Jan Weitner riding his XT from Terra del Fuego to Vancouver

The road to Mexico

20.351 kms
How to cross the Darien gap? It took me some effort to do it. In the Colombia - Cartagena area it was too hard to find a boat to Panama - Colon for me and la moto. There are smuggler boats but reliability is not their middle name. I decided to go back to Bogota and ship the bike as air cargo via a company called Girag. Carolina guided me through the process and took good care of my shipment and paperwork on the Colombian side.

One of the steps in the process was the visit of narcotica police. These guys take their job serious. US customs can learn something from them. They examine luggage like you have never seen before. They taste the liquids and soaps you are carrying, every inch of your clothes is inspected with great care. I started to get nervous seeing all my clothes and stuff on the ground. I was wondering if everything was going to fit again. When they finished their investigation they started to re-pack my luggage the way it was packed. Polite gentlemen!

There we were in Panama, again I had to say goodbye to my friends in Bogota. The moment I left Colombia I started to miss it. The temperature in Panama was sky high lucky the road up North passes some cold mountains where you need hot chocolate to warm up. In Panama City I noticed that La Moto had difficulties standing up when parked. Did Girag do something strange with her or was she just tired of the flight? During shipping Girag unfortunately damaged my side kick.

To take some rest we continued to Nicaragua - Granada via Costa Rica. I met a Dutch couple who settled down in Granada. They showed me a beautiful vulcanic laguna called Lago de Apoyo. You don´t need to be afraid for speeding tickets in this area by the way.

I crossed Honduras in one day, stayed a few days in El Salvador before I reached the Guatemala border. From there I drove straight to Guatemala City. This city is highly poluted I had to run away to Antigua and operate from there. The chain and sprockets of la moto needed replacement after 19.000 km. In Guatemala City I found a Yamaha dealer. After negotiating a price for the work (25% discount on the retail price, every price is negotiable even here) we agreed to do the work after the weekend what allowed me to do some more Antigua touring and see parts of the procession where different groups compete. Normally one person is enough to replace a chain. In Latin America they need frequently more people to do a certain job which sometimes start to worry me if that is combined with odd questions that make you wonder if you are really at the Yamaha dealer. Antigua is a great little town that make you forget you are in Central America. You are surrounded by tourist and restaurants serve real food what I didn't mind.

From Guatemala City we continued to drive the road from Mixco to Solola, (with the most robberies in the world, passing the vulcanic lake of Lago de Atitlan. Slowely we reached the Mexican border after a visit in Quezaltenango.