Part 3: Star-studded to LatAm (Cuba to Colombia)

[SQueeze]

And here’s the 3rd installment of the longest journey in my life.

Part 1 (To Sao Paulo on SQ F) can be found here.
Part 2 (To Cuba with Copa J) can be found here
Part 4 (Long way home from MEX via GRU) can be found here

This report is mainly about a rather circuitous route from Havana to Bogota via Lima and then to Mexico City. For those who are not from South America, this is akin to travelling from Shanghai to Hanoi via Singapore and then to Seoul. There is massive backtracking. My ticket was issued at a great-value price of USD600 approximately (all sectors in business class). On expertflyer, this was listed as a one-way fare from Havana to Mexico City that allowed a routing via Lima and Bogota and a multi-day stopover in Bogota. An error fare?



We spent a couple of days in Cuba and there is indeed nowhere else on the planet that is like it. Like in its tourism promotional slogan, Cuba is authentic (Autentica Cuba).

Please enjoy a few more photos of this charming place. To me, it is like a movie-set. It won’t fit to our usual day-to-day world.









And roads are wide and clean but there isn’t much traffic anywhere.





The old city (Habana Vieja) is pretty much well restored and is a colonial masterpiece. It has plenty of charming side lanes.







This is behind the Capitolio (US-Capitol-look-alike). It’s a surreal scene to me. How can a locomotive land up here?

[SQueeze]

And commerce in this country is still very nascent. Most shops have no goods and even if they have, there is a very limited range of products. A soap is a soap, it will not have any brands for consumers to choose from.





And shops or vendors have no names either



A few more scenes from around the city:





After a couple of days in Autentica Cuba, it was time to leave and what a relief to my partner. We have not had any internet connection for these couple few days and he was craving for a re-connection with the outside world.

[SQueeze]

Route: HAV-LIM
Flight: TA 959
Aircraft: A319
STD/ATD: 1517
STA/ATA: 2040
Duration: 5 hours 23 minutes
Seat: 3K
Load: 12/12

We would be taking an afternoon flight to Bogota via Lima. On that day, there was also a direct HAV-BOG flight which would depart around the same time and which would reach Bogota in 2.5 hours but as seasoned flyertalker and sqtalker, we would rather take the long way round in order to earn more miles. ☺

We arrived at Jose Marti airport’s Terminal 3 2 hours before the flight. It didn’t appear too busy that afternoon.



But oh… we were so wrong. Inside the terminal building, there were long queues of doctors. Yup, Cuba exports a lot of doctors to other parts of South America. For this afternoon, a planeload will depart for Manaus in the Brazilian Amazon.



But queues were organized quite well. And as business class passengers, we had dedicated lane that had no queues. Check in was a breeze and two boarding passes for each of us were issued with no questions raised about our circuitous route.



We were 2 hours early and we had time to explore the terminal. It is a smallish terminal building roughly the size of Singapore’s previous budget terminal. But it has better finish. This is also just 1 of the 4 terminals at this airport.



Model of HAV’s Terminal 3. Only the centre portion in white is built as of today.



Only basic shops selling snacks and souvenirs are present. And except for 2, all were closed. Commerce and making money are not priorities in Cuban life.





Lighting is also quite poor in parts.



Coin phones are still very well used! And by doctors who should relatively have better pay. Such is the extent of the limited availability of technology in this country.



We were quite hungry and looked for the lounge. Earlier, the check-in agent directed us upstairs but the lounge was apparently closed for renovation. She should have known better. Or may be our English was not understood.



There is only a spartan cafeteria at this level. But as in most of Cuba, food didn’t look appetising.



So we just proceeded to passport control and security. I noticed a lot of Brazilians and Argentinians were in the queue. Looks like there is strong healthy traffic between Cuba and deep South America.

[SQueeze]

Past security, we passed by a lounge. We entered but the attendant said that the lounge is not for Avianca’s passengers. Ok … but this seems to be the only lounge operational in the building.



Fine … we gave up looking for the lounge and settled down in the waiting hall. The waiting hall is bright with lots of daylight, much better than the interior of the windowless lounge. At its centre is a small café selling food and drinks which was busy.



I finished my last few Cuban pesos for a local Cola. Quite bland.



And then I walked around to plane-spot.

Our plane was early and was already parked at the gate. It was an Avianca flight with TA code and the livery was still the old TACA livery and to make it even more confusing, my booking said that Trans America Airlines operated the flight.



