Traveling the Pan American Highway By Motorhome - Longest Highway In The World!

[Mark99]

THE WORLD'S LONGEST HIGHWAY, A MOTORHOME CHALLENGE!

I have traveled in an RV expedition with 9 other RVs from McAllen, Texas to Ushuaia, Argentina. Now it is easier than ever to do! This summer I plan on re-doing this event again... if anyone needs preparation information, please feel free to ask me. I can give technical advise, but do not want to get into any advertising or promotion of any company or products.

RV trekking of the Pan American Highway just became easier - finally now the connection between Panama and Columbia (Central and South America) has been made! A new ferry service will begin in a few days on May 10th, which means those traveling on the Pan Am will go directly in hours, not have to load onto a freighter, not have to pay additional airfare, and save several days in hotels in Panama and Cartengena...a savings of thousands of dollars!

The dream of traveling in your RV from Albuquerque to Argentina is not a new idea!

In Jan 2006 Congress passed the law below and who knows what happened to the development of it? But there still is plenty of good highways now in 2012! The first Trek RVs had over 2000 miles of bad or unpaved roadways in 1994, and now its only about 300 miles, and that is in Panagonia ...a good gravel road..no 4x4 required.

By the time of this next years trip in July, it will be even better!

HERE IS THE OFFICIAL TITLE:

U.S. Title Code TITLE 23 > CHAPTER 2 > § 212 provides for the construction and maintenance of the Inter-American Highway program in cooperation with the Governments of the American Republics in Central America (i.e. Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama).

"Title 23 of the US Code as currently published by the US Government reflects the laws passed by Congress as of Jan. 2, 2006."

Under the code, the United States essentially pays for up to one-third of the total construction costs (depending on each nation's wealth):

(a) Not to exceed one-third of the appropriation authorized for each fiscal year may be expended without requiring the country or countries in which such funds may be expended to match any part thereof, if the Secretary of State shall find that the cost of constructing said highway in such country or countries will be beyond their reasonable capacity to bear.

The U.S. also agrees to provide all the maintenance costs:

(5) will provide for the maintenance of said highway after its completion in condition adequately to serve the needs of present and future traffic.

The U.S. has cooperated with Latin America on highway systems since the first Pan American Highway Congress in Buenos Aires in 1925, but footing all the costs for infrastructure can't be a good sign for expanded globalization to come.

[globalbbi]

I am interested in traveling from Southern California to Panama City, Panama. Any tips, advice, etc. would be greatly appreciated.

[Mark99]

Hi Globalbbi..... I just made a quick trip to Panama in September, returned to USA in mid-October. Please let me know what type of information you are requesting? What type of vehicle are you going to take? and what is your estimated departure date?

We had the same routing as the trekoftheamericas expedition uses and as far as the highways and condition of the highways go, all was better than expected. We took the East Coast from McAllen, TX then crossed to Hwy 200 and south on the west coast thru Central America.

Be sure not to take the mountain route from Mexico to Guatemala - the Guatemala side has more "Topes" than anywhere I have ever seen...about 800 topes between the border and Huehuetenango....every village has at least 4...I spoke to the officals at the border and they told me that they were UNAUTHORIZED and were built by the natives, who will not let the highway department remove them....there is a plan to do this but when is not known!!

If you need assistance or more info please send me a personal message and I will go into details. Bon Voyage!!!!

[Paioca]

Dear Mark,

I am trying to investigate the possibility of buying a motorhome in the States and driving it back home to Santiago - Chile since over here it is almost impossible to find something good and we would like to have one to travel around South America. I have no experience with motorhomes, but I speak English / Spanish so we should be fine asking people for help if we get lost! 

My idea is to embark on this adventure with my young children (6 and 9) during the school holidays in December and January BUT I want to make sure I am not going crazy in terms of doing something that may be quite risky with the children since I heard that some parts of the trip goes through violent areas...

Could you give me some advice please?

Thank you!!

[wolfe10]

Paioca,

Welcome to the FMCA Forum.

It has been almost 3 years since the last post on this subject.

I tried e-mailing Mark, but, the message was not delivered. Got this message: " Delivery to the following recipients has been delayed. "

Good luck in your search for information on this-- an adventuresome undertaking. I would feel much more comfortable if you have someone along with knowledge of vehicles and RV systems.

[abyrd]

My wife traveled the Pan American several times in the mid 60's as a teenager with her parents.  We both grew up in the former Canal Zone.  They traveled in International Travelall pulling a 23' travel trailer.  She has many great memories from the trips.

[manholt]

The only thing I can pass on.  Yes you can drive a coach to Panama City, there you will have to take the Ferry to Peru.  Most folks think the Pan Am goes un interrupted to the tip of Chili...wrong.  South of Panama City, is a national park and what may have been a road at one time, is now overgrown Jungle.  The park is only open during daylight...to dangerous from dusk to dawn...smugglers!

I would be looking at a Earth Roamer RV.  The normal "Cookie Cutter", RV's would not even make it to Costa Rica , much less Panama!  The Pan Am is beautiful in pictures, only problem is that it does not go continuously as a paved road, into and through a main town yes, otherwise it is dirt, rutted, washed out.  

National Geographic has several articals   on the Pan Am.  

Carl

[Paioca]

Thank you everyone for taking the time to give me feedback! 

[marta231655]

planning on travelling to panama maybe a year out maybe less, was wondering if there are any groups planing the trip

[manholt]

marta.  Welcome to the Forum!

Give Fantasy Tours a call...you'll find them listed in any FMCA magazine or look at main FMCA page.  

Make sure you have a Visa for every country, including Mexico.  All immunization and vaccination, for each country!  The biggest question is, what do you plan on traveling in?  The Pan Am, is not a 2 lane paved, American Freeway!  The further South you get the worse the road becomes,  between major cities!  Guatemala, Honduras, Panama...it can be a mud bath, depending on time of the year and campgrounds are few and far between!  The Pan Am, comes to a dead end 20 miles South of Panama City, in a National Park.  To continue on, you need to take a Ferry from Panama to Peru.