Aloha Colombia!

Stevie and I are bursting with excitement. Neither of us know anything about Colombia, or any of the countries in South America for that matter. All we know is that they are much larger than the countries in Central America and will therefore require a lot more driving.

What we do know is that Colombia is the cocaine capitol of the world and is located at the very top of South American. It is twice the size of Texas. Over the last 100 years there have been ongoing civil wars and rebel groups are still active in many areas today. We're excited to learn more about the people and the country as a whole.

Kiki was very skeptical when we arrived at the airport. This was her first flight and she had no idea what was coming..

Kiki was extremely upset when we checked her as our 4th piece of luggage.

So far we've smuggled Kiki across every border except El Salvador and Panama. At each of these borders we got caught. At one we went to quarantine and the other we paid a bribe to get through. But flying into Colombia we knew the paper work had to be completely legitimate. Sure enough there was an official waiting for us at baggage claim and he took Kiki into a holding area. Stevie went to work trying to free her. We had all the official documents from Panama so we just had to fill out some additional forms and pay $35.

Right now we're holding up in Cartagena waiting for the Sprinter to arrive by boat. We're hoping it gets here on Wednesday. It didn't take long after arriving in Cartagena for Stevie to dial in the scene. Club Havana is a Cuban salsa bar and was high on her list. After a half dozen mojitos and some amazing live music we returned to our hotel room and discovered that Kiki had peed all over our bed. There is no doubt that this was payback for checking her as luggage. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. 
TREE

Watch the video of Kiki heading down the belt as checked luggage. 

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Reflections of a nomad - 21 months of Sprinter Life

Sprinter Life has officially been living on the road for 21 months! During that time we've explored North and Central America where we collected some incredible memories. Through our maturation as nomads we decided that we will not be returning to the United States for many years to come. Our mission now is to drive around the world. Here is a recap of the last 21 months living in a Sprinter Van, starting with our favorite countries...

Disclaimer - Stevie and Kiki refused to participate in the ranking of countries, so the list below was created by myself. Whether or not you agree with me will determine if you are right or wrong. My opinion is that my opinions are 100% accurate 99.9% of the time. End Disclaimer. 

1) Cuba - This is the coolest place we've been, period. Email us if you want details on how to get in and where to stay (it's against the law to go as a US citizen). view photos from our trip

2) Mexico - Wow, what a total surprise. Originally we planned to drive straight through in 1-2 weeks, but instead we spent 4 months zigzagging our way south. Highlights included Baja, Sayulita, the Pueblos Magicos tour, tequila tasting, butterfly sanctuary, Oaxaca, and Palenque.

3) Guatemala - This is the most beautiful country we drove through. Breathtaking landscapes and warm friendly people. Our favorite, Rio Dulce.

4) El Salvador - Most people would not rank El Salvador very high, but this is where we got married and it's where we had the best waves of the trip.

5) Nicaragua - We had a good run here. It was extremely safe and the roads were good. Everything was remote. Highlights included the Boom Wave, Lago de Apoyo and Ometepe Island.

6) Honduras - We consider this the most dangerous and corrupt country in Central America. But with that reputation comes excitment and I love excitment! (read more). And for the record, Honduras is ridiculously beautiful.

7) Panama - Super cool country and a nice change after spending so much money in Costa Rica. It is beautiful, the food is great, and the beaches untouched. We loved Bocas Del Toro. And Panama Passage is legit.

8) Costa Rica - I would have ranked this higher back in the early 90s, but now it's WAY to expensive. Are you serious, $10 for a brick of cheese? Get real. Beautiful country that has clearly been tarnished by foreign investment. Having said that, we loved Pavones and Uvita.

9) Belize - We really enjoyed our time on the island of Caye Caulker, and the western slopes of the country were beautiful. It offers world class scuba diving as well.

10) USA - The only reason we ranked the US so low is becasue we already knew it so well. But don't let the ranking fool you. Our 4 month wine tasting tour was nothing short of epic. Seriously, I'm still buzzed. Our highlight was the 16 day solo trip down the Grand Canyon where we got engaged!

11) Canada -  F' Canada. (read more)

Panama City in the distance...

Best buzz - It's a tie between Napa Valley wine tour and Tequila school in Tequila, Mexico
Best beer south of the border - Belikin from Belize
Best food - Mexico
Best sunsets - Playa Aserradores, Nicaragua
Best waves - Tunco, El Salvador, Trestles, CA
Thuggiest surf line-up - Tunco El Salvador
Most beautiful country - Guatemala 
Buggiest country - Panama
Prettiest lake - Lago de Atitlan, Guatemala
Coolest activity - Waterfall jumping in Honduras or Pacuare River Costa Rica
Most inspirational - the French overlanding families
Best kept secret - Baja, Mexico and El Salvador
Best tacos - Bull Taco, Cardiff California
Best pizza - El Triunfo Mexico and Pavones Costa Rica

Worst roads - All of Mexico, and the road driving into Pavones CR
Worst border crossing - Costa Rica to Panama
Worst cops - reportedly Honduras, for us Mexico
Most nervous - Crossing the border into Mexico. We had no idea what to expect!
Scariest moment - Narco gang, Honduras
Most frustrated - Shipping the van in Panama
Biggest disappointment - Bumfuzzle
Biggest myth - Mexico is dangerous. It's fine
Hottest - the blacktop in Jaco, Costa Rica
Coldest - Oregon coast in July

Should have, would have, could have...
Gone zip-lining, done the hot springs at Rio Dulce Guatemala, visited Crater Lake in Oregon, gone to Mexico City, gone to the Caribbean side on Honduras.

