We’re planning to go to South America next, in order to continue Herbie’s World Tour. We’ve already driven across all 48 lower United States, we went to Canada and traveled through Mexico and all Central American countries. There is just South America left. But why haven’t we been there yet?
We actually wanted to go there last time but we couldn’t because first of all our passports were completely marked and full with visas and secondly we didn’t want to ship our car and camper at that time. Many people forget that there is a “huge” gap between Panama and Colombia – at least for travelers who depend on roads.
The so-called Darién Gap is a 54 miles (87 kilometers) stretch of rainforest in the very south of Panama where they tried to build a road in order to complete the Pan-American Highway system but they failed. So there is still this gap and the only way to do it is going by plane or either by boat around it.
The Pan-American Highway is with 29,800 miles (47,958 kilometers) the world’s longest driveable road and goes all the way from Alaska down to Tierra del Fuego (Chile).
Herbie's World Tour 
Here is an eye witness account of crossing the Darien Gap: Crossing the Darién Gap (2013).
That documentary was filmed on March 2013.
Happy travels!
Hey Lloyd,
Our plan is to go to Mexiko first. We’ve been there last year and we loved it very much. Especially the Pacific Coast has amazing views without any tourists at all. So we’ll probably ship Herbie from Manzanillo or Veracruz to Cartagena, Columbia.
Depending on where you want to land Herbie in South America probably limits your departure point in the United States. How many US port cities are there to ship to South America. Probably for your needs you want to land Herbie in Columbia. Just curious. Did a few internet searches, but it got way to complicated. Sure I will read soon about the shipping port. Thanks for the updates — and the geography lesson.
Good info! Thank you professor Hocher.