The Buddy Expedition-Austin to Ushuaia!

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ABQIRONPIG

ABQIRONPIG

10 Year 15 Year
Joined
Oct 7, 2009
Threads
47
Messages
272
Location
CROSSROADS
We leave 4/22, so not much to talk about other than the preps that we've made to ourselves and the truck.

98 Toyota Landcruiser UZJ100 (purchased from Yoter100)

OME 3" rear, OME Torsion bars, Slee Diff Drop,X315/75r16 BFG Muds, Slee 1" wheel spacers, 4.88 Gearing, Slee Front skid plate, Slee intermediate skid plate, Slee belly skid plate, Slee sliders, ARB Deluxue front bumper, Slee Rear Bumper with Single swing out, Warn 8000k Winch w/ synthetic cable , ARB compressor, ARB Front and Rear lockers, Front Runner roof rack, Front Runner Jerry can Holder, Safari Snorkel, National, Luna Dual Battery, Scan Gauge, Homebrew drawer system-MODIFIED , Rear Mounted Fuse block, Line- x on lower rocker panel, CVT Mt. St. helens RTT and custom WELD WORKS jerry can holder (in production, pics soon).

There's quite a bit of prep to ourselves that we've done too like hitting the gym, vaccinations, and several accounts that needed to be paid off, storage fee's paid a year in advance, life insurance and little stuff like a mail service and ton's of investigation on different countries.

My wife just sold our MINI so now we're just waiting to leave. We are going to visit our daughter in Yosemite a week before we leave then we're heading to Dallas to pick up my WELD WORKS jerry can holder, see the grandparents then head to the port of Houston on 4/22 then Cartagena 4/23.

It's really hard to try to think of everything you MAY need and then figuring out a place to put everything.

I will keep this thread going as well as on FACEBOOK so please like us there!!
 
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Thats nuts and Im jealous.

Is that the 55 that Colvin's built?
 
No, I built that one a few years ago...shoulda never sold it but a guy offered me retarded money so I punted it.

It was 95% rust free and in impecable condition....damn, thanks for making e feel sick at my stomach! :>)
 
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Sounds like a great trip. I am planning one similar in a few years. Very similar rig as well...2001 LX470 outfitted very similar.

Are you doing a live report anywhere? Blog? Spot tracking? I would love to follow your travels...
 
NICE! I wish I had caught on to this expedition earlier because I probably would have asked to join you guys. I lived in Chile for over a year and I have also spent considerable time in Argentina. I also owned a 4X while down there and wheeled it when and where I could. Let me know if you guys want to chat about Chile or Argentina or if you have any other questions about wheeling down there or things in general. If you haven't found them already, there are a couple of good sites that I can suggest by people or clubs that have made similar trips.
 
We are hosting our trip on Facebook, Expedition Portal and here....we have a Delorme Inreach that will allow folks to follow us on our trip.

We ship the truck from Houston to Cartagena Colombia on 4/23, not looking forward to the bs of retrieving our vehicle.

Our goal is to hit Ushuaia by New Years Eve then back up to catch the Dakar Rally in 2014...

My only itinerary is to hit the AAA, Amazon, Andes and Atacama!!

Right now we're effing bored as we're pretty much ready to go, just tie up a few loose ends, but I will say this, not working since January 2nd has been nice and even though we hit the gym 3x a week, I feel bloated, irresponsible and lazy.....I'm sure this will pass once we hit Cartagena since we won't have our truck for a couple of weeks, so we'll probably get lots of walking in!!
 
Have a safe journey!
 
We're enjoying the area quite a bit. Camping and wheeling is mighty nice I have to say.
 
