Within 12 hours my luggage was lost, but then found -- and delivered to my hotel.

When we dip beneath the cloud blanket to refuel in Medellin, Colombia that's when the reveal happens. Dark green mountains thrust through the clouds. These mountains are angular, almost more black than green. My initial reaction to the mountains is to parachute down. Why continue on to Cali when utter beauty is before me.

We land about 40 minutes outside of Medellin at the new airport. My seatmate tells me that the old airport was located in a mountain bowl in the center of the city. The necessary steep nose-dive landings didn't do much to keep crash rates down, so they moved the airport. It's a lively bunch on board my plane. There were great whoops of relief and cheering when we landed, despite a nose-dive free landing.

We take off a few minutes later and I take in the lush land swells -- the mountains are covered in a messy grid work of grassy fields, stitched on their borders with darker trees.

My seatmate makes a list of dishes I must try while in Colombia. Ajiaco, a stew of chicken and potatoes is high on the list. I hope to pack in a potato sampling, to try the numerous varieties grown in the area. I also hope to find a big bottle of tipple -- sugar cane liquor -- to take home. At my summer barbecues, the corn liquor I brought back from Vietnam had quite a following. I think all barbecue guests would partake in tipple shots.

We land. I meet up with the three business students I will be filming over the next week: Julio, Rafael and Eduardo. We retrieve our luggage. All bags arrive except mine. We wait and wait and wait some more. It's getting late and we need to go to a presentation led by Fundacion Carvajalon micro retailing.

After the presentation, we go to La Papa Papa restaurant. Eduardo tried to order the Ajiaco. We were told the dish is only served domingo (Sunday). I will have to put the tastings on hold. We return to our hotel -- really more of a multi-bedroom apartment (complete with wireless internet). There sits my lost luggage.