Date:         Wed, 12 Feb 1997 20:02:04 -0800
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Barbara Sutton <bsutton@gladstone.uoregon.edu>
Subject:      Re: Tierra del Fuego 2000

> Oops, my lunch break is gone. More later...(Darien Gap, useful sources,
> Carnet de Passage, etc)
> Cris.
> '91 Westie
> '66 Kombi
> '67 Deluxe
I am back from work. I've already received a couple of emails suggesting
it would be a good idea to post "chapters" of my panamerican
experience.I think I'll start this week, but don't want to comit to
regular postings. In them, I'll be as brief as possible, but feel free
to forward any comments, questions, etc. 
On the side:

-"Tierra del Fuego" (Land of Fire), called that way because fires were
the first traces of inhabitants that Spanish conquistadores saw from
their boats while incursionating into the Beagle Channel. The locals
(the Onas) used these big fires as a way to stay warm.

-For those of you who are wondering about the Darien Gap. There is just
no way. No matter how Syncroed you might be.Swamps, mosquitoes, drug
dealers, guerrilla, etc. It is said that the gap has been kept roadless
not only because it would be a major engineering enterprise, but because
Panama is not really interested in being connected with Colombia.(They
think that Colombians will not bring anything good to their country, and
that their cows would transmit aphthous (disease) to theirs). 
 
-"South 55" sounds great to me too. (In reply to Coyote's message)

Some sources:
1-"Straightening Out the Road to Cape Horn" Road & Track,
Jan.'84.(Follow up of R&T's May '83 article) The 1940/41 Pan American
expedition in a 1941 Plymouth sedan by Sullivan C. Richardson, Arnold
Whitaker and Kenneth C. Van Hee. 
2-"Quest for the Holy Trail", Americas (the OEA magazine), Vol. 41, # 1.
Excellent article about different people that have crossed the americas
by car, horse, bicycle, foot, etc.
3-"We Drove Panama's Darien Gap" National Geographic, March 1961.
Official National Geographic expedition, with a Land Rover and a Jeep
pick-up truck. 
4-Franck, Harry Alverson. "The Pan American Highway from the Rio Grande
to the...", "Working North From Patagonia ...","Vagabonding Down the
Andes...", "Redescovering South America" These are old, but good.
5-Henley, Constance Matilda Jordan. "Grandmother Drives South"
6-Tschiffely, A.F. "Tschiffely's ride: 10,000 miles in the ..." Pan
American by horse!
7-Richardson, Sullivan Calvin "Adventure South; Three Men and a Lone
Car..."
Have to go again...
Cris.