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Panamericana south
  • esmeralda life
  • Susanne Joss

Panamericana south

with our trusted truck camper Esmeralda , we are driving south to Houston , ship the truck to Cartagena , Columbia and take off toward Patagonia. Read more
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  • Panamericana south
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    Arequipa to Titicaca

    October 20, 2019 in Peru ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C

    From the clean, spanish looking, colonial town of Arequipa ,we conquer a last time the Peruvian Andes to the almost 4000m high Titicaca lake. This time a year the lake is about 3m lower then in January/February when the rains come. We spent 2days on a farm and hike the fields that will be underwater then.

    The famous floating islands on the lake are definitely worth a trip,and we enjoy the hospitality of a family that explains the traditional island living. The 3m thick islands are made of reeds and every 15 days new ones need to be added to the top to keep them swimming. People used to fish and collect eggs and also eat the inside of the reeds. Today they live still on the islands but live from the tourist boats coming to visit.    Read more

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    Where to go - Chile or Bolivia?

    November 2, 2019 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    While we had planned to cross the boder into Bolivia on Titicaca lake , the elections happened just the day before . And possible irregularities caused wide spread demonstrations , roadblocks and strikes. We stayed in Peru a few more days and then decided to head south to northern Chile ,which had its own problems . A nationwide uprising after a public transit increase , one million people demonstrated in Santiago and the police showed brutal force, with 20 or more people killed. Arriving in Chile ,the nice beachtown of Arica , we felt relieved. This town felt like venice beach or San diego . Beautiful beaches , great markets to buy any food you missed and perfect roads. The cars actually stop at the pedestrian crossings (zebra stripes like intouching germany) , we have not seen this in a long time.
    During our drive down south along the coast, we see a demonstration and lots of burned tire marks , where people blocked the roads a week ago when the protest had climaxed. Chilenos love to camp and we find some beautiful beaches with weekend campers along the highway 1 ( it feels a bit like Hwy 1/Big Sur in California but even more remote... with real desert touching the ocean and no gas station for 200 miles.) But really , how do they swim in that freezing cold water ,while we walk arround in down jackets?    Read more

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    happy hour and sunset
    Always been best buddies, even before nicola tesla became a carthe nobel price winning Gabriella Mistral is from the area and ever present in plaza names and museums

    Green valleys and Stargazing

    November 9, 2019 in Chile ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    After all the deserts in Northern Chile , the Equi valley feels especially good . Our campground , surrounded by vinyards and trees , this playground for astronomy students from the local University just feels good . "This is my favorite place in Chile . Enjoying the view of the lush vineyards and surrounding hills dotted with observatories makes my heart leap" says Susanne while watching the sunset. At night we had tours of the nightsky (appearantly one of the best in the world) and looks through the telescopes , and now we are again in awe about our universe....Read more

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    Off to Argentina

    November 28, 2019 in Argentina ⋅ 🌙 14 °C

    After 2 weeks in wintery germany ,we land again in the sunny Santiago hills . Before landing we see the highest mountain of South America from our plane . Next day we stop on the pass and border to Argentina , where the trail the Base camp to climb the Aconcagua . Argentina greets us with blue skys , municipal campgrounds and ? Music ! We hear beautiful music and walking a short way from our campsite, we find an elaborate stage ,barely lit by the parking lot lights. But what a program and all age groups are represented. Viva Argentina!Read more

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    Mendoza and the wine region

    December 4, 2019 in Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    After a week of spanish school in Mendoza , we got ourselves wrapped arround the past and the imperfect. And Suse tried her first Mate' , and we learned about the ceremonial love affair of passing the cup when meeting people. On the weekend we see people under trees at the creeks and in parkinglots making Asado ,the other argentine past time ,our spanish teacher explained it "as an exuse to get together and bbq all day" . Mendoza is a lively , joyful town and the largest wine region in Argentina just south of the city allows Napa valley like tours and tastings .We camp at rio Atuel ,which forms an impressive canyon.Read more

