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We found ourselves in a Colombian Convoy for twelve days. We traveled from Salento all the way down to the Ecuadorian border with Jesse and Jessica from Toronto, Canada, and Melanie and Lukas from Zurich, Switzerland. Both couples are in their late 20s/early 30s. Our “Convoy” traveled over 750 miles from the coffee region south - up and down multiple mountains chains, into the wide open spaces of the Tatacoa Desert, over to the Archeological tombs of Tierraadrento, down to th

Our departure from Baranquilla was delayed by a few days. John got hit with some strange flu bug. Or what we thought was some strange flu bug. He had body aches, fever, and was really weak. He rode it out in the Sheraton Hotel (our oasis hotel chain on this trip) in the fetal position. Two days later, after we set up camp in the mountains on the Caribbean Coast, I went down too. We think that we both got hit with the Zika virus that's been spreading through Latin America with

Gazing out of the plane's window on our descent into Bogotá, I saw the high mountain peaks of the Andes. I could see tiny ribbons of road occasionally cutting through the green peaks. The realization that we would be driving through those mountains soon gave me a jolt. Fear? Excitement? A little of both, I think. There might be some transition time once we are back in the rig. Before we would see LoJo again though, we had 5 days in Bogotá. We decided to explore this city now,

The only break in the 29,000-mile stretch of road known as the Pan-American Highway is the 100-mile section of impassible jungle between Central & South America called the Darien Gap. The only way to get our rig across the gap is to ship it. It’s a complicated process. On the Panama side it requires a shipping agent in Panama City, a police inspection to clear us through Interpol (to make sure the vehicle isn’t stolen), and of course lots and lots of paperwork. Only way to ge

We thought San Jose would be a good spot to get a few things done to the truck. It’s a big city with all the global businesses and services. So while in San Jose, we planned to pick up our new camper batteries that we had shipped here, have the truck serviced at the Toyota dealership, and fix a flange weld that attaches the bumper to the truck frame. It broke somewhere in the Monteverde area in northern CR. Also while in San Jose, we planned to enjoy a nice hotel room and eat

Costa Rica is said to be a great country for adrenaline junkies. We’ve had a few adrenaline rushes since we got to Costa Rica, and not all of them have been pleasant. The first one was during our border crossing from Nicaragua into Costa Rica. A few days before we crossed, we read about a guy who had overstayed his vehicle permit in Peru by one day - and the border officials impounded his motorcycle. He was in a mess trying to get it back; red tape, fines, lawyers, etc. I sa

We heard the horror stories. Border crossings from hell, aggressive "helpers" swarming the car, threats of multiple corrupt police shake downs...it sounded bad. But like many overlanders before us, we would do the "3 countries 2 border crossings in 1 day" saga. Back when we were planning this trip we decided we probably wouldn't be heading into Honduras. For a variety of reasons, I didn't have a burning desire to go. It does have one of the highest murder rates in all of Cent

First, the border crossing: Clearing out of Belize was pretty simple. We cancelled the vehicle permit, cleared customs, got our passports stamped and bought some Quetzals at an only somewhat ripped off price. Then we passed into no man's land between the two countries. We were required to drive through some sort of fumigation station (it looked like a drive thru car wash but it sprayed noxious poison up underneath & all around poor LoJo). Next we parked the rig behind a bunch

We made our way back down to the border of Belize as fast as possible. Camping once again in Chetumal before our border crossing. Everything felt familiar. A couple stops at Walmart and Auto Zone, and we were ready to exit Mexico once and for all. We crossed the border in about 40 minutes and drove down familiar roads toward the town of San Ignacio, away from the coast this time and into the mountains. On the way, we made a detour to drive through the Mennonite community of S

We found ourselves on a quiet road heading up a volcano on the way to Oaxaca. By the time we hit this particular road, we have been driving in Mexico for close to 4 months and every arrival feels like cause for celebration. The toll roads stop us every 30 or 40 kms for more pesos and the free roads through towns slow us every 3 or 4 kms because of the topes (speed bumps). The forks in the road all seem to have the same (or no) highway numbers to cities that are unpronounceabl