There are no roads linking Panama to Colombia, just 150km of thick jungle, mountains, and marshes. There are some hiking trails through this area, so theoretically it is possible to hike into South America, but the area is lawless and controlled by rebel groups known to kidnap anyone who ventures into their territory. Few people attempt the hike these days, and out of those who attempt many don’t make it. Our plan therefore was to ship the car to Colombia, and try to find a sailboat to take us across.
We met a couple from Switzerland, Fabian and Ornella, while we were in Mexico who were doing a similar trip to ours in a Volkswagon camper van, and when we realized that our schedules were similar, we decided to share a shipping container to load the cars into in order to send them on a cargo ship.
Fabian, Ornella, Jono and I got to spend a day and a half in Panama City getting everything ready for the shipment. We visited the shipping company in an office park on the outskirts of town, which seem to have been copied and pasted from the suburbs of Toronto, including foliage. Police stations were more typical of Central America – dirty old concrete buildings with peeling paint, faded papers taped to walls, and officials with partial uniforms slowly looking after their duties. Finding a completely destroyed car in front of the main police secretariat was only mildly surprising…
As is typical in Central America, some things went badly wrong with our car shipment. Luckily, a way was found to solve every one of them, and we found the typical sayings “No Hay Problema” (No problem) and “No te preoccupes” (Don’t worry) used frequently.
First of all, the departure date we had for our ship had been incorrectly communicated to us by the shipping company,which meant we had to get all documentation done very quickly (and we’re at the mercy of officials) or wait an entire extra week.
We thought we were going to have a few days before we have to put our car into a container and ship it, but the new schedule we were given moved forward the sailing date by two days, and gave us only a day and a half to complete all the paperwork and put the car into a container, plus figure out how we were going to get ourselves to Panama.
When the date came to load the car into the container, we got all five of us into the Safari, hoping to take a quick stop to check our ships going through the locks, and drive to the port of Colon, at the Atlantic end of the canal to load the car (Panama City is at the Pacific end of the canal). We hoped to then try to hire a sailboat to take us to Cartagena.
Unfortunately, the weather didn’t really cooperate…
After spending hours in the heaviest rains we’ve ever seen visiting the shipping company offices, customs, and then the dock officials, we were finally taken to a warehouse on the dock where our vehicle was to be loaded into the container. When the container was put into place, we quickly noted that it was a standard height container instead of the “High Cube” we needed in order to fit Fabian and Ornella’s Volkswagon camper van.
Fortunately, the shipping company personnel at the dock was able to take care of the issue before it became too much of a problem. They weren’t as competent at putting the ramps in place however…
By evening the cars were finally locked and sealed in the container.
Our original plan was to try to hire a yacht and sail to Colombia, but with the terrible weather we found out no boats were leaving, so instead of heading for one of the smaller towns with yacht harbours on the Caribbean, we instead returned to Panama City. After all of our different options for getting to Panama had failed, including inquiring about getting on the cargo ship with our car, flying to southern Panama and hiking through the Darien jungle, and taking a lancha (small motorboat) along the shore, we finally gave in and bought a flight to make it in time to meet our car in Cartagena.
I love coming home from my job to read about your daily adventures. The truck falling off the ramp made it especially amusing today. Safe travels in Columbia!