Life Remotely - From our home in Seattle to Tierra del Fuego in a 1997 4Runner

Hola! Bit late to the party, but given that I have a some time to kill while we wait for our 4Runner to arrive in Colombia, I figured now would be a good time to introduce ourselves to the Expedition Portal crowd. Firstly, thanks a bunch to this community for providing inspiration and mountains of information during the 2+ years we spent planning this trip. We haven't been active in these parts in the past, but we certainly do appreciate what goes on here. I think it's only fair we give a little back!

As an introduction: we are Life Remotely. There are three of us: myself (Jared), my sister Jessica, and her husband Kobus. Jessica and I are Seattle natives, and Kobus hails from South Africa. Kobus does the driving, Jessica does the navigating, and as the third wheel I am relegated the less-glamorous (but also less-stressful) tasks of chef and chronicler.

We're currently in Panama City, jumping through the hoops of getting the 4Runner to Cartagena, Colombia. We left Seattle last October and plan to reach Ushuaia, Argentina in December and continue our travels through South America until March 2013. In total, about 18 months on the road. For the most part we're tent campers, although we spend about a third of our nights in a hotel or hostel. We also work an average of 15 hours per week for clients back in the U.S. which helps us to offset the cost of the trip and possibly extend our travels.

You can read about our route, initial budget, vehicle mods and the places we've been on our website. We also try our best to publish info about border crossings, expenses, internet, wifi and phone and where we stay in each country we visit, hoping that other overlanders will find this information useful down the road.

Here's a photo of the three of us in front of Blue, our trusty 1997 4Runner in Cabo San Lucas.
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Blue is largely stock, although we added a few convenience mods to make a our trip a bit more comfortable, including a folding two-level rear storage platform to hold our gear.
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We keep our camping gear down below and bins with our clothes, kitchen and everything else up top for easy access.
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The biggest job we undertook was to install a dual battery system to power a fridge and power inverter. We have writeups on our website for anyone who wants to know more, here and here.
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Our fridge is an EdgeStar FP430, which I learned about thanks to the gigantic thread on these forums. Granted, it has mixed reviews, but the price was right and it fit perfectly in our 4Runner once we removed the rear driver-side seat. Read more on our website. After 8 months I can say this may have been the best money we spent on this trip. Underneath is an 800W inverter, and behind the fridge is a lockbox I built to store our three laptops safely and securely while we bump down the road. A full writeup on that build can be found here.
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We hit the 13,000 mile mark yesterday. Blue's handled plenty of rough roads, and a couple rivers en route to Panama City. Our only repairs until this point have been replacing the two rear axle seals, along with the rear break pads, a casualty of the oil leak. Plus a wheel bearing, casualty of an idiotic mechanic. Both seals went on the same stretch of road to Lanquin, Guatemala, six weeks apart.
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Like I said, we spend most of our nights in tents. Here I am kickin' back at Playa Josecito on the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica. Enjoying a bottle of cheap rum and livin' the dream.
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Here's a shot from yesterday of Blue being loaded into a container in Colon, Panama. We fly to Colombia tomorrow morning and with luck we'll be on the road in South America on Tuesday.
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If you're interested in our past eight months on the road, check out our website to get caught up and stay tuned for more!
 

Loras BR

Observer
HI,

I live in Boa Vista - Roraima - Brazil at the boarder with Venezuela.

If you get here, please get in touch.

Have a safe trip!
 

LifeRemotely

Observer
Shipping Across the Darien Gap: Panama to Colombia Part 1

This is a long post. I'm sorry, but it's unavoidable. Before we get into this arduous process in detail, let's cover a few pieces of general advice.

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The “Ferry”

There has been a rumor for about four months now that a ferry service is going to start up between Colon and Cartagena. Currently, first sailing is scheduled for July 2nd, but along with quetzals, I don’t believe it exists. The ferry has been delayed three times due to the bureaucratic permit process. Meaning it’s in the hand of corrupt officials and slow-moving government employees.

First-hand info about the ferry is being posted on Drive the Americas.

