On the road for a year...now to South America!

[0cean]

Since Syncro feast just passed, I was wondering how you guys are doing. Good to see all is well and still living the van life....
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I'm not a mechanic, I just play one on the internet

Cluster Rebuild:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=569920&highlight=

Left for Dead the Resurrection Story Build:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=613669
(Number of Different Donor VW Vans Body Parts Used: 12)
(Number of completely different vehicles parts used: 3)

[blackglasspirate]

Hey Jason!

We really wanted to go to Syncrofest this year (like, really wanted to), but we just had so much to plan and work to do on the van that it just didn't make sense to drive that far for a weekend and then drive back. Maybe next time!

And we didn't go through San Diego this time on our way to Baja but next time we do we'd love to meet up!
_________________
'87 Vanagon GL Westfalia
IG: @holidayatsee
FB: https://www.facebook.com/holidayatsee

[blackglasspirate]

Well, we planned on making our way down to Houston already but hit a minor snag when having the TBD installed. After putting the trans back in there was a small leak coming from the torque converter. Turns out a groove somehow got worn into the neck of it and that was keeping it from getting a good seal. German Transaxle was great in getting me another one under warranty but unfortunately their supplier made a mistake in the shipping and never sent it. So we're stuck in Chicago until next week and then will hopefully start making our way down south through Nashville, Mobile, New Orleans, and then Houston. I'm not looking forward to sleeping in the van in the heat of the south but I guess it's good preparation for South America.

Here's a picture of the torque converter. You can see the groove going around the neck. Funny thing is it was leaking at one point on our trip through the states but then stopped and I wasn't sure why. I think what may have happened is so much dirt/dust got on there that it essentially sealed up the leak. Once the trans was out and cleaned up it started leaking again. The moral of the story is leave it dirty!

_________________
'87 Vanagon GL Westfalia
IG: @holidayatsee
FB: https://www.facebook.com/holidayatsee

[blackglasspirate]

Well, it looks like we got most of the kinks worked out of the van and are ready to go. Besides, I've never heard of anyone working out ALL of the kinks in their van, so I think we're about as ready as we ever will be.

We're in Mobile, AL right now and plan on driving down to Miami on Wednesday, load the van into a container on Friday, and then fly to Colombia on Tuesday. We're excited that it's finally happening and all the prep work is finally coming to an end. Now instead of wondering how we're going to get there it's going to be figuring out what to do once we're actually there. That and figuring out all the paperwork for the van once it arrives

I will definitely update this thread with pictures as I am able - here's to South America!
_________________
'87 Vanagon GL Westfalia
IG: @holidayatsee
FB: https://www.facebook.com/holidayatsee

[Farf]

Peter,

Hope you and Shruthi have a great trip! Don't hesitate to contact us if you need anything. Get your beer mug icon working on your website so we can buy you guys a cold one or two.

Mike and Trish

[blackglasspirate]

[blackglasspirate]

Man, I can't believe it's been so long since I've updated this post. Whoops.

Anyway, I just wanted to give a quick update on our travels over the past few months. In the last five months we've been in 4 different countries, driven 6,000+ miles, destroyed two coolant level sensors, and have eaten more rice and meat than we know what to do with (not complaining about that). We've met some really cool people along the way, both locals and other travelers, and continue to meet more every day. So far with each new country we start out thinking "I'm not sure how I feel about going to the next country, I hear [x, y, or z] about it and there's no way it can top where we are now". Then we cross the border and the people are friendly, scenery is incredible, and beer is available so everything is right in the world.

So far Colombia has been Shruthi's favorite, though I can't make up my mind, as usual. It is true that it's a magical place and the people are incredibly friendly, despite the impression most people have in the States that it's a dangerous place full of narcos. We stayed off the PanAm almost the entire way through Colombia and with every small village met the most incredible and friendly people and even local bar tenders giving us beer on the house and shots of aguardiente after a storm knocks the power out.

