Day 196 : Flight to Panama

It was a 1.5 hours flight to Bogota, followed by a transit in Bogota airport for about 3 hours and then another 1.5 hours to Panama - 4 times the time needed to fly direct from Cartagena to Panama city, but with a USD50 savings, the slight inconvenience was marginal. In fact, the journey was not as bad as I imagined it to be and COPA airlines had been much more comfortable than I expected.

2 interesting things happened when I was in Bogota airport though.  First, when I arrived at Bogota airport, we were met by a couple of COPA staff, who led a few of us transiting to Cartagena to a terminal to process our boarding passes.

I was subsequently led by one of the staff to one of their counters, and for some reasons, after being asked to sign a document, I was handed with COP65,000 in cash!  I was extremely puzzled as I was the only one in the group that was led to the counter, and additionally handed cash!  

Knowing not to complain when money is handed out to you, I took the money without asking why and left.  Yay, more money in my pocket!

The 2^nd interesting thing was with the immigration.  I had been extremely concern that I would encounter problems with immigration since I had overstayed in the country.   But when I presented my passport, they seemed to be more intrigued with the passport numbers found on the top of every page in my passport, as well as the particulars page on the passport.

So after the staff behind the counter spoke with 2 to 3 other of his colleagues for about 15 mins, my passport was subsequently processed by another of his colleague and stamped with an exit stamp - No questions at all on my overstaying in Colombia.

I was extremely pleased, as I had considered making up a big story to get out of any penalties I might have to pay for overstaying.

Off I went to board my plane to Panama, and upon arriving at Panama airport, was warmly welcomed by Niklaus after squeezing through the massive crowds at the “meet-and-greet” arrival hall.

It was already 5.30pm and transportation to Puerto Lindo (where his boat is located) would be difficult to get at that hour, so we decided to stay one night in Panama city, where Niklaus can also spend the next morning to get some parts for his boat and for the trip to San Blas.