We were woken up to the sound of someone leaning into the van window. Alex shot out of bed, nearly falling over his own legs in the process and ran to the drivers window where an arm was groping around in Peggys drivers seat. He grabbed the arm and pushed it out of the window at the same time as punching into the curtain! The fist made a connection with something other than curtain and as Alex pulled the curtain back he saw a man staggering backwards saying “I was trying to tell you something” and holding his nose. Alex replied with “what do you want to tell me” all while beeping Peggys horn as hard as he could (she only has a weak squeak of a horn), it was enough to make the man think twice about hanging around and he shuffled off with his bag of belongings thrown over his shoulder muttering to himself. Alex came back to bed and we sat there for a while shocked at what had happened and at how quickly Alex had responded to the situation. We watched the guy shuffle away and made sure he didn’t look like he was coming back, we checked that Ravy was ok and went back to bed. We woke up early to get back to the office for our police check…again and prepared ourselves for another long difficult day. We arrived at the offices at 7am and waited for the doors to open at 9. Hiske and I decided we could make the most of the time and walk to the airline to try to arrange flights out to Colombia while the boys dealt with the vehicles. We packed them some lunch and packed ourselves a bag and set off happily in the direction of the city. We had been walking for only 5 minutes when we heard shouting behind us, we ignored it and carried on but the shouting continued. I turned around and saw a policeman waving in our direction and a police truck reversing up the highway into the traffic towards us! We looked at each other perplexed and wondered if it was us he was talking to. It was!! We stopped and he came running towards us waving his arms shouting “stop, Por Favor, STOP” he got to our side and Hiske was whispering in my ear, “I’m not going in their car!, I’m not going in their car!” The police officer spoke little English but managed to tell us that we were not safe to be walking on these streets. He pointed to his skin and said “me fine, me black…you no fine, you white skin, they will steal from you”. He laughed a little bit at our Embera tattoo’s as we asked if we looked scary enough to stay here! He was very adamant and wouldn’t let us carry on walking. He stopped the traffic and flagged us a taxi and told the taxi driver to take us into the city centre. We climbed into the car and felt really stupid as we were driven to the hotel. Our first experience of being in the wrong place thankfully was not a scary one but it could have been had it not been for the vigilance of the local police.

Back at the hotel we erred on the side of caution and asked if it was safe to walk into town and on getting the all clear walked the 3 miles to the airline office. We had previously tried to book tickets online twice and had called several phone numbers, none of which worked so we were sure we would get tickets without any problem…due to it being impossible to contact the company to book them!! After getting lost several times and eventually finding the office we were told by the very smug looking little twerp behind the desk that all seats were booked for the next 3 weeks. We asked how the hell that was possible if it is impossible to contact them. He responded with a sickly grin and a shrug of his shoulders! I asked him to check for our 2 reservations made online and he responded (with smirk still intact) that the internet booking service does not work. No apology, no remorse…NOTHING but a smirk. I remained calm and asked him how I made a complaint about the terrible service and he said “there isn’t anywhere you can complain”. This did not help with my temper but as AIRPANAMA are the only domestic airline we had no other option but to ask how we could get on a flight. The ever helpful (note: sarcasm) little berk went on to tell us with great joy in his eyes that we would have to go to the airport, 3 hours before the flights were due to leave and see if anyone ‘failed to show’ for their pre-booked…yet not prepaid…flight! What a joke! We asked if he could add us to a waiting list so that we would be the first ones on the flight should seats become available and with his by now punchable face he said of course and dutifully took down our names! We left there understandably annoyed and had to go for a coffee and some lunch to calm down. We wondered if the boys day was being anymore successful and tried to make an alternative plan. We had hoped to fly airpanama to Puerto Obaldia in Panama, get on a boat to Caprughana and spend a few days there before flying into Cartegena to meet the vehicles. This was the cheapest route and by far the most enjoyable as we would get to see some of the Caribbean coastline of Colombia, sadly it was looking less and less likely as the day went on. Over coffee (and amazing soup for lunch…don’t tell the boys!) Hiske and I decided to go and check the cost of flights directly to Cartegena. Another few miles hike to find the office and we were told that the flights were $400+ per person!!! The flight is less than an hour long! How is this possible! we felt doomed to be trapped in Panama City forever! Tails between our legs we left to get some Colombian Currency (should we ever make it there) and trudged back to the hotel expecting to find the boys there waiting for us. When we got back we recieved a text message from the boys explaining that they had been successful with the police check but had again (due to waiting for someone else) missed the deadline for the next check. They were going to stay in Colon that night! You remember the scary ghetto we told you about? Yes, THAT Colon! I will let Alex tell you all about it! Hiske and I spent the night in the $12 for 3 hours hotel worrying about Alex and Gaby. We got so worried we decided we should go out for some dinner. We felt guilty as we ate Italian food and shared a bottle of wine and wondered what they would be eating and where they would sleep. We were just so frustrated with everything, nothing seemed to be going right. The ferry crossing had been a nightmare from day 1 but getting ourselves to Colombia should surely be the easy part!?!?!

Find out what happens next on our travelling wedding adventure!