I don't know if I mentioned this already in another thread but I'll go ahead and tell the story. We're in Colombia driving on a rough mountain road along the edge of Los Nevados NP at about 13,500ft when the first car we've seen all day drives up going the opposite direction. We pull over to let them pass and see it's a Red Cross truck. They pull up, stop, and roll down the window, "Hey, we have a VW club in Ibague. You should contact our president Gustavo when you go through there. Here's his number!"
So a couple days later when we're planning to drive down towards Ibague I send Gustavo a text saying we're coming through the next day if he wants to meet up or whatever. He responds and gives us an invitation to please come and see him, blah blah blah. So we show up to meet him in Ibague and after some confusing directions ( my spanish is poor, worse at that time, and he didn't speak english), we met him in the city center. He tells us to follow him and we assume we're going back to his house. Instead he leads us to this nice hotel and puts us up there for two nights, paid for our lunches and dinners, and took us to a nice kind of pool/resort type place the next day. At the end we convinced him to at least to let us treat him to dinner, wherever he wanted to go and we would pay. Where does he insist on going? KFC. So for all that he did for us we paid him back with some fried chicken. He's one of the nicest guys we've met on this trip and goes to show you how nice people around here can be, even when you're strangers that don't speak their language.

When we got to Ecuador we were thinking that we'd spend maybe a month there, considering it's pretty small and we had heard mixed things from people (who had never actually traveled in a vehicle there). But as soon as we started driving around with our jaws on the floor we realized we'd be there longer. We spent two months there and still feel like we didn't get to see anything, but again we met some of the nicest people while we were there. And to top it off - gas is cheap!

Then we entered Peru and were not expecting much. People had mentioned that the people there aren't nice, there's a lot of trash, etc. We crossed at the smallest border crossing (La Balsa) and by the end of the day were convinced that we'd been told a bunch of BS. Even the cops we met were friendly - in Peru of all places! Peru continued to blow our minds with the scenery. In the north we went through a mixture of mountains and jungle, and then decided to cut to the coast because we were short on time. It's true, especially on the coast north of Lima, that there is a lot of trash. It's really depressing and infuriating at the same time. Such beautiful landscape just littered with plastic and burning heaps of garbage. We decided to head to the hills and did an incredible drive through the desert and then Canon Del Pato to the Cordillera Blanca. There's really nothing like getting to a camping spot with no one around, and then seeing the clouds break to reveal a 22,000ft peak right in front of you that you didn't even know was there. The mountains there were some of the most beautiful mountains I've ever seen. We didn't want to leave, but we were kind of there in the wrong season and it was either rainy or cloudy all the time, so we decided to come back and do more on our way back north next year. We had sworn to ourselves that we weren't going to do Lima because we didn't want to deal with the horrible traffic and spending more money (as we usually do in big cities). Then one of our friends who was there told us "The traffic isn't really that bad at all, you should come!" So we did, and then our coolant level sensor blew out in traffic (another thread about that) and we regretted ever leaving the mountains. The silver lining is that Lima is probably one of the only places around we could have found the parts we needed, so it's better that it happened there than somewhere else.

We spent our Christmas on the beach in southern Peru while our families were freezing their asses off at home, and just crossed the border into Chile. We're spending the New Year celebrations on the beach in Arica, watching the fireworks, and drinking a box of wine that was only $4 for 2 liters so life is good. The only thing I'd change is that I just did my first oil change and 4 qts of Mobil1 cost me over $80. Yikes! I couldn't even get the 0w40 like I usually use (one of the ones Chris suggests for his Vanistan engines), so had to settle for 5w30. Compromises I guess.

