Sorry, I couldn't resist - since we have arrived in Colombia I have been using great restraint in making any Miss Universe and Steve Harvey references, but this was just too good to pass up!
Enjoy - Happy New Year to everyone. I hope 2016 brings health, prosperity and good luck to all!
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After a gruelling first day, we went to bed at 7:30 pm and woke up around 7:00 am - almost 12 hours of blissful uninterrupted sleep! We decided to take it easy today and drive only 4 hours to the town of Jardin, a small isolated town in the heart of the coffee region. While the drive wasn't long, the altitude changes were crazy, as we started at 8,600 feet this morning, made our way down to 3,500, and the back up 6,500 feet to Jardin. This makes driving the 2 lane roads slow going - we made about 185 Kms today, which was actually a great pace. We were told that if you actually flattened out all of Colombia, it would be the 5th largest country in the world! The town of Jardin is impossibly beautiful - I don't think I have ever been to a place where the natural setting, the architecture and design all combine to form the perftect country town. The main square is large, and all the buildings are colourfully adorned. There is a beautiful church, and the square is packed with flowers of every imaginable color. There are chairs set up right in the square where you can order s coffee or beer (or something stronger). We took advantage of this and had a beer and a Cuba libre, which came out to a whopping $1.75 US! Tonight is supposed to be crazy, as all the Cowboys come in to town and parade their horses through the square, and fireworks are set off. The tradition here is to make what I would call a scarecrow, personalize it (hair, clothes,etc...) and fill it with fireworks. Then at midnight you light the scarecrow and blow his head off, which is supposed to symbolize getting rid of all your problems in the past year. They are selling these things on every street corner, but I'm afraid if I buy one I would blow my own head off, rather than the scarecrow's. Anyway, after celebrating the New Year, we will be up at 6:00 am to leave - we have a very tough stretch tomorrow right outside of Jardin with a really bad gravel road, so we need to be up at first light to make good time. Feliz Ano to everyone! We woke up at 4:30 am and by 5 am we were on the road out of Cartagena. Even at that time of the morning, it took us almost 45 minutes to get out of the city!
We had mapped out how to exit the city from our previous cab rides around Cartagena, so we managed to exit the jumble of clogged arteries that make up the Cartagena road system without too much trouble... Our drive today took us through the arid plains south of Cartagena and up into the beautiful lush mountain valleys that surround the City of Medellin. The roads are ok in some spots, not so good in others, but slow going with a lot of truck traffic and many, many towns spilling onto the roadway. We finished our day at 5:30 pm in Santa Rosa de Osos , about 1.5 hours north of Medellin. We made only one stop for gas and one for lunch and made it about 500 Kms. That's an average of about 40 kilometres per hour! Needless to say, we are both completely gassed! One last thing - Colombian drivers are crazy. They will pass at any time on the road, even on hairpin curves - especially buses! We saw one accident and nearly another today... Let's just say their risk tolerance is a little different than drivers at home! Tomorrow we have a short 4 hour drive to the Town of Jardin, in the coffee region, where we will spend New Years Eve. The real Juan Valdes lives nearby in Andes, so we may pop by to say hello... We are back in the hotel after a long but productive day that ended up with the cab ride from hell. We won't tell the story here, but next time you catch up with us in person be sure to ask us about it - it's worth the price of admission!
