Today started out with a bang. I fell asleep around midnight and was sleeping well into 9 AM when I receive a phone call. I pick up the phone, not knowing what to think. Is it Vans? He had told me he’ll be here at 9:30 AM to help me around places. Or is it Juan and Edgar, wanting more money out of me?
It was the American Embassy. They had received my email that I had sent them yesterday while at the internet cafe, canceling my credit card and my atm card over Skype.
It was quite possibly the best way to start any day. He asked me if I’m ok, and that he received my request for a new passport. I tell him that I got it back, and he lets out a big sigh of relief and says, “Thank God, you’re 1 of a 100.” I tell him what happeened in case he needs to write something for his report. He was very courteous, understanding, and although I quickly asked about how much time he had and he had to go, he was very helpful in getting me information regarding ways to get money to continue on my journey.
Money was the biggest issue at this point. After I pay Seaboard Marine $1100 for the shipment of the car, I would have $40 left with no means to get more cash until at least Monday. He tells me that I have a couple options. There isn’t like a ‘bank’ or anything at the ‘campus’ of the embassy where I can cash in my American checks. However, there is an option to receive a quick short term loan. They would write something down at the end page of my passport. I can continue on my journey, but once I get back to the states, I would need to pay them back or I wouldn’t be able to travel internationally again. I asked how is $200-$300 and he said that’s perfectly fine. The other quicker and better option would be to go to a Western Union and get cash from my parents to be wire transferred. His name’s Mike Hammett, 207-7307 is the direct line to him.
I ask him about Colon and Panama. Where is all the money from the ports and the Canal going to? And he says that Colon is a very dangerous place. Once I enter Colon, I am really in God’s hands. A lot of money from the Canal is going to Panama City, and as the cities are getting bigger, it’s getting overpopulated and all the bad people are moving in. I ask him if it was always like this. And he says, “Oh no, Colon used to be the crown and jewel of Panama. It all started going downhill about 10 years ago.” The money, he says, is going into the pockets of corrupt politicians.
Soon thereafter, I get a knock on the door. It’s Vans, and he’s here to take care of me while I take care of my business. He walks me around, telling me which streets to take. I walk a lot at this point, to Seaboard Marine to ask if I can still go to Cartagena, back to the hotel to get my USAA ATM card, to the ATM machine at HSBC to withdraw money, back to Seaboard Marine to pay $1100, back to HSBC to make a deposit into Seaboard Marine’s account, back to Seaboard Marine to get a receipt of payment and Bill of Lading, and finally, down to the internet cafe to cancel my traveler’s checks, call home and ask my step-father if he can’t help me by wire transferring some money.
I was walking around with $900 in my pockets ($1000 in ATM funds I had taken out that was in my backpack in the hotel when I got robbed in the streets, -$60 for Edgar, -$12 for Juan, -$8 for food and internet, and -$20 I was holding to get by). I withdraw the entire $220 at the ATM, everything I got left pretty much from my USAA ATM account. I pay Seaboard Marine $1100, and everything’s good to go. I could have paid them at Cartagena, but I didn’t trust anyone here in Panama while traveling with such large sums of cash. So I took my risk, paid everything and had exactly $40 left.
This is when things got a little bit interesting. At around 11:30 AM, I was walking down the street with Vans to get some breakfast, when Edgar starts hollering at us. Edgar, the same orange polo shirt boy who ‘risked his life’ to get me my money. He’s holding one copy of a $20 traveler’s checks that I didn’t get back yesterday. I’m guessing they had tried to use it at a local shop thinking it’s regular money. He says that he can give it to me for $5, so I can have extra cash, extra $15 for me to get by.
I needed to stay clean and cooperative in the eyes of this guy and so did Vans. Edgar’s obvisously one of the bad guys. How the hell did he get one of 10 $20 traveler’s checks when he had given me the entire money bag last night? Did he ‘risk his life’ again to get one copy of the check? Of course not. I wanted to tell him to cash it in at the local bank, so that he along with his friends can get arrested. But I couldn’t. Vans tells him it’s no good, and I motion to him as if my hands are handcuffed, and sincerely tell him if he tries to cash it, he’ll go to jail.
It’s amazing what people would do, for an extra $5. As if $30 in the money belt + $60 for getting the passport back wasn’t enough, they kept coming back at me. I’m obviously being watched, and I’m obviously sticking out like a sore thumb. I don’t feel safe here at all. But at least they didn’t knife me, take my key to the hotel, and take everything I had there.