I didn't realize this until my wife mentioned it the other day but for us it's been the year of perpetual summer. We left the Northeast US right after New Years 2017 to southern Texas and Baja, then Arizona to Tennessee. After that it was Illinois, Alabama, and Florida all in summer before heading to Colombia where it was summer on steroids. Since then we've been around the equator and now in the Southern Hemisphere where it actually is summer. The good thing about living on wheels is you can follow the good weather

But of course, for all the fun we've had it's not without its downsides. There's definitely stress that comes along with not knowing where you're going to sleep on any given night, having to hunt down drinkable water and propane, dealing with van issues, car insurance in each new place, crazy roads/drivers, etc. It's not always a walk in the park like it seems, but we still wouldn't rather be doing anything else.

I unfortunately don't have the bandwidth to upload many photos, but you can see the ones my wife posted on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/holidayatsee

And I'll leave you with this picture of me trying to fake a smile while dealing with snapped belts and a blown coolant level sensor in the rush hour heat of Guayaquil.

To another year on the road!

_________________
'87 Vanagon GL Westfalia
IG: @holidayatsee
FB: https://www.facebook.com/holidayatsee

[Jake de Villiers]

A really good story. Good luck and happy new year!!
_________________
'84 Vanagon GL 1.9 WBX
'86 Westy Weekender Poptop/2.5 Subaru/5 Speed Posi/Audi Front Brakes/16 x 7 Mercedes Wheels - answers to 'Dixie'
@jakedevilliersmusic1
http://sites.google.com/site/subyjake/mydixiedarlin%27
www.crescentbeachguitar.com
www.thebassspa.com

[AZ Landshaper]

Wow Rock on Brother!! That sounds fantastic. And thank you for clearing up all the bad Ive heard about S. America. With the wife and kids headed there for a sabbatical in the next year or so I have concerns. You have relieved them (for the mean time). Ive really only heard good about Ecuador though.
Good to know your out there having fun. Happy New Year.
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85 Weekender w/ EJ22
Previously
64, 71, 72, 73, 76, 81, 84, 85 & 87 Campmobiles and Westfalias
and a 67 bug.

[dobryan]

Thanks for letting me travel vicariously. It is on the bucket list....
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Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2002 Subaru EJ25 and Peloquin TBD

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Robert Louis Stevenson

MD>Canada>AK>WA>OR>CA>AZ>UT>WY>SD
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620646

Building a bus for travel in Europe (euroBus)
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695371

The Western Syncro build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=746794

[joetiger]

[blackglasspirate]

Well it's been six months since I my last update so I figured it's about that time. Over the past 6 months we've been through parts of Chile and Argentina and then back to Peru, met up with old friends, drank way too much good wine, rebuilt the transmission three times, and even hiked to over 19,000ft. It's been a 6 months with a lot of good times and also a lot of stressful times as well. If you followed my long thread on the transmission problems, you can understand why. That said it has all been for the better and we're better off now than we were before.

I'll just give a recap for those that are interested.

So I left off last time with us in Arica. Getting into Chile was almost like a mild culture shock to us. Coming from Peru the first thing we noticed was how quiet the roads were and how polite the drivers were. Where's the constant honking for any or no reason? Look, these people are actually letting us pull out! Holy crap, they actually stop at crosswalks to let pedestrians cross! It was like another world after driving in Peru. Then we found the Walmart and loaded up on crunchy peanut butter and wine and just enjoyed life on the beach for a while.

Afterwards we started heading south through the Atacama desert - the driest desert in the world. My wife loves desert and always talks about wanting to move to one. Me, not so much. I do enjoy it for a time but after a while I've gotta have some trees and running water. Either way, we spent a fair amount of time in the Atacama and surrounding areas, driving up into the mountains for geysers/hot springs, and then exploring the beautiful area around San Pedro de Atacama. I took the opportunity to take the van down some nice 4x4 roads around the desert and salt flats. It's not exciting unless the road makes me a little nervous

We crossed over Paso Sico into Argentina and were greeted by miles and miles of washboard road. Great! Somewhere along the way the rattling broke the bottom latch bracket on our swing-away tire carrier, but we were able to get it welded back for a few bucks in the next town. We were so happy to be back in Argentina after having visited a few years before. It's got a completely different vibe than where we'd been and I could not stop eating empanadas no matter how much my wife tried to stop me. We spent some time around Cafayate just relaxing and drinking wine before heading down to Belen. On the way we stopped at a small tienda on the side of Ruta 40 for some lunch when all of a sudden there pulls up some good friends we had met in Colombia. Talk about a coincidence! We ended up traveling together with them for a few weeks after, going over the highest pass the van has handled so far (15,500ft), and hiking up to a headache-inducing 19,000ft.

