If you are only interested in the specifics of how to ship a vehicle abroad, check out the post I wrote about that procedure and some tips here. If you’re curious about how this big move of one camper, two adults, and one 60-pound dog played out for us on a personal level, keep reading.

WARNING: This is a very long post. The dates play an important role.

The plan

• Reserve a spot on a cargo ship for the departure date of November 3^rd, 2022, for the route Galveston, Texas – Cartagena, Colombia with the German company Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL) via our IVSS agent Martin McGowan.
• Book plane tickets from Houston to Cartagena & deal with the other (many) logistics to switch continents.
• Prep our camper for transport and drop it off at the port on October 27^th (four business days before departure, as we were told is the standard procedure).
• Stay at the Galveston beach condo of friends for a week and see Thirsty Bella leave by ship.

• Book our first Airbnb for a week in Manga, Cartagena. Hop on a plane on November 7^th to arrive in Cartagena on November 8^th. The ship with our camper would arrive on November 13^th but Thirsty Bella would need a few days to clear customs upon arrival. We hoped to extend our accommodation with a few days (or find somewhere else) if needed.

• Visit the walled city of Cartagena during that first week in Colombia, pick up our camper on November 16^th the latest, put our home on wheels back together, and start our South American adventure.

The reality

• Car carriers of WWL leave approximately once a month. When we decided early October that we could make the ship transport of October 25^th and tried to book a slot, it had already been delayed by a week. It would leave on November 3^rd. This boat was called the Arc Resolve and we’d been watching its progress online for a little while.
• First, we worried about not getting on this boat, because this route was rumored to be popular. After two anxious days of waiting, we received a confirmation for this booking. The planning could begin.

• We reserved refundable and affordable plane tickets from Houston, TX, to Miami, FL, on Southwest Airlines for early afternoon on November 7^th and an expensive airport hotel in Miami that was also cancellable. We bought non-refundable plane tickets from Miami to Cartagena on American Airlines for November 8^th. We used points/miles for these purchases.

• We watched our assigned boat, the Arc Resolve, multiple times a day online – its route, schedule, and progress, which was very slow. 
• Delay after delay happened and we were stuck in hot and humid Texas, but at least in our RV.

• Every day, we stressed about whether we would be able to leave the country on our reserved date.
• Every time the Arc Resolve reached a new port on its route around South and Central America, more delays happened. Our departure day (and therefore drop-off day) from Galveston kept being pushed out. We cancelled the condo of our friends. What to do about our flights and accommodation?

• Since a lot of logistics and preparations (like an international health certificate and shots for Maya within ten days of travel) had been put into motion already and new tickets would cost twice as much on top of losing the international ones, we decided to stick to plan, leaving Houston on November 7^th.

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