One of my best college friends and I decided we were going to adventure the entire stretch of South America, through Central America and then up the PCT over the course of about 6-7 months via bus and motorcycle (ended up not doing the PCT because we ran out of money).
We get into Ecuador thinking just a few short bus rides (http://i.imgur.com/kVVqZuX.jpg) will have us through Columbia and at the border of Panama.
We got our asses laughed at so hard when we were asking about how to get through this "weird jungle area" -- asking the dumbest questions like "where are the roads?" "how about hiking trails"
Lesson learned and ended up just flying over it. But highly recommend traveling that area of the world if you ever get a chance. Some absolutely gorgeous areas, and I think it's still relatively under-appreciated
I had a plan to do something similar - motorcycle up the pan-american highway. Unfortunately every time I think I have a friend or two sold on the idea they drop out...
Last time it got as far as the planning phase and the Darien Gap came up, and there was a real moment of "WTF? There actually is no road between Central and South America? How can there not be a road?"
It was only a few months after I'd completed a driving circuit of the Australian coastline and I'd assumed if there were roads there then there would be roads everywhere...
I'd still like to go to South America, but the tales of kidnappings in remote areas do still stay my hand.
>I had a plan to do something similar - motorcycle up the pan-american highway. Unfortunately every time I think I have a friend or two sold on the idea they drop out...
Just go do it. You'll make some friends on the way...
I'm very good at not doing that! In Australia I managed three weeks without speaking to another human being beyond ordering food and checking in to hotels. I'm not really the talks-to-strangers-easily type.
One more lesson? It's not spelled "Columbia", that is the name of a city in the US. If you are referring to the South American nation it is "Colombia". With an O.
We get into Ecuador thinking just a few short bus rides (http://i.imgur.com/kVVqZuX.jpg) will have us through Columbia and at the border of Panama.
We got our asses laughed at so hard when we were asking about how to get through this "weird jungle area" -- asking the dumbest questions like "where are the roads?" "how about hiking trails"
Lesson learned and ended up just flying over it. But highly recommend traveling that area of the world if you ever get a chance. Some absolutely gorgeous areas, and I think it's still relatively under-appreciated