OverlandSphere
Overland Travel, Expedition & Adventure Information for 4x4, motorcycle and truck overlanders
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…
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…
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…
Oh, Patagonia. I can’t even come up with the words to describe your beauty. From your jagged granite peaks, flowing glaciers that reflect every color of blue imaginable, clean flowing rivers and lakes packed with trout and salmon, to your wild wind swept grasslands, with an abundance of grazing Guanacos and Rheas, Patagonia you have lived up to and exceeded…
Sitting here sharing an evening with another overlanding couple, the conversation naturally turns to the highlights and low-lights of the last 2 years of voyaging between Canada and Argentina. There is a random staccato of ideas and methodologies to possibly make for a smoother trip resounding over the dinner table. So for future PanAm overlanders, here is what I learned:…
Seriam mais de 1000 Km até a próxima parada, a cidade de Bariloche, na Argentina. Saimos de Puerto Tranquilo em uma sexta feira de tempo fechado e por ser o dia da gravação da entrevista semanal a rádio CBN (programa caminhos alternativos), só conseguimos sair no começo da tarde, mas a garantia de que a estrada para a frente estava…
After our great two weeks of helping on the Finca it was time to start moving again. It was a little strange not driving the mog for two weeks so our feet were getting itchy, places to go, places to see, oh so many of them here in South America. Early morning in the park Aconcagua is one of the…
Après quelques jours à Ushuaïa, il était temps de remonter et de penser sérieusement à notre retour. Nous nous sommes donc concentrés sur la vente de Bip Bip ou éventuellement son expédition par bateau au Canada. After a couple of (cold) days in Ushuaia it was time to start figuring out what to do about our return. We redoubled our efforts in selling…
We broke one of our rules at this border crossing and arrived at the border fairly late in the day. However this is again one of the easiest and quickest borders that we have done. On arriving at the Argentine side of the border we were directed to the bus area where we parked up. Those in cars can drive…
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…
On the border of Argentina and Brasil sitting across the Rio Iguazu, lies perhaps the most impressive set of waterfalls in the world, Iguazu Falls. The falls can be viewed from both the Argentinian side and the Brazilian side, each with a different perspective but equally as stunning. The falls are surrounded by a large expanse of protected rainforest which…
In the Argentine province of Missiones, in Paraguay and the bordering areas of Brasil there are a number of ruined Missions established by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in the 1600’s. In fact 30 were built in the area however most were completely destroyed and haven’t been rebuilt. They created new communities for Guarani Indians where they introduced modern technology…
I know what you’re thinking. How did you get from Peru to the End of the Road? Aren’t there a few countries and several thousand miles in between? The truth, it seems, is that we’re not very good bloggers. Or, at the very least, we’re not very timely bloggers. Despite this fact, we wanted to share an important milestone. After…
We rolled in to Mendoza like we had almost every other big city on the trip, in need of a few auto parts and maintenance; in particular a new car battery. The past couple weeks of traveling with Home on the Highway, who was also (and still is) in dire need of a new car battery had been an amusing…
…since I last saw autumn. Colours of autumn I am standing in the Rio Grande campsite, just 100 yards from the Argentinean border crossing that will take us back into Chile and on to the renowned Carretera Austral. In the background I can hear the steady sound of the turbulence of the river, no more than 30 yards away, while…
Nosso maior desafio e ao mesmo tempo nosso maior pesadelo nessa viagem era a rota 40, muito conhecida aqui na Argentina e por todos os viajantes nesse lado. No trecho que ligas as “cidades” de Tres Lagos e Tamel Aike, de cerca de 200 Km a estrada é puro rípio e está sendo asfaltada ( o que vai tirar o…
At least we had a beautiful place to camp while Paul did his repair work. After our second attempt at leaving the El Bolson campsite we made it. We spent longer there than anticipated thanks to a little ‘bug’ which hit us both. However our first attempt at leaving was delayed when we stopped to get some printing and posting…
Before/Avant After/Après Kicking back in the new pad – our ‘interim’…a vacation. Or rather our transition. Thanks to Jere, we have sold our home-on-wheels and we have relocated into a Palermo-center apartment in Buenos Aires. While the apartment is a ‘studio’ we have effectively quintuppled our living space and Fanny is fairly dancing about the joint (and without boundaries her…
Em 2004, quando estive em El Calafate da última vez, El Chaltén estava em nosso roteiro, mas na época a estrada que liga as duas cidades ainda não era asfaltada e chegar aqui era uma aventura a parte. Naquela semana em especial, as estradas estavam cobertas de neve e fechadas já fazia 4 dias, não dando chance para nós. Dessa…
We have been traveling long enough now to start wondering what it’s like to stop. We are not sure what that’s like, and are not sure we like the idea of stopping. What if we cannot get jobs? What if we do not like the jobs we can get? What if we hate the weather back home in Ireland? What…
Mais duas travessias de fronteira, saida do Chile e entrada novamente na Argentina nos liberaram para segui viagem para El Calafate. Nosso GPS (versão gratuita no IPAD) nos dava uma distância de 365 Km e o google maps 282 Km, e lá fomos nós para ver quem tinha razão. Seguiamos pela famosa Ruta 40 e na junção com a ruta…
An easy 100km drive (well 60km were a bit rough and unpaved) from Mercedes is the small settlement of Colonia Carlos Pelligrini. This is the main access point for the wetlands of the Rerva Provincial Esteros Del Ibera. The Esteros del Ibera is a wetlands reserve of around 13000 sq. km. It is teeming with wildlife most notably Capybara and…
Throughout Argentina there are small shrines at the roadside decorated with red flags and often with a small colourful statue of a little gaucho man. These are shrines to a Robin Hood-esque character called Antonio Gil also known as Gaucho Gil. We just happened to be passing Mercedes which is the final resting place of Gil and the site of…
Moonrise in El Palmar At the end of a day’s drive from Buenos Aires we reached Parque National El Palmar. This park consists of the original flora of the area before man’s clearance for agricultural purposes. On the road into the park we saw our first Capybara, the largest rodent in the world, just grazing on the verge. The road…
A saída de Punta Tombo foi já no meio da tarde o que impossibilitou tocar até Rio Gallegos, já que seriam mais de 700 Km. Chegamos já a noite em Comodoro Rivadavia, onde penamos para achar um hotel com preço razoável, já que iriamos dormir e sair no dia seguinte. Acabamos em uma hospedagem de péssima qualidade, mas pela hora…
After driving more than 5000 miles around Argentina we hadn’t been stopped by a single police checkpoint or had any problems with the police but we’d heard rumours that North of Buenos Aires we would likely encounter some problems with the police and unfortunately this was true. At the border of Entre Rios State we were flagged down at a…
While travelling round Argentina we had been continually disappointed by the lack of buildings with grandeur in the towns. Well Buenos Aires has Grandeur with spades. Everywhere you look are huge colonial buildings on a scale to rival any of the great cities of the world. We arrived into Buenos Aires at the docks (close to where the ferry to…
We didn’t want to drive right into the centre of Buenos Aires with The Beast and fortunately found out that there was a campsite in the suburb of Tigre. Tigre is to the North of the city and is surrounded by a delta which provides a maze of rivers. It is where the Portenos (BA residents) go at the weekend…
The miracles of overlanding and LR contacts Well, we’re on the road again. After Paul’s return from work in the UK (and my stint in the laundry at Puerto Octay), and armed with new parts, Paul first caught up on some outstanding maintenance. Some things you just can’t anticipate. A couple of hundred kilometres down the road and there was…