Tag Archives: Darien Gap

Done And Done

No more shipping the trucks! When we were in the planing stages of the expedition, we could not have possibly imagined how difficult, complicated, convoluted, annoying and downright painful the overseas shipping process could be. After four international, overseas container shipments during the course of the expedition, one would think that we are now knowledgeable experts when it comes to shipping vehicles abroad. The sad reality of the situation is the only thing we really know about putting a vehicle into a container and sending it to another country is that we never care to do it again.

Photo of the Week: Our lives are in your hands

Photo of the Week-El Capitan!

Getsemani and Casa El Carretero

For those of you that don’t know, the famed Pan American highway isn’t exactly a complete run from Alaska to southern South America, the road unfortunately lacks roughly 57 miles between Panama and Colombia. The reason being: a 3,000 sq/mi. area known as the Darien Gap.

Sailing The Gap

It has been a time consuming and difficult process trying to find a way around the Darien Gap here in Colombia, but we have finally managed to bypass the gap and are going to do it in an exciting way. Dealing with the shipping companies in Cartagena has been pretty much par for the course in terms of mind numbing complexity and ridiculousness. The first several quotes we received for our 40′ container were well over $3,000.

Getting Closer to Home

We can all tell just by looking at the calendar and by looking at the odometer on the Toyotas that the expedition is drawing to a conclusion. We are so close that border crossings and navigation around the infamous Darien Gap aside, we could probably drive right back to the US in less than a week if we did it in a straight shot from our current position in northern Ecuador.