Anyone ever travel the Panamerican Highway?

Has anyone here ever driven the length of the Panamerican Highway (Carretera Panamericana)? I'm getting a fantasy on about driving all the way to Ushuaia (I know about the Darien Gap - you have to ferry around it via cargo container/RoRo). How long did it take? How much did it cost? Could you recommend a good vehicle for doing this trip?

Great fantasy - really hope you can realize it !!

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Ed Culberson's "Amigo", the first vehicle to cross the Pan-American Highway completely by land :

Culberson's"Amigo" [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], by Porsche997SBS (Own work), from Wikimedia Commons

It sounds like you're planning to do it in a car, but advrider (a motorcycle forum) will be a good source of information. For example; http://advrider.com/index.php?search/40218857/&q=Panamerican+Highway&o=relevance

I think my first choice would probably be a moto, for four wheels, I'm not sure, ideally something very simple, easily repaired with paperclips and bailing wire, but that leaves out almost anything made in the last 25 years for the U.S. market.

Reading one of the most dreadfully boring books ever written on such a potentially interesting trip might cure you of this illness https://www.amazon.com/Road-Fever-Tim-Cahill/dp/0394758374

Of course he was in a hurry, so hopefully your book will be much better.

TheFlyingCamera said:

Has anyone here ever driven the length of the Panamerican Highway (Carretera Panamericana)? I'm getting a fantasy on about driving all the way to Ushuaia (I know about the Darien Gap - you have to ferry around it via cargo container/RoRo). How long did it take? How much did it cost? Could you recommend a good vehicle for doing this trip?

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Yes, my wife and I did it in 1972/73. We didn't make it to Ushuaia though, because we hit a horse in northern Argentina. It took us about six months for the shortened trip and our cost would be irrelevant in today's world. I think it would be incumbent to travel with another vehicle or two for safety and security as we did with a Danish couple we met in Mexico. We did the trip in a VW Westfalia camper, but I would recommend any vehicle that is common throughout the Americas for easy repair and parts availability.

PM me if you want to chat about it.

BYW, my Instagram account has many images taken on the trip of the various ruinas along the way.

bdial said:

It sounds like you're planning to do it in a car, but advrider (a motorcycle forum) will be a good source of information. For example; http://advrider.com/index.php?search/40218857/&q=Panamerican+Highway&o=relevance

I think my first choice would probably be a moto, for four wheels, I'm not sure, ideally something very simple, easily repaired with paperclips and bailing wire, but that leaves out almost anything made in the last 25 years for the U.S. market.

Click to expand...

I'm still in the extremely early stages of researching this fantasy. I am thinking car, and I'm also thinking of buying it in Mexico, to not only save some money on the price, but to get something that is common currency from Mexico to Argentina (maybe a Toyota 4wd?) I'd drive my own car, but I kinda think that Washington DC license plates would stand out like a sore thumb and become a potentially very real security issue on large parts of the route. Mexican tags, even if foreign, wouldn't be nearly as strange in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Argentina, and would be far less attention-getting in Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador.

You may want to consider a capable four wheel drive vehicle like a Jeep JK with appropriate tires and modifications.

Just a few thoughts for you Scott. Massive road trips like that are romantic, but they are also brutal and mind numbing. The last road trip I did lasted 17000 miles over four months zig zagging inside the US from Mexico to Canada (with a Jeep Cherokee, which goes anywhere) and I was fried by the end of it. Obviously 17000 miles would get you to the end of the earth and back, but frankly if you do it, it would be better to have a car, or motorcycle, or better yet a Jeep, and leave it there. Fly back. Aside from being brutal, and expect it to be, I'd say go for it, and take your time if you can. You only live once. No one will be regaled by you telling them the story of your sitting on the couch and drinking wine for the last few months..... Life is to be lived, not endured. Just my 2¢.

TheFlyingCamera said:

I'm still in the extremely early stages of researching this fantasy. I am thinking car, and I'm also thinking of buying it in Mexico, to not only save some money on the price, but to get something that is common currency from Mexico to Argentina (maybe a Toyota 4wd?) I'd drive my own car, but I kinda think that Washington DC license plates would stand out like a sore thumb and become a potentially very real security issue on large parts of the route. Mexican tags, even if foreign, wouldn't be nearly as strange in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Argentina, and would be far less attention-getting in Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador.

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Suggest you check this out with your local AAA. Importing vehicles, which you will be doing when crossing from country to country, is not as simple as driving into Canada from the US. Take a look here http://www.atacarnet.com/Carnet-de-Passages-en-Douanes-CPD-Issuing-in-US-and-Canada and look at the list of South American countries that require a carnet de passage en douanes. Also, review the fees and sureties required.

BTW, Toyota 4wd vehicles are the most popular in Central and South America.

jmlynek said:

Suggest you check this out with your local AAA. Importing vehicles, which you will be doing when crossing from country to country, is not as simple as driving into Canada from the US. Take a look here http://www.atacarnet.com/Carnet-de-Passages-en-Douanes-CPD-Issuing-in-US-and-Canada and look at the list of South American countries that require a carnet de passage en douanes. Also, review the fees and sureties required.

BTW, Toyota 4wd vehicles are the most popular in Central and South America.

Click to expand...

That's why I was thinking about getting an older Toyota - it'd blend in nicely, and be easy to service if/when it breaks down. I'm thinking of buying it in Mexico, so it would have Mexican tags on it, which would make it a lot less conspicuous (as opposed to Washington DC license plates).