Getting a van across the Darien gap

[Tobias Duncan]

Has anyone done this in the last year or so?
At one time there was a ferry but its no longer in service.
Anyone want to pitch in on a hiring a team of local mercenaries and paying bribes to the FARC?
Any shipping companies that come well recommended ?

[flyboyaviator]

OP you may want to look at these links info taken from the LandRoverexpeditionportal.com:


SCline.com

[flyboyaviator]

www.2wglobal.com is good to check with them.

[flyboyaviator]

www.2wglobal.com is good to check with them.

[Sodo]

Helge Pedersen did it on a motorbike back in the '90s.
He said he would never do it again, had a hard time getting rid of the various diseases he picked up in there.

Shipping seems more feasible.

Helge drives a Westfalia Eurovan.
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'90 Westy EJ25, 2Peloquins, 3knobs, pressure-oiled GT mainshaft, filtered, cooled gearbox
'87 Tintop w 47k 53k, '12 SmallCar EJ25, cooled filtered gearbox
....KTMs, GasGas, SPOT mtb

[Zeitgeist 13]

Helge lives right next to my mother-in-law in Hansville. We're driving our EV Weekender up there this weekend...crossing our own version of the Darien, aka the Tacoma Narrows


Also, as of today the FARC no longer exist as a fighting force.
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Casey--

'89 Bluestar ALH w/12mm Waldo pump, PP764 and GT2052
'01 Weekender --> full camper
y u rune klassik?

[blackglasspirate]

From what I've heard there's only one company that does the actually shipping from Panama to Colombia (assuming you're not shipping to Ecuador and even then it may be the same company), but there are multiple shipping agents that you could go through. After the van is loaded I think there are only two options for you, either you fly and meet it or, if going to Colombia, you can take a sailboat on a 5 day right through the Caribbean. I've heard the sailboat can be pretty awesome, and may not be much more than actually flying (not exactly sure on that though).

I am no expert on this, but have talked with a number of people and are planning to take my van to South America soon as well, so I've done a bit of research. For us, we're skipping Central America on the way down and shipping from either Houston or Miami to Cartagena through a company called Horizon. They are the agent and Seaboard Marine is the shipping company. Not sure if they work in Panama, but it's worth a look.

I'm not sure how much that helps, but I figured I'd share anyway.
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[westspeleo]

[Theslowdutchman]

The Ferry is not there anymore (it was only operated a few times).
So you have to ship it in a container or RORO. Check http://wikioverland.org/ for details. Also there is a new company specialized in Overlanders shipping: https://ivssuk.com really good guy is running this so i'am planning on using this guy.

[BavarianWrench]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EnZKOu4fV4

[blackglasspirate]

"Colombia's Farc has completed disarmament, UN says"
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-40413335


Now we've just gotta watch out for the ELN!
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[Sodo]

[Jake de Villiers]

[ALIKA T3]

[blackglasspirate]

ALIKA,

It's not cheap! Though I've heard that it's not any more expensive (some people have said cheaper, though I can't confirm) than from Panama to Colombia. Though Horizon just increased the price on all shipments to Colombia by $100. So far I've gotten two quotes.

Houston to Cartagena:
Shipping: $2000
Loading Fee: $225


Miami to Cartagena:
Shipping: $2300
Loading Fee: $200


Also, there are port fees on the Colombian side, which will be another couple hundred bucks, but that's the same no matter where you're shipping from.

I'm not exactly sure what the loading fee is and need to get clarification on that. Might be able to lower that.


One thing to consider if you're thinking about shipping from Houston is that flights from there to Cartagena are horrible. They are almost all 16+ hour long ordeals with 2 or more stops. There are, however, direct flights to Cartagena from Miami/Fort Lauderdale for pretty cheap, and most of the cheaper flights from Houston go through there anyway. So depending on where you're coming from, the extra cost of Miami shipping may be offset by money saved on airfare and not having to spend 24 hours on a plane/airport.
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IG: @holidayatsee
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[gbrandt]

Here's info on how we did it last year. http://livetravelplay.marionette.ca/2016/01/06/shipping-lucky-to-south-america/ We chose Boris because he let us drive the van into the container ourselves.
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We've driven in 49 countries and 5 continents to date
Canada to Argentina and back, 2015 to 2017.
Canada to Europe and back (including Turkey, Morocco and Iceland), 2017 to 2019
Mexico 2022-2023
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http://livetravelplay.ca

[blackglasspirate]

[gbrandt]

Yes. The flight was pricey. We could have flown to Bogota then Cartagena cheaper but decided not to. It's also risky to prebook the flight incase there is a holdup at the police station.

I think port fees on the Cartagena side was about $300

[Theslowdutchman]

If costs are to high for you...you can also consider shipping from Veracruz, Mexico. A friend of mine paid 885,- dollar from there to Colombia. Don't know the extra fees. He was doing it with Vanagon as well. If you need more info let me know. I can send him a message.

Safe travels!

[tim_ha]

That cost from Veracruz was most likely for RORO, right?

We shipped our van across the Darien Gap and also shipped home from Valparaiso, Chile to Houston. Both times we could have gotten much cheaper prices for RORO, but opted to share a 40' container. RORO can be sketchy since you have to hand over your keys so that they can drive your vehicle on to and off of the boat. Someone somewhere in the process will have your keys and a lot of time to pilfer what they want. It is a good option for vehicles with a separate lockable cabin. We even considered building a temporary bulkhead wall in our van and disabling the slider and rear hatch opening mechanisms to save on shipping.

In the end, shipping across the gap cost us about $1,200. At the time, there were two main agents organizing the crossing. Shipping home cost about $3000. There were cheaper options, but we were willing to spend a bit more so that we could spend more time on the coast of Chile as well as have the security of having our vehicle locked in a container for the boat ride.
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