OverlandSphere
Overland Travel, Expedition & Adventure Information for 4x4, motorcycle and truck overlanders
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Getting to the southern tip of Argentina has been our end goal since we set out. We have been so fixated on it, that now that it was in sight, we were somewhat overwhelming. I don’t think either one of us thought, setting out, that our rusty old 1700$ Trooper would perform so well, but now that we were within…
Paul and I are now back in Canada, and yes I have been slacking on the blog. There are several more entries in the works with details and photos of the rest of our trip south and back north. For now, I am going to leave you with a video our friends Andrea and David made with footage of our…
After gorging ourselves and becoming acquainted with the Argentinian Malbec and Torrontes, we crossed into Chile just north of Temuco. We headed to the city to get some money, food and car parts. When taking out money, I usually search for familiar banks, so I went to the Scotiabank to take out Chilean pesos. I inserted my card, and tried…
Entering Argentina has been an abrupt change. Toilets are somewhat reliably flushing. for the most part, power outlets work (though they annoyingly have different fittings). It is a very precious thing to go from a country with fewer amenities to one whose people have reliable and disposable incomes. Road tripping in Argentina feels like a trip though the Okanagan in…
Right from our very first day in Bolivia, there were many surprises. Our lack of research strikes again. We crossed the border from Puno near Copacabana on the edge of Lago Titicaca. The Bolivian side of the lake was clean, the water was clear, and people were swimming- something you would never dream of doing in the Peruvian side. Copacabana…
Sorry to disappoint everyone, but we didn’t go to Machu Picchu. If we were to have gone there, it might look something like this So here’s the deal, seven years ago I came to Peru and backpacked from the south to the north. Upon revisiting Peru, I have found that a lot has changed. The ticket to enter the ruin…
It has been a while since we have posted anything on here, and we have now been in Peru for a couple of weeks. So much has happened, and there is a lot to talk about. Starting with our first day in Peru, this country has had a whole different feel. We got into the border town of Tumbes, took…
We are trying to make some time in our trip, and unfortunately that means we are going to have to skip seeing some places along the way. When we set off this year we were a month later than expected because of hot and dry fall conditions that allowed us to work until the end of October. This is a…
People back home have lots of ideas about Colombia. When we told our friends and family about our plan to drive the pan-American, Colombia topped the list of countries they were worried about in terms of safety and security. It has been interesting to travel in a place I previously thought innaccesible, and to set some of the stereotypes straight.…
So, I am learning a lot about trucks. Driving a 1989 Trooper has helped me to gain a pretty broad Spanish vocabulary of truck parts, and meet lots of mechanics along the way. Just after entering Panama, Phyllis started to get a strange shimmy when we cornered slowly. We ignored it for the first little while, but it kept getting…
Once in Panama we both got the obligatory Central American travel sickness involving sweats, and many many trips to the bathroom. Our travel plans for the country were interrupted a little bit with the recovery process, but we did manage to see some interesting places, and meet some very unique people. We spent a week and a half exploring the…
I had always assumed that a place like Costa Rica, which is incredibly developed for tourism, would be fairly predictable to travel. It is good to know that a place like this can still surprise you. Costa Rica has wild and inaccessible sections like any of the other Central American countries weâve traveled. We beat up our truck pretty hard…
Reunited with Phyllis in Costa Rica, we are super stoked to be back on the road. Paul and I flew down from the west coast and were expecting to find the truck in ruins. We were setting ourselves up for the worst, but found her fairly intact and much less mouldy than our vehicles at home will be after a…
It has been quite a while since we flew back home to BC from Costa Rica, and left Phyllis there to weather the wettest months of the year. Paul and I are all moved back into our wall tent and work is in full swing. Adjusting to life in the tent has been pretty smooth, and the humid Central American…
We set out on the Pan-American trip knowing that we would have to complete it in two sections. We work six months out of the year, and do not have enough money to skip a fire season, so the only solution we could come up with was to store the vehicle in Central America, and to complete the second leg…
