Michael……
…and Chicken for me…..
We felt horrible when we realized that the restaurant had actually closed about 15 minutes before we left, but they never hurried us at all!!!
We were excited about being in a new city and pleased to meet the people who had made our trip here possible!!!!