3/14/9 The Route

There has been a lot of discussion about the dangers of this trip, not the parasites or the starvation on volcanoes, but the civil unrest, anti-American dangers. One thing that was "agreed" in advance was that under all circumstances, Woody would not enter Colombia. Whether it is rationale or true, it is the one country which provokes the most fear for the family.

As I finish getting our readers up to speed on the great adventure and start current time, I thought the background would be helpful in understanding how it is that Woody is now sailing to Colombia on a German sailboat with his motorcycle.

"i cannot know for sure until i get into panama and talk to the people there. i understand that colombia has this greatly terrible reputation. it is not very accurate, however. a few weeks ago i met an australian man on a motorcycle. he is on his way to alaska, on his own. he started in argentina over a year ago. now, based upon what he had to say, colombia is the greatest of the south american countries. he told me that if central america continued to disappoint him, he was going to turn around and head back to colombia. he traveled in and out of colombia for something like two months, seeing most all of it and crossing the borders many times. he said the people are try harder than anywhere else to help you out. they are overcompensating for their bad reputation. he said it would be crazy to skip it out of fear, as his experience was excellent. it is difficult to find shipping information when you are not near the ships. thus, i will have to wait until i get into panama to find out the options available. the australian gave me the name of a guy in panama who deals with most of the bikers coming through, and knows the captains and schedules. i plan on looking him up. literally every traveler i have met who has been to colombia speaks highly of it, and the first thing they say is that they were warned about going there. you will know when i know."

-- luludilly