Initially I didn’t know what airline this was. It’s Cubana with black livery heading to Caracas carrying a lot of doctors.



And finally I got to see real Russian-built airliners.



Face to face with the huge IL96-300 with 4 engines. This was the flight heading to the Amazon. An Antonov was in the background. I so much prefer this Cubana livery than the black one. The red and blue has so much revolutionary ardour!



Walking around the terminal and I found clocks of different time zones. I wonder why Harare’s has to be shown here.



Not too many flights on FIDS – mostly intra South America except for Paris and Moscow.



Boarding was through Gate B14 and was on time.



View up the aerobridge. Adios Cuba.

[SQueeze]

The plane was a TACA A319. Business Class seats are in leather, and as are Economy Class seats. One can see there is actually not too much difference between the two in this pic! Recline for Business Class is also very poor. There is no legrest or footrest either. The hardware is quite disappointing.



1980s style IFE.



Headsets and blankets were distributed. Since TACA had merged into Avianca, this was technically Avianca’s flight with Avianca’s colours. I really like the deep red that is their corporate colour.



The flight was full in both J and Y and we taxied on schedule. 2 Copa planes were docked at the terminal. Copa is very strong in Cuba with 5 daily flights. The other plane to the left was a Cubana in white livery. IMO, Cubana has too many variations in their livery designs. They should just stick with the strips of red and blue.



Of course in Cuba one encounters Russian-built airliners. Cubana’s IL62 to the left. And not too sure what is the one to the right. May be a DC10?



These are Cubana’s more modern Airbus fleet.



Aerocarribean’s fleet. One real vintage there to the left. Sorry for the quality of the image. I had to zoom way too far with my iPhone. I should have used my long SLR zoom.



Take off was nothing unusual and soon after, post-take off drinks (sparkling wine) and nuts (with raisins) were distributed.



A peek through the curtains to Y Class. It was really full. Avianca is doing well. And typical of South American friendliness, someone waved at me... haha



Avianca’s Inflight Magazine. Surprisingly very little English.



And their J and Y seats of their main fleet (non-TACA). Avianca definitely has better hardware than TACA. We flew with Avianca Brazil from Rio Santos Dumont to Sao Paulo Congonhas 2 years ago and the Y seat was indeed like what is shown here.

[SQueeze]

North American network mainly served from San Salvador and Bogota. They also fly to Madrid from Bogota, Cali, and Medellin and to Barcelona from Bogota.



Central American network mainly served from San Salvador and Bogota



South American network mainly served from Bogota and Lima with Avianca Brazil hubbed at Brasilia.



Domestic network in Colombia and Peru and regional routes.



IFE was non-AVOD drop-down screen. I was hooked to the show (The Emperor) despite the small screen. It made me pass the 5 plus hours quickly.



I don’t recall if there was any menu card. I think it was just a question by the FA if we would like to have either A or B.

I had this for dinner. It was not awful but not that memorable either and now I can’t recall if this was chicken or turkey. I think it was turkey. Anyway, I like the design detail of the napkin holder.



And my partner had pasta. Again, it was not awful but not memorable either. But both dishes were better than Copa’s meals a few days before.



And then the dessert. And yay, it was served on plates. I know I keep harping on SQ for serving desserts on bowls, but they should learn from all these other airlines on how to present meals impressively in premium classes. Accompanying the dessert was Bailey’s Irish Cream.



And then it was lights off and the rest of the flight was uneventful. Our route traced back the inbound flight over PTY and then along the South American Coast. An hour before landing in LIM, packets of nuts with raisins were distributed. These were the same ones served post-takeoff, just not served nicely on small plates.

[SQueeze]

Route: LIM-BOG
Flight: TA 130
Aircraft: A320
STD/ATD: 2145
STA/ATA: 0036
Duration: 2 hours 51 minutes
Seat: 1K
Load: 12/12

We landed at Lima Jorge Callao Airport on schedule together with the evening bank of arrivals from North and Central America. Transfers are quite easy at this airport. Security queue, although long, passed quickly.



And then checked out the lounge although we just had 1 hour for connection. For Avianca, we had to collect another lounge pass just post-security. Just boarding pass wouldn’t do. So we had to go up and down. I was not hungry, so just had a cake and since I was curious – coca leaf tea. The lounge was better than Copa’s lounge in PTY but was rather too crowded.



We didn’t have much time so had to walk to our gate not long after. LIM is quite newish and clean. It is easy to navigate as well with a very simple layout. I like it much better than PTY.



