Arriving at the Airport in Bogota (El Dorado or Puente Aereo)
Posted by: k in Transportaion, This is 1967There are two airports in Bogota–El Dorado, which is for international flights and for domestic airlines other then Avianca, and Puente Aereo, which is for Avianca domestic flights only (Avianca has a near monopoly on domestic flights). They are situated right next to each other.
First I’ll talk about El Dorado. Supposedly there is a plan to build a new terminal sometime (when???!?!??). The airport is kind of dated and drab, and some of their systems are not quite up-to-the-minute. I have read more than once that the entire city is being held back from becoming more of an international player because of the lack of a really good international airport with systems in place that international business travellers insist on. But for me, a simple worker/tourist, it works okay, though it’s definitely a nothing-special airport.
Did Someone Try to Cut in Front of Me in Line?
When I first landed at El Dorado two years ago, one thing that took me a little by surprise was that, as I followed the crowd off the plane and into the terminal, someone lit up a cigarette. Well, that’s not legal anymore (which is not to say it won’t happen). Soon I found myself in a really, really large room where people sorted themselves into lines to go through immigration and customs.
But then, while I was distracted by the new surroundings, I couldn’t be sure, but I had the feeling that maybe someone had cut in line in front of me. While asking myself if this could be possibly have happened, I was DEFINITELY cut in front of by someone else. So, I just moved in front of the two people who were in front of me. Neither one looked at me or objected, so I figured that they were both guilty of cutting the line. This was my first itroduction to this Bogotano custom of getting in front of other people if you can (I’m not sure it’s a Colombian custom, but it definitely happens frequently in Bogota). The rule is to look in another direction, never acknowledging what you are doing, and if you get caught, the person who caught you will not confront you either, but just take his rightful place.
Do You Need Help with your Bags?? YOU NEED HELP WITH YOUR BAGS!!
When your bags are delivered, there will be some pretty insistent porters trying to grab them from you to deliver them to your taxi or wherever you are going. These guys wear uniforms, but aren’t airport employees, and work only for tips. I never use them anymore, and instead, if I have a lot of luggage, I rent a cart for $5,000 pesos and take care of it myself, because these guys are extremely aggressive and want to be paid a lot for their help. I have seen them being pretty abusive to passengers and taking advantage of anyone who might not know the city or the language or the currency so well, so I just avoid the issue (which takes some insistence on my part).
Getting a Taxi
There’s a pretty good system for getting taxis that helps extranjeros from being ripped off. You go to a booth and give the address you are going to (or just the neighborhood will do) and are given a receipt showing the fare. A taxi driver might still try to abuse and tell you there are additional charges, but with a little insistence, you can get the correct fare charged. The airport is a little far out, so it might cost something like $20,000-$25,000 pesos to most destinations in North Bogota, but that translates into about USD$9-11, so it’s still a bargain over NYC or just about anywhere in the US.
Puente Aereo
If you arrive at Puente Aereo, it will be on a smaller plane, though maybe a jet, and you won’t debark into the airport itself, but instead climb down the stairs of the plane onto the tarmac (this is 1967, remember?). Puente Aereo has just implemented the same taxi system that is used at El Dorado, so I guess the taxistas were trying to rip of Colombians at this airport too, and not limiting themselves to trying to take advantage of foreigners coming to Bogota for the first time at El Dorado.
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