Driving to South America

My friend and I just started researching a road trip down to Peru. Neither of us has ever done any trip like this before and neither of us has ever really been south of Tijuana. We know that we are going to have to navigate the gap in the pan American highway in panama. Does anyone know anything about ferries from Panama to Columbia. And has anyone ever gone on a trip like this before and can offer tips on customs issues between countries and/or give a rough time on how long it would take.

Me too! Where are you guys driving from?

Hey Newbies,
Welcome to the forums.
I myself, have driven from the US of A to Panama City, Panama and am now shipping my vehicle directly from Miami to Cartegena Colombia. There is no ferry from Panama to Colombia, nor can you drive the gap. The only way to do that is to ship from either Panama City or San Jose Costa Rica RORO or in a container , but it can be very difficult to get concrete information about this. Usually the advise goes something like this "figure it out when you get there". LOL
If you fit in a container, it is a much better route to go. Most of the shipping is from San Jose and usually goes to Manta Ecuador so you would have to bypass Colombia.
For all these reasons (we don't fit in a container and really wanted to visit Colombia) we (my family and i) Decided to make it two trips and ship from miami.

However if you search this forums blogs you can find one called Austin to Argentina. The guy who wrote it ( i cant remember his name) has some very good info on his page.

Really a fantastic adventure to undergo so have fun and let's keep posted.

Pura vida,

Ice