MUNGO EATS Latin America

We are near a small town called Santa Rosa, north of Medelli’n.  Medilli’n is only about 650 km from Cartagena, but we have been driving for 2 days and we are still a couple of hours away.  Our average speed in Colombia is about 45 km/h.  Wow!!We got a later start than we wanted to yesterday.  We were hoping to be on the road at about 9, but when Kevin and I went to collect our van, we ran into another couple that is travelling across the Americas, except that they are going south to north.  We ended up talking to them for a good 45 minutes, so we did not start driving until about 10.  It took us almost an hour to get out  of town, but that was just because of traffic and such.  Once on the highway, we still moved pretty slow.  The roads are quite twisty, and in places they are a bit rough, not too bad though.  There are speed bumps every town, that you need to slow down for, and on the first day we also went through 5 or 6 police or military stops.  These ones are not so bad though.  Most of the time, we are greeted with a good morning or good afternoon and most of the officers shake our hands when they first stop us as well.  Usually they check our vehicle papers.  One guy checked our passports, and one guy actually asked to check in the vehicle and in the trailer.  No one has tried to come up with any lame excuses to get money out of us.  Actually, I am quite happy with the military presence along the highway, means there are less banditos.  Actually, Colombia’s roads (most of them) are quite safe these days, thanks to the military. 

Yesterday’s drive was incredibly hot.  I don’t know exactly how hot it was, but man, I was dying!!!  We were expecting the worst again today, at least for the morning, but thankfully the day was overcast.  After lunch, we started gaining altitude.  A lot of altitude.  We went from about 70m to 2870m in a few hours.  Tonight we are at about 2500m and wow is it great to be  cold again!!!  We were actually shivering at supper, and the beds in our hotel rooms have BLANKETS!!!  Amazing!  The last few weeks we have only had bottom sheets, not even top sheets because, you don’t need even a top sheet.  We will be fluctuating a bit in altitude over the next few weeks, but until we hit Peru, we won’t be going down much anymore.  I am delighted!!!  Now maybe I can wear clothes other than halter tops and shorts!! 

The scenery is different than we have seen in a while too.  For the first time since Mexico, we are seeing pine forests.  The hills remind me of Guatemala, but unlike Guatemala, not every inch is dedicated to corn.  In fact, we saw very little evidence of crops, a few potato plots and a few orchards, but little else.  There are a lot of dairy cows instead.  We also saw some of the shabbiest “houses” we have seen so far.  These are little shacks made of a wood frame and either wrapped with black poly, or pieces of cardboard.  I am a little shocked to see these “houses” here, not because I am surprised to see poverty, but it’s just that if I were a poor person and could only manage a home made of plastic or cardboard, I wouldn’t build my home high up on the hills, where it actually gets cold, I think I would build it down lower.  Maybe they have little choice.

Hey folks,

Just a quick note to let you know we are leaving Cartagena in a few hours.  I’m not sure when I will be back online again.  It could be a few days.  Talk to you all as soon as I can.

You might want to get comfortable, get a cup of coffee and settle in.  It’s a long one. 

Yesterday, we were reunited with the van.  YEAH!!!  I’m so happy!  Here is how the day went.

If you recall, we were stalled at step two, which was to get a form from Customs.  We tried to do this on Wednesday, but were told that we had to wait until our van arrived and to return on Friday.  The gal at the office told us that our van would arrive on Thursday at 5pm.  We were never contacted by the shipping  company, and they have a tracking system, but it actually seems to run about 48 hours behind the actual fact, so we really had no confirmation that our van was at port.  So, we were not 100 % sure that we wouldn’t make a fool of ourselves yet again and show up at Customs on Friday morning, before the van was in port.  Luckily, when we walked into the office, we were immediately greeted by the same gal who told us to return on Friday and she handed us our completed form on the spot.  We were also introduced to the customs agent that would inspect our vehicle and he told us he would meet us at the port at 9:30.  Okay, first step done!!

Our next step according to the paper work, was to go back to the port, get an invoice for port fees and get assigned a customs inspector.  Since we already spoke to our customs agent, all we had to do was get our port invoice.  The gal that was supposed to issue this, decided to go the next step as well, and we not only got our invoice, but we paid the invoice and got our “port paperwork” completed.  (this was supposed to be step 8!).  We met our customs inspector, right on time, but unfortunately we didn’t have time to go and confirm the location of the van (at the Centre of Operations).  So, the inspector went with us to the Operations Centre, and from there, “found” the van for us.  Now really, I doubt you would ever find a government worker who would help you locate your vehicle, in Canada!!  The van was still in the container, and our “inspection” consisted of a quick check of the van license plate to the paperwork, the van VIN was not confirmed.  The trailer VIN and the trailer license plates were confirmed to the paperwork and that was that. 

