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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January 7, 2019 – January 14, 2019
(Grab a coffee, tea or beer…..it’s a bit of a long post……)
We camped for a night in a small town called Puyuhuapi, situated at the end of a long fjord, in a small area behind a woman’s house. We were there with several other tourists, all of which were either travelling by bike or by hitchhiking. It had been very rainy, and I was thankful for our warm camper but felt guilty about our luxury when I walked by the chilled tenters on my way to the bathroom. But they were young, and they had a wood stove to gather around, and a little discomfort can increase the sense of adventure….ha ha, easy for me to say as I sipped my warm coffee from the comfort of our toasty camper.
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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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December 8, 2018 – December 13, 2019
We camped for a night on an island in a river that runs through the town of Junin de los Andes, then headed to San Martin de los Andes, which reminded us very much of Banff townsite, with its outdoor gear shops and candy stores. The next day we headed out of town towards the border with Chile where we camped for a couple of nights in a free park-run campsite at the end of a mountain lake….I will let the photos tell the rest.
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December 1, 2018 – December 2, 2018
Our guide book for Argentina is not very good. It highlights a few regions of Argentina, but is more focused on luxury hotels and expensive restaurants, and gives only a few highlights of things to do, in only a few regions of the country. So we didn’t really have a plan for what we wanted to see and do in between the larger, well known sites in Argentina. We looked at our map and at iOverlander, and decided to head to Lago Caviahue for a night.
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July 17, 2018 – July 19, 2018
Mindo is 2.5 hours from Quito but a world away in terms of the environment. In 268 kilometres of winding road we dropped about 1,500 metres in elevation. Gone were the volcano peaks and bare mountains, replaced by lush tropical forest and gorges. Gone were the high rises, traffic and urban dwellers, replaced by palms trees, people on horseback and children playing in the stream while their mothers hand washed clothes and lay them on the rocks to dry.
Lanquin is the town that many backpackers base themselves out of to visit caves, do hikes and see attractions in the area, Semuc Champey being the highlight. We had been warned that the road to Semuc Champey was rough, had a few precarious bridges that might not support our 5 tonne plus rig, and after the drive the day before, it wasn’t really appealing to us. We opted for a return trip on the hostel’s shuttle to Semuc Champey and back at a cost of about 10 CAD each.
The Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary was established in 1986 to protect the jaguar and is considered the most important jaguar reserve in the world. We headed to the sanctuary mid-morning, knowing that we were unlikely to see the nocturnal jaguars.
We headed towards Caracol, the largest Maya site in Belize. The road is rough and slow, so we planned to camp half way and then get to Caracol early the next day. Before setting up camp, we stopped at Rio On Pools and played in the water for a few hours.