Ok, so Fed Ex tracking page was a little misleading. We were worried that having been out for delivery from Bogota the packages were listed as being back in Bogota with an exception.
After buying a SIM card and calling a local agent he advised me to go to the local office. We left after lunch catching our first Colombian bus. What an experience? They are even more manic and aggressive that the busses we have experienced to date. Except they are busses too? Imagine medium sized busses decorated internally with fluffy mirrors and enormous amounts of chintz, conductors hanging out of the door while the bus, in the overtaking lane, cuts to the right at high speed to pick up passengers, the conductor having to run each stop as he’s last on and the driver won’t wait – then you’ll have half of it.
Anyway, we arrived in one piece and promptly walked nearly five blocks away from the Fed Ex office which was across the road from where we alighted. We eventually recovered from this error and found, to our surprise, our packages were in Cartagena. Less to our pleasure was having to pay 25% import fees. To our mixed pleasure the mounting kit ordered turned out to be everything but the tubes. No wonder it was so cheap. That being said we’re better off getting the tubes here.
Another hair raising bus ride back to our local and we were back on the boat. We spent a while planning where to mount the unit. I also went to the local chandlery to see what pipes they had. With them speaking no English and me no Spanish I did manage to get a quote from them. It was a rip off. Fortunately I sought and received some advice on the net and we’ll be off today to the main suppliers where it is all much cheaper – we believe.
The remainder of our barracuda went into a curry last night. The chef did well.
I have spent this morning catching up on publishing our tracks. Three more blog entries (probably below this one) catch us up from Grenada through the Venezuelan islands, Bonaire and to here. Enjoy if this is your sort of thing.
We also moved the boat yesterday morning. The boat in front of us was much closer than they were when we first arrived. They said it was their chain straightening and not their anchor slipping but it was not worth a debate. We had wanted to move anyway to get a better internet connection. We’ve ended up right next to Whiskers so we can yell at them rather than use the radio and have everyone listen in.
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