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    Christmas market in Argentina

    December 13, 2019 in Argentina ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    The lake district or argentine swiss, has the right mix of mountains , meadows and rivers to look just like switzerland. We admire the fiesta with a christmas and more importantly fishermans theme! Also, while i got my grill going again , i have ways to go to become a real Asadero (argentine bbq master) The kids next to us offered us some yammi tastes instead. We also got ourselves binoculars , to see the flamingos, black head swans and condors more closely....Read more

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    hiking parque national Lanin

    December 20, 2019 in Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    The vulcano Lanin is always somewhere peaking out! We hike different lakes and mountains in this stunningly beautiful park near st martin de los Andes

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    Bariloche

    December 27, 2019 in Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    The town Bariloche spreads along a lake and has a definite "lake tahoe" feeling to it.....lodge style timber framed hotels , fancy sport stores and any amount of hiking ,biking and boating you desire. We spent Christmas in Colonia Suiza , one of the oldest settlements outside the town . It still maintains a little swiss village that attracts visitors from Bariloche. Our campground hostess put a nice party together in the community room and we had a lovely night with a german couple we had met in Ecuador first and Suly , a malaysian girl travelling solo on a motorbike. Surrounding Bariloche is the parque national Nauel Huapi with the glaciers of the Cerro Tromador with 3800meters at its center. We hiked through rain, hail and snow to the Refugio Otto Meiling and sleep under the roof with a number of other wet hikers. But the morning is beautiful and the glaciers sparkle all around us .Read more

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    From El Bolson to Chile

    January 1, 2020 in Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    What a difference a few hippies can make ( we know that from our hometown Nevada City)....in the 1970s a bunch of hippies moved to El Bolson in the argentine Andes and we still feel such a nice vibe throughout town . Organic veggies (Susanne had the biggest smile) , cafes,breweries and an artesian Market with home made handycrafts , jams, foods and cloth.
    Up above town ,where a fire had destroyed the forest, artist made a sculpture forest out of the burned stumps. What a little vision and creativity can do!
    From there on our way back to Chile , we find great campgrounds at one of the lakes and in a working vinyard and winery. Back in Chile we finally hit the Careterra Austral, the 1240km long highway that runs through the remote Panagonia region . We see more bicyclists then cars and thanks to the heavy rain that started , the many non paved areas of the Careterra got the dust under control.
    In the small town of Puyuhuapi, we see signs for Tsunami warning and realize the big lake is actually a fjord connected to the Pacific .    Read more

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    Glaciers along Careterra Austral

    January 11, 2020 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    Following the Careterra Austral southwards we see lots of rain , snow and an ever present ice cold wind. At the little town of Rio tranquillo we drive back into a remote valley where we spent the night at the end of the road( after crossing a bridge with not even inches to spare) . We had booked a boat trip to the laguna and glacier San Rafael. During the 2hour boat ride the icebergs floating arround us become bigger and more frequent until we reach the glacier that flows into the San Rafael fjord with a 70m high edge into the sea. The glacier is one noisy monster with frequent , thundering breakoffs. We also spot a rare leopard sea lion,many unique birds and some dolphins. Also , the traditional whiskey toasted with a piece of glacier ice, warms us up nicely.
    The next day we hike back to Lago Leones in the neighboring valley ,with another glacier gliding right into the lake. The 25 km hike was a bit much for us, but despite having 4x4 turned on to drive as far as possible, on these miserable roads , they do end rather soon and hiking is the only option.    Read more

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    Ruta 40 south

    January 16, 2020 in Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    From the lush valleys along the Caraterra Astral we are getting back into Argentina's pampa along the southern part of Hwy 40. The wind blows so hard, motobikers need to drive walking speed and put the foot down to not be blown off . In El Chalten , we climb to the base of famous FitzRoy mountain . In Calafate we walk on the second largest ice sheet in the Hemisphere after Antarctica- the southern Patagonian Ice Field . Its a sureal experience to stomp with cramp-ons between the dark blue holes, gaps and ice bergs .Read more

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    Puerto Natales and the Torres

    January 25, 2020 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    impressions from windswept patagonia in chile near the famous Torres del Paine national park. Including a puma that crossed behind our outdoor cafe ...they are really big animals !

