Hi Mitch,

I would recommend a small and high quality trip. Think about riding Central America for three months (which will go by very quickly) and forgetting about crossing the Darién. Forget about crossing the gap this time anyway. You can get from northern Mexico to Panama in 10 days for semi focused daylight riding. Add at least another 2-3 days to get from NYC to the Texas/Mexico border. These are rough estimates, but knowing a little about your riding preferences when we returning from Nova Scotia, my estimates are optimistic. So if you rode there and back, its roughly 4 week of travel time alone. That still gives you +60 days to noodle around, hang out, relax... If you add crossing the gap, on a schedule, then all bets are off. At least in terms of a relaxed trip through CA. And what were you planning to do with your son's bike? Would he ride back alone or would you ship it to Colombia? What would you do with his bike in Colombia? Yes, some people sell their bikes at the end of their trip and fly home. Some people win the lottery too. Good luck.

Alternately, fly to Colombia and buy a couple of second hand dirt bikes and tear around Colombia and northern South America for three months. I suspect that you know enough people in Colombia that you could easily store them until the next adventure. My next South American adventure will follow this general strategy.

The key take away, take a hard look at the miles between here and the end of the rainbow. Then estimate the number of days you can take off from reality and live in Wonder Land. Everyone's trip is different, but minimum road time is the same.

__________________
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