Living on the road:
Hardest part - diet/eating well
Most complicated part - finding dog friendly hotels
Best part - different view every night
Saddest part  - being very far away from family and friends
Most useful item - the funnel
Most useless items - Malaria meds, stun guns
Most under used item - bikes
Most appreciated - refrigerator
Most under appreciated - refrigerator

Missing in my life on the road:
Stevie - full length mirror
Kiki - squirrels
Tree - consistent surfing

Biggest Sprinter Life fans measured by posts read, and quality/number of comments on the blog: Angela Polito, John Simko, Alexis Schulman

Sprinter Life Boosters - helping through finances and logistics: Cyndi and Brian, John Sr, Indra Trujillo, Angela Polito, Jen and Steve, Cheryll Anglin, The Simkos, Panama Passage, Outdoorplay.com

And so one epic chapter closes and a new one opens. This afternoon we fly to Cartagena, Colombia where we plan to spend the next two years exploring every country in South America. The only thing we know for sure is that we're going to need more pages in our passports (see photo above). Adios North and Central America.

Thanks for following! TREE, Stevie, Kiki

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My Mistake, I DON'T Got This...

Drop off day. It was supposed to be butter. Drive the van to the port in Colon and load it on the ship which was scheduled to sail the following day. Problem #1, the captain of the boat decided to leave two days early. Why would he do that and why the hell didn't anybody from the port call us with this little piece of information? Because this is Panama and here people do what the F' they want! 

Problem #2, immigration had no record that we exist. Once again the idiot border officials didn't enter our vehicle permit into the computer system when we arrived in the Panama so there was no way to allow a vehicle that did not exist to leave the country. 

Enter the Wolf! My trump card. My hero, Julio. We've never hired anyone to help us with logistics, deciding instead to stumble our way across borders and learn as we go. But for some reason I had a weird feeling on this shipping project so we brought in back-up. Julio is a bilingual shipping logistics ninja. He isn't a cheap date, but with his contacts and expertise we were able to "dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge" our way through the issues of the day. Phone calls were made and immigration was sorted out. Paper work was changed and we were booked on a new boat leaving in a week. Money changed hands several times. What can I say, I don't got this, but Julio does.

Having bilingual ninja back-up helped us through the red tape, but equally important was having someone who actually knows their way around the Port. This is the Panama Canal people. It's a forest of containers out there. I got lost just going to the bathroom and Julio had to come find me. I really thought I had that one... but I just didn't.

Although the Sprinter is now shipping one week late, we're still flying out on Thursday. That means the Sprinter has to sit at the port for a whole week before some random dock worker loads it on the ship. Turning over the keys was painful. The kid who drove off in the van was probably 20 years old and had cornrows and earrings. But the look on his face when I executed my "vehicle securing ritual" was priceless. I unleashed my triple-threat ultra-bomber multiple-barrier theft deterrent plan. Yeah, I could tell... he was impressed. (Good work building the 2nd line of defense Chad).

As if my day wasn't stressful enough, upon arriving home I discovered that Stevie had rescued yet another dying dog. She pulled this puppy out of a trash can down the street. It's probably only a couple weeks old. Stevie has been feeding it milk and swatting away the flies. Kiki is disgusted, I'm highly skeptical, and Shaun, our host, has added a new rule to the Panama Passage guest binder. Sorry, effective 6pm tonight bringing home stray puppies dying in trash cans is now against PP regulations.

That's the update. Just another day in Sprinter Life. Carry on. TREE

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Prepping for departure - I told you I got this...

I'm a list maker. No matter how daunting the task, nothing makes me happier than writing an enormous list of everything I need to do, then executing.  After 4 days of work, our list is almost complete. The only remaining task is to pass the drug sniffing dog test,  get clearance from Panama customs to leave, and to load the van on the ship. I will take care all of this on Monday. We anticipate Kiki's health certificate will be ready by Wednesday and then we will fly to Colombia on Thursday.


That's not to say that our mission was without challenges. Something always unexpected happens. While pulling her clothes out of the van Stevie noticed a leak coming from the roof.  It's the rainy season and that was a show stopper. Fixing that problem in the US would be easy for me. I would take the van to a car-leaky-hole-in-the-roof-fix-it place and pay someone to patch it while I sat in the lobby surfing their wifi. Down here it's not that simple. It's every nomad for himself. Just finding the supplies to do the job took us half a day. Then reading on the internet how to do the repair and executing took the other half. I think it's watertight, but we'll see during the next rain storm.