Check Your Paperwork

The easiest way to delay the shipping process is to have incorrect information on your paperwork. I know how exciting it is to finally be finished after spending five hours at a border crossing, but seriously: CHECK YOUR PAPERWORK. Read everything a dozen times. Compare numbers to your title, passports and other permits. Argue with the custom officer if you have to, just get it RIGHT. You shouldn’t care if they say it doesn’t matter. They don’t know what will matter to the shipping company or Panama City police.

This is especially important for your Panamanian temporary vehicle import permit, the one you get after you cross the Costa Rican border. Read everything carefully and make them change it if it’s wrong. Your alternative is to spend hours driving around and sitting on your thumbs at the customs office in Panama City.

Read the full article on our site
 
Hurry Up and Wait

Hi All, here's our latest trip update. We finally managed to get our 4Runner back and are now safely on South American soil. In one week we'll cross the nine month mark of the trip.

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Start: June 13, Playa Uverito, Panama
Finish: June 23, Tayrona National Park, Colombia
New Continents: 1!!!
Days Without Our Car: 8
Hours Spent Waiting For Something to Happen: Hundreds
Average Temperature in Cartagena: 32C (90F) with 110% Humidity

We had a saying at my last job: hurry up and wait. It is quite possible that the bureaucratic nightmare of working in IT for a hospital on a military base prepared me for the past two weeks. Then again, I doubt anything could compare to the hassle of shipping a car 150 miles from Panama to Colombia. Mostly because of how simple this process could be, and how expensive and convoluted it actually is.

But it's over. The dirty business is done and we shall speak of it no more except in the presence of strong alcoholic beverages. Truth be told, it could have been a lot worse. Our experience was certainly not as bad as others, but I'd still not wish it on anyone.

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After our tranquil week on the beach in Playa Uverito, Panama it was time to hit the road to the big city. En route we stopped to replenish our Nicaraguan cigar supply at Joyas de Panama, a factory that produces stogies for export to Europe and the US. At $1.50 a pop (retail price over $5) it was quite a steal. Unfortunately the workers were on hiatus, or possibly just an extended lunch break, but the friendly lady on site was more than willing to explain the cigar making process.

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A couple hours further up the road and we cross the Panama Canal. And Kobus braces himself for some city driving the likes of which we have yet to experience on this trip.

We drove around half of Panama City looking for a place to stay. Our first four options were a swing and a miss. The first claimed to have parking on their website, but did not. And the last three proved unreachable due to insane one-way streets and horribly placed road construction.

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Fed up, we stopped for lunch under these crazy toucan statues and continued to our fall-back plan, a slightly more expensive hotel that we knew was open and had parking.

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The next day (Wednesday) the fun began. We had one day to get the paperwork completed so that we could load our vehicle on Thursday for the ship departing Sunday. Any mishap would mean we'd be delayed a week.

The first step was a vehicle inspection where we had several near-brushes with failure right off the bat. Inspections are only done between 9 and 10 in the morning provided it is not raining and your engine is cold. Our shipping partners were also missing, if they failed to arrive we'd be on our own which would have cost us an extra $300 or set us back a week.

Fortunately it stopped raining just in time, and our shipping arrived after spending an hour lost in the city. The inspection was over in less than five minutes. Bullet dodged!

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We went with a shipping agent on the Panama side to make the process a bit less stressful. This worked out very well for us, not only could they tell us where to go, but they put us in contact with our new friends Sebastian and Florencia who shared a container with us to Colombia. Also, they're from Argentina, so they told us tons of places to go and were able to deal with the rapid-fire Spanish we encountered throughout this process.

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Wednesday afternoon we wrapped up the paperwork in Panama City and were ready to head to Colon the next day to load up Blue. Before heading to Colon we did a bit of driving through the city stock up on supplies before we had to give up our car for a week.

Driving in Panama City is insane. One-way streets are often unmarked and rarely make sense. The taxi drivers are suicidal and use their horns more than the brake pedal. To make matters worse, it's illegal to move your vehicle if it's been in an accident until the police show up, which does wonders for traffic situation.

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The next day in Colon it's more of the same. We wait around for our "guide" to push the paperwork into the right hands and spring into action when it's time to move on to the next step. The entire process takes about four hours and involved a trip to the customs office and then to the container terminal to load up the cars. In total we spent three and a half hours waiting and thirty minutes running around while stuff was happening.