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    El Fin del Mundo

    February 1, 2020 in Argentina ⋅ 🌧 14 °C

    The end of the road in Ushuaia, Argentine . We find a number of fellow overlanders at the harbor including the old Renault,who also is planning to complete the full panamerikana, Ushuaia to Alaska. In the statepark close to town we see the red headed magelanian woodpecker.
    And one of the campgrounds has some innovative recycling options , including glass bottle trees and a playground built from recycled materials .
    What all the overlanders struggle with is getting money in Argentina. Oddly enough , the Western union exchange rate is by far the best , so we spent time lining up there as well with other travellers. At the end, if we are lucky and the store has enough pesos, we walk out with a shopping bag full of bills ! Its definitly complicated with an inflation rate of 50% per year ....but despite all of these issues the argentinos/as are wonderful people and we really enjoy our time here.    Read more

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    Atlantic coast in Patagonia

    February 6, 2020 in Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    Driving backup along the Atlantic coast, the pampa surprises with more animals then fellow vehicles . Rheas (the really big birds that run up to 50km per hour), Guanacos (wild lamas) , wild horses and grey foxes are the ones often visible from the road. Then on side roads we also find the Maras, rabbits the size of german shepard dogs. Then the armadillos , looking like they just put the latest starwars outfit, today i walked right by one without noticing the curled up rock looking thing next to my feet. And up on the coast they all mingle with the magellanic penguins ,sealions and many birds .
    The penguins are just hardwarmingly cute, probably because they remind us of ourselves chatting and mingling in our colonies.
    Also a petrified forest from 150million years ago is very impressive ,the trees ,some 3meters in diameter ,100m tall and at the time 1000 years old are lying at the same spot where they came down during the time the dinosaurs roamed.
    Otherwise the days are getting shorter ,with our northward travel the sun goes down at 8 instead of 9 pm and for the first time we are seeing temperatures in the 70's again.    Read more

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    Quarantine in north patagonia

    March 13, 2020 in Argentina ⋅ 🌙 29 °C

    Just 100 meters away from the beautiful beach in Las Grutas is our campground . But just like in other countries public life is shutting down more every day. While we had been ordered mandatory quarantine in our camper by the police, as of tommorow similar rules are true for Argentiniens. No beach , no fishing ,no public gatherings ,stay in your home for 14days as our camphost told us . We are lucky we have food,water,solarpanels and can survive for 10 days or so as the only guests on this large campground.
    We had been traveling back to the US in february ,due to a family emergency . When we returned , things had just started to intensify and by the time we returned to our camper here, we were obviously suspect as the foreigners.
    We are aware (thanks to Google FI our internet provider) whats happening in the world and also considering possible options.
    Good luck to all of you out there , stay happy and healthy!    Read more

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    Escape from argentine Quarantine

    April 9, 2020 in Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    After more then 4 weeks isolated in a campground in las grutas , north patagonia ,we are on the road again!
    With the help of the US embassy we got papers to drive and booked the only flight leaving to the USA in April .
    In two days we made it to Zarate , the port of buenos aires , where we plan to drop off our camper in the morning . We are spending the night here in the parkinglot with a bunch of german overlanders. So nice to meet and talk to our fellow travelers again ! After the truck is gone and waiting for the next ship, we plan to take off to Miami on Saturday by plane , if all goes well!    Read more

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    back home

    April 21, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    We made it back to California, where we self quarantine in a cute cabin at the Beach in Cayucos. Esmeralda is in a custom zone in the Buenos Aires harbor until a boat is actually going to the US and not cancelled , hopefully May 18th so we can pick her up in Houston, texas later in June.
    After all, a big part of traveling is coming home and we appreciate again the beauty of our landscape, sea and people.    Read more

    Trip end
    April 21, 2020
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