After the advice about the connection at Bogota, and the warnings about the possibility of weather disruption, I have amended my itinerary somewhat. Basically, it follows a similar routing, but I now leave Miami for CCS in the morning, with a 4 hour layover in CCS before connecting with AV to BOG. By overnighting in BOG, I can be sure to catch the COPA flight the next day to Panama.

26/MAY/00
VH501 MIA/CCS 1150/1500
AV81 CCS/BOG 1925/2015

27/MAY/00
CM100 BOG/PTY 0820/0940
LR652 PTY/SJO 1605/1615
TA560 SJO/SAL 1650/1809
GU960 SAL/GUA 1825/1910

28/MAY/00
GU961 GUA/SAL 0725/0810
TA515 SAL/MGA 0831/0920
TA515 MGA/MIA 0955/1425

Although the 'legal' connection in SAL to the Aviateca flight to GUA is admittedly tight, at least if I do miss it, there is a Taca flight 30 mins later, and I have another Aviateca flight the following morning which will net me my miles as a contingency. Also, there is a later Lacsa flight from MGA to MIA if it all hits the fan on the last day, and I miss my TA flight.

I intend to return on June 28th to do the relatively simple BOG - UIO - LIM - CUZ flights on Aces, (Saeta) and Taca Int'l. Hopefully I'll be a "Mile-ionnaire" like Pudding Guy yet!

I'm not at all keen to be staying in BOG - but there is not really any option if I want to avoid tight daytime connections there.

Total cost is around £900 not including hotels (around $1430!)

If I am missing something really obvious here - please let me know! Otherwise I hope to see some of you around on my travels!

Samuel



[This message has been edited by SamuelS (edited 04-15-2000).]