Ok....I was at another site and it seems the Ferry Express that started transporting people and motorcycles no longer is running after the end of April (until further notice....yeah right). Besides the 4 day San Blas cruises what other options does anyone recommend other than Girag to get from Colombia to Panama in a day or extremely close to it without having the boat drop your bike in the bottom of the sea????

Hopping "banana boats" across the Darien gap took me two weeks. As far as I know there are no "fast" options for doing the Darien gap by water except the ferry.

If your timing was good air shipping would be the quickest, but the stars would have to align for that to all be done in a day.

Any reason it has to be done in one day? That crossing was the best memory of my trip, even including the bike almost being dropped in the water. The Kuna Yala and their islands are unique in the world.

Visited the FerryExpress web site and found the image below as a pop-up notice.

Disfruta tus vacaciones viajando con Ferry Xpress

I tried copying the text and running it through Google Translate, but it didn't make the clearest to translations... I looks like the voyage from Colon to Cartagena are running through April, then "end of season." (Fin de la temporada) Was there always a plan not to run the ferry in the Caribbean during hurricane season?

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Peter B
2008/09 - NJ to Costa Rica and back to NJ
2012/13 - NJ to Northern Argentina, Jamaica, Cuba and back to NJ
2023 - Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia...back to Peru.

Blogs: Peter's Ride

Already !!! That didn't last long did it.

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

If this is just a seasonal closing, any idea when the season begins and it will resume operation? I'm planning a crossing in Oct-Nov. What is their website?

link already posted above

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Tony
Click here for Travel Photos & Travel Map

www.ferryxpress.com

By default the HUBB is set to, "...Automatically retrieve titles from external links" which can be confusing when the website is in Spanish. I turned off the preference for this post.

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Peter B
2008/09 - NJ to Costa Rica and back to NJ
2012/13 - NJ to Northern Argentina, Jamaica, Cuba and back to NJ
2023 - Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia...back to Peru.

Blogs: Peter's Ride

Peter, a while ago I was going to suggest that the blue colour of links be deepened a couple of shades to make it a bit more obvious that they were different to the surrounding texts.

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=501511

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Tony
Click here for Travel Photos & Travel Map

Best of luck with your travels Gabeslaw; I air shipped my KLR with Copa
AirCargo from Panama City to Medellin in 2008 and was happy with their
services - just another option.

End of season could also be the end of the Latin travel/summer season. In Argentina summer is the reverse of North America. Given that Central America and South America has little change in temperature year round, does travel generally slow down in May, just when it is picking up in northern climates?

Indeed time will tell and someone planning the cross the gap, to whom the topic is of greatest interest, will eventually contact the offices and share an update.

In recent years, three boats have transported bike from Panama to Colombia. Last year there was a report or two of riders having problems getting out of Cartagena on a smaller boat. The Stalhratte is the largest and has not been subject to the whims of customs officials. Ask around and see if there are current reports of problems.

The Stalhratte can transport 26 motorcycles. I believe they run out of bunk space due to back packers before deck space. In the past you could reserve a space simply by sending an email and waiting for a confirmation. Captain Ludwig posts here from time to time, correct me if wrong or policies have changed.

Taking a sail boat is expensive, cheaper that air lifting and way more fun, in my opinion. Airlifting motorcycles across the gap is for riders with more money than time. The Stalhratte was one of the highlights of my trip. I haven't taken the ferry, which is/was cheaper, but a bit institutional/commercial by the reports.

Ultimately a voyage schedule needs to match your adventure schedule. I rode a bit faster through Central America in order to sail on a certain date. Having already ridden sections of CA and with plans to ride more on the way back, I made a one month dash from North Carolina (the HU east coast rider meeting) to Panama. By most accounts that was a rushed schedule... Check their website for dates and availability:

panama_cartagena_en

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Peter B
2008/09 - NJ to Costa Rica and back to NJ
2012/13 - NJ to Northern Argentina, Jamaica, Cuba and back to NJ
2023 - Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia...back to Peru.

Blogs: Peter's Ride

Even if someone suffers from extreme sea-sickness ? Very narrow minded of you Peter.

There are often more reasons than "more money than time" for an option.

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http://www.ytc1.co.uk

Guilty as charged, very narrow minded of me. I have suffered a few times from sea sickness, learned from those experiences and take preventive steps. Before a boat leaves anchor, I take motion sickness tablets. Are there people that don't benefit from motion sickness preparations? Could be. Maybe you're one of them.

Of the three long sails on the Stalhratte, I took and offered tablets to everyone on board. The passengers that did get sea sick also declined the tablets. A physician told me to take the tablets BEFORE the boat starts rocking. Sea sick tablets have little or no effect after motion sickness sets in.

Between Colombia and Jamaica one passenger couldn't get out of bed for the first three days and made spot appearances on the fourth day... He decline tablets when as we left Cartagena. The same brave soul continued on the Caribbean tour through Cuba, Mexico, getting off in Panama. He wasn't planning to change his strategy for the last and longest leg. Go figure.

A lack of time is the reason I have seen posted here on the HUBB for air lifting. Lack of time can easily mean that a traveler could not wait for the next available boat to sail.

A few years back riders sometimes wanted to avoid Colombia and would airlift to Ecuador. I forgot to mention that reason, probably because its not the issue it was. At least not in my (non-risk adverse) opinion.

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Peter B
2008/09 - NJ to Costa Rica and back to NJ
2012/13 - NJ to Northern Argentina, Jamaica, Cuba and back to NJ
2023 - Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia...back to Peru.

Blogs: Peter's Ride

Not me, my wife. And yes it is extreme. In fact she gets motion sickness when a car or motorcycle passenger. (Not affected when actually driving/riding).

A gentle swell can kick here off, it was somewhat amusing though that she agreed to do the Navimag later in our trip (I think it was the lesser of two evils, Ruta 40 or seasickness). Fortunately while in Santiago we stayed with an anaesthetist who was able to prescribe some anti-sickness medication (used for chemo therapy). This removed the being sick, but kept a lot of the other feelings, she slept on the floor during our night in the Pacific.

Also bear in mind that some people cannot swim, have a fear of water etc. Each to his own for the reasons to take the routes and options available.

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http://www.ytc1.co.uk

Well, I hope someone on the road in Panama will chime in here and straighten this out for us all. It'd be a shame if the company are truly gone for good. This would be like the 3rd time (in my memory) that a Ferry has been set up ... only to fail.

I'm guessing travelers alone won't make a Ferry a profitable enterprise ... it will take LOTS of locals going back and forth and LOTS of truck commerce as well.

Until politicians, entrenched bureaucrats and greedy investors get it sorted ... it may not happen. If the govts. at both ends can't skim enough off the top ... then could be impossible to operate a profitable Ferry company.

Wanna know why the Mexico/Baja Ferry works, and has worked for decades?
German boats ... Japanese ownership. Runs like a clock.

I guess in two moths I will reach this bottleneck. Hopefully there is a solution till then, too for 4x4 travelers

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