After a somewhat tedious wait in Cartagena the ship has finally arrived and we have completed the necessary formalities. We dropped the Tiger at the port on Saturday and today(Sunday) returned to the port so that Nina could attend (and unlock the house part of the vehicle for) a narcotics inspection. That took a couple of hours and Nina had to take all of our stuff out of the vehicle while inspectors searched through it and the vehicle looking for drug hiding places. Nina said that the police where polite, and helpful, but thorough.
Today we will pickup the final paperwork and tomorrow afternoon we fly to Panama. We hope the process is as simple in Panama as it was here.
Camping
A note on shipping from Cartagena to Panama.
Part of the formality at the Cartagena port is a drug inspection by Colombia Policia Nacional. The owner of the vehicle is required to attend this inspection and remove all (or almost all) contents from the vehicle. The inspection takes place inside the port facilities. To gain entry to the port facility one must provide evidence of health insurance that would provide treatment should one suffer any injury while in the port. We only found out about this from our customs agent.
