The Darien Gap Dilemma

Okay, so, we found out that there`s no longer a ferry passing the Darien Gap! There used to be one, but the company that ran it went bankrupt due to lack of business. We read a whole bunch of accounts describing times that people have shipped their vehicles on cargo ships...but that didn`t seem like a possibility for us. It would be too expensive and take too long to organize - we wouldn`t make it to the Forum in Venezuela on time. We talked about selling the car and flying over...but that seemed difficult too, and besides, we like the car and want to drive home in it! So, the only thing we could think of was to store the car somewhere in Costa Rica while we travelled South America, and then pick it up again on the way back north.

We really had no idea how to go about this, but we thought Monteverde might be a good place to try, because they have quite a large English-speaking population, and its pretty remote, so we weren`t too afraid of theft being a problem. Our only idea was to call Jenn, an American woman living in Monteverde...we had met her the day before when she offered us a ride down the hill from the canopy tour (we`d stayed too long in the forest, missed the last bus down, and the sun was starting to go down). We were pretty nervous about calling; I`d only gotten her number from the hotel owner who happens to be friend of hers. But, Jenn and her partner must be the nicest people I`ve ever met, because as soon as they heard the story they offered to store the car for us, at only the cost of driving it down the mountain to a family member`s house...and Jenn even did the driving!

So, with the problem solved, we spent a few more days in Monteverde, then a few in San Jose (nothing special going on there, except that our hostel had a pool!), and then flew here to Caracas. We`re in the middle of the Social Forum now, and you`ll hear all out thoughts about that soon...