Once back in Chile we explored more of the altiplano, salt lakes/flats, and then head back to the coast and down towards Santiago. Long story short, from Santiago we went over to Mendoza for wine, empanadas, and rock climbing, and then returned to Santiago. We try to avoid big cities now because it can be a real PITA to drive around and find parking, and we usually just eat, drink, and spend money. Unfortunately, we had to come back to the heart of Santiago for parts. They were non-essential parts but there's a Vanagon garage in Santiago that had the used parts I needed (charcoal canister and grease cap for front wheel). From there it was down to more wine country and FINALLY to somewhere with lakes, trees, and mountains. It was such a relief to see some green after so much desert and altiplano. The lakes district in Chile and Argentina is absolutely goreous. We criss-crossed back and forth between the two countries until we got down to El Bolson and the s*** hit the fan.

I won't go into the details because my transmission thread has enough of those but the next two months or so was spent trying to find a reliable mechanic for an automatic transmission, rebuilding the transmission 3 times, and waiting around. We were really bummed because we had finally gotten to the very top of Patagonia and had been looking forward to it for a long time. By the end of the transmission saga we had to drive all the way back to Santiago and had missed the weather we'd been hoping for in Patagonia. The whole ordeal was incredibly stressful at times (I got sick twice just from being stressed) and winter brought an end to what had been our perpetual summer. As stressful as it was though we made some great friends along the way and really experienced amazing hospitality from locals both in Chile and Argentina. It really blew our minds how some people just went so far out of their way to help us during that time without expecting anything in return. And not just once or twice, these people would keep in touch and make sure everything was ok. It was really a great experience.

By the end of all that we decided to change our travel plans. Instead of continuing down to Patagonia for the winter, we decided to head back up to Peru and explore one of the parts we missed on the way down. We contemplated hard about continuing south but a lot of the hikes/activities we were looking forward to would be closed. So we drove the 3000km back up to Cusco, Peru and met up with other friends that we had also met in Colombia at the beginning of our trip. We've spent the past few weeks doing treks around the mountains, going to Machu Picchu, and planning out a trip to the Amazon.

Our plan now is to go to Bolivia for a short while before heading back to Argentina and then down to Patagonia again in September. This time we will make it all the way! Afterwards we'll drive up the coast of Argentina and then to Uruguay. At that point we're thinking it will be around December and we'll be thinking about coming back to North America. We had originally planned on driving back up through Central America but now that our timeline got pushed back we're leaning towards shipping from either Uruguay or Chile back to either the States or Mexico. That's all unplanned at this point, but we'll figure it out when we get there. It's not cheap by any means to ship it back, but neither is the time/money to drive it back up. At this point we'll see where the road takes us!

Now I'll shut up and post some pics. If you've looked at our Instagram you've probably seen a lot of these already. The nice looking ones are from my wife. The crappy ones are from me.



This is what happens when you are too lazy to air down the tires in sand and think you can make it:

Geysers in Northern Chile:

Beach pose:

Salt flats near Paso Sico:

Campspot on the way to Argentina:

Crossing the border!

I swam. She didn't.

Camping with friends near Paso San Francisco:

Hiking up a 6000 meter mountain and very very tired:

Natural hot springs as an after-hike reward:

Waffle breakfast with new friends at the Vanagon garage in Santiago:

Transmission misery:

Laundry in the mechanic's driveway in Osorno, Chile:

Cheering ourselves up with steak and wine in Chile:

Glad that I wasn't as dumb as this guy:

Some dancing in Santiago:

Mano del Desierto:

Desert roads:

Somewhere on the Chilean coast:

Hiked 5 days and up 2000 steps at 4am for this:

_________________
'87 Vanagon GL Westfalia
IG: @holidayatsee
FB: https://www.facebook.com/holidayatsee

[sanchius]

Wow, what an awesome adventure!

