Goodbye Colombia, Hello South Africa!
After several weeks of fun in South America, it’s time to say goodbye.
This friendly guy greets you in the airport. At first glance I thought the message would be something like “I’m watching you” a la Big Brother. Or perhaps a wax treatment for unibrows? But it’s actually a cell phone advertisement!
When I leave a country, I try to spend all my remaining currency. Robyn is my favorite partner in crime for these exercises! We once bought a bag full of Alfahores (aka the best cookies ever) in the Uruguay airport, only to have them confiscated by security. They don”t care how many liquids you bring on board, but apparently cookies are out of the question. We think they just wanted a snack! This time we shared empanadas for breakfast, and cookies for dessert. At the international airport we split a donut and a chocolate chip cookie. We love our galletas! Between the two of us we only had 50 COP left, which is about 2.5 cents USD! Not too shabby.
Airplane juice box!
After a quick NYC layover (entirely too quick if you ask me!) I was back at the airport with my buddies Gita and Sunil, to head to South Africa! I am so lucky to have so many friends that love to travel!
You may be wondering why I came back to the US between countries. I originally planned to go directly from country to country on my big world trip, and seriously considered a Round The World plane ticket. But after extensive pricing research, I found that booking flights separately worked best for me, due to the cities I wanted to go to. It was actually cheaper to come back to NYC in between. I got a great deal on a roundtrip flight from Newark to Bogota, and I was able to use frequent flier miles to go to South Africa. One way tickets were very expensive (particularly from Bogota to Cape Town) and the RTW ticket would have involved three layovers in Houston, Newark, and Zurich… no thanks!
The flight to Johannesburg was 15 hours, but actually wasn’t bad at all. We lucked out with an empty flight and took advantage of empty seats. The jet lag set in on the short domestic flight from Joburg to Cape Town… I think that’s when we all started feeling a little loopy! But we made it to our lovely hostel, and after a little siesta, we hit the town!
More on that next!
Kavi360 
OMG! You’re living my dream life, travelling everywhere! 😀
Well, I’ve never been to Africa so I look forward to seeing the photos and writeups.
I bought those multi-pack oreos in Colombia before. For me, hmm, the ones here are still better 🙂
Safe travel and God bless
That was our conclusion as well… the Oreos in the US tasted better to us! Thanks for the well wishes. I do feel very lucky and blessed to be living out my dream. I’m learning a lot and broadening my horizons!
Sounds like your time in africa is going to be a good time. Not shocked it was cheaper to fly back through the Newark on the way to South Africa. I still find airline pricing so odd though…
I’m guessing it was cheaper because NYC is such a large hub for international flights. But hey, I’m not complaining 😉
OMG, I love your life! xoxo
LOL, thanks Kristy!