OverlandSphere
Overland Travel, Expedition & Adventure Information for 4x4, motorcycle and truck overlanders
My last post in South America…..hopefully for now at any rate. We are in airport departure lounge which is crap really. Its got nothing so stay outside as long as possible. Just round to the left side of the airport (facing out the doors) is a nice cafe on the other side of the road. You will be amazed to…
No sure what to say here. We went, we “bathed?”, we washed. We enjoyed it. It was 50,000COL each which included dinner. I’ve always wanted to go to one and now I have. Its an experience. I performed some other checks for a quarter pounder and horse meat….turns out its a double quarter pounder and hung like a horse……(check out…
Some shots of our wander round Cartagena and some of our lunch. Its amazing what 9000COL gets you. Soup and main course and a drink. This is £3.04p which is amazing really. Its been cheaper in other countries but we took no photos. The lunch today was great and also the evening snack. If you come to the hotel we’ve…
Some photos of where we are staying in Cartagena. You may note there is a car park in front and its big enough for Land Rover or medium truck. The Hotel is 70,000 or $37usd. Its got cable TV, Air-con and Wi-Fi. The rooms are cleaned properly and although its slightly noisy its fine. We are going to be here…
Today we loaded Matilda in a container. Many hours were wasted. We arrived at 9am at the terminal and didn’t leave till about 5pm. Two hours were taken for them to make a mess inspecting all our belongings. Only I (not Julie) was allowed into the port so our normal policy of one door open at a time was not…
We seem to have a knack of finding them…. Those of you in the know will recognise the magazine as the Jehovah Witness publication. The hotel receptionist was reading it so I snatched it. English version. Now handed back for someone else to read. I read all about how I want to kill Julie most of the time and how…
If only it was this simple…. Time again for finding a shipping company to take us across and area where we are not allowed to go. This is the way of things. We need to ship over the Darien Gap and possibly past a country that won’t let us drive through. We might be shipping to Mexico due to the…
Well here we go: the LAST blog post for The Matt, Atley, Ferg and Wendy Show! As I write this, Atley and Wendy pedal hard to the south of Peru, towards a potential motorbike buyer. Ferg rides the glorious waves of the Ecuador coast, patiently awaiting his bike buyer. And I am in central Ecuador, sorting out an oil leak…
Hola amigos! We’ve finally made it to South America! We’re here relaxing in the beautiful city of Medellin, in Colombia, lounging by the pool and wondering whether we’ll have another empanada, some tasty local rum, a nap in a hammock or all three. We’ve been in Colombia for 3 weeks now, and it’s just been getting better and better –…
Baños, Ecuador [by Jeremy] Like so many other travellers, we have, over the past few months, often waxed lyrical about Colombia’s natural beauty – its stunning landscapes, its warm people, its incredible coastline, its deserts, mountains, not forgetting its delicious arepas con queso. Colombia’s paramilitaries target trade union activists and community leaders Unlike most other travellers we are fortunate enough…
Campspot with a view, Tatacoa Desert, Colombia Otavalo, Ecuador [by Paula] Hello Ecuador! We’d been in Colombia so long we were in danger of starting to look suspicious to the authorities. The last customs official to renew our car permit told us one more month would be plenty to get us to the border. So we took the hint… and…
Today we head to the Border to Costa Rica, We have enjoyed our time in Panama, its been laid back with great weather, meanwhile a recap on Colombia…
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…
We left Salento at 8 am on Monday morning and glad to say the small road back to the highway was empty, remember this is the road that took over an hour to do two miles on Friday, we had good directions from Edward from the Plantation hostel (well recommended if you are in the area) and turned of Eastwards…
The first person to stop was a motorcycle Policiá, finally one when you need one. He parked on the verge opposite us and strode over with purpose. After the obligatory ‘do you speak English? No, do you speak Española’ conversation the Officer motioned for us to set our emergency triangles, and finally we could show a Policiá our brand new…
Yesterday we had a vist and tour around a Coffee farm, very interesting, I never realised how labour intensive coffee making is, the coffee beans have to be hand picked which isn’t the easiest, seemingly its better to pick them in the rain, then they are seperated from the outer shell, they are then fermented (to get rid of the…
