Lost World Expedition (US-Central-South America)

We have been on the road since July 18th, so I think it is time for us to start our "In Progress Adventures" posting.

We have been breaking in our FJ60 Landcruiser and it's new 12HT diesel in the US. We drove it from Seattle, Washington to the Florida Keys... so far the trip has been very mild and with very little camping and/or offroad travel because we have been staying mostly at friends and family's homes along the way.

So far Arizona and New Mexico have been the standout favorites due to their extensive National forest and parks system. I never expected to enjoy those 2 states as much as I did. Plenty of great trails, beautiful landscape and free camping...

I am still not sure how to post here in ExPo because we have a dedicated website and Facebook account, but I really like the ExPo forum and all the help I have received from many members.

Perhaps I will use this thread for announcements and small posts for those not interested in checking our blog.
 
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For those of you who do not know what we are doing I should explain:
We are driving from California to Ushuaia, Argentina in our diesel converted 1987 Toyota Landcruiser FJ60. We are fairly well outfitted and ready for our yearlong (perhaps longer) adventure. YOu can see more vehicle "build" specifics at the following link MUD.

I have pictures of our landcruiser in many places here in ExPo and in MUD, but here are a couple of repeats:
At White Sands National Monument
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Near the Gila Cliff Dwellings at our wonderfully secluded camping spot
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We are in Southern Florida driving around the Keys. Next week we will start our trip back to San Diego where we will cross the border into Tijuana and south to Cabo San Lucas. We will spend some time with our friends from BajaRack in Ensenada and then we will proceed to fish, snorkel and perhaps even surf until we drop. Then we will ship the Cruiser and ourselves from La Paz to "mainland" Mexico....

We would be very happy to hear recommendations for destinations, places to stay, fishing spots, etc.... in fact PLEASE help us find cool places, trails and camping spots... oh and food, good restaurants, taco stands whatever:drool:.
 

achampagne

Explorer
When in Key west don't go to the garden of eden bar. It's not what you think!!!:Wow1:

If you stop in Seista Key, FL you have to go the beach it's the nicest in the US and eat at the HUB restaurant the best fish tacos ever!!!!
 
We have been sucked in by the Conch Republic and its lifestyle... I have a feeling this will happen a lot on our trip. I have not posted more pics because we have not camped out in the Landcruiser much... we have been lucky enough to be invited to stay in tons of places along the way. This will probably cease as soon as we leave the U.S. Although a few folks have already invited us to visit them! Awesome! ExPo and Facebook have come through for us.

Thank you.
 

Christian P.

Expedition Leader
Staff member
Luis, Lacey

I am so glad to hear that you guys are finally on the road!!!!

don't go too fast, perhaps we will meet up in South America next year.

also i must say i like the clean look of your cruiser - no extra stuff everywhere like I see too often here...!!!

CONGRATULATIONS!

:)
 
I was just perusing over the photos we have taken so far and have realized we just have called our adventure "Lost World Food Expedition."

Here are some examples:

This particular "dish" has many names around the country, this one in Northern Florida they called a low country boil. Crawfish, shrimp, sausage, corn and potatoes boiled in a spicy broth of who knows what... delicious.
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Breakfast of champions in New Orleans is definitely a beignet and a cafe au lait at Cafe du Monde
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Willie Mae's Scotch House fried chicken and beans with unsweetened iced tea... with my apologies to most southerners I cannot stand sweet iced tea :)
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Central Grocery Muffuletta, finger lickin' good
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Cochon, New Orleans... great restaurant, "authentic" progressive Cajun food. We ordered -among many other things- fried pig ears, popcorn alligator, crab stuffed crab and a nice Malbec from Argentina (yes we went through a couple of days of budget in New Orleans)
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food:drool:
 
and of course there is the best kind of food
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The stuff you catch yourself! Most restaurants in Florida will cook up your catch for a nominal fee... this restaurant happens to belong to my family :)
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You guys let me know if I am boring you with these non adventure driving pics... but I have come to terms with my love of food more than ever :drool:and my belly shows it.
 

RMP&O

Expedition Leader
Nice long range Cruiser.....Did you get the engine from Marv @ Spectre? I had an 1987 Cruiser way back in 1991, it is a great truck. Funny too but I grew up in Eugene and my TLC was sold in PDX.

I like your bolg but didn't see any details on the route you have planned for the trip. Are you shipping from Panama to Cartagena, Colombia?
 

dieselcruiserhead

16 Years on ExPo. Whoa!!
Congrats Luis again on finally getting on the road. Years in the making -- it's a pleasure to see man! I'll enjoy the updates.. Make sure you stop in Puerto Escondito if possible... :)
 
Thanks for the kind words
Did you get the engine from Marv @ Spectre? I had an 1987 Cruiser way back in 1991, it is a great truck. Funny too but I grew up in Eugene and my TLC was sold in PDX.

I like your blog but didn't see any details on the route you have planned for the trip. Are you shipping from Panama to Cartagena, Colombia?

We got the Landcruiser from Fernando, the owner of CampingLab and we actually purchased the diesel engine from a great guy in Portland, Oregon. He sold us the engine and then proceeded to do a great engine swap for a very reasonable amount of coinage. He tends to have an Australian engine or two laying around ready for a swap.

There is a very vague route outline here on our site, but it is not accurate and couldn't possibly be because it has changed and will change as we go (we will be posting our actual route as we go)... and yes we are shipping from Panama to Cartagena... we still are too far from that stage of our trip to know if we will ship by container or roll-on-roll-off (RORO)

Congrats Luis again on finally getting on the road. Years in the making -- it's a pleasure to see man! I'll enjoy the updates.. Make sure you stop in Puerto Escondito if possible... :)

Thanks for your help in getting us here Andre.
 

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