Arriving in Colombia - A Complete Guide to the Cali Airport

Diana and I have made it safely to Colombia. We've actually arrived in the airport in Cali twice--first on our international flight from Miami, and second on a domestic flight from Bogotá as we returned from a quick family trip to the lovely beach city of Cartagena. We took advantage of these two trips to take some notes about what you can expect when you arrive in Cali

Arriving on an International flight

A quick note: neither Diana nor I have entered Colombia from any country except the USA--so there's some chance that those of you connecting through Panama or Guatemala may have a slightly different experience... but in any case, this should be pretty close.

First of all, expect to receive a customs form from your flight attendant while you are still in the air. It should look like this:


Everything should be relatively self explanatory. Note that you'll definitely want the address of the hotel, as this is requested on the form. To remind you, that address is

Hotel Dann Carlton
Carrera 2 No 1-60
Barrio El Peñón
Cali, Colombia
Phone: (57) (2) 8933000

They don't ask for the phone number on the form, but in our experience, they did ask this later--so keep it handy.

Once you exit the plane, you'll be directed towards customs. Cali's airport is pretty small, and the international terminal seems to consist of only one or two gates, so it should be very obvious which way to go. Just in case, you'll want to follow these signs.


You'll note that most people are standing to the right, while a few people walk forward on the left--diplomats, folks with kids aged 3 or younger, and the elderly get to skip the line. We ended up waiting in line about 40 minutes, so you probably want to wear comfortable shoes, and use the restroom on the plane before landing.

Eventually, you should make it up to the front of the line, where you'll need to speak to the immigration officer.


They'll probably ask you a few questions. For us, they asked us both what we do, how long we would stay in Colombia, and where else we would be traveling within Colombia. They will probably look at your customs form, but they will return it to you when you are done; keep it handy, you'll need it in a moment.

After you make it past the immigration officer, walk down the stairs right in front of you (or follow the signs to the elevator--ascensor--if you need that). Once again, there shouldn't really be any confusion here; there's pretty much only one way to go.


At the bottom of the stairs, there will be a single luggage carousel. In all likelihood, by the time you have cleared immigration, your bags will already be out. Collect your bags, and head towards the exit.


There will be people there to help you with your bags, if you want, like the three gentlemen in light blue shirts in that photo (you should probably tip them somewhere in the neighborhood of 5000 pesos--$2.50). You'll hand your customs form to the customs officer (who may not be wearing a uniform), who will also check your bags against the luggage tags / receipts you received when you checked in for your flight at your point of origin. Next, walk through the vaguely-metal-detectorish thing, and out into the main customs area. There will be a few officers there randomly selecting folks for a more thorough search. Statistics are on your side, but even if you get selected, it shouldn't be too painful. The good news is, you are basically out of the airport now! You'll exit now, and will be funneled out into an outdoor patio area where you'll see a big crowd of people waiting to collect their guests and loved ones. Skip down past the "domestic flight" section to see the last bit of info: what you should do once you are outside.

Arriving on a Domestic flight
The Domestic terminal of the Cali airport is slightly larger than the international, but still pretty small. It's also well marked, with signs in English and in Spanish.



Just follow those signs and should be fine. They'll take you right to Baggage Claim.


Baggage Claim is very small--you shouldn't have any problems finding your bag. Once you've got your bag, you should walk outside--they will funnel you through one door. At that door, an airport employee will check your bags against the baggage tags / receipts you received at your point of origin, so be sure to keep those handy.

Once you've cleared that check, you'll be outside of the airport!

Outside of the Airport - Getting to the Hotel

Once you've exited baggage claim (and customs, if you are arriving on an international flight), you'll find yourself outside, in a covered area where passengers meet their friends and loved ones. There should be some fencing that separates the passengers from the waiting crowd, which should also serve to funnel you in one direction.


That photo is taken from just inside of the domestic terminal's Baggage Claim -- you can see the fencing and the crowds towards the background of the photo. The view from the international terminal is pretty much the same.

Step outside, appreciate the lovely weather in Cali (it's currently projected to be about 79 degrees Fahrenheit on the days most of you will arrive), and start looking for us. A note: the ride from the airport to the hotel is about 45 minutes or so (potentially more, if you hit traffic), so you may want to hit the restrooms before leaving.

You should be looking for one of the following:

Diana and I will be picking up some guests directly. By now, you should have a good idea of what we look like.

Diana's brother will be picking up others. Here's a photo:


From left to right, that's Shäiel (Diana's sister, pronounced like "Child" without the d), Lucho (Diana's brother, pronounced "Lewch-o"), Diana, Pipe (Diana's brother, pronounced "Pee-pay"), and Eduardo (Diana's father).

The others will be picked up either by an employee of Diana's father or by a driver we've arranged through the Dann Carlton. In either case, they'll be carrying a sign that says something like "Pomerantz Trujillo Wedding". If possible, we'll post a photo of the sign(s) here soon.

Please keep an eye out an email from us soon telling us who will pick you up. We've been able to arrange transportation for all of you who requested it, with minimum wait times, so we should be pretty much good to go!

With this information, you should be all set--entering Colombia will be a breeze! We can't wait to see you!

More Wedding Info

Much to our amazement, our wedding is now less than three weeks away. Less than three weeks! How does that happen?

We've got some more key pieces of information for you.

