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Americas Project
  • Nadja Pfister
  • Americas project

Americas Project

A climbers couple 🇨🇭🇧🇷 travelling with their dog from the US to Patagonia by car.
vida simples escalada forte 💛 Meer informatie
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    California Highway 1

    1 april 2023, Verenigde Staten ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    *Landscape changed drastically!
    desert - green hills - ocean
    * first time at the Pacific for Nadja
    * driving on beautiful California Highway 1 until the road was closed because of landslides
    * watching seals at Elephant Seal Vista Point
    * buying a surfboard at not knowing where to store it    Meer informatie

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    Yosemite 1.0

    3 april 2023, Verenigde Staten ⋅ ❄️ -4 °C

    The original plan of BigWall climbing in Yosemite got canceled because of crazy snowstorms in California since February.
    We decided to visit the park anyway, to get to know this special place where climbing history was made. And for sure it was worth it!
    The breathtaking view when you get out of the tunel and see the impressive wall of el Capitan and Half Dome, the amazing and welcoming people (Nick & Rachel) we met. And we even got to climb some single pitches on el Cap. The base was covered in meters of snow but the bottom of the wall was mosteley dry.

    A place to come back for sure! Especially for Vini with his big goal in mind, free climbing el Cap!    Meer informatie

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    Mariposa Grove

    5 april 2023, Verenigde Staten

    Again the weather didn't let us follow the original plans. No Sequoia National Park for us..
    But we got lucky on our last day in Yosemite as the Mariposa Grove (another place where you can visit some Sequoias) opened just when we were leaving. We decided to make a quick stop, take some pictures and continue our drive.
    Turned out that we had to walk a 6 miles roundtrip (with quite a lot of snow sometimes) to see the trees 😂 no shuttle service or open road..

    Definitely impressiv and worth the walk 🤩    Meer informatie

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    JTree 2.0

    7 april 2023, Verenigde Staten ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Our friends Maguinho & Aline were supposed to spend 1 week with us in Yosemite. Last minute they changed their plans (because of the snow) and went to Joshua Tree. As we had already been there we only joined them for 2 days. This time it was less about climbing but more about friendship, having a good time and aclimatization for the warmer temps in Mexico 🙂Meer informatie

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    Baja California 1.0

    8 april 2023, Mexico ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Baja California - where the desert meets the ocean and you can find an oasis in the middle of nowhere.

    We decided to cross the boarder in Mexicali and not in Tijuana where the original Panamericana goes (turned out to have been a smart decision from what we discovered 10 days later). Boarder crossing was super fast and easy.

    The first days we were driving and sweating a lot. In the desert up to 35° and the AC is not working🥵. We are glad that Leki is from Rumania and used to temps over 40°C. He is doing a great job👏
    Luckily closer to the sea it's cooler and more windy, especially at the Pacific Coast.

    As we can't climb the next 2 weeks we try to mantain our fitness by doing some hangboarding and pull ups on the huge 🌵🌵🌵😂    Meer informatie

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    Baja California 2.0

    18 april 2023, Mexico ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    The next days were more about relaxing at the beach and little driving

    Vini surfing, Nadja reading and Leki sleeping 😎

    The good thing about Baja, you can go to a touristic beach if you want some services like restaurants, bars, toilets, music, surf schools or you can go to a remote beach 15min away, camp there, getting company of donkeys and watch 🐳from the beach (can you spot the 🐳on one of our pictures?).

    For the last night we went to a super nice hostal in La Paz where you can park the van and use all their services. After being on our own ir was great to have some company and share some interesting stories with other overlanders. Also enjoyed delicious fish tacos in the town!!

    Baja was great but now we want to move on, explore the mainland and hopefully climb soon    Meer informatie

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    La Paz - Guanajuato

    18 april 2023, Mexico ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    There are two ferries from la Paz to mainland Mexico. Baja ferries, for tourists and TMC for cargo and trucks. The differences are price and comfort. TMC is more than half of the price but you have to sleep in your own car trapped between the trucks. Of course we went for the cheap and more interesting option.
    Included were two meals. You couldn't choose what to eat, you just got your plate served and then had to squeeze in between all the truck drivers. Of course it was not vegeterian and a very simple meal. After dinner we went back to our van and tried to get some sleep but it was impossible with 36°C and no fresh air. Trucks had their engines running all the time to cool down their food 🙈 So we took our crashpad and blankets and went on the upperdeck to sleep. As it got to cold and windy at some point we headed back to the van and managed to sleep as it had cooled down to 30°😅
    Quite an experience but we were looking forward to get a better sleep the following night.

