Well, we made it back. A 15 hour red-eye, that starts at 1am, is never going to be a positive experience, but this one was especially hard. The first challenge was where to go BEFORE the flight. We were super lucky in that our AirBnB host let us stay at the place for the day, but we couldn’t stay all night. I agreed to leave by 7pm, and which point I was hoping to take them to an indoor play place until 9pm. Except the indoor play place was closed (google maps didn’t know this) and so, with nowhere else to go with them at 7:15, we just went to the airport. It really sucks when you start a 15 hour journey with 5 hours in the airport, just because you have no where else to go.
Our first flight was okay. I told the kids they didn’t have to sleep, because last time the waking up part was brutal and I kind of wanted to avoid it. But of course my son passed out in the last hour, so no dice on avoiding a “it’s time to wake-up” melt-down.
The line for passport control was long, and arduous. They both were so tired and just wanted to sleep, but they had to keep standing up and shifting slowly forward.
It took a while for our bag to come off the conveyor and then to pass through customs. Then there was security, again. By the time we got back up to terminal we were wiped. But the gate wasn’t posted so we went to the wing I’ve always flown out of, except when the gate did post, we were in the other wing. All that walking was not well received.
Once we got some food and sat down, I told the kids we needed to go to the bathroom. Both my kids can hold it; they do not love going to the bathroom and avoid it at all costs. This is actually kind of great when we are traveling, because we never have to worry about a sudden need to find a toilet. But it’s a bitch to have to remember when they last went, and urge them to go again when it’s been a while.
Of course, my son passed out while my daughter was still eating. Then she passed out. Then it was time to board. I waited a while, until most of the zones had gone through before waking them up. My daughter was so asleep it took me a full two minutes to get her to open her eyes. Even then, she was more like a zombie than a person. I kept looking back to find her shuffling in the wrong direction. At this point I was wearing two backpacks on my back (I elongated the straps of one to fit it over the other) and carrying my 45lb son, all while keeping our passports, boarding passes and customs slips accessible.
For some reason we got flagged for additional security questions by the woman who took our boarding passes. Then we had to wait for the other woman to be ready to talk to us. All this while carrying two heavy backpacks AND my son. Finally, she starts asking my weird questions. Right as I’m assuring her that no, we did not get our electronic devices worked on while we were in Colombia, my son who is still deeply asleep, starts peeing all over me.
“Oh shit, he is peeing!” I yelled, as I glanced down at the ever growing puddling at my feet. The woman just kept asking me questions. I was incredulous, and answered each on with a scowl and a glare and as few words as possible (this is when I switched to English because WTAF!?)
Of course there was a long line on the boarding ramp, so we waited and then darted to the side by the plane to change my son’s clothes. Unfortunately I did not have clothes for myself, so I had to board with a shirt soaked in pee (luckily my pants were only a little damp at the top).
Once we were in our seats, I took of my shirt and made a kind of tunic out of an airline blanket and some hair ties. I let my shirt hang from the seat pocket to dry and put it back on a few hour later. It smelled so bad, but what else could I do?
The only saving grace was that the back of the plane, where we were seated, wasn’t entirely full, so I was able to move to the other side of our aisle, and give my son two seats to lie down. He slept for three hours on that flight, and I’m so thankful for that.
Luckily when they both woke up they were feeling better. I never did sleep on either flight, so by the time we landed I had been up for 32 hours. By the time my husband got home last night to help put the kids to bed, I had been up 38 hours and was pretty much delirious. I passed out at 7pm and didn’t wake up again until my son called for me at 6:15am the next morning.
So yeah, the whole overnight flight thing sucked. Again. I wish there were more options when flying to South America, maybe when I can spend more money on tickets…
Some other things that sucked on our trip:
– Waiting for two hours to clear passport control in Bogotá. (Thank you man who pulled us out of the line at this point and ushered us through!)
– Trying for one hour to get our bags back. (Please stop asking me why I came up here to get my bags, like I’m some kind of idiot for doing so, when THREE employees downstairs told me that is what I should do!)
– Milk bag that spilled all over the fridge at our AirBnB. WHY KEEP MILK IN BAGS ANYWAY!?!?! (It took me over an hour to clean it up, I had to take out every shelf and every drawer, wash them, dry them, and put them back in.)
