The Buddy Expedition-Austin to Ushuaia!

[TheBuddyExpedition]

Chiclayo Peru was like Afghanistan or some bombed out country





D.O.T....what's that??



Truck envy, these folks are from Holland and just bought this GLOBAL EXPEDITION VEHICLE





Eating home cooking, chicken strips with bbq sauce, greens and carrots....the local food isn't that tasty



One of the most valuable options on our truck



Riding in a Tuk Tuk



The local kids are quite curious about us and our truck



Puyango Ecuador, sketchy bridge crossing



Heading into the bush in Southern Ecuador



Bananas, we got 'em

 

[TheBuddyExpedition]

Machalla Ecuador







Traffic, narrow streets and loco Ecuadorians make for an awesome time...



Camping in the town square in Esmereldas





Uma crawling up 18% grades in the Andes



Clean laundry and hot showers are a luxury at times



You know you've stayed too long when you've trampled the grass to death



Our new drawer totally made a difference here, now we can stow our suitcases on the roof instead of having them in our salon

 

[trailsurfer]

Great pics and update!!!!!

 

[TheBuddyExpedition]

When we left the El Brujo ruins, we headed straight to Huaraz, the long way. We ended up doing a lot of off road to reach our destination only to discover it wasn't quite what we were looking for.

We broke one of our rules, we drove at night on a sometimes single lane road through tunnels and sheer drop offs. At one point we met a large dump truck but fortunately there was a pull out for him as we were half way through the tunnel. After several hours of night driving, we came upon an encampment at a hidroelectrica (Spanish spelling)project and they allowed us to camp in their parking lot.

Since Huaraz was a bust we decided to hit Chavin and do some hiking, however after spending only one night at 4500', the next three days were shear agony due to altitude sickness (15,000). It's amazing the difference between 10k and 15k, it was so uncomfortable we laid in bed watching movies on getting up occasionally for water and a bathroom break.

The views were spectacular as were the sheep wranglers and sparse vegetation. After a while we decided it was best to head back down to sea level and the road we were on allowed us to basically coast for 46 miles!!

We reached the town of Barranca and decided to keep going only to pass by a small sign that offered camping, so we turned and found a little slice of paradise called Albufera de Medio Mundo.

The first night there was a group of college kids having a campout with their teachers and a huge bonfire to which we were invited to. The next day all of them wanted pictures of us as I think they thought we had something to do with the Dakar Rally.

After they left it was totally serene, not a soul in sight other than the manager, Pedro, who caught tilapia in the fresh water lake for lunch that he served us. We decided to invite him and his son for a true home cooked meal of bbq chicken, bbq pork, beef, coleslaw, potato salad and cole slaw. They must've liked it because there was hardly enough scraps for the dogs and cats that we befriended

After a week of lounging around there, we headed to Lima and found The Hitchhikers Hostel in Miraflores and I must say, this place is awesome. It's a cross between NYC, Dallas and San Francisco with some excellent restaurants, museums and architecture.






http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_of_Cao


Sketchy bridge # 354









Camping at 15,000'









GOT COAL??



Cordillera Blanco





There's a ton more on our FB page, THE BUDDY EXPEDITION....take the foil hats off, I promise Obama won't see you :>)

 

[TheBuddyExpedition]

Every country has different propane bottles so I started buying just the regulators and filling my own bottles



Stuff for our remodel of UMA



Tony the dog taunting our stray kitty....btw, the kitty wins every time



It's sad when every vehicle you see you say, "that would make a great overland rig"









Peru is getting more modern as we travel South...



Our home in Huanchaco for the next month



Tommy the tortoise



Peacocks too



Pimental Peru, some dude built some pyramids at his hostel



Deserted beach, of course it's Winter here



Another satisfied stray with a full belly



Not all of our campsites are glamorous

 

[TheBuddyExpedition]

Damn, it's been a while....I try a Cliff Notes version as not to bore you:

We made it to Chile, Termas Del Flaco to be exact, what a killer little village at the end of a 40+ mile dirt road on the Argentine border. It's a spectacular place with some crazy views, old abandoned buildings, thermals, waterfalls and hot in the day time and freezing cold at night.

