El Salvador

Colin, with whom I spent a significant amount of time in Bolivia and Chile, was in Guatemala for a while, and after some chat and researching flight routes to Central America, I decided to take a short break from my South American journey heading north for a two-week stay in El Salvador and Guatemala. For a flight price of just under 100 Euros for the route Quito – Bogota – San Jose and after a one-night stay before continuing to San Salvador, one doesn't have to think twice about it, and I chose this stop in Costa Rica to watch the cup semifinals of Alajuelense against their rival from Herediano (2 of the major clubs from Costa Rica) and then fly peacefully on to El Salvador the next day. At least theoretically.

So, the night before in Quito, I bought a backpack in carry-on size for 25 USD (I didn't want to carry my large backpack, and the daypack I bought in Santiago was unfortunately too small), I deposited the larger backpack for free at the Viajero Hostel (top service!!), purchased my ticket, and had an Uber drive me to the airport outside Quito early in the morning. My Uber driver's wild maneuvering that resulted in him tearing up the entire back, including the bumper, is merely a side note on the way there. I remained polite toward the driver and acted as if I noticed nothing – haha!

Departure was scheduled for 9:15 AM, and when I arrived at the gate 30 minutes early, I noticed that the flight had been postponed to 10:30 AM. With a flight duration of 1.5 hours and a connecting flight at 1:35 PM from Bogota, I still had enough buffer time. Besides, both flights were booked through Avianca as a connection, and thus the airline has to take care of the onward flight in the worst case. The game was in the evening at 9:00 PM, and I essentially had all the time in the world.

However, as nothing was happening around 11:00 AM and the iron bird for the onward flight was not even ready, I slowly started to get a little nervous about whether my plan would work. After another three-quarters of an hour of waiting, we finally took off. However, my buffer time in Bogota had now shrunk to under 30 minutes, and during the flight, I asked the flight attendants if it was possible to leave the plane first due to the extremely tight connection. The very friendly ladies helped me right away, seated me in one of the available spots in the front rows, retrieved my backpack for me, and told me to come straight forward after docking at the terminal so I could leave the plane immediately. Well said - done, and I left the aircraft immediately after the door opened. I briefly thanked the ladies and ran off – just 15 minutes left until departure. Of course, the departure gate was at the opposite end of the not exactly small airport in Bogota. So I sprinted across the entire site, chatted past the line for the security check, and arrived sweaty at the departure gate, where there was exactly one person left at the entrance for the onward flight to San Jose. Perfect timing – or so I thought. I briefly held my ticket under the lady's nose and was immediately met with a