LOL, same as everywhere: alia176
 
We're now in Taganga which is about 100+ miles from Cartagena. We took a small bus (Mercedes Sprinter)and our damn bus driver was still drunk from the night before and kept falling asleep at the wheel. We had to yell at him several times as we could see his eyes close and head drop down.
We landed in Santa Marta and stayed only one night because its not that great, so we took a cab to Taganga, got a sweet room at this hostel, meet a Frenchy and then took a boat ride to Tayrona National Park. Tayrona is sick, totally remote but you have a bunch of young backpackers tent camping, but still, it was kick ass.
Last night we had pizza of all things and it was damn good, and I really don't care for it! We're going on our third week here in South America and I hate to admit it, I want McDonalds! There's something about eating fish everyday that gets old and the beef here is pricey for the Argentine stuff.
Taganga's prices are half of Cartagena, so we like our $12. bottles of rum and vodka opposed to $25 in Cartagena.
It's still fxxxing hard to not get emotional seeing scroungy starving dogs and there's no way to even come close to feeding them. I would estimate there are half as many dogs as people, but for the most part, the dogs appear to be well fed, only about 20% appear to be starving.
The people here are nice and helpful, especially when they see gringo's trying to buy stuff from them. We have the numbers (for money) down as well as the food, it's the conversing part that's tough.
There's a ton of National Police everywhere so crime is almost non-existent unless you go of the beaten path. They all carry Sig's, I know because I asked them, and are really young, my guess is 18-23. At the roadblocks they're all carrying FAL's but still, they're very nice and are looking for dopers.
Everywhere I go I get offered drugs, I guess they see my tat's and ASSume I'm a druggy too. No one here has a full sleeve so a lot of folks want to look at them and their smile say's it all, even if I don't understand what the hell they're saying!
Oh, and I would say almost everyone has a motorcycle, usually a 100-150cc two smoke Chinese or Yamaha. They are like gnats, constantly darting around you, tooting their horn to warn you, but overall they seem like damn good riders. The sad thing is almost every bike I see has a low rear tire and loose chain in need of some PJ1!
We're in a really nice hostel called Casa Kankuamu, it's like the Hilton compared to the one we stayed at in Santa Marta. The owner is super cool, has super clean everything and nice WIFI. The one thing that is tough is putting your poo paper in a trash can and not flushing it. The water here is not safe to drink, but is ok to shower or wash dishes with. We consume about 2 liters of water per day and about a half liter of rum per night! :clap:
We're trying to make the best of it while waiting on our truck, so once we hit the road things will be better, the pictures will be better and maybe my liver can take a break from all the boozing. Yesterday we logged over 5 hours in the hammock playing our favorite music and exploring some new stuff.
Here's some of what we were listening to:
Nancy Sinatra
Kate Bush
Billie Holiday
Skylar Gray
Led Zeppelin
Pink Floyd
John Anderson
David Allen Coe
Jerry Jeff Walker
Weezer
St Vincent with David Byrne
Any Winehouse
Led Baxter
Herb Alpert
Harvey Mandel
Gary Myrick
Joe Cocker
Inspiral Carpets
EMF
The Charlatans
The Wild Swans
ACDC
The Soup Dragons
and PIXIES
We hit the whole gamut of music, and having a link to the USA is nice, thank you WIFI!
I miss my family and friends, but as time goes on it makes the yearning part easier as we all know time heals all wounds. My grandmother fell 3 days ago (she's 92) and refuses to go to the doctor and claims she feels better. I personally think she's ready to go on and when she does, my grandfather will be lost, they've been married 71 years!
More later, hasta luego amigos!

View from our Santa Marta hostel





Santa Marta




 



Don't pet them, you won't be able to shake them!


TAYRONA NATIONAL PARK



OUR TRANSPORT BOAT





CASA KANKUAMU




VIV PARASAILING
 
5/15/13

Today was the start of retrieving Josey out of the aduana aka customs. We are using a shipping agent and I hired an interpreter to assist. The funny thing is, he doesn't speak a lick of English, but that's another story in itself.

I am using Vanguard Logistics and they gave us some papers to have notarized and one of them is a contract that states I pay them no matter what the port fee's are!! Kinda scary, but it's the norm and fee's should run around $300-400 according to everything I've read.

Another PITA is you must wear jeans to enter the port...who wears jeans in 95 degree/90% humidity weather? Oh yeah, I bought some sweet jeans that all the boys are wearing at the discoteca!! Levi's are non-existent here, so some Fabio especials are all I could find.

Another literal PITA is my coxis roto aka broken tailbone, its a true PITA!!

