Colombia - Day 1!

July 19th:

A trip I’d been waiting to take for what seemed like an eternity finally came, Colombia! Our bags were packed, the animals in good hands, and we were off! We met my Aunt Sue and her two youngest daughters, Debbie and Celeste, at the Philly International Airport. Mom, Dad, Monica (sister), Aunt Sue and I had a flight out of Philly to Miami. Here, in Miami, we waited for Debbie and Celeste who had a later flight to Miami. We also met up with Aunt Sue’s oldest daughter, Christine, who flew in from L.A. Our flight from Miami to Medellín, Colombia was roughly four hours. I remember flying over the Caribbean, Cuba, Jamaica, Venezuela and then finally arriving at Medellín International later that evening! (There’s only a one hour time difference in Colombia compared to Pennsylvania).

I’ll never forget the words my aunt spoke a few moments before decent, with tears in her eyes and a smile on her face she said “I’m home!” My aunt had not been back to Colombia since she left more than forty years ago to come to America at only five years of age. My abuelita passed away this January and not being able to see Colombia with her hurt my aunt immensely.
     I’ll be honest and say that the amount of space from the exiting of the plane to the doors past customs was roughly… 50 yards? Taking a total of close to two hours to get the whole 200 yards! In the end though it was all worth it. We met my Cousin MĂłnica, my Aunt Gaita, and MĂłnica’s husband San Jo outside of the airport. At this moment I was probably the happiest person alive. Though my native tongue is English and having had only a year of formal Spanish class, in fifteen minutes I was picking up and understanding more than I ever thought to be possible. I credit this with the fact I was raised around the Spanish Language and am able to utilize it outside of school and do so whenever possible. This was an incredible feeling, an incredible feeling indeed.
     Having picked who was going with who, we entered our vehicles and began the forty-five minute drive into the city. Monica (my sister), Aunt Sue and I took the car with Juan Jo and Gaita. It was night time, and rainy, but I could see clearly that we were sure as hell not in America anymore! Lush tropical trees and plants grew up and down steep mountain sides and huge forests of Guagua. Our conversations switched back in fourth between our own personal lives in both countries and the various events that were to take place thruought the next ten days. Soon we were pulling into Gaita’s house, a beautiful two story white stone house surround my upscale high rises and beautiful tropical trees. Inside we met Ester (the maid),  Juan Camilo, and Pedro (whom I hadn’t seen for roughly seven or so years since he visited us). We all placed our suit cases thruought the house and proceeded to eat arepas!!! My cousins and aunt then grabbed their stuff and went to MĂłnica's where they were to stay. My family and I headed off to our rooms to get some sleep to prepare for the next day's journey to Armenia, Colombia to LA FINCA!