Colombia

Team pic at breakfast, the restaurant was open air and had great views of the city.

Travel day went well yesterday, we were given hotel rooms during our 6 hour layover in Bogota and they saved the day. We had 2.5 hours to shower, sleep and eat. The food was amazing, we were staying at a Sheraton and the hotel restaurant was a 10 with the currency exchange the food was a steal at 15$. All of this was possible because of Ann Marie and Marcel who stayed at the airport with all of our team bags. Trying to fit all of our luggage into a shuttle would have been close to impossible so they sacrificed for us, they are amazing!!

The flight from Bogota to Neiva was on a smaller prop plane the "fokker 500". When checking in every single person was over the 23 kilo limit. We would have been okay if it was 23 kilo per bag but that was the total given for your personal bag and the team bag. There was a brief discussion on which bags would be left behind if the plane was too heavy, thankfully they found a way to cram all of our bags onto the plane.

Upon arrival we were greeted by our policemen. Thats right we have personal police/body guards that stay with our team throughout the tourny. They guided us outside where about 20 school aged kids took all of our bags and loaded them onto the bus. All the while a local band was playing music. On the bus we each received a little sombrero pin as a welcoming gift. Felt a little like royalty, first impressions of Neiva are outstanding!

It was a quick drive to the hotel with the police escort clearing the roads for us. We stayed in the first hotel for one night and are about to leave to check in to the tournament hotel in the next half hour. Practice and treatments later today. So excited to be here!