“Cartagena? Why did you go to Cartagena? I thought you wanted to go to Panama. Did you change your route?”. Don’t worry, we’re still on our way to Alaska! The Panamerican Highway is the longest road in the world, but it has one flaw: there is a 70 km gap (Darien Gap) between Colombia and Panama without any streets, just wild jungle. There are 3 ways to cross Darien Gap:
1. Get a machete and cut your way through the jungle and guerillas’ headquarters. Some cyclists have successfully done that and have crazy stories to tell. Many attempted and never came back.
2. Fly from Cartagena/Bogota/Medellin/Cali to Panama City.
3. Catch a sailing boat from Cartagena to Portobelo, Panama via Guna Yala islands. “Sailing boat? Do you mean ferry?”. Nope, there is no ferry on this route at the moment. In general, there is no regular ferry service between Colombia and Panama, only occasional private companies try to establish it and, sadly, fail.
Sooo, we knew about this ‘situation’ even before the beginnig of our journey. We were talking about this topic quite often during the trip. We did the research and monitored the changing situation, yet the final decision was made only last week. We are taking a sailing boat Micamale!