When Luck is Slain

We've been pretty fortunate on our journey...lucky, one might say. Realizing the potential for delays due to nature in the far north in early May, due to potential border issues south of the US, and due to unpredictable social turmoil through Central America, we advised Nadine and Sarah to wait until we were on the Stahlratte before purchasing tickets to join us in Quito, Ecuador. The ship would be a major point in our schedule. It would take average luck to catch it, but if we missed it, there would be some hard decisions to make, since it wasn't scheduled for another San Blas - Cartagena run for another 5 weeks.

The ship, though, was a known factor; we didn't give luck a second thought. For 12 years, the Stahlratte has been delivering motorcycles and their riders safely, on time, and in style from Panama to Cartagena and vice versa (among other routes around the Caribbean). While researching methods to traverse the Darien Gap, we found tales of ships run ashore and abandoned, and pictures of bikes perched precariously on motorboats to run down the coast for likely-illegitimate entry into South America. Unquestionably, the reputation of the Stahlratte demonstrated that it was not only the top choice, but also well worth its cost, even if only for its unflinching reliability.

The San Blas Ferry is an example of a poor choice for crossing the Darien Gap. Photo credit: The Voyage of the Vega. Brief synopsis of the tale.

This was our point of decision, then, and the point when it was clear that Sarah and Nadine could buy their plane tickets with confidence. When we made our date with the Stahlratte -- June 19 -- we would be past opportunities for bad luck to thwart our plans. It would be time to buy. In the end, we made the call a few days early since we found ourselves in Panama City (a short ride from the Puerto de Cartí, where we would meet the Stahlratte) well ahead of schedule.

And then the few short days aboard the Stahlratte: a charming ride through picturesque islands and out across the open sea. Despite some light nausea from the swelling sea (this Kansas boy has never been much of a sea-goer), the ship and its captain and crew lived up to all the hype marvelously, with a skillful and expedient loading process, delicious meals, and good humor in spades.

But after all of our fine luck and good fortune traveling in the Far North, crossing unreliable borders, avoiding pyroclastic flows in Guatemala, and scurrying through a civil uprising in Nicaragua, our luck was slain in the Cartagena harbor. The part of the trip we saw as no problem...the one that had been specifically brokered by the Stahlratte's captain a month in advance...fell asunder.

Day after day, we returned to visit our motorcycles, captive as they were on the Stahlratte, only to hear that the local aduana yet again refused to honor what had been agreed to...refused to entertain further discussions.

The bikes aboard the Stahlratte, securely lashed to the gunwhale and covered. They remained this way seven days longer than necessary in the Cartagena harbor.

Initially, hopes were dashed. After a couple days, hopes gave way to monotony. And a week later, when the bikes were finally ashore, there was little celebration. There was certainly relief to have them back in our possession, and -- eventually, after further frustrating delays -- free and clear of the aduana.

Nick tells the details well in Cartagena, Part 1: Horrible!

The bikes: finally ashore again. Next: a four-hour stall at aduana as we await a single signature.

But the damage was done and the tickets that Nadine and Sarah had purchased were useless: Nick and I would not be able to make it to Quito in time. The best solution we came to was for them to redirect from Quito and meet us in Cartagena after a day of exploring the equator on their own.

For Nick and I, our planned week-long ride from Cartagena to Quito turned into a planned, quick, 5-day ride from Cartagena to Quito, then to a planned, frantic, 3.5-day ride from Cartagena to Quito, and has now turned into 3 days of stalled-out doldrums and lots of extra dollars spent on changed flights.

Image credit: Adam Kirk Smith blog and Jules Feiffer.

The constant movement of the last two months became a sudden stagnation. Our luck not only died; it was killed. Deliberately.

But the fault is not Cartagena's. And luck is never constant. Sarah and Nadine arrive tonight; very soon. Even their journey has been fraught with delays and changes. But we are on an adventure, not a trip. And in adventure, situations are dynamic and we must adapt ourselves to them.

In the words Robert Louis Stevenson's vagabond:

All I seek, the heaven above
And the road below me.