Earlier this evening I arrived in Bogota, after a day in the capable hands of KLM and Air France. The day hadn't started so great – we got up at 02:45 so that Marina could drive me to the railway station in Eindhoven, to catch the 03:30 train to Schiphol. That worked OK, but then the train was pretty full with a rather loud bunch of youngsters… at 3:30 a.m.! Anyway, some of them apparently caused sufficient damage to the train to result in an unscheduled 50 minute stop at Tilburg, while we all waited for the police to arrive to take them into custody. Tilburg is not that big, there's certainly no traffic at that time of the morning, perhaps the cops had to get out of bed or something. When we finally left Tilburg again, still accompanied by loud co-passengers, we were well behind schedule and there was a real worry that I might miss my flights.
But, I'd checked-in online, and so the process to get onto a plane was smooth and really quick.
KLM to Paris Charles de Gaulle was really short, hardly time for a coke and a sandwich. Transfer at CDG was remarkably smooth. And then the Air France flight was comfortable, but long… The food served by the friendly crew was pretty good, even if one has to eat it with that elbows-tucked-in, vertical-forearms, praying mantis motion.
Then the Bogota “El Dorado” airport was pretty efficient, including the usual Disneyland-type of zig-zag queuing for immigration. I was collected by a new Colombian colleague and driven to the hotel. It was clear that successful driving here requires a decisive person with equal amounts of skill and confidence.
Now I'm settled in Hotel Nacion and keen to start my week's assignment with IKV Pax Christi, advising the Colombian Court of Audit on mining environmental issues.