Thanks so much for sharing this tiny bit of it with us.
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[Jake de Villiers]

Wow, that's one fabulous trip you're on!!!

Thanks for the inspirational story and photos.
_________________
'84 Vanagon GL 1.9 WBX
'86 Westy Weekender Poptop/2.5 Subaru/5 Speed Posi/Audi Front Brakes/16 x 7 Mercedes Wheels - answers to 'Dixie'
@jakedevilliersmusic1
http://sites.google.com/site/subyjake/mydixiedarlin%27
www.crescentbeachguitar.com
www.thebassspa.com

[joetiger]

Incredible. Vanagon Hall of Famers.
_________________
Joe T.

'86 NAHT Vanagon GL Syncro/ supercharged ABA 2.0 "Pigpen"
'04 GTI 1.8T
'04 Golf R32

"get metaphysical with it. if it's simply a means to get to and from places, it will let you down. if it becomes your zen, it can't fail you." -dabaron

"Still, it's good to be afield."--VWagabond

Available Now! Vanagon to Louisiana--A Two-Lane Reckoning Through Past and Present

www.josephtrussell.com

[blackglasspirate]

Thanks! We're grateful for the opportunity to travel like this and are happy we can share some of it with you guys.

We found out that we'll actually be coming back to the States for 2 weeks in August on a work related trip (and to visit family in IL, RI, and NY) so I've already started my parts list. We're going to come back with a suitcase full of parts for the ol' van. Planning on making one bulk order with GoWesty right before we get back to the States, since who knows what will break between now and then.

At this point we at least need:

Radiator fan resistor
Door spring mechanism for the sliding door (door keeps popping open on bumps)
Engine mounts - mine are hosed. Only two years old but these roads have thrashed them.
Lug nuts - Ever since I put the Mefro wheels on and started using the small ball lug nuts I've had 3 of them strip when removing them to change a tire.
Rear hatch struts
Idle control valve - maybe.


The lug nuts and hatch struts I could probably find down here, but I'm not exactly in a rush for those anyway.

I'm sure I'm forgetting some but I'll probably spend a whole day going through GoWesty's site to jog my memory on things I need. It will be like Christmas in August!


We're in Puerto Maldonado, Peru right now and have been taking some excursions into the jungle the past few days. We even got to see a jaguar yesterday, which was pretty incredible. Today we say goodbye to the hot weather and start the drive to Bolivia. We'll be going from nearly sea level to over 16,000 feet in just a day or two so it will be interesting to see how the van does. Lots of cool-down breaks for sure!
_________________
'87 Vanagon GL Westfalia
IG: @holidayatsee
FB: https://www.facebook.com/holidayatsee

[blackglasspirate]

Well we're getting closer to our short trip home and it's coming at the perfect time - we need a lot of spare parts! We've had a lot of small things crap out in the last few weeks like the speedo cable and the temp sensor (for the gauge), but then also some bigger things like what I think might be my front passenger side wheel bearing starting to make some horrible noises. I also completely hosed my driver's side lower ball joint two days ago by hitting a massive hump in the road going about 40-50 mph. We went airborne and had one of those slow motion moments where we both were screaming and everything in the front of the van was floating in the air. The driver's side wheel hit hard on the top of the wheel well and even the expansion tank in there. Usually I'm good at avoiding situations like that but who would have expected a huge hump on a legitimate highway straightaway? I'd expect it in Bolivia or Peru, but not in Argentina. Hopefully we can at least limp from Mendoza to Santiago for our flight.

Oh, and last but not least our starter has started making a grinding noise when starting the van since we had some starting issues at extreme altitude in Bolivia. Luckily GoWesty has been great at helping us out with figuring things out and getting parts.