Crossed the border at Las Manos, where there were many truckers, but no major problems. Though we were through in less than two hours, this was probably the most hectic of borders to date. We headed to the colonial city of Leon to get some local currency. Paul had no problem at any of the ATMs, but I didnât have…
So, our habit of doing very little reliable research about a place before going there kind of bit us in the ass. Susie (the trusted navigator) decided that the border town in Guatemala woule be a good place to crash before crossing into Copan the following day. What I neglected to find out, was whether or not there was actually…
It has now been 25 days since we crossed into Guatemala. Our Guatemalan experience was full of ups and downs, starting with the very first day. We rolled into Tikal hoping to head to the ruins. When we got to the gate of the park; Phyllis started stumbling and eventually refused to move. We spent a few hours trying to…
We crossed into Belize just over a week ago and have seen a large section of its south and its west. It is shocking how different Belize is from Mexico. Immediately, we saw much more linguistic and ethnic diversity than we had in most of Mexico over the previous ten weeks. Here in Belize, there are Maya, Garifuna (African-Carib), Creole…
Paul and I have been traveling for the past little while in the Mexican state of Chiapas. We are seeing lots of amazing vistas, incredible mountains, and learning about the politicized Indigenous groups that inhabit the region. From what I am able to understand, though Chiapas is an oil producing state, ensuring a decent income for some, it is a…
So Paul and I tend to focus our travels on eating and drinking. I figure there is no better way to take in a place than to taste and drink locally produced and in-season dishes and drinks. When we first got into Mexico we were excited about the cheap and good quality Tequila. We started a âtequila logâ rating the…
I canât believe this is our first post since we have been on Mainland Mexico. We have both been neglecting the blog since there has been so much to see and do, but finally, here is an update of the past three weeks. We started off with a six hour ferry ride from La Paz to Topolobompo in the Mexican…
We crossed into Mexico without incident at Tijuana after we finished up with our errands in San Diego. We ended up with a couple of new boards (6â8â fish for Paul and a 7â2â hybrid for Susan) to fill the Thule box along with a handful of other stuff that is easier to obtain north of the border. We stayed…
So this is a little late since we have been in Mexico for several weeks already, but I wanted to post some pictures of the most random and whimsical camping experience we have had yet. After consulting a free camping website, we found a spot inland in southern California near a town called Niland by the name of Slab City.…
Hi all, We are still not into Mexico, but plan to head out tomorrow morning. Lots of preparing in terms of gear, insurance and all the rest. Over the past couple of days we have been staying outside of San Diego in a community called Chula Vista. It has been tricky navigatnig the inerstates, but we are finally starting to…
A lot has hapenned since our last post. Paul and i are now in the Southern United States. We are in the Pheonix area soaking up the sun before the next leg of our trip down the Baja peninsula. The American portion of the journey has been surprising and beautiful. We crossed the Canadian-American border into Roosvelt Montana (just south…
Hi All. We ran into some problems in Whitehorse with a card I was using in my camera. This resulted in loosing all the photos and videos we had taken from Vancouver Island to Dease Lake. Not a worry though we have fixed the problem and here are some pictures from the northern leg of our trip. If you want…
We finally got our asses in gear and left the island on the 25th of October. Many unecpected repairs/ unforseen preparations came up making our departure later than anticipated, but nothing we could not fix. Anyways, we are on the road now, hanging out in beautiful (and cold) Whitehorse, YT. We went north to Prince George, took the 16 west…
Ok. So this is my first post on this blog thingy that Susan has set up. I guess its my turn to let you few people know what is going on with the preparation for our trip. Right off the top I am not as wordy or i guess literate as Susan so please bear with me. I am the…
Paul and I are finishing up our summer work contract in Pemberton, BC and are laying the groundwork to begin preparing for the long road south. This summer we opted to live very cheaply so that we might be able to go further during the winter, and ended up living in a 10 x 12 canvas wall tent. Living in…