Suffice to say that after traversing the wilderness of Darien National Park, crossing the border into Columbia (woohoo - another continent!) - untamed wilderness is not the word. We soon realize that there are more possible drug cartels than roads, to the extent that we are relieved to make it to...Cartagena. Columbia (from Romancing the Stone fame) near the coast.
Do the island paradise duo of Aruba and Curacao interest us? Nope. On we go into the late Chavez's Venezuela and come within a bit over 100 miles from the capital of Caracas, though not the best place to be with oil prices below $50 a barrel. 1,033 miles booked in a day - a pretty amazing accomplishment and probably the toughest terrain of the entire trip, or so we think.
Unfortunately, there are few roads to allow us to continue along the coast, so we are going to have to head inland before we can vector back to the more populated areas.
It gives you an appreciation for non-airline travel in South America, at least in the areas that are less populated. We'll have to completely bypass the "three Guianas" as I used to call Guyana, Surinam and French Guiana - interesting places that are about impossible to reach by a contiguous road system.
More to come on contribution by Group later.
Do the island paradise duo of Aruba and Curacao interest us? Nope. On we go into the late Chavez's Venezuela and come within a bit over 100 miles from the capital of Caracas, though not the best place to be with oil prices below $50 a barrel. 1,033 miles booked in a day - a pretty amazing accomplishment and probably the toughest terrain of the entire trip, or so we think.
Unfortunately, there are few roads to allow us to continue along the coast, so we are going to have to head inland before we can vector back to the more populated areas.
It gives you an appreciation for non-airline travel in South America, at least in the areas that are less populated. We'll have to completely bypass the "three Guianas" as I used to call Guyana, Surinam and French Guiana - interesting places that are about impossible to reach by a contiguous road system.
More to come on contribution by Group later.