It is time to say farewell to Medellin. If I were a poet I might create something as an ode to our time here. But alas, I am not. So, instead I will make a list of somethings I am experiencing for the last time this morning.
- Waking early to the roar of jets overhead
- The sound of the scritch scratch of rakes as the workers clean the leaves in the park beside our window
- The frantic rush of bikes along the bike path commute
- The yellow, green, and orange birds on the palm outside the dining window and the brown and grey, purple-headed doves pecking in the dirt along the path
- The hum of traffic on the roadway
- Morning sun glinting off the car and motorcycles parked in front of our building
- The chipper chirping of birds
- The ancient moss covered tree outside our kitchen window. Its gigantic above ground roots taking up as much real estate on the ground as its far reaching canopy does in the sky
- People walking briskly off to work along the sidewalks
- Motorcycles laden with plastic crates (or sacks, or big box-shaped “DoorDash” delivery bags, or stacked with too many people) zipping down the roadway
- The sour taste of Lulo on my tongue and the sweet sugary taste of pineapple.
- Smoothing our sheets on last time on our super comfortable bed
- Exiting our building and stepping off the last small step on our front entrance where Rudy and I have occasionally tripped and stumbled
- One last walk down the sidewalk and park outside our apartment. Many of the concrete pads sit at rakish angles, heaved up by massive roots of the enormous trees
- Dogs wandering and running through the park. (French bulldogs, huskies, border collies and Heinz 57s)
- Past the 6-foot-high hibiscus bush that seems to produce dozens of new blossoms each day
- And finally one last cup of cappuccino and French toast with fruit at our favourite restaurant.
Our flight to Bogota was supposed to leave at 4 p.m. We left at 1 from our apartment and took the short uber ride to the airport bus pickup and the long ride to the airport to arrive at 2. At the check in desk we were informed that our flight was delayed until 9 pm. We weren’t that happy but I reacted in a Stobbe type way which basically means I smiled and accepted it and Rudy behaved in the assertive Nikkel way which means questioning and confronting and trying to get something worked out. When that didn’t work he spent quite a bit of time going back and forth between the various airlines to see if he could book another flight. I said we should wait to find out if it work out and, if at 9 it still was delayed, we could wait till morning to catch a very early flight to Bogota to catch our flight home to Winnipeg. As it turned out the airline fed us supper at the airport and then we left at 9 pm and actually made it to Bogota in record time (about 30min.). Once in Bogota we got an Uber and headed toward our “hotel”. Some time into the ride Rudy realized he had given the wrong address so we had to turn around and head back. Finally we arrived at the weird hotel which was basically some sort of building with apartments. We pressed a key code into the building, went to our floor and opened a lock box to get the key to let us in. The area of town seemed seedy but I suspect that it was just because it was late at night. We finally got to sleep about midnight and then were wakened by our alarm at 4 a.m. to head back to the airport to fly home.