We are pleased to announce that we were reunited with Manuel this afternoon. Here is how it happened: We received a call this morning from our agent Luis telling us to meet at his office at 1:45 pm to head over to meet the DIAN (customs) agent. While we were sitting at the pool in the morning, Luis' wife, Sonia, was submitting our paperwork to DIAN, getting our SOAT (Colombian insurance) and setting a time for our DIAN inspection at the port. After arriving at the office, we set off to pick up our inspector, Kevin, who we took to the port with us. The port is 30 minutes south of town, and is brand new (about 6 months old). There was nobody else in the entire port except for us, a Canadian couple trying to get their car as well, and the 50 or so port workers. We were shown in to the office, were we exchanged paperwork (I have no idea why) for about 30 minutes. We found out the Canadian couple was from Montreal and had decided not to use an agent like Luis - they had been trying to get their car out for 7 days! Turns out they were unsuccessful on this day as well. After exchanging paperwork (even our inspector, who had been to this port just 3 times was flummoxed), I donned a hard hat and vest and was put into a port vehicle where I was driven to the vast compound. The only things in the compound were 4 combines, 6 farm tractors, about 20 New Flyer buses, and... Manuel! After a brief inspection, Kevin said I was good to go - I drove the vehicle to the exit of the facility. I wasn't quite finished, as the next 30 minutes were taken up by inspections by the port workers. It was like a skit right out of Monty Python - I would drive the car 20 feet, the car would be inspected, then I would get called to turn the car around and go back 30 yards the way I came and another guy would inspect the car. This happened 3 times, all under the watchful eye of Bob, Luis' son who was driving us, and Kevin the DIAN inspector, who were all looking perplexed by now. Finally, we were free to go, and we drove out of the port, following Luis' son back to the office. However, after about 20 minutes of driving, our cars got separated in traffic. About 2 minutes after getting separated we were stopped by the Colombian police at a check stop. The police asked for our documents; can you guess where they were? That's right, in the other car, somewhere ahead of us! So, in my poor Spanish I explained we didn't have documents - more police arrive on the scene. In the meantime, we see the car with our documents (and the DIAN inspector) reversing in the far right lane of the highway. They pull up, and another long conversation begins between the police and Luis' son, who now gets on the phone to make a call. Turns out the SOAT (insurance) is at the office and the police won't release us until they see it. So, we wait at the side of the road for 15 minutes until Felipe, another of Luis' sons, pulls up on a bicycle and hands the SOAT to the police. Handshakes all around, thanks to the police, and we drive the 6 blocks to Luis' office! We plan on leaving early tomorrow to start our journey, and will get as far as we can - you can follow us on the SPOT as we will keep it on all day to track our progress. Now it's time for some sleep! After drinks on the city wall at sunset and an amazing dinner at La Cevicheria (featured in this episode of Anthony Bourdain's television series) we were ready for our prison break of Manuel this morning.
We got an email from Luis at Enlace Caribe, our agent, saying that he would pick us up at 2:30 pm and we would have our car by the end of the day tomorrow... Could it possibly be that easy? The quick answer is, as of now, yes! We had expected two full days of sitting in offices, filling out paperwork, and going back and forth from the port - it couldn't possibly take one day to get this done... We took our free morning to wander the beach and sit at the pool - it actually felt like a "normal person" vacation! Luis' son, Luis Fernando, an engineer who works for Siemens in Bogota was helping his dad out and took us to Enlace's office near the port. Enlace is a family company started by Luis and his wife - all five of his kids have worked with their parents at some point. Two of the siblings are lawyers (yay!), two are engineers and one works full time for the company- no slackers in this family! After spending a couple minutes in the Enlace office, we went to Naves, the shipping company's agent, to pick up the original Bill of Lading, which we would need to present throughout this process. Getting the Bill released took about an hour, and we waited patiently reading shipping trade magazines (Bob is now an expert on oil tanker pumps!) until they called our name. While waiting, Luis Fernando was on the phone with his mom, who was getting all of the information on the car from us. We would later find out that she was filling out all of the DIAN (Colombian Customs) documents so they would be ready when we arrived. At Naves, I had to sign a book and a document saying I had received the Bill of Lading, and that was it - back into the car to Enlace, where we waited for the DIAN paperwork to be finished. Normally you would have to wait in line to fill out the paperwork at DIAN, go get photocopies across the street, come back to DIAN with the photocopies, get life insurance, get the paperwork approved and then schedule an inspection with a DIAN inspector for the next day. All we had to do was check the paperwork and give it to Luis' wife, who would do the rest. After signing, we were sent home and told tomorrow afternoon we would get insurance for the car, go to the port for the inspection, and then pick up the car! If this all works out as it as planned, we will be on the road with no muss or fuss early on Wednesday morning... A quick 40 minute flight (our last commercial flight for 5 weeks) and we were in Cartagena, the home (for the past 10 days or so) of our car Manuel. Our hotel, Hotel Caribe, is on the south end of town on the beach in the Bocagrande District, and as we were preparing to turn in after dinner, a fawn (yes, a baby deer) walked through the glass doors of the lobby straight to a poinsettia plant and proceeded to eat the entire plant! The few of of us who were in the lobby stared as the deer started looking for the next plant to devour! After a very fitful sleep, we have spent the day touring the beautiful walled city, dipping our feet in the Caribbean, and sitting poolside with a cold beverage - the main thing is to keep cool as the temperature is 34c, but with the Humidex it sits at 46c! Plans for tonight include a seafood dinner, and drinks on the 550 year old city wall. Tomorrow we try and retrieve the car, which is the main reason we are in Cartagena. I think this is where things will start to get interesting! Bob with miss colombia 1896After a final Christmas Eve dinner with family, we had an early bedtime and were up before 5 am on Christmas morning to begin our journey to Colombia.
