I may be away for a while, but I still have a commitment to do four posts a month here on the Beans, so I’ve decided to exploit something I’ll be doing a lot, which is visiting airports. Please enjoy this first in a thrilling series of airport reviews.

El Dorado International Airport, Bogotá, Colombia

We spent about four hours here in between flights, arriving at about 3.30am and leaving shortly before 8am.

Despite it being a stupid time of the morning, most shops were open, staffed by people who looked like they wished they didn’t have to man a souvenir shop at 3am. As a result we had the option to buy any amount of slightly tacky Colombia-branded tourist tat. We did not bother with this.

Airport seating was plentiful, with banks of seats everywhere and no shortage of places to sit even when the gate started filling up with passengers. However the seats were hard and upright and I did not enjoy sitting on them for nearly four hours. I give the seating 6/10.

Apart from buying some breakfast, which took 25 minutes to arrive even though there was nobody else waiting, my only interaction with the locals was to meet this charming Colombian lady who had a cargo of bananas and knew how to use them. Kate didn’t like her as much as I did.

Overall this was not a bad place to spend four hours in the middle of the night and my impression of Colombia, having only seen the inside of the airport, was broadly positive.

I award El Dorado International Airport 7 planes out of 10.