Introduction
Hello amigos, welcome to this FR on a Bogotá to Barranquilla hop with LATAM.
Ever since AV became a LCC-Legacy hybrid I chose to avoid them like the plague, and so I always book with LATAM, even if they charge a little bit over AV.
So, after arriving to Bogotá from Madrid on Iberia:
Flight routing
- 1
It was time to head to "Curramba".
At Bogotá-Eldorado
We were brought to BOG by a friend. LATAM uses a self check in system where you print your boarding pass and then drop you bag at the counter. It usually runs smoothly, but there are still some passangers who struggle with the system.
LA and AV operations are segregated, AV being the largest user has the whole south pier, whilst LA uses half of the north pier (it is shared with the international gates).
This pier feels crowded, there are a lot of stores, no real places to have a proper meal though, and tight seating areas and corridors.
An Albino A320 was to take us to BAQ
Boarding LATAM's Albino A320
It was time to board, which went smoothly.
The Albino didn't have the regular LA cabin, but it looked in good shape.
The seats were spartan…I wonder where they came from?
Hum…so this must be a remnant of Viva Colombia
Well, at least it is a short flight to Barranquilla. Not much of a bother after doing 4h on IBs horrible A321s.
The symbolic table, with a book for size comparison.
The view from my spot while the boarding process was completed
Enroute to Barranquilla
Once boarding was completed, full flight for today, we were on our way to RWY 14L, which is the usual for northward departures.
We crossed paths with TK's 77W, which I flew a couple of months before to IST.
No queue behind us
Zoom in to the Cerros…how I miss them
And we were on our way…
Check the LATAM 787 being fixed(?)
Clouds were high enough that we could be afforded a nice tour of Bogotá on our way out, first with a view of South Bogotá
Then Parque Simón Bolivar, the Universidad Nacional, the Centro Internacional and Monserrate and Guadalupe in the backdrop.
Then Barrios Unidos and Chapinero against the Hills.
It was a rainy day in Northern Bogotá
Calle 100 undergoing works for the new Transmilenio line
One of the few remaining wetlands in Bogotá (the city was built over a huge wetland that used to be a lake in the past)
Massive commieblock developments that ate what remained of the undeveloped parts of North Bogotá in the early 2000s
More commieblocks on the pipline as the city moves north into the Bogotá Savannah
And now we've left Bogotá behind and finally we could see some green
Fúquene Lake
We were now over Boyacá and Santander
And now we left the Andes behind and flew over the northern plains and wetlands
Zoom into the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta
Meaning that our trip was coming to an end
We were about to cross the Magdalena River
And then a very uneventful approach into BAQ
BAQ had been under renovations for the last years…it is a great improvement but it feels unfinished
Our bags came
We grabbed a cab to the north of the city, it is a super long drive that takes about 1h, depending on traffic.
