According to the display in front of me, we’re finally over Colombia. I’ve been in the air for three hours. I finished reading the Back to the Future screenplay, which I found a little underwhelming. I followed it up with the screenplay for The Great Gatsby, which I found to be much better written.
I have an hour to go until the plane land in Bogotá, and I’ve run out of things to do. I had intended to fully charge my iPad last night, so I plugged it into my computer as the computer was charging. I discovered this morning that my laptop doesn’t charge via USB if the lid is closed, so I’ve been making do with only half a charge on the iPad all day.
After I finished The Great Gatsby, I pulled out some revisions that Katie had made to the first chapter of my book about how to be an adult. Her suggestions on what to change were very insightful and I spent some time trying to figure out how to implement the stuff she identified.
I’m starting to feel somewhat discouraged about this book idea. I think it’s a good concept, but I clearly need to do a lot more research if I’m going to make this book credible at all. If the book isn’t credible, who will bother reading it? I’m planning to keep working on it for a while and we’ll see where it goes.
I’m seated next to a woman named Tatiana, a grandmother who lives in Bogota. She’s returning to Bogota from visiting relatives in Spain. I’m not exactly sure which relatives she was visiting, because my Spanish comprehensions is pretty terrible. Tatiana was very patient, though, slowing down when I asked her to and speaking to Google Translate when I couldn’t figure out her meaning.
She pulled out pictures of her five grandchildren: her granddaughter who is 18 and attends university in Bogota, two twin girls who are 8 years old, a little boy who is five years old…and one other grandson whose details I am drawing a blank on. It was really cool when I could understand what she was trying to tell me, and frustrating when I couldn’t.
I told Tatiana about the trip that I’m on, how we’re riding bikes through several countries. I asked her if she had any advice for us in Bogota, and she said something that we’ve seen over and over when performing our research: keep a close eye on your valuables and your papers. That’s advice that I intend to follow.
When I land at the airport I should be meeting up with Elizabeth, who will be arriving in Bogota about an hour before I do. We’ll grab a taxi to our hotel and will join Josh, who arrived last night. In the morning we check out of the hotel and go off to meet our Airbnb hosts, who will let us into the apartment we’ll be using for the next two weeks.
Bogota is going to be a pretty busy time. The three of us have to find a reputable motorcycle dealer, purchase the bikes, find insurance, and get them outfitted for the road. Only then will we be ready to set out.
I checked two bags with my motorcycle gear in them. I really hope that my bags arrive with me, and that nothing has been taken from them. It would really put a damper on things if I have to buy new motorcycle gear.
We’re 20 minutes out, but it looks like the plane has started its descent. That’s all for now.