It's very hard to get a straight answer out of folks here, even the ex-pats. Seems they've developed some local traits because I get a different story from everyone in this group. I will probably start crying for joy when we drive out of this place as 3+ weeks is too long to be in any one place. In a perfect world, we would've flown in one day, then the next day grabbed Josey and hit the road. Well, lucky for us we got adjusted to being in a foreign country, met some decent folks, made some connections and beefed up our Espanol, so I guess we did ok!

El President' of Colombia is staying next door so the Federales, Policia Nacional and local policia are thick this evening, Tt's kinda cool seeing 2 Federales riding 2 up on a KLR650 carrying FAL's! I will try to get some pics later.

Day 2.5 of the retrieving process at the DIAN and Puerto....you would not believe the flustercluck that it takes to get your damn vehicle. At this very point, I can only use expletives to describe the scenario, so I will wait until Josey is in my arms to finish this shenaniganry. (its a Deanism)

On another note, Colombians are kick ass, they are very polite as they are always offering me their seat everywhere I go. I have been asked some silly questions due to my towering height and tattoo's. It seems if you have tattoo's and are from 'Merica, you must own a fleet of Hardley Ablesons...when I tell them that Harleys are "CACA", they laugh and give me a strange look like I'm kidding. I tell them I ride BMW's and they give me that blank stare, guess they don't realize BMW makes moto's.

Speaking of moto's, the "moto taxi" riders are the craziest bunch on the road. There's a definite pecking order here on the road and it's basically whoever is bigger has the right of way. The bus drivers are at the top, then the cabbies and at the bottom are the lowly moto's. I have about 40 cab rides, 5-6 bus rides under my belt and refuse to ride on the back of moto taxi....this is coming from someone who will do anything.....except ride on the back on a moto taxi!

Next to crab fishing in the Bering Sea, riding a motorcycle or trying to cross a street in Cartagena is the second most DEADLIEST thing you can do!

If the planets are aligned properly tomorrow and I have my tongue in the right place in my cheek, I may get Josey, otherwise it will be Monday at the latest!!!!!

Tuesday will be 28 days in South America and I'm with the best person I could ever expect to be with, Vivian Jones, mi esposa!!!!

Life is damn good, thank you!!!
​

​
 
It's hard to put into words the things we're seeing, doing and especially the people we're meeting. The scenery keeps changing and the people are what we love most of all, they keep going put of their way to help us and one guy has already offered us his home to stay in. Our first overnight since Cartagena was awesome, we pulled in to get some gas and there was a really cool bamboo hut restaurant and a brand new hotel for $25,000COP, about $12.50 USD. Day two we were in the truck for about 10 hours and I was done, especially with my broken tailbone still hurting. The town was Rio Sucio and we loved it so much we stayed two nights at this super nice hotel called La Calera. The lady who ran the place was adorable and we met her two guard dogs and a ferocious baby cabra that we fed broccoli to.
The mountain roads are incredible, the clouds envelope the road in a thick, cool mist then disappear as quickly as they rolled in.
We are currently in staying in Salento at La Serrano, an eco-farm/hostel on LIFE REMOTELY'S advice. Like I stated earlier, I'm not a wordsmith, so it's hard to put into words what's going on.
I have a ton of pictures that I'll post shortly as for now, it's Miller time!














 
:popcorn::popcorn: Nice!
 
We've been playing a bit of TEJO[/URL] latrely which is cool, you get to throw heavy metal discs at paper packets filled with gunpowder...oh, and drink a s*** ton of beer!! WIN WIN!!
The weather is excellent, it's the rainy season here so lot's of moisture, overcast, fog daily with some sun for a few hours.
Last night we had the best meal ever, Tikka Masala at a local restaurant, stuff was the bomb as the food here is bland and starchy.
We've been hanging out with another couple that have a 4x4 VW Westfalia van with a Subaru engine, it's pretty damn slick and they are kick ass folks.
I finally got rid of my stomach bug after 32 days so I'm back to my regular self....sorry ladies, to us guys our bm's are very important.
OK, EFF THIS CRAP....THE EFFING WIFI HERE SUCKS AND I JUST LOST ABOUT AN HOURS WORTH OF WORK...
So I'm just going to post some pics.....
Eating at Café Eliana


Coffee grinder in place of the winch

Salento



Looking out my back door
 
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