    The next two days we were driving a lot and paying way too much at the tolls. Over 100chf for 600km!!

    Between all the driving we stopped in a beautiful place called Guanajuato. An old colonial mining town .    Meer informatie

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    Jilotepec

    24 april 2023, Mexico ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    Back to climbing means less time for photos 😅

    As we arrived after 18.00pm in Jilotepec we couldn't camp next to the climbing sector as we intended to because the gate was already closed. Turned out to be a good thing as we had to look for another sleeping place and found one of the best and cheapest campgrounds so far. Peaceful, quiet, scenic view, huge kitchen, warm showers, wifi and much more for 5CHF per night!! Raúl (owner of the camping) and his family were incredibly welcoming and helpful. It was a pleasure to meet them and we were happy to celebrate the last night with a delicious spanish tortilla (made by Vini & me😉) and some fernet 😋.
    After a 2 weeks break we were happy to go back to climbing and were surprised we didn't feel that bad after all (maybe the training on the 🌵helped? 😂). The first days we got really tired, probably also because of the altitude (2700 m). On the weekend many climbers from Mexico City arrived and we were happy to meet our friends we had met previously in Red River Gorge 🇺🇸 and el Salto 🇲🇽.
    Of course we also met new people - a french/mexican climber couple living in 🇫🇷 (hope to see them back in europe) and an older french couple, travelling to Patagonia with their van as we do. Always good to share some tips and stories!

    Thanks also to Héctor our private climbing and gourmet guide😋 who was staying with us at "La Burbuja" and taking care of the campground.

    Almost forget to mention that our van got a good maintenance and now works better than ever. And Leki got a rabies vaccine update (we discovered that in central america they only accept the 1 year vaccine and not the 3 year vaccine from europe) and an anti flea/ticks/worms pill from the vet. Now we are ready to drive south😎

    PS. all the locals love to take pictures with us. Doesn't matter if you go to a restaurant or the mechanics, they all want to take a picture with you.    Meer informatie

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    Mexico City

    27 april 2023, Mexico ⋅ ☀️ 37 °C

    Express visit of the capital of 🇲🇽

    We wanted to skip Mexico City because we don't like big cities and with our van it's always complicated and we are worried of being robbed.
    But our friends invited us to stay at their place which is safe and easy to get to.
    Google maps told us it's only 1h20 to their place so we decided to visit them. As we reached the city we got stopped by a policeman. He told us that with our van we were not allowed to drive on the fast lane in the middle and driving there would cost as a 400chf fine. Vini and I were about to start to arguing and telling them that it's not true and we wont pay the fine as he said that they will make an exception and let us go but we would have to drive on the lateral road.
    Later we saw some signs that trucks and cargo vehicles were not allowed but our van is far from that.. As we asked our local friends, they told us that they also have heard some stories like this and the police likes to make a show and ask for money everywhere they can.
    Did you know that in Mexico you don't have to take driving lessons or do an exam? You just pay 200pesos and there you go. Many people don't even have a license, they just drive!

    We left the van at our friends place and went for a short sightseeing tour with our friend Carol and her son Diego. The city is huge but it's very green! Beautiful colonial architecture, trees and plants everywhere.
    The next day we went to a climbing sector only 30min out of the city center where you had the best view over the city. Short climbing session, rewarded with delicious quesadillas next to the parking. We tried to leave the city early because of the traffic. It took us still around 2hours to get out of it. Was also challenging finding the right way as google maps always wanted us to drive on the middle lane but we wanted to avoid it because of the police..

    After leaving the city we crossed the impressiv volcano "Popocatepetl". 5426m high is this activ 🌋    Meer informatie

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    San Cristóbal de las Casas

    28 april 2023, Mexico ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    After an exhausting night (heat and traffic noise) with little sleep we leave our camp at 6am to meet a guy named Martin in San Cristóbal. Martin is an austrian climber living in Mexico for more tan 10 years and bolting many routes around Chiapas (state of Mexico). So he is the guy to meet and ask for climbing infos. After meeting him we went straight to Arcotete, an ecological park where the climbing sector is located. Impressiv overhangs with many stalactites with a river in between in the middle of the jungle! Climbing with little sleep felt hard but we enjoyed it anyways. The crux in Arcotete is not the climbing but how to get back to the ground without getting wet (see the video).
    Between the climbing we had time to get to know Martin, a really nice and cool guy with a funny austrian dialect 😜 Unfortunately we only met him on the first day as on the weekend he was busy and then got sick. Hope to see him again in Peru this summer!!
    That night we spent in the beautiful eco park itself. At 10pm we got waken up by the toilet cleaning guy. He explained that we had to pay him 25 pesos (1.25chf) for the overnight stay and that now he will start pumping the toilet water into the river and the 💩water will flow by next to our car 🙈🙈🙈 luckily we didn't know that fact when we were walking in the river 🤢
    The next day we explored an other climbing sector by ourself and in the afternoon/night discovered the beautiful town. Pictures speak for themselves.    Meer informatie

