Alex's Coffee Adventure

Today’s plan was to get to Colombia. At the moment, my flight from Orlando (where I am right now) to Bogotá is pretty delayed: it was supposed to leave at 8:04pm and now is scheduled to leave closer to 11:30pm.

I had an 11am flight out of Richmond which went pretty smoothly. Then I had a 6 and a half hour layover, probably because I just got the cheapest ticket I could from Richmond to Colombia. I realized quickly though that these 6.5 hours could be much better spent than sitting in the Orlando airport, because I know someone who lives in Orlando: Latchmin!

Latchmin was me and Russell’s nanny from the time Russell was just a few years old to until he graduated from Dalton, so Latchmin really helped raise me since I was born. A year and a half ago she moved away from NYC to retire in Orlando, and I hadn’t seen her since. Until today!

It was so great to see Latchmin and visit her home. She has a beautiful garden growing out back with an impressive mango tree and lots of tomato plants.

After my pit stop, I got back to the Orlando airport and went through security. Then my flight got delayed, so I went back out of security to get a real dinner at the main terminal instead of a sandwich. Now I’m waiting for more news.

One silver lining is that the gate attendant might be the most helpful gate attendant I’ve ever met – he told me exactly what the deal with our plane is (delayed out of Buffalo, NY), when they decided to get a new one, and the logistics of trying to get a new crew on the different plane to get to Colombia. It was super reassuring to hear what was actually going on, and I’m not sure why more airlines don’t do this!

The hotel I’m staying at has scheduled a taxi to pick me up at the airport when I arrive, and I have the driver’s name and he has mine, so I’ll get to the hotel safely. I’m really looking forward to the new country!

Check back in tomorrow for the first international dispatch: Alex takes Bogotá! In the meantime, I’ll work on my list of specialty coffee shops in Bogotá to visit.