When traveling abroad I tend to be very understanding and polite toward the opposing culture. I brush up on a few key phrases such as, “Where is the bathroom?” and, “No, I’m not lost so don’t even think of kidnapping me.” And then I rely on exaggerated hand gestures and facial expressions to get me by. Though when it comes to international locations such as airports, I expect the staff to have a few English words under their belt. Is that my pompous American side? Is that not the norm?
Well it is definitely not the norm in Cartagena, Colombia. The police officer at customs only knew 2 words. And they are the last two words you want to say to an aggravated woman. Calm down.
Oh no he didn’t.
The issue was simple, we didn’t have an exact address of where we were staying. We had a car service waiting for us outside and I kept trying to relay that to the customs officer. He kept motioning to me that we can’t leave to talk to the driver without going through customs first but we couldn’t leave customs without having that address. Catch-freakin’-22! Who would have ever thought I’d have trouble getting into Colombia. I expected this kind of issue at customs from the States upon our return but not vice versa.
Needless to say we made it through. And we are now brushing up on our Spanish.
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