We Have Plane Tickets

We bought our plane tickets today. 2 round trip tickets and 4 one-way tickets. I know most of our trips in the future will not be this expensive, but traveling by air is now a much bigger expense than it used to be. Here is our itinerary:

Thursday April 15th

Leave Madison (8:40am) to Chicago (9:30) American Airlines flight 5018

Chicago (10:50 am)to Miami (2:50 pm) American flight 2050

Miami (6:05 pm) to Medellin (8:25 pm) American flight 923

(Surprisingly leaving and returning to Madison was similarly priced or cheaper than Milwaukee or Chicago)

We are unsure at this point where we will be staying in Medellin. We will pass that information on as we know it. Our return is a bit strange. We do not return to Madison until May 22nd. That's 5 weeks in Medellin and Bogota. We are giving ourselves extra time in case something causes us to delay. Since neither of us has to return right away we are setting it up so that we have extra time. If for some reason everything goes quickly we will weigh the options of leaving early which will have the cost of changing flights with the cost it will be to stay in Colombia an extra week or more. Right now we are assuming we will be delayed (since we have been delayed many times before). Extra time might give us more time to better understand Colombian culture and give me more Spanish practice.

Our final paperwork and legal procedures happen in Bogota at the US Embassy and at the capital, not in Medellin. So we will have to travel to Bogota at some point during this 5 week time. As of now we are looking at a place in Bogota called El Refugio. It is a place that was recommended to us by another couple that has adopted 3 times from Colombia (all from Bogota). They liked the three meals a day included in the price and the cultural/local assistance the place provides. We have not made a final decision on this place yet. We have been told that our stay in Bogota should be short 2-3 days).

Our return flights start on Friday May 21st (yes, I know I said we were returning on the 22nd).

Our flight leaves from:

Bogota (7:35 am) to Miami (12:30) American Airlines flight 2170.

Because we will have to pass through customs which will include the girls receiving green cards and other immigration procedures we are not sure how long this process will take. Instead of stressing about making our next flight, we decided it would be best to stay in Miami for a night (break up the trip a bit for the girls), visit with Mercedes cousin Laisa and her husband Eric (if they is around) and/or play in the hotel swimming pool.

On Saturday May 22nd we leave from:

Miami (10:50 am) to Chicago (1:05 pm) American Airlines flight 703 (we nixed Dallas)

Chicago (1:45 pm) to Madison (2:30pm) American flight 5022

Then the next weekend we go up to Crab Lake with Martin family folks to help open the house. It will be a wild and exciting time for all of us.

For all those who helped us financially with our trip either through donations, t-shirts, jewelry, baked goods or for coming to the show, we thank you very much.

Some of the details of our travel we won't know until we are in Colombia like when we go to Bogota? How long our stay in Bogota will be? Will there be a national holiday that we are unaware of that will shut down the legal system? When and how much will the cost of airfare from Medellin to Bogota be? Right now we can only do so much. We will have to wait until we are informed about them.

My take on the phone call with the girls was very positive. The girls were less shocked or stunned. They were more talkative and relaxed. Mirellen and Mary Sucena are still a bit shy. We plan to call again on Monday, hopefully they will have received the photo albums by then. We were told they should be. Either way the girls are very anxious and excited to come to Wisconsin. They are asking about their primos (cousins) and abuelos (grandparents).

On our phone call with the girls I realized I have more Spanish to learn. I was only consoled by the idea that the girls used a bunch of colloquial phrases from Colombia. Maybe I will return from Colombia with a Colombian accent just like I returned from Mexico with a Mexican accent. Which accent will become my dominant one? Mexican, Colombian or Puerto Rican? We'll see. Maybe it will be like my English where I have picked up phrases from friends from different regions which confuse people who are trying to figure out where I grew up.

Enough for now. AM