Driving the Pan-American Highway from Panama to Colombia - Not the Darien Gap, via a Container Ship
Full blog post -
The Darien Gap between Panama (Central America) and Colombia (South America) is a 60 mile break in the Pan-America Highway. A road that connects Alaska at the top of North America to Tierra del Fuego at the bottom of South America. There are no roads through the Darien Gap and you can't drive between these two countries. This means that vehicles have to be shipped.
Here's video of our truck being loaded (stuffed) into a container in Colon, Panama and heading out of the container port in Cartagena, Colombia. Sadly I fudged the footage of the car being driven out of the container in Colombia.
Check out more of our adventures on our Trans-Americas Journey -
XplorMor travels to La Palma, Capital of the Darien Provence, Panama
During the XplorMor Photographic Expedition to the Darien Jungle, also known as the infamous Darien Gap, in the Darien Province of Panama, the Team visited La Palma. La Palma, capital of the Darien Province, is a small rustic river town surrounded by jungle frontier. The only way to reach La Palma is by air or water; flights into the small airport must be privately chartered so are very irregular. The Río Tuira, or Tuira River, is the primary access to La Palma, and is often very busy with boats of varying sizes that come and go with the extreme tide fluctuations. View further photos from the trip...
La Palma Slideshow:
Fuerte de San Lorenzo, Panama.
Fortress San Lorenzo, Panama 2009.
MY TRAVEL CHANNEL 1: vladamikulec
MY TRAVEL CHANNEL 2: placesofinterest
Crossing the Darien Gap Thymeoff's photos around Esmeraldas, Ecuador (darien gap dangerous)
Preview of Thymeoff's blog at TravelPod. Read the full blog here:
This blog preview was made by TravelPod using the TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow creator.
Entry from: Esmeraldas, Ecuador
Entry Title: Crossing the Darien Gap
Entry:
Mission accomplished!! Thanks for all your positive vibes - you can all uncross your fingers and toes now! Yes, we made it, and everything in the van is intact! But for any of you perhaps thinking of embarking on a similar journey at some future date, let us backtrack and provide a few details*......it wasn't all a piece of cake. We had been told by the shipping agent to have the van at Puerto Caldera, a small port on the Costa Rican pacific coast, by early Tuesday morning in order to complete the necessary paper work. Sparkling clean, and emptied of all foodstuffs, we complied, only to be told to return the next morning at 9 am as they were running behind schedule due to port congestion. We headed off to put in time for a day and to find lodgings for the night. We were lucky to have the company of Adrian and Tanja (a nice young Swiss couple who had been travelling throughout North and Central America for the last fourteen months) who were shipping their Mercedes van on the same vessel. MV Libra Leader arrived early on Wednesday morning, but the port was still busy loading a container ship, so she had to anchor offshore until the dock was free. Within five minutes of our arrival on Wednesday morning we had provided the port agent with copies of all the documents required by customs. We were then told to wait until 3 pm for further instructions. As they say, patience is a virtue - especially when one doesn't know how long the wait will turn out to be. Luckily, we had books with us, as well as a snack or two to keep us happy. Finally, after two full days of waiting, we were allowed to drive our vans through the port gates to have them inspected and ready to load when the ship arrived. The port agent had indicated that a turnaround time of four to six hours would be sufficient to offload the new cars destined for Costa Rica and to load our two vans. We were therefore quite ecstatic to see our ship berth at 6 pm - but unfortunately the timing coincided with another of those torrential downpours, so unloading was further delayed until midnight. We could see the ship from our hotel, so awakened and walked outside at midnight, 2:30 am and again at 5:30 am to check whether it had left. It finally set sail at 6 am....only about 24 hours late. By 9 am we were back in the port to pick up our Bill of Lading, and were then free to find a bus and make our way back to San José for the flight to Quito the next day. (If the shipping had been further delayed it would have really complicated our flight arrangements, as there are only a couple of flights a day and they are generally all fully booked well in advance). A note of interest. Based on reports from previous travellers, we had budgeted up to Cdn $5000 for the Darien Gap crossing (with the possibility of having to ship by container).We were extremely fortunate, therefore, to be able to ship the van with NYK for only US$250, plus $105 for agents fees. Compared to the cost of flying to Quito - US$760 plus $52 airport tax (for the two of us) - we felt that the shipping was an extremely good deal. Landing in Ecuador - a whole new continent - was a much anticipated thrill for us. The ship wasn't expected to arrive at Esmeraldas until Sunday, so we had two full days to explore the capital city. Quito is a modern, cosmopolitan city with a population close to 2 million, and has a well-preserved colonial centre that was declared a world heritage cultural site by UNESCO in 1978. It has a wonderful location, high in an Andean valley flanked by mountains and snow-capped volcanoes, and although it is only 20 km south of the equator it enjoys a perpetually springlike climate thanks to its altitude of close to 9,000 ft above sea level. It ...
Read and see more at:
Photos from this trip:
1. Squeaky clean and ready to go
2. Waiting, waiting, waiting
3. NYK Libra Leader lying offshore
4. Sad farewell
5. First impressions in Quito
6. Peaceful demonstration
7. Roadside fruit vendor
8. Quiet Sunday morning
9. Candles for mass at Santa Teresita
10. Street corner vendor
11. Colourful Ecuadorian weavings
12. Heading down to Esmeraldas
13. Lunch stop at Rosita's
14. Libra Leader berthing at Esmeraldas
15. Wood chips for Japan
16. Old and New
17. Keen anticipation
18. Drivers gearing up
19. There she is!!
20. Not quite out yet
See this TripWow and more at