Panama-Colombia Ferry
 

I just read an article in Spansh about a ferry that will start service between Colon and Cartagena as of May 10th. It also says it will cost $99 for a return trip in a deluxe seat. Three sailings each way per week. It will be interesting to see what really happens. I am hoping to take a trip south at the end of next year or the beginning of 2014. This, hopefully, will make things easier and cheaper. I don't like boats and the idea of spending 5 days on a little yacht is very off-putting.

Unicorn Ferry Servicio SA

Hey just kidding. I hope it happens. More likely to happen than a paved road through the Darien in my lifetime.

Cheers,
John Downs

Here's the link to the article http://elporvenir.com.mx/notas.asp?nota_id=576097

Thanks for the link. Sure sounds good on paper. Three times a week. 99 bucks roundtrip. Capacity of 500 cars. 12 hours one way from Colon to Cartagena. Starting on May 10th. Wow! Sign me up!

They seem to think the reasons the last ferry failed were due to Colombian troubles ten years ago that cut down on tourism along with animal disease scares that no longer exist. I sure hope they are right. Might have to adjust my plans and ride to South America while they are still in business.

Kindest regards,
John Downs

I read somewhere else that it is $99 one way which is still a good price. It sounds like my wife and I could go with one bike for under $400. It also said the trip will take 7 hours and on the link it says 12. Either way 7 or 12 hours sounds better than 5 days on a yacht with a bunch of other people all cramped together.

Here's a link in English.
New Ferry Service Between Colon and Cartagena to Begin on 10 May 2012 - Panama Guide

It looks like it's for real.

Sails from Colon at 6pm and arrives the next morning in Cartagena at 7am. 99.00 for the cheap seats like I know and love. Maybe a couple hundred for a little bike although it doesn't say. Will be interesting to follow this story.

It does sound promising. But with hurricane season in the fall I can't imagine it would be a year round service. Time will tell.

It was a quiet day at work today so I spent some time looking for this info. That just stopped when we had another small earthquake (6.3) and had to think about evacuating the building.
I just hope the Mayans aren't right because I will be well and truelly P***ed off if the world ends before I get to go to South America!

The legend that is - Garry Diamond
 

Hi Garry,

That's great news, the best bit is those boat owners who have been shafting travellers for years will now be struggling for customers.
Good that it's worked well for you and Ivonne. We have plans to come back and complete that part of our trip on one bike so I'm hopping the ferry actually happens.
We are in Dunedin NZ now, bikes fumigated today and we collect them on Monday. Blue skies and 18deg but down to 4deg at night.
Take care mate - glad you managed to somehow spare a few moments from your hectic working day to post the above - don't know how you do it xx

I hope this pans out well, but I haven't been able to find any contact information for the ferry or anyway to book a sit. I am/was hoping to ship in 1-2 weeks time so if this is true would be almost perfect timing and save me £££££s

Fingers crossed

This is a birthday wish come true!
 

If it is true, that is...

People are expressing doubts that they'll have this service up and running any time soon (apparently they have to improve their docks)...

But, we're in Honduras now and we're driving a rig that's too big for a container so this will save us $$$$ - so we're hoping it's true....

We're emailing about trying to get some more info - anything I find I'll put on here - this could be the biggest news since the brand new Amur Highway took us across Siberia.

Any info anyone finds, please please send to us:

andyeverywhere@yahoo.co.uk
facebook: Andy Everywhere
facebook group: Earthcircuit
our project: www.earthcircuit.org/blog

here's hoping!

Ok more info

In the local newspaper here in panama I saw an article with the following

Call either for more info
209-2000
380-0900

My wife tried to call today (sat) but no answer, we will be calling on Monday and will keep the thread update

also can go to
Index of / but the site isn't there :-s

or write to reservas@panaferry.com
I am waiting on a response

Just got off the phone with someone and have some updated info.

The 99$ ticket is a round trip and will have an 80$ (ish) tax added onto it, making the ticket $180 per person (children have to pay full price, well my 4 year does, not sure about younger)

A car / van wil be charged at $260 each way, BUT YOU MUST buy a return ticket. One way tickets are not possible for some reason, so a ticket is $520.

Reservations are made by emailing copies of your passport along with a flight reservation out of the country. We explained we want to go one way and will not have a flight, but she insisted it is company policy.

Out of WHICH country? Or is it the same in both directions?

By your calculations the price of a one-way journey is $700 plus any cost associated with that "ticket out of the country," which should be satisfied by a fully-refundable plane ticket. If the cost is similar for bikes, that's almost as much as one of the nicer sailboats.

Still a lot of unknowns, but glad to hear it's all moving forward. Thanks for the update.

Mark

We were told, on one of the phone numbers above, that you need to have a flight reservation out of panama.

I have no idea about the price for bikes on the ferry, so the $260 each way (total $520 is for a car / minivan) so one would think bikes are less.

However, I have been speaking to another traveller looking into this, and he has called the same number and spoke to another person and was told that you did NOT need a flight reservation out of the country.

TBH I never made a reservation, just entered some flights into expedia.com, then printed out the itinery without paying, scanned it and sent it to the eail address as above