We were not the only tourists picking up a vehicle yesterday.  A pair of brothers, Ecuadorian now living in the US, were also trying to retrieve one or two vehicles (not really sure if they each had a vehicle, or if they were sharing one).  The same Customs inspector had been assigned to them, so our inspector trundled off with them and told us he would meet us back at the customs office at 2pm, to sign the necessary paperwork.  So Kevin and I left the port and went to an insurance broker to get some obligatory insurance for travel through Colombia.  We needed the Customs form that we had picked up that morning to do this.  We knew this because we had tried to buy the insurance the day before and they said “no way, Jose”!  This time they did allow us to buy insurance, but as we were leaving the office, we noticed that the paperwork had the trailer VIN and the trailer license plate number wrong.  We back checked this to the paperwork we got from the Customs office and realized they got the numbers wrong too!! So much for the “inspection”! 

We headed back to the hostel for a little rest and some lunch, and at 2pm, we were back at the  Customs office, getting our paperwork to match our actual vehicle and getting the signature of our inspector.  Then the paperwork had to be signed by the “jefe” (remember, the boss).  Here we hit a bit of a snag.  We were told to sit down and they would let us know when the papers were signed.  After and hour and a half of waiting, the New Jersey boys and we were getting pretty tired of waiting and “reminded” them that we were still waiting.  I am not really sure if they forgot about us, or if the jefe didn’t know that we were waiting, but shortly after they were reminded, the papers were miraculously ready.  Now back to the port. 

Stand in line one more time to get the official Port Exit Papers (which Kevin had to sign 3 times and fingerprint 12 times!), then we had to go back to the Centre of Operations and get our keys (or so we thought) and get someone to help us retrieve our vehicle.  It turns out the keys were in the van.  Our new Jersey friends were told they were supposed to meet a guy named Willy, but somehow Willy found us before he found the US boys and so he started with our vehicle.  But apparently, Willy is a busy man, so we got a junior Willy to assist us instead.  I have no idea what this young guys name was, but he was bright and friendly and very eager to help, if a little green.  We were taken back to the container and the van was untied and unblocked.

Now we  were allowed to back the vehicle out of the container.  Kevin could not  use his rearview mirrors, so he asked if I would help direct him out.  We had it all planned out, but the dock workers thought they could better direct Kevin, so they stepped in front of me and started hollering at him (all very friendly and all), in Spanish, which way to go.  Apparently, when they yell it means keep going back, when they want you to stop, they yell too, but you know, it’s a different yell.  Poor Kevin.  They allowed him to jackknife his trailer a bit, then instead of letting him drive forward a bit to straighten out, they just brought in the forklift and lifted the trailer back into a more reasonable position.  All the time that this was going on, I was being chatted up by a port worker who wanted to know my name, where I was from, etc.  In any case, the van was finally “unstuffed” from the container and we were allowed to have a look at it, while we waited for Jr. Willy to come  back to go through the final checklist for the shipping company.  Kevin had done a good job of freaking me out the night before by telling me that often things go missing from vehicles while they are awaiting shipping.  It is one thing if the vehicle is sealed in the container before you leave it, then it is safe, but  as you recall, we could not “stuff”our van in  Panama because of rain, so it sat in a warehouse to wait out the rain delay.  Kevin tried move what he could to the trailer before leaving the van, but as we sat in the hostel on Thursday night, we realized the he had not moved his toolbox,  and I had accidentally left some jewellery in the glove box.  We did a quick check of the van and realized all was present and accounted for.  Nothing was missing!!!

Jr. Willy came back to go through the checklist with us.  Like I said he was a bit green, so he very dutifully went through EVERY item on the checklist.  In Panama, this process took about 5-10 minutes.  It took and hour to do the same checklist here.  He was so cute though, I wasn’t even upset.  By the time we were ready to be on our way, it was about 7pm.  Like I said , we were so happy to be back in our little house, that even the late hour did not bother us.  When you enter the port, you have to leave a piece of ID at the door, so that you can get a visitors pass.  Now that office was closed, so we had to find someone who could help us get our ID back, one last security guy checked our paperwork and away we went!

Now we had to manoeuvre our way through crazy Cartagena back to the hostel, in the dark.  This actually went better than expected.  We had found a parking lot about a block from the hostel that we could keep the van at for the next 36 hours, and we even managed to find that without too many problems.  A long, long day, but a good day.  The van is back in one piece, everyone we met was very helpful and super friendly, a few people going beyond the call of duty, the offices were air conditioned.  Really a much, much, much better experience in Cartagena than in Panama. 

Today we will get some groceries and get the van packed up and ready to go again, then we will be out of this town.

A map of our travels through Panama, ending at Colon, Panama. From here the van goes by ship to Cartagena, Colombia.

View

Panama in a larger map

A whole new continent awaits!!

It’s late, I’m tired and to top it off, the power just went out, so there is no magical fan.  I am not going to write a whole blog, I am just going to write a quick note to let you know that we have our van back.  Tomorrow, I will tell you all about it…promise.  Tonight I am just going to fall into bed and sweat myself to  sleep.  Goodnight!