Expert: Juan Carlos Valencia - 1/9/2008

Question
Hi

I would like to do a little adventure and DRIVE my own 4x4 from New York all the way to Medellin. Mainly  Iwant to see if I can make it somehow through. i know the road is difficult. I flw last Februay in my little airplane around South America and I saw that the roads outside the cities are not in good shape.
What can you recommend?

Kind regards

Karl

Answer
Hey Karl,

this is a very frequent question here, so browse past answers to get even more details, but here´s the basic information that you are looking for:

There´s no land road from Panama to South America.The colombian border with Panama follows an imaginary line in a marvelous but thick and unsurmountable rainforest.This area is amazingly beautiful but very dangerous because of guerrilla, paramilitaries and drug smugler activity. Do not even think of crossing this area by land. Tourists have been kidnapped or even killed there in recent years.

So no matter where you are going, you will have to find a transportation system for your car in order to continue your journey to South america. The ferry service between Colon and Cartagena lasted just a few years and it was interrupted long ago.

So how do you cross from Colombia to Panama? I´ve heard of cargo ships going from Colon (Panama) to Cartagena but I do not know the price for that nor the schedules (if there are any). You may also try to arrange a cargo ship going from Colon to the small port of Tolu (Colombia) or maybe to another port called Turbo (nearer to Medellin) but these are smaller towns and there may be even fewer ships making the journey. Safety conditions in Turbo used to be bad. Cartagena is a big city and a great tourist magnet so try going there.

There´s another option in the pacific: the port of Buenaventura (near Cali). You may be able to find a ship that moves your car from Panama city to Buenaventura but I would not recommed this option as Buenaventura is facing big security problems. Crime is incredibly high there at the moment.

I would say that you should be able to find a ship that moves your car from Panama (Colon) to Cartagena (Colombia). Stay there for a few days (it`s great place) and then travel in daytime from Cartagena to Medellin by car. It`s a long journey (11 hours) but a nice one.

Safety concerns around Colombia continue, but things are better than at the turn of the century. I think that you may be able to travel safely in daytime using the main roads, especially the Pan American Highway, but keep asking how things are while you travel south. Do not deviate much from Panamericana road and never travel at night.

I would recommend that you travel through Colombia as suggested, being very careful and never driving at night. Keep yourself on the main roads and try to drive on long weekends (with holidays) when a lot of locals are also traveling and the army and the police are specially deployed to take care of travelers.

I hope that this helps !

Saludos

JCV