The Darien Gap: Expenses
September 12th, 2013 | Posted by in Border Crossings | Colombia | Darien Gap | How To | Panama | The Places We've BeenOur Darien Gap experiences have occurred (and been written about) in segments, and after completing our crossing we were compelled to calculate the total financial impact of this overlanders’ endeavor. We knew well in advance that the time we spent crossing the Darien was going to call for grossly atypical expenses, making the jump from Central America to South America an even-more-special-than-usual activity that required dedicated savings. So what did the grand total come to? Just short of $3,000 USD. Here’s the breakdown:
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Ouch!!!!! That’s PAINFUL.
Haha, yes it is. There are a few ways that costs could have been cut, the largest of which would have been sharing a container. We had a few prospective partners, but nothing ended up working out. I think that if someone had time to wait around Panama City for a partner, then they could shave a good amount off there. Flights too could have been cheaper through Avianca, but as noted in our dog post, we opted for Copa so that the flight time would be shorter for the dogs. Lastly, we spent more on taxis and other transportation than others might because it was worth the cost of a cab for us to be able to spend a few hours working rather than hanging out in town waiting for the next step while in Cartagena. Other than those few things though, we think our costs were pretty typical.