Hi! I am back again. I have finally reached the concluding chapter of Cartagena’s trip. The Cartagena trip has been a fruitful one even though it was just a short working-cum-holiday stay. It was my first solo adventure traveling abroad, and it was also my first long-distance travel visiting the other part of the world.
(Image download from Unsplash. The photo was taken by Vladimir Fedotov)
Since young, I have loved to watch the global Miss World competition played on television. I admired the natural beauty of each contestant has, how they performed, and the insights that they have shown when they were given a difficult question to answer. Since then, I have a dream that to visit South America one day (I admit that I am a dreamer and a person with a high curiosity level, I like to adventure new and interesting things that capture my attention), the land that produced many Miss World winners, to mention a few: Venezuela, Argentina, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and others. My dream came true as I had the opportunity to visit Colombia and had a personal experience to witness and to enjoy their local culture, food, architecture and above all be able to meet with a true Latin American (indeed, the majority of them were pretty and handsome!)
In my first article Cartagena, Colombia: Part 1, I have mentioned the many unpleasant doubts and anxieties about traveling alone, furthermore to a far distant country. After taking a few preparatory measures (I agree with what being written by @Eylz2021 in her article about: Things to remember when you are traveling alone), equipped with some useful traveling tips, I embarked on my first solo journey with prayers and with the assurance of HIS presence.
My Cartagena’s challenge started two days after the Avianca plane landed safely on Cartagena’s soil. The world was put on an alert phase when Panama has confirmed with 1 positive Influenza A (H1N1) case (source from research article archived from PubMed search engine). According to reports derived from the WHO archive, the 2009 Swine Flu pandemic was originated from animal influenza viruses and the mode of transmission was when a healthy person exposes by inhaling to infected droplets that expelled by coughing or sneezing, or exposure by contaminated hands or surfaces. WHO reported that the new 2009 Influenza virus has caused a significant illness, hospitalization, and the virus also has caused the death toll rise to an average of 150,000 to 575,000 people globally?
(Image download from Unsplash)
Colombia, as one of the neighboring countries, was put on high-security alert for this aggressive virus, each day we the congress delegates were being brief with the latest updates of the H1N1 outbreak. On the final day of the congress, the local national broadcast station announcing that Colombia was having the first suspected H1N1 case, 2 days after the first confirmed case was reported in Panama. On hearing that, many of the international delegates took their chance to pack and travel back home immediately after the congress ended. I have to decide on the impending critical situation, being alone in a foreign country and knowing the news of the fast spread virus has already declared his presence in Colombia. I am too, panicked and called up my home country travel agent regarding the issue, sadly she said that it will cause me more money to buy a new ticket off Cartagena as my scheduled flight was already confirmed for the next day. What came to my mind at that time was to kneel down and humbly pray and ask for HIS divine intervention to keep me safe until I reached my next stop, the metropolitan city of Paris. The next morning after breakfast, I took a taxi and headed to the airport for my next flight to Bogota.
Upon arriving at the airport, I noticed the airport was packed with travelers. Maybe they are the same congress delegates like me who are trying to catch the next early flight home or maybe they are the existing tourist who is also trying their luck to get out from the affected region. After checking in my luggage, I went into the airport washroom to answer my nature’s call before proceeds to the boarding hall. Inside the washroom, I found out there was a long line of travelers who are waiting in their queue.
I walked out of the washroom after completed what I have to do, and while walking towards the boarding hall, there was a soft voice-prompted inside my ear saying that “Hey! You have left something behind inside the washroom”. My answer was “No!” but suddenly, I discovered that the file that I kept for my boarding pass was not with me. My immediate response was to run back as quickly as I can to the same washroom and tried to locate back my file.
(Image download from Unsplash)
When I reached the washroom’s door, the first scene that I saw was there was a “sexy” lady who placed her right foot over the lower bar of the washroom’s tabletop while putting on her lipstick, and to my relief, I noticed my file was resting safely in front of her against the washroom’s mirror. I grab the file as fast as I could and run out of the room. On my way walking towards the boarding hall, in my heart, I gave thanks to HIM for HIS soft-prompting voice and sending the mysterious lady to safeguard my boarding pass while in my absence. If it is not because of that wonderful lady which I called “the human angel”, I might have been stranded in Colombia.
(Image was taken from Google Scholar)
After enjoying another short stop-over adventure trip in Paris, the Air France plane that carried me onboard flew off Charles de Gorge’s runaway and landed safely at Changi’s Airport on the 3rd of May. In concluding my whole Cartagena trip, I thanked HIM again and again for the blessed trip, for HIS presence, and protection. France Health Minister announced that two cases of H1N1 Influenza Flu have been detected in France on the 1st of May and the Colombia government has its first confirmed H1N1 case on the 3rd of May. So, do you think all that happened because of coincidence, or it is indeed a miracle?
I hope my fellow readers are being blessed after reading through all the three articles on my Cartagena adventure trip, dont's forget to hit that like and subscribe button if you have enjoyed reading my stories. Yes! As a new member in Read.Cash and for a beginner like me in this platform, I wish to thank @heartbeat1515, @MizLhaine, and @Eylz2021 for their encouragement by giving me an upvote reward. Not forgetting to my three anonymous subscribers.
So, stay tuned. I will continue to share more about my adventure stories and things that I have learned in my coming traveling series.
My next tentative traveling series will be Paris, the city of romance: Part 1.
wooow