The trucks lie in wait
The Darien Gap is a 100 mile stretch of FARC infested swampland dividing Panama and Colombia. The last successful overland vehicle crossing of this road-less wonder was completed in 741 days between 1985 and 1987. Did you catch that? Two years to travel 100 miles. Lacking unlimited time, we opted for a cargo ship which would haul our truck around the gap in just 24 hours.
What we assumed would be a $1000, one week ordeal transformed into a one month non-inclusive ($) course on Latin American Business Practices. The curriculum included Language Clarification (yes means maybe and no mean perhaps), Specialized Accounting for Budget Oversights, and Advanced Time Management with an emphasis in Official Stamp Accumulation.
A detailed rundown of the process would only be a painful rendering of a string of unexciting let downs. We could go on for days about the ups and downs but really we’re just happy it’s over. And even more so, we are thrilled to be in South America. Once again, we have all our needs in the back of the pick up and all our desires laid out in the freedom of the open road ahead.
Special thanks go out to a few special people:
- Shaun at Panama Passage for giving us a home away from home and being a valued member of the Squeeze Team
- Julio at PSLI for “making it happen”
- Antonio in Cartagena for translating “absolutely not” into “ok, go ahead”
- Tom & Jan for keeping us sane and finding the humor in every problema
Logan takes a peek inside the container.
- Like buttah
After two weeks, the trucks are sealed in the container
Reunited with the trucks in Cartagena
We opted against creating a guide for shipping the gap because we wouldn´t wish our situation on any other traveler. We did however throw together some helpful tips to potentially avoid the problems we encountered:
Glad you got it back. All your readers do hope for more details, but we don’t want it to tick you off the whole time you’re writing, so maybe I’ll just ask you in person in Peru in a month.
Truly a cocktail conversation my friend.
guys, the last link in your post is dead…
https://panamnotes.com/how-to/the-aspirin-to-your-shipping-headache/
Hope you are doing well. travel safe.
TREE
Should be working now.
Thanks for the tip!
Amazing, I had no idea such a place existed in this hemisphere. Good to know
There have been talks about paving a road for years, in fact we considered doing it ourselves, but political and environmental interests have kept those plans at bay. With every road comes opportunity and complications.