The shipping process begins!

 

Many readers will be thinking, why is the ultimate overland team such gluttons for punishment! Having had such a frustrating time getting their cars into Argentina why are they once again putting their cars on a boat with all the associated hassle and potential delay. The answer is the Darien Gap.

 

The Darién Gap is a geographic region in the Isthmus of Darien or Isthmus of Panama connecting the North and South American continents within Central America, consisting of a large watershed, forest, and mountains in Panama's Darién Province and the northern portion of Colombia's Chocó Department.

The "gap" is in the Pan-American Highway, of which 106 km (66 mi) between Yaviza, Panama, and Turbo, Colombia, was not built. Road-building through this area is expensive and detrimental to the environment. Political consensus in favour of road construction collapsed after an initial attempt failed in the early 1970s, with a proposal in the early 1990s halted by serious environmental concerns. As of 2023, there was no active plan to build a road through the gap. 

 

So the only solution is to ship the cars. You might have thought that there is sufficient traffic to warrant a ferry but those that have tried have failed because there is just insufficient traffic to support such a service. One is therefore reliant upon the ships that transport goods (in which case you need to put the cars into a container) or cars (in which case it is roll on roll off.

 

We have been incredibly lucky in so far as Nigel has some personal contacts with the Hoegh family who operate car transporting ships around the globe and happen to have the Hoegh Beijing arriving in Cartagena on the 5^th April on-route to Panama. We have managed to secure passage and the process begins today, 3^rd April with delivery of the cars to the port terminal. The following day will be the compulsory drugs inspection and then the cars will be driven onto the ship.

 

At 08:45 wheels rolled and the three cars set off to a rendezvous with our shipping agent, Luis, at the petrol station near the terminal about 30km south of Cartagena old town. About half way to our destination Nigel shot off and Chris and Ham continued their steady progress towards to rendezvous. Fortunately, despite some heavy traffic at times, Ham’s car showed no signs of overheating. But it turned out that Nigel’s Lagonda had lost the entire coil based ignition system. That was what had led to Nigel’s disappearance, a need to get to the fuel station as quickly as possible to see whether his ignition could be mended.

 

The whole process of shipping cars is hideously complicated and time consuming. First we had to be approved to gain access to the terminal, then the paperwork for the cars had to be approved, then the cars had to be processed into the terminal. This fortunately gave Nigel and Chris sufficient time to resolve his ignition system, namely a faulty distributor arm. By the time they had finished the car was running properly and it was time for us to exit the terminal. This was merely the first of three required visits to the terminal. Tomorrow we return for the mandatory narcotics inspection and then we have to return once the boat begins to load to drive the cars onto the boat.

 

Luis kindly drove us back to our AirBnB but Ham left his phone in Luis’ car. In sprinting down the road he not only damaged his Achilles he also blistered the bottoms of both his feet. He will not be comfortable for some time!!

 

The team took Ham out for dinner for his 63^rd birthday at the Jardin Restaurant, Sofitel. Delicious cocktails, beautifully cooked fish and a birthday cake to finish it all off.