On the way back, we ran into a few high ranking officers from no other than US Navy and US Air Force. They were with a few people from Colon Police force, and I talked to them to see if anything was wrong. I introduced myself as Specialist Kim, US Army Reserves, and I shook hands with 3 or 4 O-5 and O-6 officers. They were taking samples of the algae growing in the streets that weren’t draining themselves. Ironic. It was the same location where I got robbed and the robbers had run to.
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I didn’t feel very good about this day at all. And I had some serious doubts as to whether Vans was going to come with me. He was insistent upon saying that he’s going to find a boat to Cartagena. Apparently, he had gone to an office in Panama City on the 4th of July and found out that he can get some sort of documentation that would allow him to travel. He needed to return to the city on Friday to get it.
Couple things were very, very wrong, though. If that was the case, then why did he say he almost didn’t come to see me that night like he had promised? He had said 6:30PM, and he said he was back from Panama City before then. He decided to go get some beer and then came to see me at around 9PM. Also, today while walking around, he told me to wait at one point while he went to talk to one of the guys whose car he needed to fix. Today is Thursday, tomorrow Friday a full day at Panama City, and Saturday was ‘taking a boat to Cartagena’ day. Fix a car in between? Why?
What if he was in on all this? What if he didn’t come in at 6:30PM because he had known about the robbery all along? What if he was going to get me in the morning and rob me? And if not, what are the chances he’ll really ship himself to Cartagena? What if he was just using me to get by a few days? I was fairly certain I could trust him, but none of it made a lot of sense. He was fairly good to me until that point.
Except the part about money. While diagnosing my car for about an hour the other day, he cost me $5. Then I gave him $10 to get himself to Panama City to look up the documents to come with me. Then $5 for today, walking around with me, translating some things and keeping a lookout on me. On top of that, I paid for our lunch.
By 3PM, when I had gotten the money from Western Union from my step-dad (which was the scariest walk of my life), I was seriously contemplating on leaving this town as soon as possible, as in then and there. I had paid Seaboard Marine already. I didn’t trust anyone. Edgar, the one who sold back my passport, knew that I was leaving Colon and Panama on Friday morning. Vans knew I was leaving Friday morning, and insisted on coming with me, to make sure I got there ok. Everyone knew I was leaving on Friday morning. Check out time at the hotel was 3PM, and I needed to decide fast. I was already past my time limit.
That’s when something happened that made it all the much easier for me. Vans calls me downstairs, and says he’s coming up. By then, I was already packed up, tipping the fence, wondering whether I should go or not. I didn’t want him to see it, so I meet him at the stairs. He says he needs 3 more dollars. Out of the $5 I had given him, he spent $2 to get some soup for lunch and some cigarettes, and spent the $3 getting information about taking a boat to Cartagena. Now he needs $3 to get to the place where he can find Captain Virus or something and find out for sure whether he can work his way on the boat for a free ride to Cartagena.
The British couple I had met at San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico, had told me that it was possible to do that. So I somewhat knew he wasn’t lying. But the money part bothered me. If he couldn’t get the right paperwork to cross borders, he’d be stuck in Colombia. If he did, then I’d have to pay for his share of food, room and boarding, and gas among other things I would have to spend money on. I tell him that and ask him if he gets stuck in Cartagena, can he find work there? And he says he would be a stranger there, so he wouldn’t be able to make as much money there as he would at Colon. I kept repeating this, trying to get him to say that it won’t work out, but he’s insistent that if I trust him and help him, he will meet me at Cartagena. He looks very upset by the time I repeat it a third time, and he says fine, all I need is $2, 75 cents for the bus ride there, and 75 cents back. He had wanted $3 for some beer later on that night. I tell him to wait, grab $3 from my room, and send him on his way, saying good luck and take care.
That phone call was what made up my mind. The only group of people I fully trusted that asked nothing from me in Panama were the Seaboard Marine personnel and the ladies working the hotel. The receptionist there had known me for about a week. I ask her if she knows a good taxi driver. Knowing full well that I got robbed the night before, she says she knows just the person that she fully trusts.
Ivan shows up in his taxi. He’s about my height, just a little bit skinnier, and black. But he’s got the eyes that tell me I can trust him. He starts talking on his cell phone, and sending text messages. I am a little alarmed, thinking he might be in on the whole gang, letting them know exactly where I’m going. But I recognize the roads that he takes, and learn to trust him. He puts on a CD and tells me the lady told him I got robbed yesterday. That’s great, because he would at least think that I have no more money for him to rob me for. I pay him $50 for the 2 hour trip to a motel near the airport and thank him for being so nice to me, aka not robbing me. He says take care and travel well.