The Panama Canal first opened over 100 years ago in 1914. Since then more than a million vessels have passed through. The canal links the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean, allowing ships to avoid the lengthy Cape Horn route around the southern tip of South America. There are three sets of locks in the canal – two at the Pacific Ocean end of the canal and one at the Atlantic end. Visiting the Miraflores Locks The Miraflores Locks, which have two…
We crossed a number of land borders throughout our 6 and a half months in South America – quite a novelty for two Brits! Here are some of our border crossing photos. Leaving Peru, we were pleased that the border crossing was well marked with the iconic Peru sign and a big bottle of Cusquena beer! We walked across the border into Bolivia and were less delighted with the queue for Bolivian immigration that we were confronted with. We left Bolivia…
Sunset on the boat Overview On a map it looks like it would be relatively straightforward to get from Colombia to Panama. The two are linked by land and so you’d think that there must be regular transport between the two. But you’d be wrong! The Darién Gap is an area of dense jungle and swampland of 160 kilometres in length that links the two countries together and there is no road that goes through it. The area is also home…