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    Agua Azul

    30 april 2023, Mexico ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    It's only a 150km drive from San Cristóbal to Agua Azul but you can move only very slowly because of the 1000 speed bumps and curves. To add some extra spice, it's the MEX 199 road famous for road blocks and robberies. When we checked the trip on the iOverlander app we saw many warnings of incidentes happened to other travelers on this road over the years. But it seemed that lately it was all ok and few problems were reported this year. So we started our drive a little bit tense, with the bribing money ready in the fake wallet and trying to drive together with other vehicles. In the end the travel was all safe and calm, just slow.
    Arriving at Agua Azul there was a mini "road block" made by children that were trying to sell some food. We bought delicious fried / dried bananas for 1.25chf just to notice that at the parking they were sold for 0.25chf 😂 these children learn early how to make money!
    When you see the Agua Azul you forget immediately about the previous stress. Just amazing clear blue water! We spent the rest of the day discovering, swimming and playing in the water like children 🙃
    The next morning we woke up very early, went for a run and a refreshing swim afterwards. We could definitely get used to this morning routine!    Meer informatie

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    Palenque

    1 mei 2023, Mexico ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Palenque, or Bàak in the indigian lenguage (means "big water) was a Maya city funded around 200bc and was habited for about 1000 years. The ruins are in the middle of the jungle and most part of it is still covered and unvisible. Already the small uncovered part was very impressiv and beautiful. Palenque is much less visited and a lot cheaper than the famous "Chichen Itza". Less touristy means also less restrictions. In Palenque you can climb on too all of the ruins and have a fantastic overlookMeer informatie

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    Yucatan

    2 mei 2023, Mexico ⋅ ☁️ 36 °C

    What to do when it's constantly hot? Go to a cenote (a natural pit, or sinkhole, resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater)!!
    The first cenote we chose to visit is a famous one for climbing! We saw a Red Bull climbing video of a guy learning how to climb in this cenote. We were planing to go there with him but in the end it didn't work out.
    To be honest we thought that it would be better for climbing but it was still fun, beautiful, rather cheap entry and most important, REFRESHING!
    After cooling down we went to visit some other maya ruins only 15min away. It was a small site but still a lot to see and there were no tourists!! What a difference it makes when you can explore this special place all by your own. You feel somehow more conected and can imagine the mayas living there a long time ago    Meer informatie

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    Quintana Roo

    3 mei 2023, Mexico

    The second half on the Yucatan Peninsula was less nice than expected. Nature is beautiful as always but it's way too touristy!! Maybe if you're on a 2 weeks holiday trip and can afford the resorts all the pricey activities it's fun. But as an overlander with limited budget it was hard to find good places. Mostly you find overpriced "campings" that are more like parking lots in front of a hotel or not well mantained campings. One night we spent in the center of Playa del Carmen on a free parking lot. It was ok but very hot in the van and we didn't want to open the doors during the night.
    An other problem was the beach access with dogs. Tourist beach = no dogs. We only went for short dips in the sea or lake and back to the car where Leki was waiting.
    Of course all the activities or attractions were overpriced. But it was not even the price that made us escape these sites but the way how you got treated. Unfriendly, rude, not at all welcoming. They just wanted to see your money. Of course there are always exceptions and as you can see on the pictures we found some really nice places!!    Meer informatie

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    Belize

    7 mei 2023, Belize ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C

    The last day and night in Mexico were a bit stressful. Boarder crossing are always a thing to worry and annoying. But this time were even more nervous. The day before crossing to Belize we noticed that we forgot to send a dog import permit application in advance. We thought you only need the health certificate of the vet and then you will get the permit at the boarder. But we were wrong. You should send the application 7 working days before crossing the boarder. We read from an other overlander who had the same problem and had to pay a 150chf fine. As we are in a rush we decided to just try to cross and if necessary pay the fine.
    The guy at the animal inspection at the boarder was not pleased at all that we arrived without permit. But miracoulously he just let us pass without the fine and we didn't even pay the 25chf import fee 😳 As we were only crossing Belize in 1 day he said: "GO, just GO!!
    Once in Belize we went to the first village to get a 1 day car insurance for 6chf. It took them half an hour to get it done but it worked. Welcome to caribean rhythm😎 The rest of the day we spent driving with a short stop in a national park for a swim in the river (even Leki went swimming🤩).
    A few km before the boarder to Guatemala we got a nice surprise. We met a super nice swiss couple from Wallis which wanted to go to the same place. We spontaneously decided to stay and cross the next boarder together.
    It was a huge coincidence that we met them! We only crossed our way because we took the wrong turn 300m before. Even more coincidence, they were living in Bern in the same house we were, just 2 years earlier 😅😅😅    Meer informatie

