God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

We are on the road again – not with our cars, but after breakfast at “Villa Michelle” the owner and her friend take us to the airport in Panama City. A cordial farewell and we catch the flight at 3.15pm to Cartagena in Columbia with Copa Air.

An hour later we arrive in this coastal Caribbean town. Three taxis bring us to the old town of the city, giving us a first taste of the rules on the roads of Columbia. Happy to have arrived all in one piece, we occupy our rooms at Media Luna Hostel. A lovely place with a wonderful courtyard, a small pool shadowed by palm trees, and a roof terrace showing us the beauty of the old town and the skyline of modern Cartagena.

Would we be backpackers it would have been an ideal place to stay, but with our “move the world” t-shirts, all the equipment and certainly our age we attract a bit of extra attention.

And as to be expected the flyers are distributed quickly and spread amongst the crowd.

We hope that we can celebrate a reunion as quick as possible with our cars to be on the road again – in the true sense of the word.

Filed under: Uncategorized, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Move the world, stefan hippler

1st of May – workers day and public holiday for all.

Filed under: Uncategorized, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Move the world, stefan hippler

Unlimited internet access and enough time to use it. The disadvantage is that you also get the bad news, even concerning oneself: flash floods and mud floods in Columbia with many people dead for example, our next country to reach. That means destroyed infrastructure like roads on the route we want to take. The national police have already inquired about our plans to send us alternative routes as she wants to protect us on our way through the country. Or take the eruption of a volcano in Ecuador. The Tunguarhua is coughing up stones of the size of buses, lava and smoke less than 50 km away from the way we want to use. But there is also good news: we have not felt the earthquake in Panama, just read about it on the internet.

Otherwise we have also simple things to do: washing clothes and beaming up all pictures with persons holding the globe in their hands into cyberspace, of course with the original text, why they want to move the world. Being responsible for the media means to work every day.
We organise food for the weekend and Yvonne like most guests wonder how we can use a holiday facility to work the whole day. And to show her empathy she has cooked a chicken soup a la Panama. A great treat and in the evening we braai. Our grouse Katrin has prepared a huge amount of salad, Guido, our navigator has prepared the table and Lothar, our Lutheran lay preacher and technician shows his skills in bringing meat to a tasteful perfection. And the rest just join in to enjoy the food. Well everybody has a task to perform..

Filed under: Uncategorized, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Move the world, stefan hippler

The first day in Panama and after leaving the car the reader might assume that now the team can rest. Well, wrong assumption. A day full of work is ahead of us, the only thing missing is the driving and the change of the landscape. It feels somehow funny, being in one place for longer than a couple of hours. Emails have to be answered, contact has to be made with future points of arrival, and the blog has to be updated as we know have constant internet in the hostel. Translations have to be done, the blog is in English, Spanish and French as well. Press releases, last preparations for South America and obviously bookkeeping. Joachim is battling to get the flood of invoices and receipts into a format an accountant can read later. The highest amount paid was 229795 Dollars, well Dollars from Costa Rica equaling 312 Euro. We realize how expensive toll and petrol has been on our way. And in between all the work we also enjoy another kind of food – the trekking food chain comes to rest for the time being…

Filed under: Uncategorized, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Move the world, stefan hippler

The day of truth: Do we achieve our goal to get the cars onto the container ship or does all our planning vanish through a closed border? The tour is stressful enough as it is, one does not need this extra excitement. On the other hand days like this one show what kind of team we have created. We all know what to do, our cars are somehow flying over the roads, all drivers exceed the expectations put into them, and with walkie talkies used at all times the coordination of five cars reach full potential. No complains about long driving hours, no complains about missing meals – but is that sufficient?

Yes it is, dear reader, and we have proved to be a team beating time and circumstances. At 6pm on the dot we arrive at customs and Julian aka Che as well as Andreas achieve crossing the border within 2,5 hours. We virtually fly over the roads, no time to see the beautiful landscape, the tropic rain forest and all the farms in the beautiful settings. Sun, rain and a humidity of 80% keep us sweating at all times.

And within 7 hours we reach Colon by leaving Panama City on our right side and crossing the Panama Canal via a huge bridge. At 5.30 pm we are standing in front of the harbor terminal in Colon. And a real chaos awaits us: a truck touched another car and obviously the drivers have to get the damage assessed. All other cars coming from all directions try to circle around the accident – everybody tries it at the same time. Traffic comes almost to a standstill. Truckers start hooting adding to the confusion. In all this chaos nobody takes note that our Katrin is trying to disappear behind bushes for some urgent business, only to get stuck in the marsh and suddenly half of her body is gone underground. Only in the last second she is able to catch a wood and to get herself out of the mess. The laugh is always on the loser and she gets a nickname: Katrin, the grouse.

At the end we get the go ahead to enter the harbor, all cars are photographed in detail and then driven into the readily prepared containers. As we realize that the workers cannot handle the Amaroks on a narrow path within the container hall and that they have difficulty getting out when the car is in the container, we jump in to get the job done. Wooden bars are nailed around the wheels of our Amaroks to secure them and we bid farewell to the cars. It is a strange feeling losing our homes.

While the cars are on the way to Cartagena in Columbia, we will follow them on Monday by plane. But first we head to Villa Michelle with an old minivan, an oasis in a not so pretty suburb of Panama City. Our 3 bedrooms shared by 11 are waiting for us and to be able to shower again after one week is an indescribable feeling. Pizza for all at midnight and still time to draw a resume: We can be satisfied – and there is one sign that we really did well: Joachim is smiling unusually often …

Filed under: Uncategorized, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Move the world, stefan hippler