OverlandSphere
Overland Travel, Expedition & Adventure Information for 4x4, motorcycle and truck overlanders
Toda fronteira é complicada, pois vários fatores envolvem a travessia, mesmo nas fronteiras mais remotas na cordilheira entre Argentina e Chile, onde imaginei ser tranquilo e rápido, fomos submetidos a uma revista mais rigorosa, mas essa fronteira bateu todos os recordes de fiscalização e demora. Foram mais de três horas nos procedimentos burocráticos de saída da Bolívia e entrada na…
Depois de Copacabana, deveríamos tomar uma decisão; seguir pela Bolívia até Uyuni, para visitar o maior deserto de sal do mundo ou desviar o caminho e voltar para o Chile onde as condições são bem melhores para viajar. Já na saída de Copacabana um pedágio era cobrado em nome da conservação da cidade e uma taxa adicional, a título de…
Laguna Quilotoa, Ecuador Quito, Ecuador [by Jeremy] It’s often said to be an endearing quality in a man to be able to show emotion, to be able to shed a tear. It’s not quite so endearing when the man in question is on all fours, clinging to a rock and blubbing uncontrollably. I am that man. Before setting out on…
Nossa última noite antes de entrar na Bolívia foi em Puno, onde chegamos já no final da tarde vindo de Cusco. Como o hotel já estava reservado anteriormente pela internet, não tivemos muitos problemas para montar acampamento. O estacionamento estava incluso na diária, mas a vaga ficava a 3 quadras do hotel, em uma rua muito estreita e que exigiu…
A saída de Arequipa deveria ser rápida, mas o maldito programa de GPS que compramos na hora H não funcionava e tivemos que sair da cidade pedindo informações, o que te leva para diversas direções menos para a certa. Recebemos várias informações erradas inclusive de policiais. Depois da difícil saída de Arequipa, e o congestionado trânsito na periferia, encaramos uma…
Voilà une liste des endroits qui nous ont plu à BA. This is it: the trip is over. Tomorrow morning we climb on the airplane and we jet back to the ‘real world’, to friends and family (good) and to work (bad). Here is a list of places and activities we enjoyed during our transitional time in Buenos Aires that…
A good few nights wild camping and driving quite quickly we stayed one night in a rather expensive campsite in Hotel Huanchaco Gardens Hotel. It was OK. I’ve posted some photos. For the price is could have been better but it was quiet so probably worth it.I might not have mentioned the attempted robbery in Puno in Peru. Well We’ve…
We came back down to the coast after exploring the Valle Europa and decided that it was time to find a nice beach to rest up on for a couple of days. We drove into a peninsula called Porto Belo in search of our perfect beach. The first town is Porto Belo itself where the beach front is built up…
Santiago foi uma parada especial para nós, pois fomos recebidos na casa dos primos Ricardo e Mariana, e das pequenas Catarina e Victória. A grande vantagem de estar com alguém que mora no local em que você é turista, é conhecer pontos que nenhum guia te levaria.Passamos a tarde de sábado em um complexo turístico no vale do maipo, onde…
To most, Machu Picchu is a bucket list destination, right up there with the Great Wall and the Pyramids of Giza. It is a destination that defines an entire continent. But what often comes with such a designation are the precise things one tries to avoid when traveling: crowds, inauthenticity and price gouging. If Jill and I were going to…
The Peruvian capital, Lima is a heaving mass of buses, trucks, cars, people, beasts of burden drawing carts and confusing & very chaotic roads. We have driven through nearly every national capital on our way down through the Americas and every country believes their capital city has the worst traffic. Congratulations Lima, your traffic is as crazy-dangerous as it gets,…
Perito Merino Glacier We awoke and arose to stars in the sky – not how I normally like to view them, I much prefer to admire the stars before I go to sleep! Still, it did give us the rare opportunity to admire the sun rising on the snow capped mountains around us before the clouds settled over us firstly…
The ride up the Baja from La Paz to Loreto was windy, quite a strong headwind in fact, so much so that we were on reserve at just over 130 miles, 50 miles earlier than usual. One other factor of course is that it’s been a while since we could sit at 70mph plus so that has a huge bearing…
Landy gets his front diff piles from the welder. Well, the works’ done – the big hammer sorted out the steering rod. Paul fitted the diff back in place, put the wheels back on, etc, etc. On Wednesday we took Landy to the local soldadura, Roberto, who proudly told us he was of Italian descent. Anyway, the diff casing now…
German Church in Valle Europa We left the little Ihla de Sao Francisco and headed slightly inland to a rich fertile valley called Valle Europa. This region of Brasil was settled by German immigrants in the 19th century after immigration to the USA became more difficult and consequently has a distinct German character, with German as likely to be heard…
