Worst Sunday (working day) in my life….

Hola Amigos,

I was looking forward to this weekend because I had to travel to Mexico but I didn’t expect that it would be the worst traveling Sunday I’ve ever had.
This Sunday I had to go to Mexico. My flight from Bogota to Mexico was scheduled at 1.20 pm. So I prepared lunch (early lunch ==> brunch) at 10:30 am. In the meantime I packed my bags. After lunch I made the final check (passport, money and flight tickets) and ordered a taxi to the airport. I left my apartment in Bogota at around 11:00 am. Normally you would need max. 20 min to the airport on Sunday. There was no traffic so we headed to the airport quite fast. Around 5 km (there is only one street to the airport) in front of the airport there was a big traffic jam. At this time I didn’t know that the problems just began at this stage. The street was under construction and closed for 20 min. You can imagine how big the traffic jam was. The short version…. I lost 50 min only in the traffic jam. So I arrived at the airport at 12:00 am.
If you want to leave Colombia (international flight) you have to pay for the airport taxis. The line of people was looooong in front of the tax payment booth. Ok, I thought I’m really smart and contacted a local police man from the airport. I knew (because I have seen it before) that this men wanted to earn extra money by helping people to the get stamp for the taxis earlier. So I paid him and he went away with my passport. After 15 min he came back, without the stamp and said that I have a problem with my passport and I have to go to the check in directly. Of course I didn’t get the money back. I had a flight with the Mexicana airline so I was looking for the check in for Mexicana. I asked different people, crossed the whole check-in hall several times, was sweating a lot (again!!!) but there was no Mexicana check-in. After asking some people, one told me that the Mexicana don’t have an own check-in, because they work together with Taca Airlines (but there was no info!!!).
In front of the Taca check-in were only some people because it was already quite late (1 hour before take off!). Of course I had to pay (till now I don’t know what I had to pay for) 62 USD. I checked in and got my boarding pass. I ran to the gate but before I had to pass some “check points”. First check point was the “fast luggage check”. I think the queue of people was more or less 30m to 40m. I couldn’t wait so I went to the first quarter of the line and asked a man (from Venezuela) if I can stand in front of him because I was already late. After I have passed this check point there was the passport control. Ok, I had to wait another 20 min. I gave the passport to the man from the border control, he looked at me, looked at the passport, looked at me again, shacked his head, said something like “problemas” and went away with my passport. After 10 min he came back together with his boss and he explained me that I had only a Visa for 30 days but I stayed in Colombia for more than 90 days till now. I was shocked! Really, I couldn’t speak. I have seen me already sitting on chair with handcuffs, a lamp shines into my face and some guys asking me question in Spanish and I wouldn’t understand anything. The Austrian embassy told me that I would have a Visa for 180 days so I didn’t take care till that moment.
The 2 guys from the border control asked me some questions and then they said that my name is now registered in the computer (remarked ==> perfect!!!) and if this happens again I will get arrested.
Ok, after some problems I passed check point 2…. border control. It was already 1:10 pm so 10 min before the planned take off. In Europe there will be no chance to catch the flight anymore.
The last “check point” I had to pass was the luggage control (no X-ray ==> scan by a authorized person). The queue of people was longer than the lines before. I walked in front of the line, told one woman (police) that I have a flight to Mexico and no time left. She said that I have to wait in the line (~ 20m long). I went to end of the line, waited another 10 min (it was already 1:20 pm, take off time) but I was standing behind one guy who had also ticket to Mexico City (same flight). After I have passed also this (last) check point I entered (I was one of the last 10 people) the plane and 5 min later they closed the door.
When I arrived in Mexico I had some problems with my luggage and they wanted to control it again. I had to wait another 20 min (the same happened to me also in New Zealand) after they didn’t found anything.
When I was sitting in the taxi (in Mexico) on the way to the hotel the radio was playing a song which is called “Rock me Amadeus” from a big entertainer of Austria (Falco). I had to smile because I was soooo happy that everything went fine at the end after so many problems …..
Since 4 years I’m traveling around the world but I have never had such a “problematic” day before…. And I hope I will never have such day again.

Saludos de Mexico
Jürgen

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