24 July
We left Santa Marta at 7:30 and headed back to Cartagena. We left early with the intent on getting to Cartagena before 11. Things were just fine until we got to the bypass of Barranquilla. Traffic was backed up and then Colombians started driving with no regard to lanes. Roger did a fine job, despite the numerous cars that thought they were going to share the same space as us. We saw 3 broken down buses along the way, which were all responsible for the mess. One bus had a tire behind it as a marker that it was broken down in the middle lane. Another bus barely had three wheels on the road, with the back two off the road. This wouldn't have been an issue, except that the bus was on the side of the road with a sharp cut off concrete drainage ditch.
When we got back to Cartagena, we checked into our hotel and then were summoned by Norm to his hotel to do paperwork. He chastised us for being late, as if we had any control over traffic and despite the fact that we didn't know he needed us back by a certain specific time. Norm went over all our paperwork and made copies of a couple of things and told Sandra and Roger that he would need them tomorrow.
After we left Norm's, Sandra said that she wanted to go see if she could see her rig. Roger and I should have said wait until tomorrow. But instead we caught a cab and tried to follow Sandra's GPS where she thought the piers were. We finally bailed out of the cab, as the cab driver kept arguing with where I was telling him to go based on Sandra's directions. Once out of the cab, I stopped a man with a Port Authority badge and asked him if he knew where the ship's offload site was. We gave him the name of the ship, he made a phone call, and then the walking began. He was headed in the same direction and so he walked us 3/4 of the way there. He was very interested in knowing about why we shipped our RVs and where were we going after Cartagena. Since I don't know our specific next stop, I told him in general terms that we were driving to Tierra del Fuego. He was a very nice man and helpful. Eventually we found the shipping company, but didn't see our rigs. We caught a cab back to the hotel and called it a night.
We left Santa Marta at 7:30 and headed back to Cartagena. We left early with the intent on getting to Cartagena before 11. Things were just fine until we got to the bypass of Barranquilla. Traffic was backed up and then Colombians started driving with no regard to lanes. Roger did a fine job, despite the numerous cars that thought they were going to share the same space as us. We saw 3 broken down buses along the way, which were all responsible for the mess. One bus had a tire behind it as a marker that it was broken down in the middle lane. Another bus barely had three wheels on the road, with the back two off the road. This wouldn't have been an issue, except that the bus was on the side of the road with a sharp cut off concrete drainage ditch.
When we got back to Cartagena, we checked into our hotel and then were summoned by Norm to his hotel to do paperwork. He chastised us for being late, as if we had any control over traffic and despite the fact that we didn't know he needed us back by a certain specific time. Norm went over all our paperwork and made copies of a couple of things and told Sandra and Roger that he would need them tomorrow.
After we left Norm's, Sandra said that she wanted to go see if she could see her rig. Roger and I should have said wait until tomorrow. But instead we caught a cab and tried to follow Sandra's GPS where she thought the piers were. We finally bailed out of the cab, as the cab driver kept arguing with where I was telling him to go based on Sandra's directions. Once out of the cab, I stopped a man with a Port Authority badge and asked him if he knew where the ship's offload site was. We gave him the name of the ship, he made a phone call, and then the walking began. He was headed in the same direction and so he walked us 3/4 of the way there. He was very interested in knowing about why we shipped our RVs and where were we going after Cartagena. Since I don't know our specific next stop, I told him in general terms that we were driving to Tierra del Fuego. He was a very nice man and helpful. Eventually we found the shipping company, but didn't see our rigs. We caught a cab back to the hotel and called it a night.
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