Anyway, I'll update with more pics soon once we're Stateside. Looking forward to being back with family for a short time.


Bottom of my lower ball joint blown out:

_________________
'87 Vanagon GL Westfalia
IG: @holidayatsee
FB: https://www.facebook.com/holidayatsee

[Zeitgeist 13]

super sketch...
_________________
Casey--

'89 Bluestar ALH w/12mm Waldo pump, PP764 and GT2052
'01 Weekender --> full camper
y u rune klassik?

[blackglasspirate]

Well, we finally made it to the end of the road and can't go any further south unless we take a boat or plane. After 1.5 years in South America and one failed attempt due to the transmission problems we're super thankful to be here, and what better time to be thankful for something than on Thanksgiving weekend, right? Except this year instead of stuffing our faces we hiked all day in Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego and had a quiet evening in the mountains. I wanted to catch a penguin for our Thanksgiving "turkey", but Shruthi (and Argentine law) wouldn't allow it. Oh well.

All these miles have definitely taken their toll on the van, especially the suspension. As some of you may have seen in my other threads from the past few months we had to change out the front bearings, one spindle, one upper ball joint, and both lower ball joints a few months back. Now one lower ball joint bit the dust again, and all of my lovely Fox shocks have also decided to go the way of the dodo. The fronts are leaking oil, the rears not, but either way they don't seem to be doing much absorbing. The transmission has also started slipping again between 2nd and 3rd, just like it was doing when I had the problems earlier this year, except this time I'm not leaking any oil and it must be something internal. That along with a few other things have tried to take away from the fun, but most of the time we've just pushed through it and cross our fingers that it will all be ok. Although with the infamous hurricane force Patagonian winds it has been pretty hard to ignore the fact that my shocks are shot. It's been getting to the point of being dangerous with how much I'm getting blown around on the road with winds so strong I have to have the wheel halfway turned just to go straight. It also makes it a problem sleeping at night if there's nowhere with wind protection. With the shocks gone the van sways and shakes so much that sometimes we can't even sleep.

Even with all of that it's totally worth it and we are no less grateful and excited to be here. The plan now is to go up the coast of Argentina to Puerto Madryn and then cut over to Bariloche because my little brother is coming to visit us for a week before Christmas. It will be our first visitor in South America so we're definitely going to need to tidy up a bit...and take showers.

After Bariloche we plan to head to Buenos Aires for Christmas and New years with some friends there, then to Uruguay for a bit. Our original plan was to drive back up, shipping the van across the Darien Gap. But with the time lost from the transmission problems we had, we figured maybe it's better to ship. As it stands now we'd like to ship from somewhere down here to Mexico at the end of January or early February. Or, if that's not possible, ship straight to the States. The problem is finding someone to share a container with that has the same destination and time frame. So far we've had no luck with finding anyone so are just playing it by ear.

I'll give a "quick" recap of the past few months:

After my last major recap in June we left Cusco and head to the Peruvian jungle near Puerto Maldonado. It was a huge change from where we had just been in the mountains. For the first time in a while we were sweating our butts off in the heat and humidity. We went around by boat a few places, leaving the van behind and had the chance to see a lot of really cool animals including jaguars, monkeys, macaws, caimen, giant otters, and tons of crazy ants and spiders. All in all it was well worth the detour.

