One Flew over Bogota...

jeudi 23 octobre 2025

One Flew over Bogota...

South America is in the news. Ships are being bombed. What's a traveler supposed to do? There is no warning system in place, no effective communication, no alert level to speak of...

There's an uneasiness out there, and once you present your passport to an agent at the Bogota airport you are highly unlikely to get effective help. Taking the running escalator that led to your connecting flight, following the yellow and green marked floor, a strategically placed display panel shows each departing gate in a scrolling fashion. The smart traveler looks up, search for his flight number, and takes note of his connections' departing gate. Let's say mine was B7B.

Following the arrows for the B side of the long hallway...he arrives early, purchased a sandwich, with a small coffee, eating while waiting. The gate B7B is closed. It will be opened one hour before the flight, an airport employee said.

For International travelers, there is a huge hallway cut in half by food concessions, small boutiques, and almost out of sight is a wide area where sat three agents whose job is to help the international traveler resolve many issues that may arise...

While sitting on the traditional airport dark cushioned chair. I Had about three bites left out of my juicy sausage and cheese sandwhich. And with mouth wide open; I watched a stout man dashing through the long hallway. He stopped at the same closed glass door with keypad, pulling and trying to crack it open. I told him what the airport worker said to me earlier. -The door will be opened one hour prior to departure time- He calmed down and sat next to me on the same row of chairs.

In less than a minute, he asked me where I was going. To Panama City, I said. No, you are not, that flight is going to... Are you sure? Let me see your boarding pass. Where are you from, I am from Peru. And you are at the Bogota airport in transit just like me. The Peruvian opened an App to check what my departure gate is. Your plane leaves at gate A7B, he said.

That was the first gate change. It went unannounced on the PA overhead.

I bid the Peruvian farewell and walk back the hallway towards the A side to find my gate at the bottom. Gates labeled A are on the top floor.

(More to come...)