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With the cars loaded up we sit around and wait for another thirty minutes until our "guide" grabs a couple port workers to seal up the container. In the mean time Kobus wanders around taking photos of the container yard, which probably landed him on a terrorist watch list.

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Continuing our theme of waiting, here we are next to the Colon railway station. Our plan was to take the train from Colon back to our hotel in Panama City, but it only makes the trip once a day and we were two hours early. Never fear, Kobus decides to head down the road and grab us some frosty beverages to help kill the time.

The security guard at the railway station tell Kobus that the store is close, and it's a safe walk provided you have nothing on you. Kobus sheds his wedding ring, watch, wallet and backpack and heads out on a mission. I think he missed the memo when our shipping agent told us not, under any circumstance, to leave the railway station except by taxi. Fortunately he made it back in one piece, with a sixer of Panama's finest lager.

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The Panama Canal Railway's first 75-mile crossing was in 1855, more than fifty years before the completion of the Panama Canal. It was built largely to facilitate the California Gold rush, and its existence is a large reason the Panama Canal was dug in its current location.

After falling into disrepair after the construction of the canal and the handover to the Panamanian government, the railway was privatized in 2000, repaired, and reopened as a freight supplement to the Canal and of course, a tourist attraction.

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Jessica does her best dog-hanging-out-the-window impression. The price of admission is steep, $25 per person, but considering it's the only tourist activity we've done in Panama and they served $2 beers, we were ok with it.

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From trains to planes. Thursday night we booked last-minute flights to Cartagena, leaving on Saturday. Above is our first glimpse of South America! A continent none of us have visited before.

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Unfortunately the waiting game continued. Our last-minute flights weren't ideal, we had a stopover in Bogota which is an hour (by plane) south of Cartagena. Our flight was four hours delayed leaving Panama City due to thunderstorms, and our re-booked connection was another three and half hours late leaving Bogota. Luckily the airline was nice enough to buy everyone lunch. We chowed down on Carl's Jr, our first fast food burgers in over half a year.

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Cartagena at last! This city is spectacular, a great place to spend hours just strolling around. Certainly not a bad place to be stuck without a car for a few days. The bad part? It's hot. Sticky hot.

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We strolled through the colonial streets in the old town until the heat was too much to handle. Then it was into a bar for an ice cold beer to dry off under a fan. Rinse and repeat and that's pretty much what we did for three days while we waited for our car to be ready for unloading.

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We also spent entirely too much time in our air conditioned hotel room. Waiting. After ten days without our car we were totally ready to be back on the road and away from big expensive cities for a while.

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Our third day in Cartagena we walked along the wall surrounding the old town. The walls were built to keep the English and pirates from invading the city, which was marginally successful. Avast! We dodged the afternoon heat by checking out the fine art museum. A bit of culture to go with our swashbuckling.

The next day we could finally start the process of getting our car out of the container. The ship sailed on Sunday from Panama City and arrived the next day. Then it took another two days for the paperwork to clear and the containers to be unloaded. The end result: more waiting while racking up expensive hotel bills.

Rather than bore you with the details of the amount of BS we had to go through to get our car back, I'll just show you this picture:

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Pretty much sums up how things went. Papers, papers and more papers. Things went fairly smoothly on the Colombian side, they were well organized and most people spoke English. However the process is still a convoluted mess.

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Free at last! Kobus and Florencia, as owners of the vehicles, were the only two allowed into the port. Health insurance paperwork, hard hat, and reflective vest in hand, they busted our babies out of the clink after two full days of bureaucratic headaches.

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The next day we hit the road to the beach at Tayrona National Park which actually had us heading north for a couple hours. Our plan was to sweat a couple more days before heading back south into the mountains and cooler temperatures. Regardless, it was a huge relief to have Blue back and to finally be able to camp and spend some time relaxing on the beach.

Up next: South to the mountains!

