Leavng Medellin

We spent the day...over 12 hours travelling home to Maracaibo.

Our flight was scheduled to leave Medellin at 8:30am and arrive in Maracaibo one hour later, with the time change that would be around 10:00am. Of course it didn't happen that way.

We got up and going at 4:30am to get ready and make the drive out of town to the airport. It was a nice drive along mountain roads, with little traffic at that hour. 13 degrees C at 5:30.  We arrived at the airport by 6:00 to find that check-in would not begin until 6:30, so we had time for a cafe con leche and some chicken pastries.

Everything was going just fine until we got to the check-in counter for Venezolana, the Venezuelan airline we were travelling on. The line was slow, to the point of being stopped. We waited, moved a foot or two, then waited again. The line for the airline next to us kept moving. Passengers arrived and were checked in. It took us over and hour to make it to the counter. We had to speak to at least three different people, at three different counters....one charged us the airport tax which was not included in our tickets. The next took our luggage, weighed it and gave us our baggage tags. The third actually checked us in to the flight (after our baggage was checked) and gave us our boarding passes and copies of the three separate forms one has to fill out to enter Venezuela...customs, immigration, health.  I had to explain to each of them that I was not a tourist, that I lived in Venezula, and that there was a resident visa in my passport. OK, painfully slow, but I'm pretty much used to slow by now.

We exited through Colombian immigration with no problems, and the security procedure was painless.

We stopped for a quick chocolate purchase at one of the shops near the gates, then when we got to our gate there was an airline employee there who told us that the plane hadn't arrived yet and that we should have a seat. Fortunately the airport has ample seating and a clean, pleasant area where we can

wait (with air conditioning :)). Supposedly the plane would arrive in around 15 minutes. At 9:00 they announced that the plane had arrived and that we would leave at 10:30.  Most people were sleeping on the chairs in the waiting area by now, unperturbed by the unsurprising lateness. At 9:45 we were informed that the plane had technical issues and that another would arrive at 10:30 so that we could leave at 11:30.  At around 11:00 it was announced that those "interested" in flight 603 should go to the gate assigned. We were no longer passengers. At the gate they checked our boarding passes and gave us each a ham and cheese sandwich and a soft drink. Not a good sign. A bit after 1:00pm they took the names of all those who had to make connecting flights which left before 6:00pm. Then finally at 1:30 they told us that our plane would arrive at 2:00 and we would leave at 3:00. By now we were a bit incredulous. When they brought us another soft drink and a fried empanada at 2:30 I was sure we  were in for another change of plans. But at 2:30 a plane pulled up to the gate and we started boarding just after 3:00...finally, by 3:25 we were taking off.  Perhaps the saddest thing about the whole affair was that no one was surprised. Everyone travelling to Venezuela seemed to know how things work there, and just waited for the latest version, grateful for the snacks, which we probably wouldn't have gotten had we been stuck in Maracaibo.

The airport in Maracaibo was just as we had left it...crowded and hot; in complete chaos because

passengers for more than one flight were checking in at the same time. No air conditioning, and the temperature here was 35 C.  The car that was coming to pick us up, and which had been on hold all day, receiving hourly changes in plans, was stuck in a traffic jam on the road to the airport. Construction has made the journey to and from the airport almost impossible for months now.  He finally picked us up close to 5:30 and we were home by 6:15pm....more than twelve hours after we started out, for a one hour flight.

Home. It will take a whole other post, or more, to try and explain how I can be happy to be home, feel good in my house, when everything is falling apart around us. But for now, I'm back and for a while, at least, I won't be leaving Venezuela.