Friday January 12th 2018 Canoa
I skyped Copa again early Tuesday morning at the number on the back of my Property Irregularity Report. This time I was basically told they couldn’t do anything from that office, wherever it is, other than tell me that my bag had been found and was in Guayaquil airport. I was given a phone number for Copa in Guayaquil and extension for the baggage department that I should call after 9 am. At 9 am I called on Skype and punched in the extension. It rang 3x and then disconnected. I tried several times and the same thing happened.
So, feeling more than a little frustrated, I called the original number again. Once again, after arguing for 20 minutes, I was told my case would be “elevated” to a “priority”. All of these calls are accomplished with a poor connection and talking to someone with a heavy Spanish accent. That afternoon, someone called Samia, one of the property managers for our condo, whose phone number I had left with Copa. I got an email from Diane, the owner of the property management company, saying my bag would be delivered by a delivery company named Servientrega the next day, Wednesday, at around noon. It seemed like there was some progress at last.
On Wednesday, I sat out on our back step from 11 am to 1:30 pm to be sure that I wouldn’t miss the delivery. That was a waste of time. By late afternoon I emailed Diane again and asked how to contact Servientrega. She suggested waiting until the next morning, since noon in Ecuador can mean 5 pm, and it might still get there. She offered to have Samia call them Thursday morning if nothing happened, which it didn’t.
I emailed Diane with all the details on Thursday morning and asked for Samia’s help. Then we went shopping in Bahia. It’s easy to get there from here although it’s about 20 km. The main (only) coast highway is right behind our condo, between the beach and the cliff. Buses go by about every 20 minutes. We can walk out our gate, watch for any bus and just wave at it to stop. We hop on, find a
seat and eventually the bus attendant will find us. We say “San Vicente” and hand him 50 cents each. Then, in San Vicente, we walk to the little taxi stand just before the big bridge across the inlet to Bahia and get a taxi to El Paseo Shopping Centre for $2.
We spent a couple of hours in the shopping centre. There’s a big grocery store that sells everything from oatmeal and roast chicken to toilets and sinks. There’s also about 10 other smaller stores, a food court where you can get KFC, Carl’s Junior Burgers, Chinese food and a couple of others, plus 2 banks with 3 ATMs each. We got cash using my VISA card and my Credit Union debit card but, for some reason, the ATMs don’t like my CIBC debit card. Not a problem.
We loaded up with groceries, 2 more bottles of rum and a case of wine since we didn’t want to bother coming back for a few weeks. We can buy veggies, fruit, cheese, eggs and roast chicken in Canoa. Plus, we’ll probably walk to Canoa more often now to eat in the ceviche huts on the beach or at the Bambu or the Surf Shack restaurants. For $8 a taxi took us back to our condo.
As soon as we arrived, there was an email from Diane saying that my bag had just arrived at the Servientrega office in Bahia. Unfortunately, they had no intention of delivering it until Monday. I got the address from Diane and printed it on a card to show a cab driver. After lunch, I went back out, caught a bus to San Vicente and a cab to the office. There was a small foyer. Beyond that was a big metal cage like a prison where the 2 employees and all the boxes and bags stayed safe. Petty theft and even armed robbery happens here more frequently than in Canada. After I showed my Property Irregularity Report and my passport for ID, they opened the cage and I finally had my backpack, 9 hours short of a full week since it disappeared. My cab had waited for me so for a total of $10, he drove me back to our condo. The picture shows me arriving in the same clothes I’ve been wearing for a week. No longer. When we checked, nothing had been stolen from my bag. It’s a Copa Airlines miracle!
We’ve also included a picture of the most action we’ll likely see on the beach this morning.
I skyped Copa again early Tuesday morning at the number on the back of my Property Irregularity Report. This time I was basically told they couldn’t do anything from that office, wherever it is, other than tell me that my bag had been found and was in Guayaquil airport. I was given a phone number for Copa in Guayaquil and extension for the baggage department that I should call after 9 am. At 9 am I called on Skype and punched in the extension. It rang 3x and then disconnected. I tried several times and the same thing happened.
So, feeling more than a little frustrated, I called the original number again. Once again, after arguing for 20 minutes, I was told my case would be “elevated” to a “priority”. All of these calls are accomplished with a poor connection and talking to someone with a heavy Spanish accent. That afternoon, someone called Samia, one of the property managers for our condo, whose phone number I had left with Copa. I got an email from Diane, the owner of the property management company, saying my bag would be delivered by a delivery company named Servientrega the next day, Wednesday, at around noon. It seemed like there was some progress at last.
On Wednesday, I sat out on our back step from 11 am to 1:30 pm to be sure that I wouldn’t miss the delivery. That was a waste of time. By late afternoon I emailed Diane again and asked how to contact Servientrega. She suggested waiting until the next morning, since noon in Ecuador can mean 5 pm, and it might still get there. She offered to have Samia call them Thursday morning if nothing happened, which it didn’t.
I emailed Diane with all the details on Thursday morning and asked for Samia’s help. Then we went shopping in Bahia. It’s easy to get there from here although it’s about 20 km. The main (only) coast highway is right behind our condo, between the beach and the cliff. Buses go by about every 20 minutes. We can walk out our gate, watch for any bus and just wave at it to stop. We hop on, find a
seat and eventually the bus attendant will find us. We say “San Vicente” and hand him 50 cents each. Then, in San Vicente, we walk to the little taxi stand just before the big bridge across the inlet to Bahia and get a taxi to El Paseo Shopping Centre for $2.
We spent a couple of hours in the shopping centre. There’s a big grocery store that sells everything from oatmeal and roast chicken to toilets and sinks. There’s also about 10 other smaller stores, a food court where you can get KFC, Carl’s Junior Burgers, Chinese food and a couple of others, plus 2 banks with 3 ATMs each. We got cash using my VISA card and my Credit Union debit card but, for some reason, the ATMs don’t like my CIBC debit card. Not a problem.
We loaded up with groceries, 2 more bottles of rum and a case of wine since we didn’t want to bother coming back for a few weeks. We can buy veggies, fruit, cheese, eggs and roast chicken in Canoa. Plus, we’ll probably walk to Canoa more often now to eat in the ceviche huts on the beach or at the Bambu or the Surf Shack restaurants. For $8 a taxi took us back to our condo.
As soon as we arrived, there was an email from Diane saying that my bag had just arrived at the Servientrega office in Bahia. Unfortunately, they had no intention of delivering it until Monday. I got the address from Diane and printed it on a card to show a cab driver. After lunch, I went back out, caught a bus to San Vicente and a cab to the office. There was a small foyer. Beyond that was a big metal cage like a prison where the 2 employees and all the boxes and bags stayed safe. Petty theft and even armed robbery happens here more frequently than in Canada. After I showed my Property Irregularity Report and my passport for ID, they opened the cage and I finally had my backpack, 9 hours short of a full week since it disappeared. My cab had waited for me so for a total of $10, he drove me back to our condo. The picture shows me arriving in the same clothes I’ve been wearing for a week. No longer. When we checked, nothing had been stolen from my bag. It’s a Copa Airlines miracle!
We’ve also included a picture of the most action we’ll likely see on the beach this morning.
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