Originally published here: http://www.liferemotely.com/trip-shenanigans/colombia/220-hurry-up-and-wait
 

LifeRemotely

Observer
Shipping Across the Darien Gap: Panama to Colombia Part 2

Here we go again. As if you didn't have enough fun reading the last 3,500 work article I wrote about part 1 of the shipping process, here is another 3,500 word post on part 2. I hope that someone out there finds this helpful, otherwise I'll be sad about all the time I wasted when I could have been drinking cheap Aquilas and prefecting my chocolate banana pancake recipe. Here we go...

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General Advice

The Benefits of Seaboard Marine

We did NOT ship with Seaboard Marine, we shipped with Evergreen whose port company in Colon is Everlogistics, and recieving company in Cartagena is Global Shipping Agencies. Seaboard Marine is easier because you are dealing with the same company in both ports. You will know all of the fees upfront because the two offices actually communicate. You will likely have to do the entire process yourself, which may sound daunting, but it really isn’t. Plenty of people have done it this way.

We shipped with Evergreen/Everlogistics because the agent in Colon found us a shipping partner. We estimate we paid an additional $50 for this service in Colon, but also had to pay an additional $185 in Cartagena (compared to those who shipped with Seaboard). This is because we paid extra fees to the different company in Cartagena. If you ship with Seaboard these fees are all included in the original payment in Panama.

If you are shipping with Seaboard Marine, check out the article at unUrban and this page at Drive the Americas. They will likely provide more accurate information than this account.

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To enter the port (where your car is), you must wear long pants and closed-toed shoes. There are multiple ports in Cartagena, you may be required to wear pants and shoes for the entire process. For us, only the owners of the cars could enter the port area. So everyone didn’t need to bother wearing long pants and sweating to death, just the owners. Most waiting areas are air conditioned, thankfully. I would recommend bringing long pants and closed toed shoes with to every office. You never know what’s going to happen.

Continue reading at Shipping Across the Darien Gap: Panama to Colombia Part 2
 

LifeRemotely

Observer
Coming Soon: a FREE Ebook on Overlanding in Mexico and Central America!

It's announcement time friends. Soon we'll be releasing an ebook titled Don't Go There. It's Not Safe. You'll Die. And Other More Rational Advice for Overlanding Mexico and Central America.

The good news: It will be free.
The bad news: You have to wait a few more weeks.

If you want to be notified as soon as it is available, go to our site and sign up!

(We promise on our 4Runner's life that we'll only ever send emails related to this ebook. And we won't sell, share or otherwise exploit your email address.)

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What does the book to include?

Part 1: Planning – General overlanding advice for how to organize a trip down the Pan-American. Tips on choosing a vehicle, making modifications, budgets, timelines and routes, gear and paperwork.
Part 2: On the Road – What to expect between the US and Panama. Including handling money, food, safety, language, accommodations and staying connected.
Part 3: Country Information – Detailed reports on each country. Including border crossings, budget and money, phone and wifi information, road conditions and other helpful tips.
 

LifeRemotely

Observer
Five Spectacular Places to Camp in Colombia

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Finding decent places to tent camp has been an ongoing struggle since leaving Mexico. Sure, there are plenty of empty parking lots, gas stations and restaurants we could pull in to, provided we could sleep in our vehicle as most overlanders do. But we prefer not to spend our nights in a tent pitched on gravel next to the highway.

Colombia has been a welcome relief from campground-sparse Central America. Not only are there plenty of campsites, there are more amazing places to spend a night in a tent than we've yet experienced on this trip. We normally publish a listing of where we spend our nights in each country, but after staying in over 60 campgrounds, we feel these five deserve extra attention. Super-friendly owners, free coffee, honor-system beer coolers, spectacular scenery and more amenities than we've seen anywhere else. You can't go wrong.

to read the full article please see Five Spectacular Places to Camp in Colombia
 

LifeRemotely

Observer
At long last, our crowning achievement is finished after several days of nonstop work, excluding that night we went through a bottle of rum and two bottles of wine, of course. In the process of painstakingly recounting our trials and tribulations for your enjoyment, we've gained a profound understanding as to why so many writers are alcoholics.

Introducing: Don't Go There. It's Not Safe. You'll Die. And Other More Rational Advice for Overlanding Mexico and Central America.

