On Monday, February 15th, 2010, the donations for El Talon were picked up by some of my cousins and myself in Barranquilla, Colombia. There was absolutely no issue, unlike last year (I had to pay many unnecessary fees!). The city was in the middle of their Carnaval de Barranquilla, declared by UNESCO as a "masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity," and everyone seemed to be in a good mood, since everyone helped me out.
I departed Cartagena on a bus at 6 AM and arrived Barranquilla at 8 AM with two cousins. At the bus terminal, we met up with another cousin, and we all went to the Barranquilla cargo terminal at the Ernesto Cortissoz International Airport. At the Tampa Cargo office, we filled out the necessary paper work, had a customs agent inspect the donations, and that was it! We later hired a small cargo truck to take us to the terminal, but in order to save some money, we were advised to catch the bus at a bridge where busses heading to Cartagena had to pass by. However, there was no room for all of us inside the truck, so my cousin and I were forced to stand up in the back of the truck with the donations. When we got there, we had to carry all the boxes into a bus in the middle of the street with temperatures at around 90°. The bus operator only charged me $40 USD to take all the donations with me. When we got on the bus, I was expecting air conditioning, like most busses that travel between cities in Colombia have, but this one didn't.
About 15 minutes after leaving Barranquilla, a bus operator assistant began charging passengers for the ride, and she tried to rip off a couple of passengers. The passengers began arguing with the assistant, and everyone started yelling and giving their opinions. With the good attitude that identifies Colombians, eventually everyone started laughing and making jokes about the situation. An hour later, we made a stop, and we had arepa de huevo. When we made it back to Cartagena safely, we had to carry all the boxes off the bus and wait an hour for a cousin with a large vehicle to pick us up. After an entertaining yet very tiring day, we eventually made it back safely with all of the donations.
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