Comedy of Errors. Even the best made plans can turn into a comedy of errors. Our good friend, Wayne was coming to visit us (he is not the error). So we scheduled an English-speaking taxi driver to pick him up (with a sign and everything). He flew on American Airlines from Dallas to Bogota and then Avianca Airlines from Bogota to Santa Marta.
After Wayne landed in Bogota he alerted us that his next flight would be late (10p vs 830p). When we notified the taxi driver she offered to pick us up and bring us to the airport at no extra charge – a great surprise! We loaded a small cooler with beer and met the taxi driver at 915p giving us plenty of time to get to the airport.
We arrived early, confirmed at the counter that his flight had left, and went upstairs to the café to watch the screens for his flight’s arrival. The eateries closed, another flight arrived, but it wasn’t Wayne’s flight. It’s getting later and later. We decided to head to the arrival area, despite the fact that the screen still showed his plane in route. We asked the airport personnel and they said his flight had come in before the flight unloading now. Yikes we missed him! Our error as we should have just waited at arrivals outside. We rushed back to the marina. Luckily, Wayne was able to get another English-speaking driver to take him to the marina and accepted U.S. dollars (both unusually rare). He had been waiting about 5-10 minutes by the time we arrived with beer in hand. Welcome to Colombia!
The next day, Matt got up early to get a much-needed haircut and swung by the bakery for morning treat.
We decided to show Wayne around town while finishing up last minute provisioning. First stop was the Mercado Publico to show off the fresh fish, meat, veggie, and fruit markets.
We picked up lots of fresh fruits and veggies, then stopped by the gas station to pick up two-stroke for the dinghy. Next, we picked up rolls at the bakery on the way to Exito, the large supermarket. We each had several bags full of items with no receipts (considering we bought them from street vendors).
DISASTER
As you enter Exito, the security guard searches your bags and tries to staple them closed, which works on plastic bags but not our cloth bags. So, I had this brilliant idea, to use Google Translate on my phone to look up “can we leave our bags at the security desk?” I asked, he said “no” so the boys jockeyed through the crowd to find an empty place out of the way. I set my bags, phone, and wallet down with the boys to go get a cart. Somewhere, somehow, my wallet and phone walked off – gone! Poof! Disaster!
The boys went searching, back tracking our steps, checking garbage cans looking everywhere while I sobbed and tried to explain, in Spanish what happened. We checked the security cameras, nothing. I was a mess, heartbroken, and so disappointed. My wallet had my driver’s license, $300, my atm card, credit card, and photo copies of all 3 of our passports. Matt and Wayne took me begrudgingly back to the boat where we cancelled the two cards and filed for a new driver’s license. We could not use “find my phone” as the phone was in airplane mode. I can only hope that it was a petty thief who saw an opportunity to give their family a better Christmas. Using the money, selling the phone (which was locked) and not stealing my digital footprint or identity. One can pray.
I was in a funk despite the boys’ effort to cheer me up. We went to happy hour where I sulked and then went to El Bistro one of our favorite places to eat. Matt even bought me a new wallet and two cute bracelets’ (all of $8) and my head still hung low.
We did manage to dig up an old iPhone5 which we tried to replicate as much as possible. The problem being we were leaving a wifi zone for a non wifi zone and anything I needed to update had to happen that night – we did our best.
Time heals all wounds and this one particularly stung!
Sunset Marina Santa Marta