16 hours and 2 very smooth connections later, we were at the first destination of our trip, Medellin, Colombia. When we walked out of the baggage claim area, a massive cheer erupted from people waiting for their loved ones - we were treated like rock stars, as people threw confetti on us and shouted "welcome" in Spanish! After a 45 drive through the dark, we arrived at our hotel. The park one block away from our hotel was rocking with a couple hundred people celebrating Christmas in untraditional style, so we headed out at 1 am to watch the young and foolish drink and dance the night away. Today was spent touring Medellin, which is an amazingly modern, safe city that is the polar opposite of its reputation. Our guide Willi (just Google Willi's Bedt Tours Medellin), gave us a very thorough history of the region from the 1500s to today. In the span of 15 years, the city has completely transformed itself from murder capital of the world to cutting edge. The people are amazing - everyone seems to have bought in to a community minded approach - I don't think I have ever met a more fiercely proud people. All in all it has been a great day - we are now in the airport waiting for our flight to Cartagena, where we have a free day tomorrow. By the way, Medellin Rum (that's the brand) gets two thumbs up from the Banmans - we are working hard to free Cuba on our first day in Colombia! We are now in California and have just finished packing our bags - everything (including our car related stuff such as jumper cables and tow ropes) has fit into two duffle bags!
Steinbachonline did another great piece on our adventure - it is always amazing to us how interested people are in our little adventures. You can find the article here. The only sad note is that Adam MacDonald isn't able to join us - the idea for this trip was actually his, and we will definitely miss his humour, and expertise in all things navigation. Most of all, we'll miss the comraderie that we always share on these trips. All the best to Adam and his family this holiday season. We have checked in for our flights and when we next check in on the SPOT tracker, hope to be flying into El Salvador, and on to Medellin, Colombia late tomorrow night. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone! We have received word that our vehicle, Manuel, is waiting for us at port in Cartagena. Our plan is to arrive in Cartagena on December 26, spend December 27 sightseeing (as it is a Sunday and the port is closed), and start the importation process on December 28. We have been advised that this process will likely take two days, and we should have Manuel out of jail on the 29th, at which point we hope to start traveling immediately.
Our trip is officially underway on December 24, as I (David) fly into Palm Springs from Winnipeg. We will spend the 24th packing our gear and celebrating Christmas with the family, and are due to fly out of Palm Springs at 7:00 am on Christmas Day, arriving in Medellin, Colombia at midnight on the 25th. Only 8 more sleeps! We just received confirmation Manuel has been loaded onto the vehicle container ship Medea, and is currently sailing for Panama! The ship is scheduled to make a short stop in Manzanillo, Panama on December 16, and continue on to Cartagena, where it is due to arrive on December 17, a week before we arrive in Colombia.
You can track the ship's progress by going here - in the top right corner of the page there is a search function that allows you to enter the vessel's name or the port name and zoom in on the area where the boat is located... Really slick! We really appreciate all of the help we have received from Sims, Waters, our freight forwarder, and especially Luis at Enlace Caribe in Cartagena - he has been giving us helpful information and cost-saving tips since the moment we contacted him. It's been an eye-opening experience shipping the vehicle, and both of these organizations have been very responsive - we'd recommend both heartily. For us, it is time to start thinking about our packing list and final preparations here at home, as we are due to leave in exactly 2 weeks from today. Christmas in Colombia, I like the ring of that! |