After a pitching, rolling, and rollicking five day crossing of the Caribbean, we dropped anchor in Cartagena outside of the Club Nautico. The first step when we reach any new country is to hoist the yellow quarantine ("Q") flag and follow whatever procedures are necessary to legally enter the country. Adam got the scoop on what to do from a boat anchored nearby and we headed off with passports in hand to find the customs agent, who allegedly hung out at a nearby grocery store.
Here's a rough translation of the interaction:
Friendly Supermarket Delicatessen Senorita: "Good morning, what would you like?"
Trevor: "Yes, good morning, we just arrived on a boat you see, and we were told to come to this supermarket to look for a large German man named Manfred, who works with customs, and with whom we need to speak about stamping our passports."
FSDS: (Blank stare, pause).
Trevor: "We were told he hangs around here during the day."
FSDS: "Hmmm. Well, there is another, larger supermarket a few blocks away, you may want to check there."
So we kept walking, found the larger store, and had a very similar interaction with another unsuspecting delicatessen employee. At that point we approached an American-looking (white socks and tennis shoes) couple who appeared to belong to a boat (they were sporting croakies and sunglasses tans). They confirmed that Manfred indeed existed and was probably sitting in the internet cafe on the other side of the store. Eureka!
Manfred was an interesting customs agent who collected a portion of the 150,000 peso immigration fee in return for processing our passports and paperwork. It was the first time that we have not had any interaction with a government official during the clearance process. It turned out to be a fairly simple routine- we showed Manfred the boat paperwork and left our passports with him. The only challenge was tracking him down again two days later. When he returned our passports we found a page with the Colombian entrance and exit stamps, complete with an official's note handwritten in pen- "William T. Piquette." All at once, we were in and out!
SOG