It was great to be back in Cali in the heat, we got the tyres changed the Scottoilers topped up and gave the bikes a general check over. Werner & Claudia appeared with a Swiss Italian, Giani in tow, We last saw them on the 1st of January at the end of the world, the Southernmost part in South America…
After our journey home with KLM we were expecting a similar very poor experience on our trip back to Cali, Colombia. We had an overnight stop in Amsterdam airport where we stayed in a Yotel, a Japanese concept where you get a basic (and small) pod to sleep in. It was actually OK, a tad expensive but also comfortable enough…
Today we celebrate 500 days on the road! People often ask, ‘what have been the best bits?’ Impossible to answer. They range from huge awe-inspiring sights – like hiking an active volcano, gazing at Mayan ruins, or looking a snake in the eye – to little moments that would be lost in translation. It’s been 500 days of exploring, learning,…
International airports can be an integral necessity when travelling from one country to the next, especially when large bodies of water or land separate you from your destination. Our need to use an international airport was a little different and involved a 100 km or so of rivers & jungle. The Pan American Highway ends in Panama and restarts 100…
Pereira, Colombia [by Paula] Life on the road has so many advantages it’s hard to know how to begin to quantify it. I don’t think we need to explain, any more than we have, how it feels to be free – at least for this chapter of our lives. But despite all the obvious privileges, when you are travelling there…
Travelling South out of Colombia We left Salento and headed South. We made a stop outside Cali at a nice, quiet Hostel on a river in a beautiful valley. It was Sunday and the small towns and river banks along our route were packed with people taking advantage of the nice weather and weekend. It was a completely different place…
nr Manizales, Colombia [by Paula] Cowboy country, Los Llanos We’d spent the morning watching a vet shoving his arm up the backside of several cows, then shovelling out the excess manure with a cupped hand before feeling their ovaries for signs of damage. Not for the first time did we pause and comment on how weird our life sometimes seems…
The run from Popayan to Cali was only around 90 miles but interesting all the same, the crazy driving got worse, we saw at least 10 suicide overtakes and 5 of them were by the same bus, I kid you not, we were bracing ourselves for the aftermath. The Army guard every bridge here it would seem, most give you…
John (our friend from Ibarra) appeared in the morning to make sure we got out of town OK, excellent and thanks John. We made our way on great roads and fantastic scenery to the border, out of Equador quickly, immagration and temporary import cancelled in short order, at the Colombian side a copy of our international driving licence and passport…
This week has been a pretty laid back one. We vegged out in Villa de Leyva for 4 nights recovering from our big hike in El Cocuy. Not exactly sure what we did there during that time but get caught up with our families and email, oh yes and eat a lot of pizza. We eventually headed toward Bogota and…
Bogotá, Colombia [by Jeremy] Forests of freilejons at the Paramo de Oseta gave it an other-worldly feel. A typical day at the beach in Britain is characterised by ruddy-faced hardy people huddling together behind ineffectual windbreakers, dressed in thick jumpers, raincoats, thermals and wellies. It can sometimes feel similar at the stunning white-sand beach of Playa Blanca. At least it…
This week we completed a six day hike around the mountains of El Cocuy National Park in Eastern Colombia. This turned out to be a very educational experience for us, with some of the major lessons being: Driving through Central America eating Pringles and Fajitas does not prepare you for hiking at 4000+ metres. Just because we drive our van…
This weeks travels We are enjoying ourselves here in Colombia. After the long shipping process we were anxious to get on the road. The morning we were due to just pop in to pick up Ginger at the Port actually took all day! The vehicles unloaded and ready for inspection More paperwork – of course! It wasn’t just a simple…
Sogamoso, Colombia [by Paula] As we came over the mountain pass we just couldn’t believe the eye-popping views over the Chicamocha Canyon. After several months on the Colombian coast, it was like being in a different country. Caroline comes to stay I was equally incredulous when, after a long descent down the other side of the mountain, our over-heated brakes…