Day from Hell

The trip had officially been over for 2 days, but our group was sort of stuck together as we all needed to get from Sapzurro to Cartagena. The trip we signed up for avoids the worst part of the journey. It would be an extra 2 very rough days in a sailboat, or a couple of boat rides and a couple of buses over land.

Since all of us were going to Cartagena, including Adam, we again relied on him to help arrange transport. He was going to try to get us all on a boat to Necocli, which would cut our overland journey a bit. But after waiting almost an hour for the boat that wasn’t coming, he put us in a water taxi back to Capurgana. There, we bought tickets to Turbo on a bigger water taxi. They charged us by weight for our luggage, on a scale that zeroed at 1 kg. They also kept a hand on the scale to pad it a bit and double charged Baptiste for his bike.

We crammed onto the boat, 5 people across. Jason was on the row in front of me and Bode was in my lap. It was uncomfortable from the start and only got worse. Those in the front row had the shade coming down on top of them. We set out for our 2 hour journey. The captain drove too fast and we were slamming waves at full blast. Those of us in the first 3-4 rows were flying up into the air and pounding down hard. With every wave there was a painful cry of ‘OHHH’ or ‘AHHH’, until our friend Tyler yells ‘Slow the fuck down! I’m about to go on a homicidal rampage!’ It didn’t work.

The waves calmed, but that wasn’t the end of our trouble. The boat ran out of gas. So there we are, floating in the ocean. Actually, we’re being blown backwards by the wind and finally float into a reed island of sorts. Thankfully it didn’t capsize us. Members of our group are (somewhat lightheartedly)  filming good byes to their friends and family.

We float there for about an hour before 2 boats come with extra fuel. Great, another hour and we’re finally in Turbo.

With 15 of us, we were able to charter a couple of mini-buses that would be much nicer than a chicken bus for the journey. Adam arranges 2 buses for us to get us to the town halfway to Cartagena. Five hours. Then, another 2 buses that will take us to Cartagena – another 5 hours away. Bode did fantastic, and probably did the least complaining in our group.

We arrive at our destination about 11pm, merely 17 hours of travel. Exhausted, we try not to be too bothered by the dirty, mosquito-ridden room that had been arranged for us. We were out of there early the next day.