– Spending 8 hours in airport for a one hour flight because our flight was cancelled and no one contacted us. (Never fly Viva Air. Ever.)
– My flip flops breaking in Tayrona. (This sucked because I loved those flip flops, walking back without them was hard and painful, and wearing my Vans the rest of the time was no fun at all.)
– Seeing the giant flying cockroach in our Tayrona cabin bathroom and not being able to sleep for the rest of the night because I was terrified it was going to come into my room and land on my face. (I have, what approaches a phobia of flying bugs, especially the really big terrifying ones that I’m pretty sure were alive in the time of the dinosaurs.)
– Paying $40 to get boarding passes printed by asshole airline. (Seriously, NEVER FLY VIVA AIR.)
– That time we were all hangry and tired trying to find McDonalds. (Because, honestly, McDonalds IS NOT WORTH THIS SHIT.)
– Using my son’s diaper when my daughter had a meltdown about leaving the house again and I couldn’t go out to buy pads. (Yep, I did that.)
– Hiking on shady mountain road in Parque Arví. (The people in Colombia drive like maniacs and that road was windy and the shoulder was non-existent AND sided with barbwire.)
What has sucked on your past vacation?
Oh sorry for all the suckage.
My kids are the opposite—cannot hold it and are not dry at nite. Our flight home from Europe was not a red eye but the last leg was “nite” Europe time. I was very ill, and neglected to give my daughter a pull-up (we had some on the plane with us) as “nite” approached. She fell asleep and peed the seat. I also neglected to pack extra pants on this flight even tho I do it literally every time. So we had to have her sit on one airline blanket, cover her lap with another, and try to dry out her pants the rest of the flight. Which was packed with no extra seats for lying down or moving to. So, major suckage.
Ugh. That does suck. Interestingly, my son also doesn’t stay dry at night. At least not most nights. And when he goes, man does he go. We need to use a night pull-up WITH an insert at this point, or he wakes up wet when he pees. He’ll go for about a week (sometimes two!) of staying dry at night, and then he goes back to peeing almost every night again. Once he turns five I may start for real trying to train him on the night peeing thing, but I don’t know if I have it in me…
Seems it’s more physiological—my kids literally don’t wake up—so we’re just riding it out. My DH wet the bed til he was 10 so it’s likely genetic (hopefully the kids will be dry before then…we’ve had a few days here and there but not a long stretch). I’m wary of psychological issues related to potty training…so I’m laissez faire on this
Yeah, I get that. I just hate the idea of using pull-ups (and inserts) for a lot longer. First of all they are expensive, especially with the inserts, but also for the waste it creates. Diapers are so bad for the world – I wish I could avoid using them indefinitely like this.
My son, same age, is exactly the same. Will be dry at night for a few days and then boom, we every night for a week. And I feel like he holds in his pee all day. Maybe this is why he isn’t dry at night?!?!
We’ve seen a urologist for my son since he can’t stay dry at night either. He said we have to set a timer and have him go every two hours during the day because holding it all day long is making his bladder nonresponsive to being full. Like it dulls the messages sent to the brain that it is full which allows them to wake up if they need to pee.
We had planned a staycation. Our last night of work we had a household accident that involved both of us being rushed to the ER by ambulance. I ended up with stitches in the hallway of the ER with no anesthetic and my husband ended up with a broken arm that required surgery,
Ohhh. That is horrible. I’m so sorry. I yet to experience a vacation (or staycation for that matter) being cancelled because of sickness or injury. I am very fortunate, I know. I hope you were able to re-schedule that staycation!
Congratulations on getting back safely! Sorry to hear about all the horribleness 🙁 you did great, I would have probably cried at some point. I HATE standing in lines, especially with kids.
OMG! I can’t believe you were in Colombia! We were in the US on those dates anyway; I imagine we just missed each other. I have not been reading blogs at all… bad me. On the plus side I have a lot of backstory to catch up on. 🙂
We had drama leaving Bogotá on this last trip, but I have NEVER heard of something as arduous as this!!! Usually it was so fast going in and out. Wow. So sorry you had to deal with this!