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    Guatemala

    8 mei 2023, Guatemala ⋅ ☀️ 36 °C

    * beautiful country, calm, very friendly people
    * sharing beers with the swiss 😎
    * we met some other overlanders from germany. They travel either with the car or by sailboat. The sailboat was parked in the marina where we were camping. As the transport in Agua Dulce is mostly by boat we went to the Restaurant with the tiny boat belonging to the sailboat. It was a fun night with all the overlanders and special to drive to the Restaurant by boat
    * Vini went to explore the Tikal park/maya ruins. Spotted some cool animals (can you see the baby🐒)
    * Nadja & Leki stayed at the hotel (no dogs allowed in the Tikal park, not even in the car)
    * unfortunately we couldn't climb the Acatenango 🌋 as planned because the neighbour 🌋 started erupting and everything got closed around
    * lack of time (container ship in Panama is waiting) made us cross Guatemala really fast 😏    Meer informatie

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    Honduras

    10 mei 2023, Honduras ⋅ ☀️ 34 °C

    Not much to say about Honduras. There was nothing special or beautiful. We were exhausted from boarder crossing, the heat and little sleep. Crossed the country in one day, got stoped by the police (forbidden to drive without t-shirt) , spent the night at the parking of a mall and we were stressed with the preparation for crossing to Nicaragua.
    But we felt safe all the time and were surprised by the friendly and very interested people.    Meer informatie

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    Telica 🌋

    10 mei 2023, Nicaragua ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    First ever volcano for the 3 of us! We chose Telica to be our first because it's still active and your supposed to see lava in the dark. Also it's possible to hike to the crater without a guide and it's free. As we wanted to see the lava we either had to go after sunset or before sunrise. We chose to get up really early, hike during the "cold" night, see the lava and the sunrise afterwards.
    We found a great camping spot, owned by a super nice family, close to the volcano. Before heading to the campsite we visited the family at their home in a very small village in the jungle. Ulices and his family are wonderful kind people and love welcoming tourists at their place. For them it's almost impossible to leave the country or travel. Hosting people feels like travelling to them. They have a beautiful garden with many tropical fruits and animals. They made us taste all the delicious fruits and even prepared a homemade milkshake for us🤩
    We would have loved to stay there and chat a little longer but we needed to get up early.
    We got up at 2am and started immediately our hike. 10km and 700m height difference we had to overcome. It took us a little longer than 2h until we stood next to the crater. Unfortunately we couldn't see any lava because there was too much smoke coming out of Telica. Even without lava it was beautiful and intimidating to be there. The sound felt like various airplanes passing by. After the sunrise we were looking forward to hike again. After 1 month of heat it was the first time we were feeling cold because of the strong wind. The way back to the car was exhausting but we felt happy.
    PS. Leki is the fittest of the 3 of us. He even made some detours and was trying to chase animals on the way back 😂    Meer informatie

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    Nicaragua

    11 mei 2023, Nicaragua ⋅ 🌙 27 °C

    The initial plan was to cross Nicaragua fast for having more time in Costa Rica. Soon we changed our mind because it's a beautiful country with a diverse landscape, delicious food, friendly people and it's cheap!! After so many expensive border crossing we didn't want to stay too long in Costa Rica because there it's very expensive. So why not stay a little longer in a gorgeous and cheaper country?! After Telica 🌋 we spent most of the time at the beach trying to improve our surfing skills. Nadja had almost abandoned surfing before even trying it. But we found the perfect beach and a great teacher for her. So after 1 lesson she could already catch some waves on her own. The gained knowledge she could share with Vini who was also improving a lot and can already catch some bigger waves 😎
    We had a blast in 🇳🇮😍

    The only negativ point was the border crossing. Entering Nicaragua took us 6h, made us sweat under the sun with 38° and cost us a lot of money and patience. Leaving the country was faster but you had to pay again some taxes and to get the export papers for Leki it was quite complicated and expensive again.    Meer informatie

