New Digs for the Weekend only .....we hope :)

Friday Oct 4

Today we decided to spurge and spend an extra $6/n and moved from our little bedroom and private bathroom outside the bedroom, since we are suppose to check out today,  to another bedroom with ensuite in a different house Juliana owns LOL!!! We didnt want to stay in the same room anyways so happy she had this one open. At least we have the house without the family living in it so making breakfast and dinners will be easier instead of eating in restaurants.  When the family lives there I feel I'm intruding but I know I'm not because the family of 4 actually stay in their own area. But the kitchen didn't look the cleanest and the fridge.....well kinda of full with "stuff" When we were at Adrian's place we at least had an empty shelf we could use. Juliana's fridge is pretty full!

The bedroom looked good in the pictures but just didn't feel really clean

This is an old pictures cuz there is ALOT of other stuff in that room now!

Same with the balcony - its full of small pots of plants stacked up

We have booked our new room for the weekend and it has parking for Vanna :) Because we hope to spring her out of her metal container soon!! This house also has 3 other rooms that are rented out but so far no one has rented those. I didnt even take pictures of the last place because Juliana collects a lot of STUFF!! But she is very friendly and helpful. The above pictures are from the Airbnb page.

The New Place-the living room has a couple of comfortable chairs

Useable balcony :) 

kitchen is clean because doesn't have owners stuff in it

But don't try and us the freezer in the little fridge! LOL!! Other then break off a big hunk of ice and put it in front of the fan!!

Bathroom is bigger and cleaner 

Back to a double bed - guess might as well get use to it since that's what Vanna has :) 

So yesterday was quite the run around. We were suppose to have the agent take us to the port at 10:30 and start the paper work. But didnt go until 2:30 since it wasn't ready.  So went for breakfast.

Since we had time we had breakfast in a nice a/c cafe - Veg and cheese omelet 

Glad Nikki gave me her bathing suit coverup since it was to big for her, cuz it works great for a top when walking around here in the heat!! Yes I have shorts on 😂

Once we got the call to go to the port Dwayne, Carlos and I took a cab to the port to meet with Yair (agent rep) Dwayne went into the secured area of the port with Yair while I waited outside in an office with Carlos. Dwayne had to show passport, draft bill of lading and travel insurance (thank god I decided to print off our policy and put it in the folder - something I never do since I have it all online)  and then we waited for 40 mins for them to finish.  Then once we got the ok we went to the shippers office Hapag-Lloyd a few blocks away. There Carlos did the talking for us to try and get them to waive the $1540US deposit which they want for the container and will be refunded in 6 weeks - YA SURE!! Since we won't be here in 6 weeks we won't get it back. So anyways Carlos did a great job and got the charges down to $230US to move the container so Vanna can get out!! No extra deposit required :) :) BUT now there is a problem because Hapag-Lloyd says World Cargo never paid the $3200US we paid them! WHAT???? So now they are going back and forth with Hapag in Van and World Cargo. I sent a YELLING email to World Cargo asking WTH is going on to which they replied -yes they did pay Hapag and are now talking with Hapag Montreal and will keep us up todate on what is going on.

While up on the 15th floor of the Hapag-Lloyd office I took a couple of pictures of the harbour 

Yes Vanna is still being held captive in one of those containers!!!

So this morning we get an email from World Cargo that all is straightened out and Montreal should be contacting Cartegena office within a few hours. So we waited at a local cafe for THE CALL :)  And it happened at 10:30 😊

Iced latte for me and Americano for Dwayne and a couple of pastilles :) while we wait for the email - 20,000CP for this snack  ($8Can)

The rickshaws waiting outside the cafe - found out later when we went to the grocery store they charge almost as much as a taxi!! Locos! But the locals use them🤷

So we jumped into a taxi paid the 8,000CP to get to the port (5 blocks away) cuz very hot out and we're in a hurry!! Once we got there Dwayne meets up with Harold from the port authority and paid the port charges of 1,476,352 CP !!!! We took out 3,000,000CP from the ATM yesterday because not sure how much we were going to need. YES! we are MILLIONAIRES.... in Colombia! LOL!!!!!! Actually the 3M equals around $1300 Can😉

Now we go back to our BnB and waiting for more instructions from Yair as to where to go. Think we will have to go back to Hapag-Lloyd this afternoon where we will have to pay the extra charge of 800,000CP. Harold said we won't get Vanna today but probably tomorrow morning. They will off load her today and not sure what happens after that. Maybe customs??

