A New Continent

Happy Birthday, Mike!

A week in Panama City preparing to ship the van to Colombia and a week in Cartagena picking it up. Okay, it didn't really take quite that long on either end, but that's how much time has elapsed.

On the seawall along Avenida Balboa in Panama City with Casco Viejo in the background (new pants bought in Costa Rica--prana, no less)

Trish, Chettie and the Burly Beast (minus the rocket box) in Panama City

MacGyver plumbing fitting in public toilet in Panama City (no, that is not a turd!)

I will not go through the step-by-step process of shipping our van, as I believe most people following our blog are more interested in our travels and adventures than our days of time-consuming bureaucratic frustrations, but let me say we appreciate those before us who have posted the step-by-step details as we've used them as rough guidelines for our processes, and as a reminder that other people have done this so it is possible.

Heading into the Cristobal Port loading area in Colon after about 4 hours of to-ing and fro-ing paperwork

Stacks of containers waiting to be loaded in Cristobal Port (taken out the slider window)

Instead I'll write about gut-churning worries about dog and van. First of all, the oil buzzer had been buzzing at odd times, but we had not been leaking oil.....until we were on the loading dock in the shipyard in Colon, about to put the vehicle in the container.

According to all the guidebooks, Colon is nothing but a slum best to be avoided. We couldn't avoid it as that is where the port is. So, I had done my share of worrying before we headed to Colon. Port cities conjure up a seedy ambiance at best and Colon was true to the stereotype.

But my fears about Colon were perhaps overwrought and though hardly a UNESCO site candidate, Colon wasn't so bad. What I really should have been worrying about was the oil! That's the thing about worry, right? You spend all that energy worrying about one thing and what gets you in the end is something totally different.

So, there we were after a week of paperwork for the van, the dog and us on the shipyard loading dock finally ready to put the Burly Beast in the container when we noticed she was leaking oil. There wasn't a thing we could do: plans had been laid, fees had been paid, reservations had been made and there was no turning back. So we drove her into the container, rented a car and drove back to Panama City....with images of an oil slick forming under the engine compartment now being the focus of my worries. And, our minds began to form plan b's including shipping the van back to the states, shipping an engine to Colombia or selling the van and flying to Argentina for a few months.

Guys securing the van in the container (oil trail clearly visible)

Mike and the port authority closing up the container

Sealing the container we noticed that one of the four latches was severly bent at the bottom rendering it inoperable....they took pictures, I took pictures and that was that. More to worry about.

We flew with Missy Chettie to Cartagena on Wednesday March 24th. Further worry about her comfort on the flight, stuffed into a small luggage hold as she was. Hard thing about this is you can't just explain to a dog "Now, honey, you're going to be in a cage, in a luggage hold for an hour and a half while we fly to Cartagena but we'll be right up front and we'll be there to pick you up when we the plane lands."

No....it's more like "We're stuffing you into this cage and leaving you with some men in grubby jumpsuits who will manipulate the cage around with some other big packages and pack you into a small space (at this point you'll probably pee yourself you'll be so scared); then you'll feel the entire vessel move and there will be a sensation you've never felt before as we fly through the air for an hour and a half. After the vessel abruptly makes contact with the ground, your cage will be unloaded by different men without us in sight and brought back to a building where you'll wait till they process us though customs and then, my dear Chettie, out of nowhere we will appear and we'll be reunited once again. This time you'll pee yourself out of sheer delight." 

And so it was that we flew with Chettie to Cartagena. More worry ensued when the pilot said we were flying at 21,000 feet. Could she breathe? Was it pressurized? (This was not a big jet liner, mind you, but a small prop plane with about 25 passengers on board.....oh, yeah, we also worried about her wailing so loud that all the passengers could hear her but she never made a peep.)

All that worry for naught, we all made it to Cartagena in one piece. Safely on the ground and reunited we headed to our hotel, which was lovely but quite spendy. So while it felt like the lap of luxury to be in a swanky hotel room it was hard to sleep knowing how much coin we were dropping per night. We quickly found other digs at a 1/4 of the price and while they are not nearly so plush I'd venture to say they are in a more real neighborhood with a great vibe instead of being in a tourist quarter.

The van was to arrive on Friday March 26th. We received the confirming email letting us know the ship would indeed be in on the 26th but not till 1pm, with the container being offloaded around 3pm. Waaaaay too late in the day to handle all the paperwork and retrieve the van by the end of business Friday, so we would have to wait till Monday.

This gave us the weekend to explore Cartagena but also gave us time to continue playing out all the horrible 'what-if' oil scenarios in our heads. Another characteristic of worry: you can't easily turn it off once your mind decides there is a situation in need of resolution. So even as we explored the city, low grade concern lurked beneath the surface. I employed some meditation techniques to deal with this, but alas those pesky van-thoughts kept resurfacing.

Street performer (human statue) in Cartagena

Another human statue in Cartagena (kidding...)

Street scene Cartagena

Cartagena is a beautiful city and of the comparable colonial cities we've travelled through I'd say I like it the best. It is right on the Carribean coast so the maritime influence is present; it's not nearly as polished as San Cristobal Mexico, Antigua Guatemala or Granada Nicaragua but it is all the more attractive for it's raw beauty.

Carribean Sea from the wall surrounding the old city

Doorway-Cartagena

Clearly, many of the buildings have been preserved and/or restored but many are in rough condition. Often, however, you pass a doorway of a seeming hulk of a building to catch a glimpse of a beautiful interior replete with gardens, a pool and gleaming tiled living areas--the owners apparantly subscribing to the philosophy that it is best not to draw attention to oneself and to keep the outside humble.


And then on Monday at 8am sharp, Mike was off to the port and Seaboard Marine's offices. He had started the paperwork process on Friday afternoon, getting a jump on as much as possible without the van in hand.


I stayed at our hotel with Chettie and, yup, worried. Mike never returned till 6:45pm and without the van! As it started to get dark my worries of the van and her problems turned to worries about Mike driving in an unfamiliar city in the dark. Upon his return, he proclaimed that the van was out of the container, and there was no oil-slick under her when he drove her out. Oil levels were down slightly but not near what we had feared.

He had wanted to inspect the engine compartment before just driving her away from the port and when he saw how late it was he asked the Seaboard guys if he could leave the van in their secure lot and pick her up in the morning.

He was able to take a quick peek and determined that the oil was NOT leaking from the engine but rather from the power-steering pump. All the tight manuvering on the loading dock had been the tipping point for this problem.

Tuesday the 29th he set off to pick her up, knowing there were a couple of other logistics to finish up before springing her from the shipyard. Sadly, it took nearly the whole day to deal with them and finally around 3pm he returned with the van. She is in a parqueo just steps from our hotel and in a good place for us to evaluate the issues and deal with them in a rational way instead of in the wild-imagination way of worry.

About the Chetster: She is still losing weight and is very thin. So while we have been here in Cartagena we've taken her to another vet and had additional tests done. They tell us she still has hookworms and also has a blood disorder. They seem knowledgeable and they have been treating her for three days. So though I'm worried about her, our stay in Cartagena has been a good thing for her in terms of being in one place with good veteranian care.

We intend to stay here through Tuesday and then start to work our way south west towards Ecuador. People we've spoken to all tell us how beautiful Colombia is and all reinforce that it is safe to travel in all but a few places.