The Commute: I left off in Sao Paulo, Brazil after three 737 flights down the eastern coast. Now I was off to Colombia...Cartagena to be specific. I had heard that some others were visiting Brad in Arequipa or Alejandro in Valencia but you know what they say, "no rest for the boss." Having flown down to Brazil in a repaint designed by my son, I was planning on flying out of Brazil in a repaint designed by my daughter. I loaded a 3,400-mile route up to Colombia and figured I could make that (just barely) in the Gulfstream-V. I departed under foggy (again) skies just before dawn and then sat back at FL370 while unpacking the vacation bags.
Actually, as the story goes, I spent the flight thinking about a review I did last year on FS.com for the payware add-on called "Colombia Extreme Professional 2007"
( http://www.flightsim.com/cgi/kds?$=main/review/colombia.htm ).
First, I was thrilled to get to fly with this great add-on again - the terrain is such a huge improvement even over FSX, and this FOTM will certainly prove that. Also, because of the great scenery I hoped to shoot a lot of video during this FOTM. As I cruised along I reviewed Luis' notes and saw that I had managed to find all but one of these airports already during my review, but still, this felt like a new challenge. And one final thought ... his directions were very clear and I was curious to try this with NO FLIGHTPLAN loaded meaning, once again, NO GPS. In my mind I was setting up my aircraft for this FOTM - Starting with a Dash-8 Q400 and then into a custom-painted Fokker F-27. Once again I was sucked in by the feature flight and felt like I couldn't arrive to Cartagena fast enough - Heck, I was doing MACH 0.82!
I arrived into Cartagena under clearing skies in the mid-morning - as they say, "I was raring to go!" Just for review, before I get too far into my story...while flying the review for this scenery I found that my framerates took a huge hit near the airports. This was too bad since all of my flying is either to or from an airport. So I have installed the mesh but kept the drab, default airports. Now back to our story.
The FOTM - Leg 1: I took a cab into town, found a beach-front market and bought lunch - savoring the fruity drink under an umbrella. Before Bill's thoughts run wild I must tell you that it was only 67*F at this point, I was wearing a jacket and the beach was empty! I returned to the airport and performed the final checks on the Viking Air Dash-8Q400. Luis had mentioned invaders and plunderers in Colombia's past and although the Vikings probably did not make it this far south I thought the THEME sorta fit. Light rain started during walk-arounds and I taxied out to runway 1 for a departure into dripping skies. 
The first part of this flight is across the coastal planes, the add-on adds trees, texture, rivers and much more. At one point I could see the Pacific off to my right (evidenced on my video at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnZx2BoZuT4 ) but soon enough the foothills started building into one of the great mountain ranges in the world. I should put in a little comment here about the weather - I was in and out of little waves of cloud, rain and light turbulence the whole way but the directions were pretty clear (and I flew into here during my add-on review) so I found the canyon into Medellin with no difficulties. I came down the left side, setting up a right-hand turn to base and another right-hander onto finals. We floated down for a smooth landing... and yes I had to open up the spoilers early.
I spent about 18 hours here in this historic and beautiful city nestled in the Andes before moving on to Bogota. The weather seemed a bit clearer today - colder but clearer and this leg of the flight had no lack of scenic beauty as you can see: The Landing and Taxi in Bogota were really nothing to write home about other than I did stay quite high on my approach over the city. With light winds from the northwest I flew to the south of the airport and came in over the eastern part of the city, staying well high until finals onto 31R. I should note here that I'm not sure what mesh I've added since I did this product review but I noticed holes or craters in the earth that weren't here last time! At any rate I taxied to the gate, shut down and headed off for my 40 hours in town with Luis and his wife.
The FOTM - Leg 2: After nearly two full days in Bogota I climbed up into the stale old smell of a freshly-painted Fokker 27. I had no difficulties getting out of Bogota and followed the VORs and NDBs carefully south and then westward into Cali where again I had to fly past the airport and circle back to land. Here is the photo-summary of this flight: Really the only notes about this leg was to write in the book, "TURBULENCE"
From Pesto I took a 700-mile, zig-zagging route back up the Andes mountains, flying over, through and around the rugged peaks, stopping off one time along the coast for food and gas before making my way back to Bogota. 
