Ever since we left Armenia on a moment’s notice four months prior, we wanted to return to finish our trip.  We decided on March because a) the weather was supposed to be very dry on the Caribbean coast, b) we wanted to be able to take the United flight from Tenerife to New York so we could avoid flying to the European continent, and c) we were told by numerous people to be out of Tayrona before Semana Santa.  So we basically kept the exact same routing as before, with the only tweaks being the coming and going flights and us missing a morning at Valle de Cocora.

We woke up today around 04:00 at our home in Puerto de la Cruz.  There was an early bus directly from the Puerto de la Cruz station to Tenerife’s south airport, which was great, but it left early enough that we couldn’t take a bus from the stop near our home to the bus station.  So we left the house around 05:00 with our backpacks on our back, and just walked to the bus station.  Not surprisingly, there was almost no one out and about.  This was due not only to the time, but also the day - it was the Monday morning following the final weekend of Carnaval season, and we’re guessing most people were even more likely to sleep in a bit this morning.  Right by the bus station we saw a car that looked like our friend Jo's, so we took that as a good omen.

The 343 bus was on time, relatively empty, and got us to the airport with more than enough leeway for getting through immigration prior to boarding.  The airport was empty, as none of the flights to the UK (the main place outside the EU that has flights from Tenerife) leave very early.  We had a couple snacks (chips and booze) waiting for the boarding to begin.  On the plane, the plane was quite full, which we actually like, because we want United to keep the flight (and indeed expand it to all year).  Justin asked the flight attendants what they do when they get to Tenerife, because it’s too long a flight for them to go right back, and the flights are only 3x a week, and sure enough, they just stay on Tenerife for a couple days between coming and heading back.  Crystal mostly watched movies on the flight, whilst Justin listened to podcasts and played games on his phone.

We got into Newark a bit early, so we had over 4 hours to kill.  With Global Entry, no checked bags, and a good understanding of the Newark airport, it takes us only 20-30 minutes to get from the plane to the next gate (or lounge), even accounting for immigration and customs.  Crystal killed all 4 hours at the lounge.  Justin wanted to get some steps in, so he just walked around the terminal with all the C gates for a bit.  Everything on all of the televisions was just pure chaos, so he tried to keep tunnel vision and focus on the podcasts he was listening to.

We were both dragging quite a bit, especially because we’d enjoyed the Carnaval weekend.  Saturday we’d gone into Santa Cruz for Carnaval del Día and had just as great a time as last year.  Sunday we’d gone to get pizza, and then Justin walked up to Los Realejos to see its Gran Coso, which had been delayed a few days because of inclement weather.  That was also a great time.  On a normal Monday we would’ve lounged around the house, not flown to multiple continents.  We purposely waited until after Carnaval to go to Colombia, because we wanted to enjoy Carnaval in Tenerife, but maybe we shouldn’t have gone literally the day after.

The flight from Newark to Bogotá was empty.  This was excellent news, because the guy sitting in the row in front of us refused to wear headphones.  Apparently he thought his show was entertaining enough that we all should have to listen to it.  Justin asked him to turn it down, and he did…for about 5 minutes.  Then he switched seats with his partner, moving a whole 60 centimeters further away from us.  Justin was walking to the back to ask the flight attendants the best course of action to not end up on a viral video, but he noticed there were several empty rows, so he just sat in one of them, watching movies and then lying down to sleep across the whole row.  Crystal slept the whole time, and had no clue any of this was going on.

In Bogotá, we were off the plane and through immigration very quickly.  We remembered from last time, and had our itinerary and the name of our hotel tonight (Bogotá Marriott) committed to memory, so when the immigration agent asked us, things went much smoother.  After exiting the secure area, we were greeted by Julian, who remembered us.  It was just a 10 minute ride to the hotel, and this time it actually took just the 10 minutes.  At the hotel, we sensed the driver was confused with where the entrance was, so Justin told him the entrance was on the back side of the building.  We checked in, went upstairs, and went to sleep almost immediately, right around midnight.