JohnnyColombia

Yay trip report! OK a couple of new airport codes to learn. VVC is Villavicencio Vanguardia and LMC is La Macarena airport. Both airports are located in Colombia's vast plains.

Why would you go to La Macarena? Well it is home to the world's most beautiful river (Caño Cristales) Apart from that you probably wouldn't go, La Macarena village is also considered to be in the "Red Zone," i.e. somwhere which is still a little bit of a guerilla stronghold.

There is only one scheduled flight to La Macarena each week, it is with Colombia's Satena and arrives and departs on a Sunday. If you want to go say for a cheeky weekend, well that's where the fun begins because you have to charter an aeroplane. In this case, a DC3

The photo trip report bit...

The aeroplane

OK this is our shiny bird, HK3037 operated by Aerolineas Llaneras. Surprisingly not part of any major alliance, in fact it doesn't even have an FF programme.



Boarding at the rear via the built in step



One last check under the wing and then it's time to go



Cabin comfort

Uncool! The 11 abreast sideways configuration meant that there were an unprecedented 9 middle seats. On the upside everyone got a window seat and there was bags of space left for a motorbike and some cardboard boxes.



In Flight Entertainment - Also not great, there was only 1 newspaper to go around between 13 people and the captain had first dibs on it.



Obligatory legroom shot - See plenty of space to stretch ones legs before kicking the motorbike over



Snack service - This is the FA handing out crackers, a juice box and chewing gum. So about the same as a LAN domestic flight



Arrival in La Macarena

The baggage handlers turned up on time



And quickly set about the orderly emptying of luggage and freight



To celebrate a successful landing, some members of the group were invited to do a little dance on the wing with the first officer



But wait, no time for dancing, the luggage has arrived at the carousel.

Guernseybound

Brilliant - funniest report I've seen in a long time.

carvalh2

Brilliant report! Awesome pictures. I would love to see pictures of the return!

bqkali

Thanks for sharing!

JoelA

Fantastic!

Flubber2012

Now this is a TR without Champagne and caviar that is worth reading.

Great TR!

That DC3 is a beauty!

JohnnyColombia

The return was less photogenic as the group got ferried back to Villavicencio in a small convoy of Cessnas through a Colombian storm.

I didn't add photos of the destination yet though so here is that multicoloured river

LH738

Fantastic!

Circumknowitall

Absolutely excellent TR and pictures! Thank you for sharing.

This video shows some more Colombian DC3s

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/...305049621.html

pvdecastro

Absolutely brilliant TR !!! Thanks a lot !!!

HMPS

A REAL TREAT......lot more interesting than those pics of lie flat beds, lounges and meals.

Envy you.......When where is your next great trip....would like to join up.

JohnnyColombia

I have a couple more shiny plane pics

JohnnyColombia

Thanks for all your kind comments, I figured it would make a great photo trip report, but then when I saw that one of the baggage handlers was a horse I thought "wow... Flyertalk gold"

Hey every trip in Colombia is a great trip and you are welcome to join us. Caño Cristales is seasonal July to December so hopefully we will get down there a few more times before the year end. Next one pencilled in is the second weekend of September.

JohnnyColombia

That video wouldn't load for me, but there is some nice DC3 footage at VVC in this video, including HK3037 herself

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjGyc...feature=relmfu

JumboJetLA

WOW Yes a very different trip report than the normal!!