Just had family try and do it on motorcycles and they had to ship them. There is a border crossing at a place called Turbo. I think it's a water crossing though.. I have never done it. Look into that. Of course you can do it, dozens of people do it every year, from motos to vans, private cars, vans and RV s, you do have to ship your vehicle RORO Roll on, Roll off from Panama to either Colombia or Ecuador, then continue on, I am able to message you some information if you wish, I myself drove from USA to Central America, where I still live, in , then got national plates and drove over , km.
I live in El Salvador, enroute. Rather than wait until the last minute, plan out your trip in-advance. Contact a roadside service such as AAA and ask them to map out a safe route, or get a map of Mexico, Central America, and South America and decide your own route.
Take the Pan American Highway. This is the safest route to South America, and this highway extends from Alaska down to lower region of South America. Drive during the daytime. South America is a beautiful, but dangerous country. Crossing the region by bike or on foot is not advisable because of the difficult terrain and possibility of dangerous smuggler gangs. Get more travel inspiration, tips and exclusive offers sent straight to your inbox with our weekly newsletter.
The Pan-American Highway: the ultimate road trip. Clifton Wilkinson. Take a magical road trip on California's Highway 1. I speak Spanish reasonably well and have a few close Colombian friends in Bogota and Medellin which should help with the paper work I think.
The best place to find American titled vehicles is around Santiago and Buenos Aires as most people end their trips there and there are people that will title your car in Washington without being there. For clarification, I am an US citizen. I have a Utah drivers license. Will I need to get a new license in Mexico, Peru, etc. Yes, we are looking to sell it soon. You can email us at funlifecrisis gmail. Hi , thanks for taking all the time to share your fantastic experiences.
I would start the journey in the US. Otherwise, you can rent a virtual mailbox in a state to use as your home address and register the vehicle there then cancel the service once you get the registration and title delivered. Chiapas has a deep history of anti-government activities and issues, and as a result it can be kind of lawless at times. Looking back at it now, the best outcome would be to approach that area with caution, stay and park only in secure areas, and be prepared to pay the locals when they violently demand money for no reason.
I am planning the purchase of the vehicle in Costa Rica but so far my biggest barrier in preliminary research is the Insurance situation from Mexico-North…Tips, forum links, experienced persons would be hugely appreciated. The more set up your are to sleep in your own vehicle comfortably with some amenities, the easier the journey without having a need to constantly plan ahead or spend half the day looking for a hotel or campsite every time you move.
Hi there, Enjoyed everything you guys posted. One thing nobody bothered to ask was since your trip was going over 12 months how did you get your renewal tags for the following year since you were out of the country?
Did you have a friend with access to your mailbox which then mailed them to your current location? As far as the actual paperwork and mail, we had that delivered to our parents while we were gone. And as far as tags go, nobody outside the US knows what kind of tags your plates are supposed to have so nobody will ever notice or care that your tags are expired.
Hi Joel, Thanks for responding. Is there a difference between Oregon and California This is where my car is registered when it comes to plate assignment? So none of the countries you guys drove in bothered you guys at all if the car was current or not on its registration?
And what I mean by that when you guys crossed the border, if you were pulled over or not by the police, or especially, when you shipped you van from Panama to Colombia? I know for a fact in Chile and Argentina they will expect your car to be up to date on its registration year because that comes up when you need to obtain an car insurance policy in either of those counties.
If you guys made it all the way down there without a hiccup you guys were incredibly lucky. But then again you guys had backup because your tags were mailed to your parents house so in the event that something were to happen they can easily fed-ex it to you guys. Once you venture below the US you realize that for the most part, laws are at most a guideline that very few follow.
Nobody ever bothered to look closely at any documents, even Chile and Argentina. Like you said, some countries only allow one vehicle per person so it would probably be doable if there were two people per van and each person had their name on at least one of the titles.
Thanks for the info. Is there any group…. Most people start at the north, head south to the end, then travel back up to Buenos Aires or Santiago and ship their car back home from there. Europeans do it in reverse order quite often, shipping to Buenos Aires, heading south, then north to Canada before shipping back to Europe. Any insight on this? Yes, you get a permit in each country as you enter, usually called a TIP. Mexico is the only one that actually charges you, the rest are free except for some spare change to make photocopies of documents.
When you leave each country, the TIP is cancelled. The bigger the vehicle the more restricted you are in cities and remote locations but your comfort level increases drastically. We found that a van was probably the sweet spot between between comfort and access, with anything too much bigger or smaller requiring a lot more planning ahead for sleeping arrangements or road access. What did you guys do with your cat if you wanted to go off for the day exploring? Did you do any hiking in Patagonia?
The cat was perfectly fine throughout the trip, in fact she actually liked it more than being at a home. We always made sure we left the exhaust fan on and a window cracked if we left her. We did a lot of hiking in Patagonia and would leave her in the van with extra food and water, she was always fine. All of South America, outside of the northern coast, had pretty cool weather so it was easy to leave her in the car. Hey Joel, Laura Thank you for this blog! It is very well written and touches all the necessary aspects of Pan American travel.
Good idea? Bad Idea? How long will it take months? I was wondering if I can may be get in touch with you at a regular basis for some guidance? If you can afford a roof top tent and have a way of putting it on, that would be a pretty ideal setup.
Email us anytime for more. Hi, one of my fantasies has been doing this trip from US all the way until Chile. Every once in a while I do a search on how to do so and today I found your article and got me exited about trying to make it happen. One question, and of course safety is one of my biggest fears for doing the trip, but how you handled Chiapas people trying to bribe you? Out of all the people we met, we rarely heard of anybody getting into big trouble other than the occasional small theft.
How then did you pay the angry mobs and how much did they demand vs. Sometimes we passed through multiple ones on the same day.
We are planning Colombia to Argentina in Jan. Just a small point — in some of these countries you legally have to carry a kit in the car, for example in Colombia you must carry a fire extinguisher that is in date, and various tools. Did you obtain visiting visa for each country you entered prior to your trip or the visas were obtained on arrival at the borders? The only country that might require a visa is Brazil or at least they used to, not sure about it now which is why we skipped it.
I am starting our trip very soon and I live in Colombia. I am a teacher and also plan on continuing teaching on the road through online classes. How reliable is the internet signal with the Google Fi service in countries like Peru and Bolivia? Having Google Fi service was definitely the easiest option vs buying a SIM card in every new country like many of our friends did.
Internet in bigger cities is pretty decent and you can also find a lot of coffee shops and cafes that offer internet. We personally did not. It depends on each country and National Park. We visited several on our trip and some offered rustic accommodations, others campsites. Which park are you interested in? Your email address will not be published.
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