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    Costa Rica

    14 mei 2023, Costa Rica ⋅ 🌧 31 °C

    3 days in pura vida paradise 💚

    *many tourists and immigrants that opened a business here (more english speaking than spanish almost)
    *a lot of wildlife and jungle
    *gorgeous beaches
    *very expensive (US prices)
    *first night in a hotel on this trip. What a luxury, especially the AC😍    Meer informatie

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    Panama 1.0

    22 mei 2023, Panama ⋅ 🌧 28 °C

    Last boarder is crossed for a while 🥳 We made it to Panama City where we have to prepare our van and do all the paperwork for the shipping from Panama to Colombia (there is no road or ferry between Panama and Colombia, you have to ship the car and then either sail or fly to Colombia) . A big help in this process is the "overland embassy". They not only arrange the shipping for you but they also have a campground next to their office, have tools for everything and can answer all your questions about Panama or the shipping. So the last days were mostly about organizing, cleaning, preparing and driving as few as possible.
    Next to the campground lives a very sweet old lady who brought us fresh mangos and avocados from her garden. She also invited us to her house to harvest even more fruits. Harvesting them is not so easy. You have to hit/fish the fruits with a very long stick to make them fall down (video).
    Of course we also visited the Panama Canal. In the time lapse you can see a ship entering the locks and being lowered to the next level to continue the journey. It takes the ships around 11h to cross the 80km long canal 😅

    Before we arrived at the capital we spent some days on beautiful beaches were we could relax, surf, train and enjoy the views 😍    Meer informatie

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    Panama 2.0

    31 mei 2023, Panama ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

    Tense moments on the way to the port in Colon where we had to load our van in the container. We suddendly heard a strange noise (like a mini explosion) and then the motor lost all the power and we had to stop on the highway with still more than 50km to go. Vini and Nick (he and his girlfriend are sharing the container with us) started immediately checking the car and tried to fix a loose tube. After driving for about 500m the motor lost power again and the guys had to fix it again. This time it was more stable and we managed to drive to the port with no more issues. Loading was fast and smooth and we were glad our van fitted in the container! We only had to deflate the back tires a little bit to pass the hight limit. Now we are 2 weeks without our van/home.
    We enjoyed our van free time on different beaches, in different hostals/airbnb and were happy about some cooler nights with air conditioning.
    Panama is a beautiful city, especially the old town but everything is very expensive here. So we didn't do a lot (it's also extremly hot and humid), were hanging out at the hostal most of the time and saved our money for South America. All the travellers we've met at the hostal are telling us how beautiful and cheap Colombia is. We are looking forward to be there soon 🤗 But first it's time to cross the Darien Gap    Meer informatie

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    San Blas

    2 juni 2023, Caribbean Sea ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C

    The last days we spent in the caribean sea sailing from Panama to Colombia and visiting gorgeous islands. We only visited 3 of the 370 islands of San Blas. Each one was different but they all were incredible beautiful. We spent 5 days/nights with a fun group of 20 people (mostly backpackers), 4 crew members and 2 dogs. The crew did a great job and made us always feel confortable and secure and served us 3 delicious meals every day including fresh fish and lobster caught by the Kunas (indigenous people of the islands). On the second day of the trip was my 30th birthday and I couldn't imagine a better place to celebrate it. It only felt strange not to celebrate with family and friends who would have made it even better. But I got everything from barbecue, cake, coco loco, bonfire, perfect beach, stars, dolphins, snorkling and much more.
    The highlight of the trip for us was snorkling at 1-2m distance to the sharks. Nurse sharks are not dangerous but you still get intimidated by them!
    Worst part of the trip was the part that we were sailing non stop for 35h from the islands to Cartagena 🇨🇴. The first night we were fighting against sea sickness and then the next day we were just exhausted and dehydrated. But it was totally worth the trip and we recomend it to everybody who has to cross the Darien Gap!    Meer informatie

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    Cartagena

    7 juni 2023, Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 32 °C

    What a great welcome to South America. We loved Cartagena and we would say it's our favourite city so far on this trip! So many colours, beautiful paintings, happy people, music, art good food and only good vibes 🤩
    While we were waiting to get our van back from the port we discovered the neighbourhood of Getsemaní, once a poor place that reawakened with the tourism.
    Vini met old friends from Brazil and we finally met a swiss couple that we were in contact with on instagram but never met because they were always ahead of us. The swiss are both veterinarian and adopted a dog in Mexico. Now they have a super useful instagram account about travelling with dogs and cats on the Panamerican Highway. They helped us a lot and made all the border crossing with Leki way easier!
    Thanks to Ana (port agent on the colombian side) and overland embassy the process to get our van back went very fast and smooth.
    Although we really enjoyed Cartagena we were happy to have our car back after 3 days and hit the road again 🤗    Meer informatie

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