Tag Archives: river

Quebec

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August 4, 2019 – August 10, 2019

We crossed from Labrador City into the province of Quebec and the road once again turned to gravel. We were in a somewhat remote region of the province and the road twisted around lakes, crossed rivers and circled around large mining sites. We were headed towards the Manicouagan Reservoir, a huge reservoir with a massive island in the middle. The almost perfectly round lake was created about 214 million years ago by the impact of a meteorite that was 5 kilometres in diameter….wow.

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Las Cataratas del Iguazú

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March 13, 2019 – March 14, 2019

When we decided that we would ship the truck back to Canada from Uruguay, we were not sure if we would have time to make it all the way to Iguazú Falls, some 4,300 kilometres north of Ushuaia, and about 1,300 kilometres north of Buenos Aires. But we were sure going to try, and WOW, are we glad that we got to see these falls, the largest waterfall system in the world.

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Blowing through Bariloche, Loving El Bolson and Heading Back into Chile.

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December 14, 2018 – December 19, 2018

The town of Bariloche in the Lakes District of Argentina is a place that we had known about long before embarking on this trip. As we got closer and did more research, however, we kept running into one troubling piece of information….it seemed that Bariloche has had a bit of a problem with petty theft and vehicle break ins. Just a day or two before we were planning to arrive we had read about a couple who had parked on the street and went for a coffee in a nearby shop. Half an hour later they returned to find their vehicle had been broken into and the thieves took almost everything they owned. Overlanders, we read, were being targeted in Bariloche, as the thieves knew there would be computers, cameras, iPads and other goodies on board. We decided one lake town is as good as another, so we blew through Bariloche and headed to El Bolson, a town reputed to have a more relaxed vibe that had become popular with the “hippies” in the seventies.

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Las Lajas, Lago Alumine, Wild camp, Piedra Mala in N.P. Lanin

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December 2, 2018 – December 8, 2018

Driving so many kilometres, often on rough roads, means that there is almost always something that needs to be adjusted, repaired or replaced. Probably about 50% of the time when we arrive at a camping spot, one of the first things Derek does after we are set up is get his tools out and work on something. The fridge is finicky and doesn’t always work, screws rattle their way out of the camper and need to be tightened or replaced, one time the electrical connection for the solar panels on the roof was loose or filters need to be replaced on the truck. Sometimes it is more complicated, like when we noticed that the camper batteries were completely discharged and not being charged as we drove anymore. The computer chip governing the relay had quit and so Derek wired a manual bypass… we now have a manual switch in the cab that we need to remember to turn on for charging camper batteries when we start to drive, and off before we shut down the engine so that the fridge doesn’t end up draining the engine batteries. He is one handy guy!

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Colca Canyon

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September 18, 2018 – September 20, 2018

Although we really enjoyed the city of Arequipa, we were happy to be back out in the countryside again.  We were driving to the Colca Canyon, which is only a hundred or so metres shy of being the deepest canyon in the world, and more than twice the depth of the Grand Canyon in the United States.

We drove past this erupting volcano on our way to the Colca Canyon

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Machu Picchu

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September 8, 2018

We debated about whether to visit Machu Picchu or not.  Dogs definitely are not allowed, either on the Inca trail or at the site, so that meant we needed to get back to the truck within the day and thus take the train to the site, which would be an expensive ride.  They have now also changed the entrance rules: you buy a ticket for either the morning or the afternoon, and you are limited to 4 hours for your visit.  We had read that the site would be crowded, and we were worried about getting there and being disappointed.  In the end, we decided that we would likely never have a better opportunity to visit Machu Picchu, and that we would regret it if we didn’t go.

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Huacachina, Nazca and the Drive to Cusco

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August 27, 2018 – August 29, 2018

Huacachina is a tiny, oasis resort town surrounded by huge sand dunes.  It was once the playground for elite Peruvians, but is now frequented more by tourists who rent snowboards or skis to first climb up, then swoosh their way down the sand dunes.  We stopped in town for some lunch and watched boarders climb the enormous sand dunes in the hot midday sun, we didn’t see many coming back down though; maybe they were reluctant to climb back up again. After lunch we decided to move on.

The lagoon in the middle of town.

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El Canon del Pato

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August 17, 2018 – August 19, 2018

Canon del Pato (Duck Canyon) lies between the Cordillera Blanca and the Cordillera Negra (White Mountain Range and Black Mountain Range), and it is a spectacular drive. The canyon is at times as narrow as 15 metres and the gorge can be as deep at 1,000 metres. Top that off with about 35 single lane tunnels carved out of the rock, and you get a beautiful, exciting drive.

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Kuelap, the Most Important Ruins You’ve Maybe Never Heard of…..

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August 12, 2018 – August 15, 2018

The Chachapoyas (Cloud People) began building the fortified city of Kuelap in the 6th century AD, 600 to 900 years before Machu Picchu.  The walls surround an area of 584 metres by 110 metres, and reach heights of up to 20 metres.  Inside are the ruins of circular homesteads and temples.  The setting for this is the top of a remote mountain, 3,100 metres above sea level (about 700 metres higher than Machu Picchu), in northern Peru, providing incredible views of the surrounding valleys.  So why have you maybe never heard of Kuelap?  Well, until recently it was very difficult to get to, but a recent investment in a cable car has opened up the site, which some claim to be as important as the more famous Machu Picchu.

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Sante Fe de Antioquia

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June 20, 2018 – June 22, 2018

Since we had survived the drive through Bogota, why not drive through the second largest city in Colombia, Medellin! We made our way through the city, then through a 4 kilometre tunnel, and wound our way slowly to the north west of the city to a small colonial town called Sante Fe de Antioquia. There we camped for a couple of nights at Los Cabanas de Pino, where there was a very nice swimming pool!

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