Eleven months around South America ("Big Trips" part 1)

[alanymarce]

Our first "big trip" took us from Bogotá to Bogotá via Tierra del Fuego - 48,911 Km in 326 days, including the Pacific Coast, high sierras & altiplano, Ruta 40 in Argentina, the furthest south it's possible to go on public roads/tracks (both on the mainland and Tierra de Fuego), the Amazon (5 days on an experienced riverboat), and a lot more.




Some photos:


Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia


Paso del Inca, Bolivia



Highest point reached, Paso del Inca, Bolivia - 5029m (16,500 feet)



Ferry crossing entering Brazil


HIghway 21, Argentina


Torres del Paine, Chile

The vehicle was a Nissan X-Trail i (T31):
• Tow strap 8T + shackles,
• traction mats,
• jump leads,
• small shovel,
• high capacity jack + base pad,
• wheel chocks,
• 10m climbing rope, sling, and carabiner,
•air compressor,
• extra tool kit.
• Extra fire extinguisher
• Tyres: 4 new Yokohama Geolander 594, then 4 x Dunlop Grand Trek AT3, finally 4 x Pirelli Scorpion ATR


If interested ilook at www.suramericacontraelreloj.blogspot.com

Photos may be used for non-commercial purposes with credit to alanymarce@gmail.com

If interested in our South American “big trip”, look at www.suramericacontraelreloj.blogspot.com​

 

[Pskhaat]

Can't wait to read more.

 

[jeepgc]

Fantastic, one of my dream trips right there.

 

[Christian P.]

This is so awesome on so many levels. A stock Nissan X-Trail for starter...

 

[BrittanyHighland]

Our first "big trip" took us from Bogotá to Bogotá via Tierra del Fuego - 48,911 Km in 326 days, including the Pacific Coast, high sierras & altiplano, Ruta 40 in Argentina, the furthest south it's possible to go on public roads/tracks (both on the mainland and Tierra de Fuego), the Amazon (5 days on an experienced riverboat), and a lot more.

Thank you for starting this thread! I'm going to read through your blog. But I'm curious: did you have an average distance you drove on travel days, or perhaps a maximum mileage you tried to stick to? We'll cross into Central America in early 2022 and figure we may take at least two years to do Central and South America.

 

[alanymarce]

Hi: we don't really have a planned mileage, since this will vary according to the density of population and places we visit, however we do have some rules (not really, rules, more guidelines) which influence our travel distance.

Our plan is (briefly): pick dots on the map, decide how long we want to spend at each dot, join the dots, estimate how long it'll take to drive between them, planning on 4-6 hours on a travel day and add an intermediate dot as an overnight stop if needed. We seek to arrive at most places mid-afternoon to give time to explore, and spend longer in cities (4-7 days, usually).

Somewhat remarkably, over the last three "big trips" our average daily distance has worked out to be very consistent: in South America it was 169 Km/day, in Africa it was 168 Km/day, and in Australia it was 169 Km/day. In Africa we typically drove more hours per day, since progress was slow in general, and in Australia distances are huge however average speeds are generally higher.

Our longest travel distance has been around 600 Km, and our slowest progress was in Eastern Uganda in rainy season - 109 Km in 4 days...

2 years sounds about right for Central and South America, travelling as we do. Stay in touch and drop in if we're at home.

I assume you looked at our other two "big trip" posts - Big trips part 2 and Part 3?

 

[BrittanyHighland]

Our plan is (briefly): pick dots on the map, decide how long we want to spend at each dot, join the dots, estimate how long it'll take to drive between them, planning on 4-6 hours on a travel day and add an intermediate dot as an overnight stop if needed. We seek to arrive at most places mid-afternoon to give time to explore, and spend longer in cities (4-7 days, usually).

Somewhat remarkably, over the last three "big trips" our average daily distance has worked out to be very consistent: in South America it was 169 Km/day, in Africa it was 168 Km/day, and in Australia it was 169 Km/day. In Africa we typically drove more hours per day, since progress was slow in general, and in Australia distances are huge however average speeds are generally higher.

Our longest travel distance has been around 600 Km, and our slowest progress was in Eastern Uganda in rainy season - 109 Km in 4 days...

2 years sounds about right for Central and South America, travelling as we do. Stay in touch and drop in if we're at home.

I assume you looked at our other two "big trip" posts - Big trips part 2 and Part 3?

This is excellent, thank you. Your planning style is essentially what we've been doing in North America for the past six years. (We've been traveling full-time since 2014, but family and work commitments have kept us largely in the United States.) As we get closer to our international departure, I'm digging in more to ExPo and the resources available here. I haven't seen your other Big Trip threads, but I'll go look for them! Thank you.

 

[alanymarce]

You're welcome: they're:

Ten months around Southern & Eastern Africa ("Big Trips" part 2)

and

Ten months around Australia ("Big Trips" part 3)

both posted April 24th.