Canada and the Pan American Highway

[ChevySpoons]

Originally Posted by BIMBAM

How would you get from Panama to Columbia though?

You don't. At least not on a road. Cahill and his co-driver loaded their car on a ship for the trip around the Darien Gap.

[barneyg]

Originally Posted by yofie

So you're saying perhaps that there are fewer ways to link the west-coast South American countries (Chile to Colombia) together, or the east-coast South American countries (Argentina to Brazil/Bolivia to Venezuela or whatever) together, than to link Canada, the US, and Mexico together?

Theoretically no, but in practice, definitely. I'm not an expert on the origins of the Pan-Am Highway but I always thought the main point was to actually have a paved road that reaches most countries in Central and South America (it's still not even the case between Panama and Colombia). There are already hundreds of ways to go from (say) Montreal or Edmonton to Veracruz or Mexico City, the official designation of one of those routes would achieve an entirely different objective.

[yofie]

Originally Posted by barneyg

Theoretically no, but in practice, definitely. I'm not an expert on the origins of the Pan-Am Highway but I always thought the main point was to actually have a paved road that reaches most countries in Central and South America (it's still not even the case between Panama and Colombia). There are already hundreds of ways to go from (say) Montreal or Edmonton to Veracruz or Mexico City, the official designation of one of those routes would achieve an entirely different objective.

So at least in practice there are fewer ways to go from (say) Buenos Aires to Rio de Janeiro or La Paz (Bolivia), or from (say) Santiago de Chile to Bogota, than from Montreal to Mexico City?

[barneyg]

Originally Posted by yofie

So at least in practice there are fewer ways to go from (say) Buenos Aires to Rio de Janeiro or La Paz (Bolivia), or from (say) Santiago de Chile to Bogota, than from Montreal to Mexico City?

There are plenty of ways from BA to Rio, but for your other examples, yes. A quick look at Google Maps should convince yourself of that.

[j_k_k]

Originally Posted by ChevySpoons

See Tim Cahill's Road Fever, about a trip where he and a co-driver drove the length of the Pan-American Highway. I've read it; it's quite good.

It's a good book, as is anything by Cahill. I suspect it had high Canadian interest (in spite of the glossing over of much of the Canadian part of the trip), given that there can't be many professional endurance drivers in the world and Garry Sowerby (a Canadian) is one of them.

As for me, I have lived fifty years in the US West without seeing a single sign about or mention of a Pan-American Highway until I read the book you mentioned. Since then, I still haven't seen any. I drove down the Alcan without remembering any such signs, either. Sounds like a great idea, though.