Captive in Cartagena

Although we are ready to leave, we cannot. We are being held captive in Cartagena by inane bureaucracy. For some unfathomable reason, cruisers cannot deal directly with customs and immigrations officials but must work through agents. You just have to hope that they are actually working to facilitate your arrival and departure from the country of Colombia, but it seems like a fairly disfunctional system. Yesterday morning, we told our agent that we wanted to leave on Sunday. She agreed to come by to pick up our passports that afternoon, and she came at 2:00. At 5:30, after offices had closed for the day, she returned to say that she had not had our passports stamped because the boat had to be cleared out by customs officials also before our departure, so there is nothing she can do until Monday afternoon when the official is expected to return to his office. (Why didn't she think of this earlier in the day???) Apparently, despite this being a major port, the customs office is not open on the weekends! So, we are stuck here at this marina until at least Tuesday, paying $60 a day for the privilege of waiting for the wheels of bureaucacy slowly to turn.

Needless to say, I am not very happy right now.