Arrival Form
While you are on the airplane to Colombia, you should receive a short form that will be used as you go through customs. It will ask some standard questions--your passport number, if you are carrying very large sums of cash, et cetera. It will also ask you for a local address and phone number. Assuming you are staying with us at the Dann Carlton Hotel, please enter:
      Carrera 2 No 1-60
      Barrio El Peñón
      Cali, Colombia
      Phone: (57) (2) 8933000


Dress Code
We already touched on this a little bit, but for those of you curious for more information, here are our recommendations.

      Welcoming Ceremony (December 28th): please wear summer colors with comfortable shoes. Note that you will likely be walking outside on grass.

      Wedding and Reception (December 29th): Men should wear a suit, with tie recommended. Women should wear a cocktail dress or similar.

Upon Your Arrival
For many of you, we'll be arranging transportation from the airport to the hotel. We will send you each an email confirming that we have arranged a shuttle for you and, hopefully, sending you a photograph of the place where we'll meet you (we head to Colombia on Dec 18th, so look for photos on the 19th or 20th.

For those of you that are arriving at unusual times or that are not going to the Dann Carlton, you should be able to find a ready supply of taxis at the airport.

Money Exchange
Although there will be places to exchange money in Colombia, we recommend that you change money in the US if you have the opportunity. You can look up an approximate exchange rate here; as of December 9, one US dollar is worth about 2000 Colombian pesos.

Also note that the Colombians use the same symbol ($) for Colombian pesos as Americans use for US Dollars. So if you see prices that seem about two thousand times too high, don't panic!

Budgeting Example: Food prices
Just as an example to help you budget for any side expenses:

      Dinner for one in a very fancy restaurant, e.g. where local celebrities would dine: 62,000 pesos (~$30 US)
      Dinner for one in a good restaurant: 30,000 pesos (~$15 US)
      Dinner for one in a fast food restaurant: 15,000 pesos (~$7.50 US)

If you are coming to Colombia for ~four days, you might want to bring something on the order of $150 US (300,000 pesos) -- more if you plan to spend a lot on souvenirs.





More info coming as we have it!

Music Countdown lalalala……We need you inputs!

Hi Guys, I know that you all usually do not hear much from me, and instead you hear from Will! He is the official guests interface and I am the wedding planner. It is a pretty good team :)

This weekend Will is having his bachelor’s party and I am here in LA. So far, I have had 5 hrs long skype wedding conversations with venders in Colombia, learned how to do an awesome banana pudding through skype with my maid of honor (Tiffany Russell) who lives in Huntsville AL, and now I am at one of my bridesmaids house (Andrea ) reading about my Mars Rover Project --Work--after we went for a 2 hrs hike.

Ok! But let’s get back to the point of my post…..Despite the warnings that I got from Will about some of his friendsJ, I am asking for everyone’s help! Will and I have not decided what songs we are play on the reception while the band is on break, soooo I thought that it will be awesome if you guys help us pick. What would you want to hear? It could be a song that you dedicate to both or one of us, or something that you just want to hear to have fun! I will start!

Kiss from Prince--- We need a sing along from Will and his groomsmen with this song! We might have to wait until really late for this to really happen…..some drinks first

Your turn!

Information FROM our Guests

Hello friends!

By now, wedding invitations should have arrived, at least to all of our guests in the US. Given the location, we weren't able to invite everyone we would have liked to--and we also know that traveling to attend our wedding will be a bit demanding. Still, we're hopeful that many of you will be able to join us in Colombia this December, and we are very grateful to those of you who have already completed and returned your RSVP cards.

For those of you who will be joining us, we ask you to please fill out the brief survey we've created to solicit information from our guests. This shouldn't take long (it's only 10 questions), but it will provide us with critical information that lets us help you book a hotel room, arrange for transportation to and from the airport, et cetera.

We've also made some minor updates to the Wedding FAQ we posted a few months ago.

If you have any questions about the survey, or any difficulty with the forms, please feel free to email us!

Buffalo 2009

As most of you already know, I was born in Buffalo, NY. My family and I left our Williamsville home just before my eighth birthday, and I've only been back once or twice since.

This Labor Day weekend, I had a chance to go back--and to bring Diana along. We were invited to attend the wedding of a friend and former colleague in Buffalo, and we were excited for the chance.

It was a short trip, but an eventful one. In addition to the wedding itself, we went to the 2009 Buffalo Wing Festival, Niagara Falls, my childhood home, and the home of a key comfort food from my youth.

Here's our trip in pictures:

Grand Canyon

When we moved out to the West Coast, I was really excited about the opportunity to show Diana some part of the country she'd never really been able to explore. Little did I know that she'd be the one showing me!

As a nice birthday surprise--and thanks again to all of you who sent me birthday greetings--Diana took us on a really fun trip to the Grand Canyon this past weekend. It was a bit of a drive (about 15 hours driving round trip), but absolutely worth it. We had some great conversations in the car, saw some amazing scenery, watched a beautiful sunset, and practiced our photography skills. And now, thanks to the miracle of the internets, we can show those pictures to you!

Video Interlude: Sea Urchin

The weekend before last, Chhay--one of Will's college roommates--paid us a visit here in Los Angeles. He has cousins down in Orange County, and added an extra day on to his trip to come up a see us.

In addition to some of the standard LA activities, we went with Chhay down to the Redondo Beach Pier to meet one of Chhay's cousins along with his wife and daughter. It was our first time there, and we're really glad we went! We had some nice food, enjoyed a fun boat ride, and got to see some sea lions.

There was also a bit of a culinary adventure... captured on Will's cell phone for your viewing enjoyment!