Back in Switzerland we were told that travelling around in Latin America with a foreign car was only possible with the so called “Carnet de Passage”, a document which guarantees that you only import a car temporarily. Well, forget it.
So far we have not used that fancy document which is only available in English and French (and not in Spanish!!).
And this had always worked out perfectly. Yes, a lot of paper-work, but no, not too much money to be paid. On the border to Nicaragua we once again tried it – but of course, they had never seen anything similar before. We spent the usual two hours at the border, chatted with everybody, hired a 16-year old boy to guide us through the chaos for 1 Dollar and a beer and finally got all our papers signed and stamped. And here we were: Nicaragua!

From the beginning on we liked the country: the street after the frontier winded itself through beautiful mountains with colourful trees, people were once again very friendly and the colonial towns were beautiful. We stayed in Leon in a colourful hostel with “mucho fiesta” (Via Via Hostel) where we partied with our two Austrian friends Astrid and Dieter who had travelled with us for some days (the Land-Cruiser even accommodates 4 travellers with luggage!). We then made it to Granada – on the way there we passed the 50,000th kilometre of the Panmundo journey and changed the engine oil. This city was even more beautiful than Leon! Our hostel was splendidly situated in between some other colonial buildings. It offered a swimming pool, many hammocks, and a great breakfast (Hostel Oasis). We attended a Nicaraguan wedding in a beautiful old church, had dinner at a German restaurant and went canopying!

And this is a great adventure! Bound to thin steal cables you rush through the forest – often 40 meters above ground. Flying like superman – or Tarzan, rather.

Back in our hostel, we met PC2600 Naomi Smith, a police officer with a charming face from Nottingham, England (PC = Police Constable). We learnt A LOT about the work of a police officer in England and decided that this was far more dangerous than travelling around the world. A day later David went to dinner with Fatimh (right, there is no “a”!), a designer from New York. My first impression when talking with her was “oh la la, she’s very American!” However, she was a photographer, too, and her pictures were quite impressive.

By chance the two girls wanted to go to “Isla Ometepe”, too, and so we offered the seats of the two Austrians to them. The Austrians would have to travel by bus again, but, hell, you have to make priorities.

No, that's a joke; the Austrians were flying to the Corn Islands and so we had two free seats to offer.

Ometepe is a beautiful island in the middle of “Lago Nicaragua” – the third biggest sweet water lake in the world (and the only one with sharks!). From far you can see the two active volcanoes and coming closer the jungle is strikingly green. A true paradise! PC2600 left us in the harbour since she is working for a charity organization on the island and we drove on with Fatimh.

David was suffering a bit since now he was travelling with two photographers - we had to stop all 200 meters to eternalize the beautiful view in the golden sun light.

The road was more than rough and without a 4x4 you could not circumvent the Southern volcano. We could. We met loads of locals on their horses, saw women washing clothes in the clear rivers and hid under banana palms to rest. The people were waving when we passed them, the views were breath-taking and our New Yorker revealed herself as being quite adventurous.

Why adventurous? Hear this: David and I, we often talk about the possibility of crossing the Darien-Gap – the bit of jungle between Panama and Colombia which is not connected by any street. An English team with Range Rovers did cross the gap in 1960 – it took them 51 days and some 130 self-built log bridges. Iin 1984 An American team did it with an American car - therefore they were somewhat slower. Some people successfully crossed over by foot, boat and even motor-cycle. However, we did not find any report of anybody trying it with a car since the English expedition.

There are many smugglers using the jungle to cross the border between Colombia and Panama – and maybe some of them do use off-road cars and small ferries…

I personally believe that it would be possible to do it – hiring a guide, making friends with some locals - but it could be considered as risky and would consume a lot of time. In fact, too much time for us if we want to reach Tierra del Fuego before the winter starts down there (remember: Southern Hemisphere!)

So we will take the boring option and ship the car with either a freighter of the Chiquita Banana Company or one of the big cargo vessels navigating between Colon and Cartagena. 

Well, and here we were with an American designer who had just told us that she would do it. Crossing the Darien-Gap. By foot. Together with only one Swedish guy she had met some weeks ago for some 6 hours or so. And she meant it – no day-dreaming, no joke. A dare-devil. Not typically American after all. I was very impressed and somewhat jealous. This will be a great adventure – and we cannot take part!

If she survives we will let you know!

Still being impressed we left the island and made it to Costa Rica – another border-crossing. No “Carnet de Passage” was used, of course. Only 15 kilometers after the border we found the “Finca  Canas Castilla” of Guido Sutter and his wife Agi – a beautiful Swiss farm at a river with a crocodile. We stayed two nights and, see there: the French from www.land-trotteurs.fr.st  I had met on the Alaska Highway and a German couple travelling with a luxurious Iveco truck stopped by, too. The world is small.

Today we brought Fatimh to the bus-station – she has to hurry towards Panama and her great adventure. Good luck!