15/11/2011 NYC and COLUMBIA (Again)

Only 2 hours of sleep in my tent last night so as you can imagine I spent the day absolutely ruined, I slept when I could during the three flights between Burlington, NYC, Orlando and Bogota but still not getting the rest I needed.
The begging of the day was quite the scare, at check-in I was told I needed a return flight or on-going journey from Columbia for them to let me on the flight. With only 45 minutes before my flight I took 20 minutes to botch together a fake bus ticket from Bogota to Ecuador, I lied to the woman giving her a reference number for a product I purchased a few months ago, I used the email receipt of this product as a template to put the whole thing together. Im writing this post just before arriving in Bogota, I can only hope I dont have any issues getting into Columbia.
I had a layover of 6 hours in New York,i really didnt want to hang out at the airport so I paid quite a lot of money for a bus to take me into Manhattan, it took 2 hours to get there because of rush hour and 25 minutes on the way back... I really didnt have long to see as much as I wanted but I did get to take a lot of pictures around Times Square, eat some cheap pizza and listen to how rude some people are; this one woman at the pizza shop wouldnt stop yelling at the clerk because he ran out of napkins... seriously.. I was wanting and I should have had a word with her.
Anyways my time in NYC was brief but worthwhile, maybe next time ill get to see more of the city – preferably on a bicycle.
My next two flights were fun, chatting away in Spanish to try and improve it and also see it I could remember my classes in Guatemala so many months ago, I did surprise myself and was able to blurt out quite a lot although it was still a broken conversation.
Arriving in Bogota I was a little worried if the immigration officers would check my falsified bus ticket out of the country but really there was no issue and the officer let me into the country with a smile.
I wanted to catch a bus to the place where I was staying but unfortunately as it was past 11pm they were no longer running and I had to opt for a taxi costing a hell of a lot more... but this is always the case.
The guy who I was staying with was a guy from England, Richard who I met in China two years ago, he was the person who suggested I cycle Vietnam, and without him convincing me I wouldnt have been introduced to the world of  touring cycling. Richard has been living in Bogota for the past year teaching English and it was honestly great to catch up with him and meet his housemates but as I was so incredibly tired from the days adventures I needed to crash.

Shots i took around times Square and from and to the airport

This Picture is my favourite for the short time i spent in NYC – please comment