This Is My Friend Juan Pedro

Juan Pedro invited me sailing in the remote islands off Cartagena, but the next day I had an early flight to New York.  Don’t worry, he says, we can sort transport back to Cartagena for you from the islands.

I was imagining a water taxi, but Juan Pedro, saying nothing, had a bigger adventure in store for me.  It’s 8am.  I meet Ricardo. Ricardo is a slick youth with ridiculous hair who rides his 4x4 moto cross about the island looking cool.

Ricardo takes me on a 45 minute ride of death along the beach and then the highway. Helmet? Not an option. In the middle of nowhere, next to a shack, he stops (having stopped once already ‘just to check if we have petrol in the tank’) waves down a car, bundles me into it (where I find 3 other people) and tells me to pay the driver 3,000 pesos (around £1). Said driver takes me another 20 minutes, to a huge highway intersection, then boots us all out. Fortunately, a fellow passenger takes pity on me, escorts me across the motorway, and packs me into another car, this time with a family in it.  I am to give the driver 9,000 pesos. At a given point, the family gets out, and my obliging driver dutifully delivers me in one piece, with luggage and not much lighter in cash, at my front door.

So this is commuting from the islands - Colombian Style.