Today was a very busy and confusing day. However, at least I know what I did.
I went to DIAN to try and get my car released in the proper way. I got there pretty early around 8:30 AM, and didn’t get back home until about 5:30PM. I’m gonna have to write more about this. No one has it posted online, and it would have saved me a great deal of time and effort if they did. Hell, I could even have my car by now.
But I’m not upset because the port is a secure place for me to park my car. Compared to Cartagena, where there pretty much is no place to park my car at least safely, it’s not too bad of an idea to leave it there. Plus, it’s on the way out of the city anyway, going south towards where I need to go. I need to get insurance for my car tomorrow morning and send out my postcards as well.
I did have a scare, though. On my way out to lunch at around 12 noon, I was happy to see my container on a truck. The guys at the Operations Center are good! They got my number down and had it found and brought right next to the Operations Center within 30 minutes of my request! I was amazed, especially given the fact that the port is full of nothing but containers of all shapes and sizes.
After lunch, I decided to check out the container and make sure everything’s alright. Everything seemed to be tied down well and in order except… what’s this, the serial number on the lock is different? And why are the security stickers around the edges halfway torn off? I was worried as hell for the next hour, thinking Panama got the best of me.
2PM, and all the offices magically reopen. I pay my fees and get permission to get my car out of the container. On the way, though, I stop by the Seaboard Marine office and ask them why my number’s different. A guy that speaks decent English later comes to talk to me. He says that sometimes on the Panama side, they get the police to inspect the containers. And since everything’s written there in paper, it takes a while for the paper trail to catch up, so Seaboard Marine wasn’t notified. So my car should be fine. The dilemma wasn’t too bad. The receptionist at Seaboard Marine was the cutest girl in Colombia. Plus, when I did open the container, the car was in the same condition as I left it.
I realized recently that I spent about $3500- $4000 so far on this trip. $515 is the camera. $1100 for port in Panama, $235 for the port here. $288 for plane ticket here. $100 for losing my passport and getting it back. All in all, I’m not doing too bad on the trip, considering I was going to turn around if I had spent more than $3000 by the time I got to Panama (which meant I was spending about $100 a day, not a good sign.) So before all these things that don’t really count for day to day purchases, I spent about $1200 to $1700 on this trip. Not too bad, about $30-$40 a day. Gas is probably at least $750 of that.
I saw something interesting today. A man set up a hammock under his semi truck and was just waking up as the day was getting started.
I did my ‘cultural’ experience of the day today. I rode on a taxi. A motorcycle taxi! So taxis around here are both on motorcycles and automobiles. Motorcycles are cheaper. The drivers carry around an extra helmet for you to wear, and you ride shotgun on the back, going fast enough to be scared sometimes. But it felt very much like being on a fast bike with bigger wheels. The difference was that I wasn’t driving and I didn’t know how fast they were going to turn and go over bumps. He started driving real fast after meeting a friend of his who needed a ride to the airport. He wanted to drop me off as fast as he can! I was only 5 blocks away, but damn, what a ride. I think I’ll do it again soon.
I was eavedropping on a conversation some British backpackers were having earlier tonight. One guy was talking about how this dude just flat out shoved him, and he shoved him back. Saying how that was pretty scary and how it was just a show of manhood, here I can push you, well I can push you back. One of the girls, who’s apparently traveled fairly well throughout Latin America, started talking about how all this talk about how unsafe it is to travel in these countries is really bogus. How there’s crime in Europe, too, and how crime never happened to anyone she’s met. She spoke with great confident conviction, something I find is a dangerous trap that many travelers don’t realize they’ve fallen into.
I suppose at this point I wanted to barge in and ask her about how often she’s gone out at night, and how many places she’s been to that’s not listed on her precious little Lonely Planet guide. How she’s probably never really ventured out alone and done anything that’s alarming; that is, having to interact with people to have to get through the day. More so than just pointing at a menu item, taking the right bus to get to point b, and booking a place for a night. In many aspects, my travels are similar. But having been robbed 5 days ago, I couldn’t help but think, man, I would have totally agreed with her if I never got robbed…