Aug 2 - Cartagena to Panama

Shipping the truck from Colombia to Panama and all that it entailed always promised to be the part of the trip with the most variables for complications and added stress.  Especially, because the whole shipping process ie: the exportation from one country and the importation into another country of a foreign vehicle driven by non-residents is NOT a straightforward process. 

Thankfully, Luis and Sonia of Enlance Caribe in Cartagena run a small family run exportation business that also help tourists ship their personal vehicles to Panama.  On Tuesday morning, I drove the truck to the Port of Cartagena and handed it over to the port authority, but not before waiting in the customs office for 45 minutes to sign a piece of paper.  The truck was parked, locked and the keys handed over to the port authority for safekeeping.  One of the many rules was that the truck needed to be inside the port for at least 24 hours before being stuffed inside the container.  Not a great feeling hanging the keys over of a vehicle filled with a few personal items to a stranger who casually placed them in his back pocket, jumped on a motorbike and sped off into the vastness of the port….my first thought, his going to lose my keys.  Second thought…he’s going to call in sick tomorrow!

All in all it was "only" 3 hours of my morning which left us plenty of time to continue our exploration of Cartagena with a visit to Castle San Filipe.  An impressive military structure built in the 16^th Century to protect the city from Pirates.   We choose to have a tour guide and he was great!  He managed to hold the boys attention and explain the significance of the castle in protecting Cartagena from the English and French along with all its secret passageways. 

By 7am on wednesday, I was sitting in front of the truck waiting to place it inside the container.  It was 8am and I was still sitting in front of the truck…sweat dripping off my face due to the 90% humidity and the guy with the keys hadn’t showed up.  Luckily, Sonia was chasing him down and lining up the police for the mandatory contraband inspection.  Shortly afterwards, buddy on motorcycle appeared with my key's...my worse fears never materialized and I drove the truck to where the container was waiting.  Then I was told to take EVERYTHING out the truck so the police could go through it.  So, with the temperature climbing  I started unloading the back of the truck and placing everything outside.  

The police inspector showed up and started going through the truck. Trying to save everyone some time, I gave him one of my business cards and started making small talk.  Needless to say he quickly realized we weren’t high risk and gave the all clear for me to drive the truck into the container.

Now…the inside of the container is 2.35 meters high while the door clearance is 2.28 meters.  My truck with all the stuff on top of the roof rack was 2.31 ish. I took some air out of the back tires, placed it in 4x4 low and slowly squeezed it into the container. The port guy’s assured me it didn’t touch but I know they were lying.  The roof tent pressed up against the container door frame and compressed the suspension. I’m not worried …really…I will just get three or four guys in Panama to stand on the back of the truck, compress the suspension and back it out of the container…hopefully.

Regardless, none of this would have been possible without all the work done by Luis and Sonia of who made this whole process relatively painless and “stress free”.  Their service is invaluable to anyone wanting to ship a car from Colombia to Panama.  They were professional, very efficient and experienced in working with European and North American tourists.

Now we just need to deal with the Port Authority in Colon, Customs and Police of Panama to get the truck out of container and back on the road....more stress.

We ended our lovely time in Cartagena with a dinner at one of the open air squares within the walled city with our friends Jennifer and Mark who had just arrived from the Galapagos Islands.  It was great to have other adults to chat with who were also traveling with two young children.  The kids played well together and we were able to find solace in that all our kids suffer from the same dietary issues.

On Thursday, we officially said goodbye the South American Continent and arrived in Panama city.  Unfortunately, we went from a beautiful clear blue sky in Cartagena to a dark angry gray miserable day in Panama and it wasn’t long before it started raining.  Add the fact it took us one hour to reach our out of the way, overpriced, rundown and barely a 3 star hotel!  Not a great start… To make things worse, the internet was down, the waterpark was closed and it would cost us US$30 to get downtown…one way….WTF! 

As always and once I calmed down after promises of calling Expedia and registering my complaint, we made the most of it headed out to the local shopping centre and got ready for a 4 am wake up call.  But not before Marnie decided to check Trip Advisor’s comments on our hotel… here are some of the titles of a few recent comments I neglected to see when choosing this place:  “Not Good”; “I’m sorry if you have to stay here”; “ A dump of epic proportions”… 

Needless to say, I made another mental note to be a bit more careful when booking a hotel...regardless of how great the pictures looked. 

PS: Aug 5 - Once we returned from San Blas, I called Expedia and explained to them the hotel's description of being a "resort" was not inline with reality.  After a few minutes, Expedia did the right thing and provided us with a nice credit that made up for the various hotel shortcomings.  Thank you Expedia!