At 1:00 I whatspp Yair (thats how they communicate here) and asked how long before the next invoice and he said 2 hours. So we decided to go for some groceries and drop off our laundry which is in the same building. Got the groceries first since the laundry was closed until 2pm. Just picked up a few groceries since we have to carry them back 4 blocks. But off course once it was all packed it was pretty heavy but we shared the weight in 2 bags - had brought one along and then bought another reuse bag. Then dropped off the laundry and it will be ready tomorrow afternoon at 5:30 - cost for 4kgs 23,230CP ($10) Guess that's a little more a load washed and dried would cost us in Canada

We get back around 2:30 put the groceries away and wait. After awhile Dwayne decides screw it "lets just walk over to the Hapag-Lloyd office and get the invoice and pay it!" We're almost there when we get the msg from Yair with invoice attached. Told him we were almost at HL office and have no where to print this off other then walk all the way back past where we are staying to get to Carlos's internet store and print it off. Yair agreed ok. The invoice is for 934,752CP and should be for 800,00CP?? Oh well will find out once we get to HL

We get into the building without to much problem, show them our passports and tell them going to Hapag-Lloyd.  Every building here has turnstiles to get to the elevator but you need to use your special ID card to get thru. The guard is saying something to us and we can't figure it out - Oh by the way, the Spanish here in Cartegena is different again from both Honduras AND Mexico 😝 - after awhile he gives up and lets us through. We know it usually works to just stand there and lift your shoulders "no entiendo" and just continue to stand there, they usually get tried of you and let you through LOL!!! (mumbling under their breath "Dumb Americans" LOL!!!)

So he lets us through the turnstile and off we go to the 15th floor again, guys behind the desk all greet us with Buenos Tardes :)  Then a guy comes out and we explain we have the form on my phone can we email it to him and he can print it off? (not sure where the invoice came from originally because he did not volunteer to look for it in the office) He said that we would have to go to Citibank to pay but they are closing in 5 mins!! They are across the street but by the time he came back with the copy it was already 4:10!! What takes sooooo long to print 1 page???? But while we were waiting for our copy Carlos whatsapped me with instructions to get to the bank and it showed they were open until 6PM! Ya Great!!! So when the HL guy came out we told him about that. He says once we pay THIS invoice we then have to go to ANOTHER place and pay their invoice???? Think this is the one Yair said he was going to pay for us.

Info from Carlos showing the bank is open  until 18:00

Anyways we go to the bank but the damn bank does close at 4!! Its only open for Customs related things from 4-6 from what I could interpret from the sign on the window. I showed the guy inside thru the window our invoice for HL - but he just shook his head and said Lunes (Monday)$#@#$%$%😡!!

Now we walk back to our BnB knowing Vanna is stuck behind the big wall until at least Monday😢  We'll head to the bank and be first in line at 8AM!!  I try to get an explanation from Yair what the 2nd invoice is for that he said he would pay for us to save time in the amount of 239,230CP.  After trying to interpret the invoice he confirmed I was correct that it was for cleaning the container!!!! WHAT - it cant be dirty!! But guess they would have to "fumigate" the van to stop any crazy bugs from coming into Colombia!! LOL!!!!

As we are walking back we see a van parked in the street with Alberta plates! There was a girl outside the house so I asked if she was from Alberta, No, they are a French couple who bought the van from an Albertan couple some time ago in Santiago, Chile.  They are now in the process of trying to sell it. The plates were last registered in 2018. The Albertan owner had made a copy of the plate and put it on the front - since police everywhere figure you need a plate on the front AND the back. So we are going to talk to Carlos about getting him to photocopy our plate and make a duplicate :)

We've already told Carlos yesterday that we are going to take him and his wife out for dinner at a nice restaurant he told us about a few days ago that's located in the Old City :)

Once back at the BnB we had a couple of beer to try and calm down! LOL!!!  Add up all the invoices and come to a total of 2,670,334CP - $1060Can - about $500 more then we were told by World Cargo - surprise surprise!  Oh well put on lots of kms walking around so good for the body :)

Pretty good beer - our second beer here, our first was given to us by Juliana when we returned from our run around yesterday  LOL!!

Then I made our first dinner in Colombia - a little short on flavourings just  had S&P :)

Salad, chicken and potatoes for Dwayne - he was happy with the supper :) 

Now its time to lay back on our bed and watch some Netflix - have been watching How to get away with Murder for the last few nights so will continue with that. The choices here are not that great - most shows/movies in Spanish. And I guess tomorrow and Sunday we will be tourist in Cartegena - better not forget to pick up our laundry LOL!!! Also will have to contact Julianna and tell her we will be booking for Monday night too.