FIDS showing mostly redeye flights to deep South America. It looks to me that they cluster all the Aviancas and the LANs together.





The gate was full. It was another full flight in J and Y. I notice that all the South and Central American flights so far are doing really well despite high prices in the absence of any LCC in the region.



We were slightly delayed tonight. The plane flying us tonight was an A320. We got the bulkhead seat. Just like in the previous sector, there is no footrest or legrest either but at least there is a recess near the feet with sloping surface so one can stretch better. Overall, the hardware is just as disappointing.



View upon take off: Lima at night.



It was a rather late evening flight. So these were late dinners. I had raviolis stuffed with cheese which were quite yummy.



For my partner, it was a rather plain grilled chicken breast. My raviolis were certainly better. Anyway, I thought overall quality of food is better with Avianca/TACA than with Copa.



Meal ended with dessert of panna cotta, served on a plate, yes!



The rest of the flight was uneventful. I dozed off and didn’t take any pictures upon landing.

[SQueeze]

Bogota’s airport terminal is still new. It’s pretty much like a European airport, modern and sleek. There are not many flights arriving at nearly 1am except for our flight from Lima and a UA flight from IAH.



Baggage was not that quick but was not as bad as in Havana for sure.



We then took a taxi to our serviced apartment. We used the authorized taxi queue but that didn’t prevent us from getting overcharged. First, up to now, I still haven’t figured out where the meter was and I couldn’t make the driver understand at all. In the end, we paid almost 50-60% more than what the fare was supposed to be. Lesson learnt, next time, better make it clear before boarding. Anyway, it was too late at night as well and we were not very alert.

The serviced apartment block (Jazz Apartments) is located in the leafy northern suburbs of Bogota. It’s very well furnished and the room is of generous size as well. There is a small kitchen but no pots and pans to cook.





Since it was so late at night, we went straight to sleep. Do not molest? Haha



The northern suburbs of Bogota are very pleasant and safe. For some curious reasons, most buildings are constructed out of bricks.







View from our room. The hills are never too far away and provide orientation. They indicate east.



It is safe to walk around on the streets and parks.

[SQueeze]

Bogota has a perfect climate with year round temperatures of 8 degrees in the mornings and 20 degrees during the day. There is a thriving food scene and most restaurants have amazing outdoor spaces.





There is an amazing range of exotic fruits: mora, lulo, etc. I didn’t drink soda or wine while here. Fruit juices are so so so much more interesting.







Fruits also get to main courses. Prawns with starfruit.



And fish with bananas (yes, sweet bananas, not plantains).



Arepas is staple.



Grilled cheese wrapped in banana leaf.



And nobody treated us like tourists or pestered us for our tourist dollars here. We really like Bogota.

To be continued (more of Bogota and then the long trek home via Mexico City and Sao Paulo).

[Dickson]

Fantastic trip report!!! Makes me want to visit Cuba & Bogota!!!

[CarbonMan]

You have a great eye for photography, SQueeze! But I'm not so sure about the choice of colours for your pants.

[SQueeze]

You have a great eye for photography, SQueeze! But I'm not so sure about the choice of colours for your pants.

LOL

But 2013 was the year of coloured pants! Lucky i didnt wear my red or you would have flipped off the chair. Hahaha.

Anyway, am in the business where if i appear different than most people is considered acceptable even convincing.

And you haven't seen the jacket which I match with these pants (got small polka dots).

[yflyer]

Fantastic pictures and TR, SQueeze! If Cuba ever opens up to the mainstream tourism industry (for better or worse), there will be loads of visitors eager to experience something so out of the ordinary.

[SQueeze]

Fantastic pictures and TR, SQueeze! If Cuba ever opens up to the mainstream tourism industry (for better or worse), there will be loads of visitors eager to experience something so out of the ordinary.

Hi yflyer,

It's pretty much mainstream for Canadians, British, and French. In fact, I thought the place is rather touristy, more touristy than any other places I have visited in Latin America excepting Cancun or Rio.

Entry formalities are very straightforward.
Flying in from Canada, tourist card is included in the ticket price and distributed onboard.

Flying in from Latin American hubs, tourist cards can be purchased at check-in.

May be only from Europe then one needs to contact the Cuban embassy in advance.

Anyway, it's changing pretty fast. Modern Buses from China, new taxis from Korea are making inroads. Private Restaurants are setting up everywhere although now only tourists can afford. It will not look the same in 5 years.