July 20, 2019 – August 1, 2019
Just south of St. John’s, Newfoundland is Cape Spear, the eastern most point in North America. Since we had driven to the most southerly point you can drive to in South America, it was only right that we visit Cape Spear!
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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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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.
August 9, 2018 – August 12, 2018
We drove south along the sandy desert of the northern Peru coast. It was desolate, dreary and depressing. The small towns we drove through were littered with garbage, as was the countryside. We saw people hanging their wet laundry outside of their adobe brick homes, just meters from the highway, and wondered how it could ever be clean when it was dry, because of all the dust in the air.
July 27, 2018 – July 30, 2018
We decided to head back inland. Surprisingly, given that we were at sea level and not very far from the equator, it was cool in Puerto Lopez (the cold humboldt current from the south moderates the coastal temperature), and we were anxious to get back to the mountains. We headed towards MtChimborazo.
July 19, 2018 – July 21, 2018
Leaving Mindo we took a slightly longer route to avoid driving through Quito again. We were not sure what we would be getting into, as we were going to be off main highways. As it turned out, the roads were paved, nice and wide and had a decent shoulder. This made for an easy, enjoyable driving day. On average, the main roads in Ecuador have probably been the best we have experienced in all of Latin America.