Depois de pouco mais de um ano retorno a San Pedro de Atacama para rever alguns locais e conhecer outros.Para chegar em San Pedro a jornada foi pesada; desde Santiago foram 4 dias de estrada percorrendo mais de 1700 km com paradas em La Serena, Caldera e Antofagasta onde poucos quilometros antes da famosa escultura “mão do deserto”, mais um…
Eu não poderia deixar passar essa cidade sem uma paradinha para ver onde nasceu o nome KOKIMBOS. Rodamos cerca de 470 Km desde Santiago pela rota 5 até a capital da província de Elqui. O nome Coquimbo tem origem quechua (lugar de águas tranquilas) A economia da área é baseada principalmente em mineração, pois tem grandes depósitos de magnésio, ouro,…
When we arrived at the campsite on Sunday afternoon we checked it was OK to do servicing and maintenance work on our truck. We were encouraged to see evidence that others before us had done the same. We were less encouraged by the campsite owner telling us El Calafate gets lots of rain. Parked up on site Paul set to…
The problem with Machu Picchu is its a clear as mud how to get there and what stuff costs. So…. Drive to Santa Theresa and camp in the little campsite. Camping is 5 SOL but they do have some rooms for the same price. Location on our MAP. The next day in the afternoon get a Taxi from Santa Theresa…
Localizada a 150 Km de Pucón e a 835Km da capital, a cidade de Valdívia não tem muitas atrações para o turista comum e não está na ista das cidades ais visitadas d Chile, mas desde que estive aqui em 2004 e me deparei com os lobos marinhos no mercado de peixes, fiquei com esse destino gravado e não poderia…
It had been a relatively quiet night. Nestled in the hollow of the campsite we would have been protected from the strength of the Patagonian winds – except overnight there were none! Typical!! The plan for today was to leave the campsite at 10.00 (the time we had to be out by) and then stop along the roadside for Paul…
This weeks route We started out from Antofagasta 11 days ago refreshed and relaxed after our great visit with Shauna and Julian. Thanks again guys!!!! Checking out The Arch north of Antofagasta We kept heading south and found a good place to stop for the night at Pan de Azúcar National Park right on the ocean. Checking out some bizzare/cool…
After an extremely restless night in which the car, tent and us inside, were buffeted and rocked by the legendary Patagonian high winds, the local farmer came along just as we were packing up this morning and told us we had camped on private property. Without any fences or signs we had no way of knowing that last night but…
On the road to …… Leaving the Cave of Hands our next main destination will be the Perito Merino calving glacier near El Calafate, detouring on the way via nearby El Chalten to see the mountain scenery that makes this a popular summer tourist destination. From the town of Perito Merino Ruta 40 has been good straight tarmac, much of…
Well my goodness, the last three days sure have been different. Wonderful each in their own ways. (Actually Sat, Sun & Monday. Wifi & WordPress sketchy. Today is Friday May 3rd :-) I will begin with what started great, then turned to shit, followed by great. That would be Saturday the 27th of April. We were all fired up to…
Cave of Hands First job this morning was to take advantage of being in town and stock up on some food. The small supermarket just about had what we needed and we were soon out on the road again. Our first planned stop was Cuevas de Manos – Cave of Hands – about 85 km south of Perito Merino. Turning…
… than someone taking over reading your book? There I was, happily reading my copy of Margaret Attwood’s “The Blind Assassin” when Paul starts flicking through the opening chapter. At first I thought nothing of it: I usually read his books after he’s finished reading them – ex-SAS (or similar) hard man does good for society using his skills in…
Chugchilan, Ecuador [by Paula] We have become proficient enough at getting ourselves lost without any help from anyone, so we really don’t need someone telling us that when we’re going north we’re actually going sideways. Jeremy reacts to seeing the equator by displaying his Ministry of Silly Walks repertoire. And so it was when we crossed the equator. We pulled…
Kicking up some dust. It was a cold morning, with evidence that temperatures had dropped below freezing overnight. However, the sun soon warmed us and the land and we set off from our campsite, marvelling at the rugged yet beautiful scenery. Even so, by midday there was still ice along the edges of the steams and, in one place, on…
Carretera Austral scenery After our exploration of the southernmost part of the Carretera Austral, down as far as Puerto Yunguy, we headed back up to Cochrane again for the night. Leaving Cochrane today we pointed north again and then quickly turned east towards the border with Argentina. Another crossing, another set of stamps in the passports! As soon as we…