So what's this all about? In case the title isn't clear (blame Jessica) it's a guide for people who want to travel by car in Mexico and Central America. It is filled with information we gained during our eight-month journey from Seattle to Panama. It also contains advice for planning and preparing for an overlanding trip based on the hundreds of hours of research we did before leaving home.

Best of all, it's free! No strings attached. All that we ask is that you pass the word along and share the book with others.

What's Inside?

315 pages of advice on planning, what to expect on the road, and specific information about each country between the USA and Panama.
How to choose a route and departure date.
Planning a budget, itinerary and more mundane preparations such as immunizations and insurance.
Tips for choosing, buying and outfitting your vehicle.
Advice from us and other overlanders about our favorite gear and modifications we've made to our vehicles.
How to handle money while you travel.
Advice for staying safe on the road.
What to expect in terms of the language barrier, accommodation options and how to stay connected via phone and internet.
Country-specific information such as border crossings, expenses, phone and wifi reports, road conditions and tips for saving money.

For a Free copy please visit us at http://liferemotely.com/download-the-ebook
 

LifeRemotely

Observer
Into the Southern Hemisphere

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Start: July 29, 2012, Las Lajas, Colombia
Finish: August 9, 2012, Cotopaxi National Park, Ecuador
Fish Caught at 12,000 Feet: 0
Llamas Ridden: 1
Meals Made With Dutch Oven: 6
Hemispheres Driven In: 2!

The past week we wrapped up our time in beautiful Colombia and headed south to the mountains of Ecuador. In the process we visited a very unique church, crossed our first South American border, went fishing at 12,000 feet and camped below one spectacular volcano.

It's tough to leave Colombia, a country that quickly found its way to the top of our list of places to return to. But we're excited about Ecuador. From the Andes to the Amazon, it looks to be a very diverse country with plenty of great campsites and wilderness to enjoy. Bring it on!

Read the Full Article>>>
Download our Free ebook
 

LifeRemotely

Observer
Trip update: Mountains, Jungles and Deserts

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Start: August 10, Cotopaxi National Park, Ecuador
Finish: August 25, Mancora, Peru
Ebooks Published: 1
Ceviches Sampled: 2
Deep Dish Pizzas Made: 3
Nights Camped in the Amazon: 1

The past couple weeks we wrapped up our time in Ecuador. By all accounts one of the most scenic and ecologically diverse countries we've visited. From our two-mile-high campsite in the shadow of Volcan Cotopaxi, we head through the Ecuadorian Altiplano and into the Amazon jungle for a brief (and wet) one-night stay.

From the jungle we head back into the high plains, cross the Andes and arrive in the Peruvian desert, pictured above. Our stay in Ecuador was short, just shy of three weeks, and the huge variety of landscapes, climates and people we met made the time fly by.

Read the full story >>>
Download the Free ebook >>>
 

LifeRemotely

Observer
The Cordillera Blanca

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Start: August 26, Mancora
Finish: September 8, Llanganuco
Hand-carved Tunnels Passed Through: 40
Avalanches Witnessed: 1
Noisy Kittens Successfully Rescued: 0
Fire Pits Dug: 1

Our first two weeks in Peru take us from dusty coastal towns into the Cordillera Blanca mountains around the town of Huaraz. Along the way we visit a few pre-Colombian ruins for the first time since Central America, hang out with some old friends, and drive down a few spectacular mountain roads.

We spent a bit over a week up in the mountains; exploring, hiking and soaking up the amazing Andean scenery. We also dust off our birding vests, on the hunt for the world's largest hummingbird and a species of goofy ground-dwelling owls.

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Our adventure starts at Rancho Santana, a relaxing (and working) farm with ducks, chickens, cows and Peruvian Paso horses. Jess and Kobus decide to head out for an afternoon ride in the Pomac forest to visit the 1000-year-old Túcume ruins.

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Nope, that's not a hill, it's a pyramid. Adobe brick doesn't quite weather as well as stone, and recent heavy El Niño rains have done a number on unprotected sites along Peru's coast.

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Surrounding our campsite on the farm, and along the horse trail to the ruins, we spotted a bunch of these tiny ground-dwelling owls which seemed more than happy to pose for photos during the daylight.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE>>>
 

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