Day 510 – Santa Marta

Unexpected events in Santa Marta

Happy times

Today we woke up at Color Hostel with the expectation of leaving Santa Marta. We had breakfast and then paid for the last two nights’ accommodation. We went upstairs and packed. I discovered that my travel towel was missing from the hostel’s laundry service. They couldn’t find it in the laundry room, so I put it down as being lost. Unfortunately not the worst thing to go missing today.

After putting our backpacks in the hostel’s storage room, we wanted to visit Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino. Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino is famous for being the death place of Simor Bolivar in 1830. 

Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino is in front of the Buena Vista Shopping Centre, so the hostel recommended catching a bus there. Around 9.30am, we went to Carrera 5 to catch a local bus. It was going to “Motocroca” or very similar.

After driving for a few minutes, the bus conductor told everyone to get onto a different bus in the middle of the road. As we rushed onto the other bus we made sure that it was still going to Buena Vista. The new bus started moving as soon as we got on and we didn’t have to pay again. 

Unhappy times

However, in the rushed confusion, my wife noticed that her phone was missing. After checking her pockets and our bag, we concluded that it was on the other bus. I told the bus driver what happened and he just said that the other bus would come to the shopping centre. In retrospect, this made no sense, since they wouldn’t have kicked us off to begin with, if that was true.

Once we were at Buena Vista Shopping Centre, we waited for 15 minutes to see if the other bus would pass by. It never came, but of course it could have gone before our bus or gone somewhere else.

Since our only Colombian SIM was in my wife’s phone, we rushed inside Buena Vista to get a SIM for my phone. Despite explaining the urgency to the lady at Claro, she took her sweet time. An hour later, I had a working SIM in my phone.

Then using Samsung’s Find My Mobile we were able to see that the phone was close by but on the move. We explained the situation to another staff member at the Claro store, but he was confused when using the map.

So we left the store to find a taxi. Since the phone was on the move, we had to explain the situation to the group of taxi drivers who surrounded us. After explaining several times in super basic and horrible Spanish, they understood what was happening. However, they refused to follow the signal and told us to go to a police station instead. We agreed since it could become a dangerous situation. 

Local Police Station    

We were taken to a small nearby Police Station. Using Google Translate, we were able to explain the situation to the very uninterested police officer. To make a long story short, the signal stopped at another shopping centre called Ocean Mall and the officer kept asking, “If the phone is turned off, how do you know where it is?”

We finally got fed up as the conversation kept going in circles for an hour. Then we asked the officer if we should just get a taxi and go there ourselves. He said yes.

Ocean Mall

We walked back to the main road and found a taxi to Ocean Mall. Once we were about to get out of the taxi, the signal started moving again. We then had to explain the situation to the taxi driver who was more than happy to follow the moving signal. 

We ended up down a street with a handful of shops on either side. The website only gives location updates every minute or so. I walked back and forth looking for the phone, but I couldn’t see it. Then I used the ‘ring my mobile’ feature, which would ring the phone at the maximum volume.

Unfortunately I could not hear it ringing and the GPS signal went offline straight after this. The thief must have turned off the phone or blocked reception somehow.

It was frustrating to come within 30m of the phone and still lose it. We had no choice but to give up on the Samsung Galaxy S7. After taking some screenshots from the website, I gave the instruction to wipe the phone. We will never know if it worked or not. As soon as I did it the phone stopped appearing on the website. 

Once we got back into the taxi, the driver decided to inform us that we were in a dodgy part of town. We told him to take us to our hostel, but along the way we told him to take us to the large police station in Santa Marta.

Metropolitan National Police

At the larger Metropolitan National Police Station, we were stopped at the entrance by an English speaking police officer. He told us to call the number *611 to block the phone’s IMEI number, go to Claro to block the SIM, and finally visit the police website (https://adenunciar.policia.gov.co/Adenunciar/default.aspx) to get a Police Report.

Blocking the phone

Therefore, we first walked to Claro to block the SIM. We were informed that the only way to do it, was in person was back at Buena Vista Shopping Centre. It can be done over the phone, but our Spanish isn’t adequate to have a complex conversation like this over the phone. We didn’t think it was worth the effort. 

After a late lunch at the Chinese restaurant, Long Hang, we walked back to our hostel. We told the staff what happened. It turns out that a flood light was stolen last night at the hostel too, which was random. 

The staff called *611 on our behalf and had the phone’s IMEI number blocked. This means no one can use the phone as a phone (calls, SMS, data) within Colombia. I was able to screenshot the IMEI number from the Samsung website earlier. They also asked details about when the phone was last recharged and with how much cash, which I was able to provide.  

Then we tried to use the police website to get a police report. Unfortunately, it kept saying that we weren’t authorised to be in Colombia and to contact immigration, which was concerning.

The hostel’s staff told us to go find the Tourist Police, but they weren’t 100% sure where the office was. After walking around in circles for a while, a police officer was able to point us in the right direction. 

Tourist Police

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The Tourist Police were inside a cafe at the time, filling in paperwork. They didn’t speak English, but they were super friendly as we explained the situation. They called *611 and confirmed that the phone was blocked. I had a feeling that if we met these guys first, they would have gone and retrieved the phone.

When we told them about the issues with the police report they told us to go to the Fiscalia URI Office. An officer found us a taxi and told the driver where to take us.

Fiscalia URI

The Fiscalia URI is a government building. The security guard only let one of us in. My wife went inside since she was going to make the claim. I waited outside. She came out after a few minutes, as the required department was already closed for the day. We were advised to come early tomorrow. 

We walked back to the hostel, stopping at a Subway restaurant along the way.

Luckily, we only lost that day photos, as I had backed up the photos yesterday. My wife also changed her passwords for all the important services, just in case the thieves were able to access the phone. We also extended our stay in Santa Marta by two nights, so we could visit URI tomorrow and get the report. 

Travelled January 2020

Main Expenses

• Bus – Carrera 5 to Motocroca (Buena Vista Shopping Centre) – 1,800 COP (~$0.75 AUD) per person
• SIM Card – Claro (850MB for 20 days) – 23,000 COP (~$9 AUD)
• Taxi – Buena Vista Shopping Centre to Police Station  – 6,000 COP (~$2 AUD)
• Taxi – Police Station to Metro Police Station via Ocean Mall and ‘dodgy neighbourhood’ – 26,000 COP (~$11 AUD)
• Lunch – Long Hang – 36,000 COP (~$15 AUD)
• Taxi – Tourist Police Station to Fiscalia URI Office – 8,000 COP (~$3 AUD)
• Dinner – Subway – 22,600 COP (~$9 AUD)