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Decided not to pass up the chance to do one more post from an airport. I'm back in O'Hare. I missed my final connection last night so I slept for a bit in a sleep number bed with plenty of pillows that were the perfect thickness. Glorious. Seriously. Words cannot express how amazing the bed was. Thanks American Airlines for helping my transition from South American hostel beds to American beds so dramatic! (imagine anything from mattresses that are caving in to rock hard mattresses for the last 3 weeks, and lumpy sometimes paper-thin sometimes fat and solid pillows) Wish I woulda been in my own bed... but I sure wasn't suffering either.

Time for the final leg! And then some time at work before the weekend. Tchau!

mia

Well I'm in the Miami airport with a chai tea in hand. My flight left late from Medellin this morning... but we were already boarded and I sure didn't know the difference - I was out the whole time. I'm exhausted but I'm glad to be getting closer to my bed. Getting off the plane was somewhat of a rude awakening - I really miss the South American charm already! Seriously. And it was funny to go through customs here. I've always thought that customs in Latin American airports was a joke, a chance to make chit chat and compliment you on your eyes. But it appears that Ecuador and Colombia are countries the US is more suspicious of because I've never gotten so many questions and never been sent to so many additional lines. And in the end it's all the same chit chat, they just joke with you about being a Gopher and compliment you on your new football stadium instead of complimenting you on your eyes. The good news is that no one actually tried to open up my backpack - I'm confident they wouldn't have gotten it zipped shut again.:)

Colombia and Ecuador from hindsight already both look wonderful. Colombia is such an interesting gem. Their history and contextual reality is so dark just 10 years back. Being in Medellin, the stories of guerrillas, violence and drugs are so fresh (Medellin is after all Pablo Escobar's hometown), but that might be influenced in large part by who we stayed with and that where we stayed was Escobar's 'hood. But it really has radically changed and I suspect it's reputation will quickly change - it's a wonderful and beautiful country and I felt so safe the whole time. Although it was also really interesting to learn more about Venezuela's current reality as it relates to Colombia... it will be interesting to see how the tension rises or disseminates along the Colombian/Venezuelan border.

I suspect my dear travel buddies Michelle and Ali are getting ready to get on an overnight bus to the northern coast of colombia right now. As for me, I need a break from looking at my phone screen. It's nice to be back to in-network 3G streaming on my phone, but it sure was a wonderful treat to be free from my phone for three weeks!:) I'll upload pictures tomorrow or Saturday. For those who have travelled along... thanks for joining me.:)

wrapping up

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't sad to be wrapping things up in South America. Three weeks was nothing... my backpack doesn't smell much yet; I'm not nearly sick enough of repacking it everyday; I still have a few things I never wore (really... I brought too many tanktops); I've gotten to the point where I can understand 99% of anything anyone says (might be closer to 94%?) but I have a long way to go with my speaking; I could eat a bag of Milo Nuggets (little crunchy chocolate candies of goodness) everyday; I'm MUCH closer to the ocean now than I am in MN and yet I won't get to see it; there's just something about Latin American that I find endlessly endearing. But I truly am deeply grateful for the family, friends and community that the Twin Cities holds. And I am looking forward to spending less time on buses, to guaranteed hot water, to celebrating my neice's birthday and the Powderhorn art fair this weekend, to some MN summer days.:)

I really enjoyed Myriam and her family in Medellin (we're back at Myriam's sister's apartment tonight) - wonderful Colombian insight that really left me wanting more time to work on my Spanish to help with relational connections. And our jaunt through the Colombian coffee-side was beautiful and relaxing. We spent two nights in Salento, I finally got to see my cloud forest and we toured a great coffee farm, too. The seven hours we spent on the bus this afternoon/evening was great motivation to look forward to my car. And so now my backpack is packed and my alarm is set for 5:15 am to get the return journey started. I'll send Michelle and Ali off with well wishes for sunny beach days as they send me off to hop back to MN. I've got a long layover in Miami - I've never flown standby, but here's hoping something works out because otherwise I hit Chicago in the evening and then arrive in Minneapolis at 11:45 pm. Phew. We'll see how it all goes.

When I'm back to the MN side of life (and probably from the Miami airport... cause I'll have the time. ha.) I'll update more and upload photos with all the posts as well. But for now... it's time to get a bit o' sleep. Hasta!