The Return Of GANNET2

The prodigal hath returned. 

It’s been about two months  since we were last properly traveling Latin America by van. Dealing with the brakes, bearings, bushings and ABS sensor took six weeks in Boquete Panama starting last December 20th and then we had this endless faff of shipping. Well, that is almost all over now as I got my home back from the Port of Cartagena yesterday.

I have been feeling badly under the weather the past few days with congestion and coughing and a runny nose. It isn’t Covid, it’s just what happens to me when I get stressed beyond endurance, and I have been stressed. Tourism has taken a back seat to bed rest but yesterday I had to get up. 

I took an Uber to our shipping agent’s office yesterday to pay the other half of our bill, about $1150 dollars on our Visa card for port fees, taxes, car insurance, port storage and Ana’s fee for getting our paperwork to release GANNET2 from customs bond. This whole process costs a fortune by the time you add in apartments, flights, food and Uber travel everywhere.I’d budget about  five grand to cross the Darien Gap to give yourself a cushion in case of delays or problems. I am longing for the simplicity of the road life.

We never did meet Ana the ship’s agent but her minions took our money and we pinned our starting location on her map which must be new. There were six pins from the US and three from Canada and a whole clump from Germany France and Switzerland…Our container buddies, Alain and his family from Southern Brazil traveling in a Vermont registered Cherokee. 

This was the final step, we received our Temporary Import Permit, a car insurance receipt and clearance to leave the port. The process began on the fifth of February with a police inspection in Panama City and ended on the 21st as we drove out of the port of Cartagena. It felt like forever, not merely 16 days. 

Alain and I found the process nerve wracking not because Ana didn’t know how to do her job but because she had no communication skills. We never knew what was happening or going to happen or why. We’d get WhatsApp request for papers or notarized signatures or requests to meet suddenly at the port with her assistant, a nice guy but with not a lick of English. That seemed weird to me, even though for us Spanish was fine it isn’t for many overlanders. 

Ana’s attention to detail was hazy, she misspelled names, gave us incorrect locations, and never kept us in the loop. All of that was a huge expectation gap because she is praised online as the greatest ship’s agent ever. Alain vented his feelings but I kept mine to myself. I saw no point in being aggressive especially as the job was getting done even if I had no clue what was happening. Alejandro, the agent in Panana warned us the paperwork in Cartagena is Byzantine and he said blaming Ana is blaming the wrong person. I’m sure he’s right but customer service is another matter and that’s where she fails in our opinion. Never mind, it’s all done and I left with smiles for everyone and thanks. 

Of course I had one final screw up to deal with as the number written on a piece of tape across the front of GANNET2 was incorrectly written down. The gate guards went into a flutter about the zero that should have been a six. Can I do anything I said as they waited for a supervisor but they said no, so I got out my Kermit chair and sat in the breeze waiting. The supervisor showed up eventually and with a felt tip pen turned the offending zero into a six and I was free to go. But first they tore the tape off the hood and threw it away. I kid you not. 

One of the French guys in the other container lost his passport and his registration in an Uber which of course are critical documents to release the vehicles. Disaster!  Not at all, the port just took one of his color photocopies instead. I’m not sure what all these rules and paperwork are for really. 

So in the end that was that. I spent $90 at Texaco just outside the port filling the tank with regular at about $3:75 to the gallon. I really was driving GANNET2 in South America. Oh and in Colombia regular gas is called “corriente” or current. Why? I have no idea. Premium is called premium. 

I went back to bed when eventually I got back to the apartment after leaving GANNET2 in secure parking. Layne has been walking Rusty and discovered a much prettier area of the city than we had previously seen so in her estimation Cartagena is all right. I’m just looking forward to seeing Sergio fly in from Panama Friday afternoon to install the rooftop a/c. When that is done this shipping business will finally be over. 

I love driving the van as I find the seating comfortable and I am relatively high up above traffic. The controls are light and easy to use and the front wheel drive turns in a  very tight radius which is helpful on narrow streets. Traffic in Cartagena was the usual nightmare but my week with the rental car taught me a bit about how to be aggressive and it paid off in spades in my huge box. The motorcycles and cabs stayed clear of me. 

Next week we climb the mountains into the foothills where Medellin is located at a modest 5,000 feet. It will be much cooler there but I’m told the road is winding and slow. Sounds lovely. 

Cartagena Walkabouts

The street where we have an apartment with no water. Much calmer than Getsemaní.

Visitors dragging bags down the street; just like Key West. These two weren’t talking or admiring the architecture in the heat. 

I was. 

Layne always checks street vendors. 

You order your food by type of meat, in this instance we asked for pork chops. However the first course is soup, always soup. 

This lunch was interesting thanks to the surprise addition of lentils. Never seen those before on a plate like this. 

I finally figured out the purpose of these  ankle breaking cement posts: 

If you look closely below you’ll see more nasty looking posts but in the distance there is a cement bench. 

My mentality is if it’s broken fix it or remove the offending remains but apparently not here. 

This is a non functioning relic of another era, just hanging around waiting for pay phones to come back into fashion I guess. 

Motorcycles are everywhere all the time. They come at you from all angles all the time. There is a helmet law in Colombia but taxi passengers must be exempt as you can see. I’d never ride a moto taxi here no matter how brave you think I am. 

For the busy office worker or waiter there is pay parking available for your steed. 

Layne took Rusty for walk but he got impatient coming back to me and chewed through his leash to make the point. He hadn’t done that for years. Until we get GANNET2 back with his spare he’s stuck with this bright green thing -made of rubber of all things. 

Perhaps our expectations of Cartagena were too high. We agree it’s okay, full of useful stores and pretty streets but it’s not as mind blowing as we expected. I liked Santa Marta more, a less crazy town and little Mompox the nowhere town forgotten by time was excellent if you don’t count the appalling heat. 

Cartagena is now checked off more or less. 

And in some other unrelated but great news I’m getting my E-reader back. I accidentally left it at the hotel when we went to see the pink flamingos and I was resigned to making a six hour trip out of our way to pick it up on our way to Medellin. But lo and behold Sue and Hugh wanted to see the flamingos too and they stopped by to help us out and picked it up for me. 

I’ve been without a week and it feels like forever. It’s lightweight and easy to read and the battery lasts forever. I had to go back to reading on my phone where the Internet interrupts and the page is so small. I am so spoiled. Looking forward to meeting them in Medellin!