A Man, A Plan, A Canal, Panama: Crossing Through to Colombia

The other day I talked about our itinerary up to Panama. I stopped there. Dead. That’s because there’s an interesting thing about Panama when heading south. You can’t go any further. Not by car anyway. Can you pay a fee to cross? Nope. Bribe an official? You can try, but no. So how are we going to get our car, two adults, and two large, slobbery dogs from Panama to South America? To find out, I did a little research.

First of all, it’s called the Darien Gap. It’s a 100 mile long swath of land between Panama and Colombia and because of the rough terrain, there are no roads connecting the two. The Pan-American Highway stops at the gap and restarts just after. If that wasn’t enough of a deterrent (and for some it’s not, someone famously crossed it in 1975 and wrote a book about it), there are also reports that some Colombian rebel groups live in the area.

Instead, most people hire a shipping company to transport their car to Cartagena, Colombia and fly into the city to meet their vehicle. Average price? About $1000 for the cargo ship. Each way. The flight? Around $100 for us, around $200 for each dog. Total cost round trip: $3200. This is probably why more people don’t attempt this sort of trip.

So now, the big question: is the straight path to South America really the best one? Here are our options:

1. Leave the car in Panama, fly to Colombia, buy a car there (that we later sell) and travel around until we reunite with our vehicle in Panama.

2. Rent an apartment in Panama. Kiss the husband and puppies good by for a few weeks at a time and do the South American piece solo.

3. Find some travel partners that have a vehicle big enough for all of us, travel the South America leg of the trip together and split costs.

4. Bite the bullet and pay for the cargo ship.

I don’t have an answer yet on what we will do. My instinct is telling me to not worry about it now, go to Mexico, and start driving. When we get near Panama, many things could change. We might fall in love with a place and want to stay. We might meet really cool people we want to travel with. Or we might find some alternative method from other travelers or locals.

Six months ago, I would of had a spreadsheet with exact shipping times, vendors and costs.  I would have worried a few nights in a row about the dogs, the weather, the car or any number of things out of my control.  Today?  I’m going to Panama.  And I don’t have a plan for what happens next.  Could this be progress?