We finally got sick of the heat and decided to head back to the mountains and over to Bolivia. Bolivia was interesting because it was the first place we had been where we had to get a visa and actually pay to get into the country. That and the price for gas is about 3 times more expensive for foreigners than it is for locals, which leads to a lot of bartering/bribing. Even though we had been wanting more cold weather, Bolivia gave us more than we had bargained for. After the salar in Uyuni we decided to tackle the Laguna Route, which is a long stretch in a remote part of Bolivia that leads into Chile. Being the dead of winter (June) we had more than our fair share of freezing cold nights at 15,000+ ft above sea level. We were really wishing we had sprung for some sort of heater at that point! The Laguna Route itself turned out to be really great but also really stressful at times. The views are absolutely incredible and you can get really remote, especially at that time of year. Most of it is offroad, with the closest thing to a "road" being just a washboard track. Unfortunately we wound up having to turn around because the snow made it impassible for any vehicle. Once we hit about 4 feet of snow on our route we did a little offroad maneuvering to get a little farther but it soon was pretty evident it would be foolish to keep going on. Even our friends with a 4x4 Tundra were getting stuck. We ended up spending a (freezing) night there at over 15,000ft only to wake up to a burst water line and an engine that did not want to start due to the cold/altitude. Once we did work through that we ended up having to go back the way we came and head for a different border crossing. With no gas stations for miles and miles, I was sure glad we had our 11 gallons of extra fuel. We were nearly running on vapors once we hit the first gas station in Chile.

After Bolivia, Chile was a dream. We were in the desert so it was nice and warm, and there was even a Walmart in Calama so we spent way too much on everything from cheese to whiskey before making an asado (bbq) over coals in the desert for my birthday. A few days later we passed through a snowstorm to make it over the mountains into Argentina to make our way South. We really love the drive along Route 40 in northern Argentina. It's got desert vibes with big canyons and rock formations that remind us of somewhere in Utah or Arizona.

Outside Mendoza we went airborne after hitting an unseen mound of dirt on the high way and kissed our front bearings and lower ball joints goodbye. It was bittersweet but about time (at least for the bearings). We were going back to the States in a few days for a work related visit, which complicated things a bit, but in the end it all worked out and we came back with a suitcase full of parts.

After some repairs we made our way down, finally, to Patagonia. I don't even know where to start with Patagonia and will keep this really short and maybe elaborate some other time. Our experience so far has been incredible. It started out with horrible weather - rain and wind every day and cold temps on top of that. Then, all of a sudden, the bad weather lifted and we started to have incredible sunshine and warmth nearly every day. We started thinking our luck was going to run out at some point but so far we are still riding the wave. We've been on some of the most amazing hikes we've ever been on, taken on our fair share of "4x4 only" roads (successfully ), and met a lot of cool people, including people we met months back who finally made it here as well. I could go on forever, but I'll just post some photos instead. Unfortunately I don't actually have too many photos of the Patagonia part of our trip yet because they are still on my wife's camera, but I'll include a few that are just from my phone.
These are also in no particular order and I may have already uploaded some of them to other threads....


End of Route 3 in Argentina

Rainbow Mountain in Peru:

Cuy (guinea pig) for dinner in Peru!:

Our friend Gabriel making a new monkey friend in the jungle:

Crossing a channel in Bolivia on a rickety old barge...

A badass "syncro" in Chile:

Mount Fitzroy:

Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina:

Another of the Glacier:

Torres del Paine in Chile:

Laguna Route in Bolivia:

More Laguna Route:

Laguna Colorada on the Laguna route:

Laguna route....

Making a birthday bbq after making it back to Chile in the Atacama desert:

Windy roads after crossing into Argentina:

Enjoying being in shorts in the canyons outside of Cafayate, Argentina:

Same spot:

Houses on the island of Chiloe (in Chile)

Inside the belly of the beast. The ferry from Chiloe to Chaiten:

The Peruvian Jungle:

Jungle/Van vibes:

Salar de Uyuni

A few more from the salar...

Laguna route:

Flamingos in Bolivia:

A few foxes we saw fighting on the laguna route:

That's all I've got for now. Time for a beer and some relaxing!
_________________
'87 Vanagon GL Westfalia
IG: @holidayatsee
FB: https://www.facebook.com/holidayatsee

[blackglasspirate]

As a side note, the van is so covered in mud/dirt right now that you can't even see the license plate. Gone are the days of a sparkling-clean van, and I couldn't be happier
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'87 Vanagon GL Westfalia
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