Photos below of me fixing the roof and installing the security dividers. The van seems secure and we're hoping any thieves will be deterred while our van is in transit.

We've been staging our logistics from a guest house called Panama Passage. This place is specifically set up for overlanders who are shipping between continents. Since we've been here the place has been packed with Europeans. Once again we are blown away by these families. They are out driving around the world with their kids in tow, as if nothing was more natural. It is nothing short of amazing to us. We met the most inspirational family to date a couple days ago. This French family just spent 6 months in South America and are now on their way to Alaska. They are driving an old Defender and traveling with FIVE KIDS!!! Can you imagine driving around the world in that vehicle (see below)? It's like a clown car when they all get out. The parents are home schooling the kids, and Stevie was more than willing to pitch in on some lessons. 

On the left side of the photo below is another French family. They have 3 kids and the oldest (sitting on dad's lap) is disabled. We never see Americans traveling like this, so it is wonderful for us to share the experiences of the Euros. We're more excited than ever to travel with our kid after seeing the way these families live. They aren't afraid of the world or of exposing their children to it.

When not packing, prepping, and organizing, we found time to explore Panama City. This is a very interesting place. There are some really bad slums surrounded by some nice neighborhoods. There is a beautiful "old town" and a modern city downtown. Some of the government buildings where we needed paper work signed were located in bad barrios. I was never worried because there were armed military guards on every corner, but you wouldn't want to be in some of those places after dark. They are bad news. The level of poverty in these ghettos is as bad as we've seen anywhere in the world.

We went out to Casco Viejo (old town), with Shaun, our host at Panama Passage. This place is really cool. We need to go back and check it out during the day. There was street art and beautiful old buildings. Stay tune for more photos of this place. TREE

Sprinter Life video - fixing the roof

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Crossing Continents - I've Got This...

We've rolled into Panama City, which marks the end of the line for this continent.

For those of you who don't know, there is no physical way to drive from Central to South America. There is a 200 mile stretch of dense mountainous jungle called the Darien Gap. It has no roads. This is not a very hospitable place. In addition to being a major narco trafficking route, this is also where FARC is located. FARC is a backwards acronym standing for Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. Don't let the pretty girl fool you, they are not very nice. They are rebels and they don't like visitors. The only way around is by boat or plane, of which we'll use both. The Sprinter will be shipped on a freighter while Stevie, Kiki and I will fly with Copa air.

The logistics of what we have to do are no F'ing joke. This is without a doubt the crux of driving the Pan-American highway. In order to continue our journey we'll have to:

1) Have the van inspected by the police, get signed paper work. Then have van inspected by Panama customs, pass drug sniffing dog test (yikes), receive stamped official paper work
2) Have shipping company book us on a freighter that allows flat racks
3) Unload and repack van. Secure most important belongings
4) Deliver van to the port in Colon, load it on a flat rack, hand over keys
5) Take Kiki to the vet for official health certificate (no smuggling this time since we're flying). Certificate must be signed by 3 different government agencies in Panama City, which will take 5 days.
6) Purchase plane tickets for 2 people and 1 dog and fly to Cartagena, Colombia
7) Retrieve van from Colombian customs and hope nothing was stolen
Total turn time - 7 to 10 days

Don't worry though. I got this.
TREE

Video: Crossing Panama Canal

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Santa Catalina - The Pacific Paradise

We worked our way to the pacific ocean looking for two things, waves and internet. Both were elusive, but what we found instead was rain, raw landscape, and friendly people. More rain than anything though. Click here to view video

We drank wine under the shelter of palm trees, bought groceries out of the back of a pick-up truck, and talked about how we want to raise our child. We love the idea of bringing our kid up on the road while exploring wild places like Panama.

Panama is rugged, and that is what makes it so beautiful. There are no high rise condos at the beach. No hotels or tourist beaches. Just un-manicured wide open spaces with wild animals running free...

Well, not all of them are running, nor want to be free...


Stevie out shopping for dinner. Pretty good selection for the back of a truck. This is what I call locally grown...

It is nice to see some places that remain untouched by development. Unfortunately many people are calling Panama the next Costa Rica. Foreign money is buying up all the beach front property and prepping it for development. I often worry about the world my kid is going to grow up in. Will there be any wild places left?

I guess that's why Sprinter Life is on a mission to see it all now, or as much of it as we can. I want to see these beaches and jungles and mountains and rivers before they become cluttered with resorts and restaurants and disco bars, before they are cut down and dammed. On a parallel note, I can't believe the Chilean government is going to put in 5 dams on the two wildest rivers in Patagonia (announced on May 7th, details here). My heart aches.
I diagnose us, the human race, as certifiably insane. TREE

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