That's as far South as we went due to time constraints and deciding to drive back to the States through Central America and Mexico.

We had some truck issues, but nothing complicated or that I couldn't handle. Dirty fuel and a course filter that I couldn't see, so we spent the night at a customs check point in the middle of no where, could've broken down in BFE, but UMA wouldn't do that to us. I cleaned it and hauled butt to Antofagasta to buy two new one's.

As we exited Chile back into Peru, the aduana confiscated our chicken, veggies, peanut butter, garlic but they didn't find our rosemary plant that we've been smuggling since Colombia, screw 'em, they ate good that night.

We are back in Huanchaco Peru now and we're trying to make Banos Ecuador for Christmas, but after I had a brake cylinder rebuilt, they flubbed the axle seal so I have to return on Monday. Right as I pulled into the shop, UMA's radiator let go so now I have a new, custom built 4 row one that should allow me to run cooler in the higher altitudes. I honestly believe UMA has a soul because she never stranded us out in the middle of now where and she really takes good care of us. I got her all lubed, oil changed, filters, clutch adjusted, new brake fluid, idle adjusted with new cable and a rebuilt brake cylinder, she runs better than ever except for the leaky axle seal.

We finally met Nate and Sara from The Long Way South and are going to spend Christmas with them here at Huanchaco Gardens.

As I left Lima, a total crap hole of a city, I forgot to turn my headlights on in the daytime and a Policia Nacional cop flagged me over and tried to get me to pay him a 300 soles fine. I explained to him I forgot to turn them back on after fueling and thanked him for reminding me and that a fine/ticket wasn't necessary since I don't carry cash nor do I speak Espanol. He was adamant about getting something from me so I kept telling him "no entiendo" and he got frustrated and gave me my license back. They make $400 per month, so I can't blame him for trying to pimp me on a small "propina".

Last night we hit the town of Huanchaco looking to have some drinks and eats with Nate and Sara and by some horrible fate, I got food poisoning and had the Aztec two step all night....felt like one of the little dudes was in my gut jabbing a spear into my small intestine.

I'll post some pics soon, the WIFI is dodgy here and it keeps booting me off and is slower than dial up!!!

We're taking a new ferry from Colombia to Panama around the Darien Gap, hopefully these folks get their permits in time for us to cross, otherwise I have to do a RORO and the bums will steal all my stuff. The ferry allows you to stay with your vehicle and only takes one to two days where the RORO (roll on roll off) takes 10 days.

Our goal is to hammer through Central America to Mexico, then take another ferry from Mazatlan to Baja, then we'll drag our feet to Tijuana and then to see my new grandson in Yosemite!!!!!

 

[TheBuddyExpedition]

This one had me a bit worried...

 

[TheBuddyExpedition]

Me want!





Tropic Of Capricorn

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

Great pics.

 

[Wainiha]

That picture of the little girl with the pistol grabs me.

Thanks for the wonderful story.

 

[TheBuddyExpedition]

12-28-2013

We have been detained at the border until Wednesday. Apparently there was an error made as we exited Ecuador back in August. We have several government documents that prove our vehicle exited on August 20th, 5 days prior to our expiration of 90 days in Ecuador the first time.

We're not sure how this will play out, but we were held at the customs check point last night and have decided to leave Uma alone so we may buy food, water and have bathroom privileges. Uma has been detained and the customs agent told us errors are made on their part and he knows that what we are telling them is the truth, especially with the documents we have prove they are wrong, however he did recommend that we hire an attorney and be prepared to walk away from Uma.

His superior will not be back from vacation until Wednesday. We have contacted the Embassy and State Department, but will have no word for a few days I'm sure. I am lucky to have some very good friends who work in our government that are trying desperately to assist as well as my lifeline connection in Albuquerque.

We are fine for now as we're in a hotel 6 miles away from Uma and hopefully the wheels of justice will start to turn tomorrow, so please do not worry about us. I'm just fortunate that Viv keeps every document even insurance cards for proof of our travels.

 

[TheBuddyExpedition]

After an 8 hour stint at customs, and an emotional rollercoaster of discussions, we were told that next Wednesday if we pay $188 we can head North in UMA. For some reason we have to wait until then, not sure why as there is a huge communication gap but thanks to GOOGLE TRADUCTOR, we think we understand everything.

