The Shipping Process, Part 3 of 3: Crazy Cartagena

We pick up this post where we left off the last one, in the middle of the process of getting across the Darien Gap, the most time-consuming and complicated part of our overland journey.  We had sent the car and camper on a ship from Colon, Panama, and managed to get ourselves from Colon to Cartagena, Colombia, hoping to be able to retrieve both the car and camper intact and without more complications.  Here is what happened after we arrived in Cartagena.

Day 15: Sunday.

We woke up in the bus station hospedaje, where we had arrived late the night before and were too tired to look for any other accomodations.  The place was pretty sketchy, dirty and mostly used for one-hour stays, but it had a bed and a bathroom.  Also, since it was at the bus terminal, there was easy access to transportation, and the terminal had an internet cafe, which we needed to communicate with Tea, our shipping agent, since she communicates by email.  We were supposed to pick up Pichula and Cubby on Monday, so we decided to relax for the day in Cartagena and stay one more night at the terminal.

We slept late and then went to use the internet, hopefully to find emailed instructions from Tea about how to pick up Pichula and Cubby the next day.  No email.

We figured she probably would email early Monday morning.  Since we had the whole day to do touristy things, we took a bus to the “old town” part of Cartagena.  We groaned to be back on a bus, because after our speed boat adventure, our backs and behinds were still hurting.  Fortunately, this was only a 20-minute bus ride instead of all day!

The walled city of Cartagena is quite beautiful, although packed with tourists and very pricey.  The walls around the city, the narrow streets, the fine architecture, and the well-kept houses/buildings all make for picture-perfect moments.  Unfortunately, my camera battery died soon after we arrived, so I didn’t get very many pictures…here are a few:

entering the walls of Cartagena

 

 

We climbed the walls, and from there you can see the ocean.  We stopped for a passion-fruit juice at one of the outdoor cafes.  We spent most of the time looking for some kind of Irish pub, since it happened to be St. Patrick’s Day, and Ricardo was feeling homesick and missing his bagpipes.  There were no Irish pubs to be found, however.  We decided to get out of the walled (expensive) section of Cartagena, and we found a place only a few blocks away that seemed to be popular with the locals.  Indeed, the beer here was 1/3 of the price they were charging inside the walls.  It was not Guinness, but we had a toast for St. Patrick’s Day anyway.

Day 16: Monday.

It was the big day!  We were so excited to get our car and our HOME back!!  We went early in the morning to check the bus station internet, eager to get going, and…. We found an email from Tea saying that we would not be able to pick up the car.  According to her, Monday was a “dia muerta”, a dead day, that was used just for unloading the ship and doing paperwork.  I don’t know why she told us originally we had to pick up on Monday then, grrr….

So we had another day to waste, plus another night that we would have to pay for lodging in the crummy bus terminal hospedaje.  We spent the day walking around the bus terminal and lying in bed watching TV, resting our speed-boat injuries.  Neither of us could stand the thought of getting on a bus again!

We did, however, get an email from Tea saying we could pick up the car the next day.  The port office supposedly opened at 9am…

Day 17: Tuesday.

We were eager to get started early.  We knew from reading about other overlanders’ experiences that this was going to involve several steps and we wanted to have as much time as possible to make sure we would get the car that day.

8:45 We get on a bus to go to the port.

8:55 The bus returns to the terminal because the air conditioning is broken.  We get on a different bus.

9:15 We get off the bus in the proper section of town, but realize that the port is still quite far away (the bus doesn’t go the whole way there).  We have no map, only an address, and most people we ask have no idea where it is.

9:30 We find a really nice guy who knows where it is and offers to drive us there in his truck.  YES!! We hop in, pile all of his stuff from the seat on our laps, and ride to the port.

9:45 We get to the port office and wait in line.

10:10 We make it to the front of the line and talk to the lady inside the glass window.  She searches for our information.

The port lady tells us that our shipping agent has not yet paid them for the shipping and we would not be able to go any further until the shipping is paid.  WHAT?!?!?  They’ve had a whole week and still haven’t paid?  Our minds immediately flash to the cash we paid the day we dropped off the car, and hope we haven’t been scammed.

10:30 We try to figure out what to do – Tea only responds to emails, so it would take too long to contact her.  We find a call center and place an call to Boris from Enlace Caribe in Panama.   “Oh, this happens all the time” Boris says.  According to him, the payment had been made, but someone on the other end forgot to enter it into the system.  Boris says he’ll give them a call and clear things up.

