I am about to embark on arguably the most dangerous and exciting leg of my 11-year adventure. I will bus from Guatemala City, traverse every Central American country (except Belize), and stop at the end of the North American segment of the Pan-American Highway in Panama’s Darien Gap.
A little bit of background. I have always wanted to travel, by land, the entire length of the Western Hemisphere. This route starts in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, an oil drilling town next to the Arctic Ocean. It winds south on a dirt road called the Dalton Highway, crosses the Arctic Circle, and ends in Fairbanks. From there, the Alaska Highway winds its way down to the Yukon and British Columbia. The Pan-American then goes through the U.S., Mexico, and Central America, all the way to the Darien Gap in Panama.
The Gap is a 30 mile stretch of jungle that separates Panama in North America from Colombia in South America. There is no road that connects the two continents. Panama does not want a road because it wants to protect itself from a flood of immigrants, foot-and-mouth disease, and Colombian FARC rebels.
The Pan-American Highway re-starts in the Colombian town of Turbo. It then goes through Ecuador, Peru, and Chile. The road then continues through Argentinian Patagonia and ends in Ushuaia, in Tierra del Fuego. The entire distance from end to end is 15,000 plus miles.
Over the last decade, I have been traveling in segments and have completed two-thirds of this journey. Specifically, I have done:
- Oakland to San Diego in my car, while stopping at every Spanish mission in California (2002);
- Oakland to Arctic Circle by Greyhound and shuttle vans (2007);
- San Diego through Mexico to Guatemala City by trolley, buses, and taxis (2008); and
- Lima, Peru, to Ushuaia, Argentina, by buses and taxis (2010).
I have three segments remaining: 1) Prudhoe Bay to Arctic Circle, 2) Guatemala to Panama, and 3) Colombia to Peru. I will attempt Guatemala to Panama next, and here is my tentative itinerary. As I travel, and when I have internet access, I will provide updates in Crasstalk Open Threads.
I will start where I left off, in Guatemala City. Due to crime concerns, I will be staying at the Marriott, a veritable Green Zone by itself. It is ringed by truck bomb barriers and is the preferred hotel for diplomats and Americans trying to adopt Guatemalan babies. It has an American sports bar downstairs that is incongruously staffed by short Native American women wearing referee tops, short shorts, and pantyhose.
After stocking up on provisions, I ride. The buses will take me through five border crossings. If they are anything like the Mexico-Guatemala crossing, they will be exciting and frustrating. You have to 1) get off the bus on one side, 2) go to Country A’s immigration booth, 3) cross the border on foot while being harassed by dozens of poor children begging for change, offering to carry your backpack, and selling the local currency, 4) go to Country B’s immigration booth, and 5) get back on the bus. The likelihood of having to pay a bribe at one or both of the immigration booths? 100%
Though the countries I am traveling to are tiny, the trip will take a long time. First, the border crossings can take up to half a day each. Second, due to bus-jackings at night, I can only travel by day.
I will be spending the night in San Salvador, after crossing Guatemala and Honduras. I chose to go on this trip now because the two biggest gangs in El Salvador just signed a peace treaty and murders have dropped precipitously. It’s relatively safe now.
I will then stop in Nicaragua. Being a leftist sympathizer, there is a special place in my heart for Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas. If there is a museum or war memorial in Managua, I am totally there. A side trip to the lakeside colonial town of Granada is a possibility, if I am on schedule.
After Costa Rica, I will stop in Panama City. I will take a breather for a day or two. Up to that point, I would have ridden in clean, efficient, air conditioned luxury buses. My last stretch, from Panama City to the Darien Gap town of Yaviza, will be by chicken bus. It should take ten to twelve hours.
Yaviza is literally the end of the road. Because the area is full of Colombian guerrillas and drug traffickers, I have to check in at the police station immediately upon arriving. The authorities will warn me that to go further south is not recommended and my safety cannot be guaranteed. I have promised my wife that I will obey them.
After taking a picture of the end of the Pan-American Highway, I will have to spend the night in the only hotel in Yaviza, which has a cockfighting ring. At 4:30 a.m., I will grab the first Panama City-bound bus.
Once I return to Panama City, I will take a bus or a train from the Pacific side of the country to the Atlantic side of the country, to the city of Colon. There, I will hop on a boat and traverse the entire Panama Canal. This should take about a day. A few more days of R&R to rest my sore rear end, and it’s back to SFO via Aeromexico.
Fin.
Image (Chichicastenango market) source: Maxichamp