For the record, this is an unfortunate incident that happened and it's not the Ecuadorian Customs trying to screw us over, this is how their system works, it's their game and we're just players. I honestly believe they are trying to rectify this without an incident. I have some very close friends in different government agencies that started making calls last week, the State Department and Embassy made their obligatory phone calls and for that we are freaking thankful!

It's been pretty damn hard to sleep or eat and this town has zero appeal so we basically never leave our room. It's probably a lot like Federal Prison, wifi, cable, ac, private bath/shower in a 13x13 room. The hotel staff has been treating us like family, so I can't say we have it rough at all. These folks down here are some of the nicest people we've ever met, but like I said, hardly anyone has any power to make small corrections so any little detail that gets caught in this giant cog of inefficiency get magnified to the 3rd power and all of a sudden, everyone is involved.

We've made some friends with the Customs agents, drank beer with two of them on New Years Eve (at the check point no less) and everyone gives us a thumbs up as a ray of hope.

Like I said, I honestly believe no one is trying to hurt us or steal or truck, it's just a computer/personnel error which can happen, so we fault no one.....well, unless it was a computer error and we fault Bill Gates!

Without Viv by my side, I would already be in prison, the truck auctioned off and be rotting in a cell somewhere.

I can write the truck off if we have to, it's just a possession and can be replaced with something similar, but we have each other, our health and so far our freedom.

Thanks for the support and nice comments!

 

[TheBuddyExpedition]

Update: The lawyer said if they decide to keep my truck and assess the value less than the fine amount, I will have to pay that amount or go to prison....we have until Thursday, not Wednesday before we meet with customs..we're here till the end

I have plan B and C ready if needed, sometimes freedom is worth more than a vehicle.

 

[TheBuddyExpedition]

Well, words cannot describe how we feel right now....I can't believe how the Ecuadorian Customs aka Aduana treated us.

I thought for sure this was a ploy to get our truck; why would they come and start taking pictures?

I swore to never return to Ecuador, especially since I knew they were going to take our truck, make us pay a fine or possibly send us to jail if we didn't pay.

The only thing I will say about Ecuador and their customs agents is they are the most honorable, pleasant folks we've ever dealt with on our journey. They have procedures, policies and protocol to follow and it was unfortunate that our incident happened on a holiday when no supervisors were available, thus making us wait until January 2nd to get things rolling.

I was leery when told "you do not need an attorney". Really, not in the states, some agency takes your vehicle, you get an attorney. Well, we're not in America, we're in Ecuador and things are different. Yes, my observation was it's very inefficient, slow, tiresome, repetitive and rather boring. We have over 23 hours logged in their waiting room with less than 2 hours of that actual face time.

I figured they were making us sweat a bit...little did they know, we were on ice. We had a plan and that plan was to remain cool, calm and collective, period. As US citizens, we are all ambassadors of our country so why act an ***, be impatient or throw the fact we're US citizens in their face?

Thankfully, I have some very good friends in the US Government that started ringing phones down here. Did that help? Probably. My friend told me that some very high ups made calls on his behalf...did it truly work? Who knows, something worked. We have our truck, our freedom, and an extended vehicle permit. We even got a ride back to our hotel which was unexpected.

One bit of advice I'd like to give to all overlanders is to document everything, keep many receipts, especially toll receipts as they have your license plate number on them, from different countries-- especially if you plan to return to those you left.

One problem here in Ecuador is that upon exiting, they give you no document or receipt that shows you actually left. (Peru on the other hand does, and that was one thing that was undeniable proof that we were not in Ecuador past our exit date.) I'd like to thank my beautiful wife, Vivian, for being diligent with keeping receipts.

Thank you folks for the nice words of confidence, it did help to keep us positive and prevent us from worrying about it for 12 straight days!!

We hit the road tomorrow! More adventures on the way!

Dean & Vivian

 

[Wainiha]

Glad it worked out and you two are safe. I find that shouting "I'm American" gets you in more trouble usually.

When I tell people in foreign countries I'm from Hawaii, the love me. U.S. not so much.