10:45 We rush back to the port office, trying to arrive before they close for lunch at 11:00 (they don’t open again until 1:00).  We make it with little time to spare, but fortunately Boris has rectified the situation and the port lady kindly hands us a list of 11 items that we would have to complete, basically travelling back and forth between different sections of town for each step, before we could pick up the car.  We had completed the first by checking in with her.  It was already 11:00 and we had only 1 down out of 11…sheesh!

11:00 We catch a bus to a different section of town where the DIAN (customs) office is located, to complete step 2 on our list. 

11:20 We hunt down the office, then the correct department of the office.

11:30 When we arrive at the correct place, the receptionist tells Ricardo he can enter, and I must wait in the waiting area.  I watch the clock move from 11:30, to 12:00, to 12:30…finally about 1:00 Ricardo returns, step 2 complete.  He tells me that the customs inspector only does port inspections in the morning, but he managed to convince her to help us out.  We would have to return to the port so he could take pictures of the car and camper, then return to the DIAN office to show the inspector; this would be sufficient for an inspection.  Our 11-item list was already out the window!

1:00 We grab a quick lunch at the DIAN cafeteria (it was delicious and cheap, by the way… future overlanders, we recommend eating here…)

1:30 We catch a bus back to the port.

1:45 We need to go to a different port office this time.  The lady who attends us tells us that the car and camper are not ready to be picked up today.  After we argue with her, she agrees to call and find out specifically the status of our Pichula and Cubby.  We have a seat in the waiting area, and watch the clock move from 2:00, to 2:30, to 3:00.  We repeatedly ask her because we’re afraid she’s forgotten about us, but still no word from the port.

3:15 Finally receive word that Pichula and Cubby are indeed unloaded and ready for pickup.  We go to the bank line to pay the import taxes.

3:30 Head over to the port area.  There, the security guard tells us we will not be allowed in without hard hats, shiny vests, and safety boots.  They do not lend them out and the guard insists that we will have to go buy these items in town in order to be let in to the port.

3:45 We make a fuss, go back to the port office and try to explain to them how ridiculous this requirement is.  Finally a spare hard hat is found and Ricardo is allowed in the port with only that, no vest or boots. 

 

I end up waiting, again, while he enters to take the pictures requested by the DIAN inspector.

 

4:15 Ricardo returns with pictures taken.  We rush out of the port area, knowing that the DIAN closes at 5, and the port at 5:30.  Our only choice was to pay for a cab this time instead of a waiting on a 20-minute bus ride to the DIAN.

4:25 We literally run to the DIAN office, hoping they haven’t left early.  Ricardo is allowed in again, and I wait.

5:00 Ricardo returns with the complete customs paperwork.  Apparently the DIAN officials were busy watching YouTube videos and he had to wait about half an hour for the inspector’s signature on the documents. 

5:10 We run back out to the street and catch another cab back to the port.  We had about 20 minutes until the port office would close.

About 99.99% of cab drivers in Cartagena drive like bats out of hell, fast as they can so as to collect more fares.  As luck would have it, though, we got one of the .01% who are very timid and cautious.  We bit our tongues as the little old cabbie crept along and the precious minutes ticked away.

5:30 We arrived back at the port just in time and luckily they still let us in.  We turned in all the paperwork and waited for the ok to retrieve Pichula and Cubby.  When we got it, Ricardo threw on the borrowed hard hat and went back in to the port.  I waited anxiously for another hour to see our car and our home for the past 6 months come out of the big gates, safe and sound…

6:30 Success!  Finally!!  It took a while for the port people to get the car and camper checked out, but after a whole day of what seemed like a crazy scavenger hunt, Ricardo came driving out of the port, and we had our car and our home back!!

 

Elated to finally be done with the whole shipping ordeal, we drove back to the bus terminal to pick up our stuff from the hospedaje.  No celebrating for us, however…our work was not quite over.  In the bus terminal parking lot late into the night, we reinstalled the air-conditioner, roof rack, and Cubby’s spare tire (which we had to take off for the shipping), and moved all the drawers and all our stuff back to its original location in Pichula (we had emptied it out since we had to turn in the keys). 

Completely exhausted, we stayed in the bus terminal parking lot that night. 

 

 And so it was - after 17 sometimes long, sometimes crazy, sometimes frustrating days, THE SHIPPNG PROCESS WAS COMPLETE!  The second half of our overland journety could now begin.  We were now in South America, looking forward to all the new countries to explore on our way to Chile.  We woke up the next morning, and made a beeline out of Cartagena. 

Time to hit the road again!!!!!!!!