I drove to South America and took a cruise to Antarctica

File: 0120011054c.jpg (88KB, 640x480px) Image search: [Google]

88KB, 640x480px

ultimately the trip ended when i wrecked my car. i survived without a scratch.

File: 1118002054.jpg (62KB, 640x480px) Image search: [Google]

62KB, 640x480px

You also cannot drive the whole way. You have to ship your car from Panama to Cartageña, Colombia. Shipping costs in 2010 were $1000. It is cheaper if you share a container rather than go it alone. The shipping company will set that up if someone is available. I shared my container with a guy who was driving from LA to Brazil

>>1292412

Going to Chile in a few months, should I take the time to go to Punta Arenas or check out the north and the Atacama desert?

File: 1123000124.jpg (138KB, 1280x960px) Image search: [Google]

138KB, 1280x960px

>>1292417
I would go to the Desert. It is sparse and desolate and looks like nothing on earth. They do Mars simulations there. Theres even a place where you can see the stars real good. San Pedro de Atacama.

The south is good too because there you have Torres del Paine which is a beautiful place to hike. I did not go to Punta Arenas but I was in that area. It's all lovely.

The pic is from Torres del Paine.

File: 1211000641.jpg (51KB, 640x480px) Image search: [Google]

51KB, 640x480px

This is a sculpture in the Atacama desert

File: 61cGKr6i6iL._SL500_SX374_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg (42KB, 376x499px) Image search: [Google]

42KB, 376x499px

you will also need this book which has detailed maps and turn by turn directions to get from McAllen, TX to Ushuaia, Argentina. Hard to find but keep looking.

>>1292412
I enjoyed reading parts of your journal. Thanks for sharing. A few questions:

>Where did you start? New York?
>What was your single favorite place?
>What have you been up to/where have you been in the 6+ years since?
>Are you a devout Christian? You appear to read the Bible and notice churches more than most travelers I have met.

>>1292529
Where did I start? I bought the car in Wisconsin in 2008. In 2009 I left WI and went west to Seattle and then LA. After 5 months I then drove to upstate NY. A few months later it was down to DC then New Orleans and then McAllen, TX which is where I exited the USA.

I say all that to let you know that the car went through quite a lot. A mechanic in NY told me my car was ready to fall apart. That was in April 2010. But I drove it for a good 13,000 miles more.

My favourite place? I don't think I could narrow it down. I really liked being on the top of Wayna Picchu at Macchu Picchu. And hiking alone in Torres del Paine. I love to drive and the long stretches of driving through the deserts of Chile were very nice.

What have I been doing? When I returned to FL I bought a car and drove to MI where I lived for a year and half. Then I flew to Ireland but my plan to bike from Dublin to Istanbul did not pan out so I wandered around Britain for two months and then flew to Istanbul for a week before finally flying to the Philippines where I have lived since 2012. But I have to leave the country once in a while so I have travelled around SEA.

I am a Christian. A Calvinist with a few Eastern Orthodox leanings.

File: DSC_0511.jpg (4MB, 4288x2848px) Image search: [Google]

4MB, 4288x2848px

As I wrote in the title I did take a cruise to Antarctica. You can go to any ticket agency in Ushuaia and get a relatively cheap ticket since they need as many spaces filled as they can. I paid $3,500 for what would normally be a $10,000 ticket. I put it on my credit card.

pic is a group of Israelis who were on the same Antarctic cruise.

Not OP but I backpacked from around South America doing a figure of 8 over three months. Start off in the Atacama I think, as from there you can check out Bolivia and go on to Peru, which are both amazing countries in their own right. I ended up doing Patagonia in the last month I was there, and went down to Puerto Williams on Isla Navarino, which is the furthest southerly human town in the world. Did an amazing trek there called the Dientes de Navarino, which is brutal but pretty unique. IMO, leave the far south until the end, as otherwise you'll corner yourself into a dead end.

>>1292412
why do I need that much money for 3 months? Fuel would be your major expense if you sleep in your car there wouldn't be much else wouldn't it?

>>1292651
Fuel is expensive. Plus shipping costs for the car as well as buying a plane ticket to fly to Cartageña. You don't want to sleep in your car. An average hotel is $10 or less. It's not safe to sleep in your car.

I did not make an expense list so I could not give an exact rundown but fuel was certainly one of the biggest expenses. Plus you are going to want to do things. See sights.

There's also the matter of either driving back or selling your car and then flying back. My car was wrecked so I gave it away to the junkyard and flew back. A one way ticket to the USA was $1000.

And if you drive back that's going to be more expenses. Definitely going to need more than 10k.

and then what about car repairs? What if the car breaks down? I had to replace the wheels several times because i was driving on bad roads. I hit a pothole so hard my strut jammed through the car. And I was not even speeding.

Then there's border crossing fees and maybe you might just have to pay a bribe or two. I did. It was only a dollar but he didn't know until I was long gone.

All kinds of problems could come up. So for driving 10k minimum for sure.

File: Dome-Main-629355.jpg (36KB, 590x350px) Image search: [Google]

36KB, 590x350px

>>1292412
pics of the edge pls

>>1292412
How was the bureaucracy to enter in a country with a car with foreign plate?
Also, tell us bribery cases, how many women you banged, etc.

File: 1221001152.jpg (66KB, 640x480px) Image search: [Google]

66KB, 640x480px

>>1292661
this is Ushuaia which sits on the edge of Tierra del Fuego

>>1292663
to enter the country the bureaucracy was not so bad actually but you need to do this:

before you leave the USA makes about 50 copies each of your title, registration, and passport info, and drivers license. make a fake drivers license by making a cooler copy of yours and laminating it. be sure to do front and and back. NEVER give your real license to anyone. not even the cops.

I got stopped for speeding once and the cop indicated he was hungry and he let me go when i gave him cookies and bottled water. But in Mexico i got pulled over and stupidly gave my passport over and then they demanded $100 which i gave.

there are tramitadors who will help you get through border crossings but you don't need them really. they over charge you. But in some cases, like entering Honduras or Panama, I would not have known where to go without them because all the buildings were scattered about.

To enter Chile I literally had to empty my car and run everything through an x-ray machine. That was only at one entrance point in the north though and i never had to do it at any other crossings like in Tierra del Fuego.

>3 months
I'm currently in Bolivia (coming from Canada on a motorbike) and it's been over a year.

Re: cops, they were only really bad and corrupt in Mexico. Helps that on a locals-looking motorbike 95% of the time yore waved through checkpoints.

Re: borders, I've had zero problems (except obviously complexity of Panama-Colombia). Only paid for a helper in El Salvador because the paperwork is nuts.

Re: safety, haven't been robbed of a dime, but I seem to be lucky since all other over landers I've met (car, motorbike, bicycle) have been robbed.

Traffic is really terrifying in Peru though. Don't even attempt that unless you're 110% confident in your driving ability or you will die.

I wanted to fly into buenos aires and drive down to Bariloche. Are the roads safe to drive and all? Google maps covers one highway with "sos" notifications without explaining them.

>>1292549
How do you afford to do all this

>>1293519
What kind of answer are you expecting out of this question?

>I have a well-paying job
>I have a pretty good job and I am single and budget well
>I loaned all of the money to do it
>I am old money

>>1293519
I saved all my money. I also get neet bux. I was also receiving unemployment while I was working and so I was able to save a whole lot of money very fast.

I also started with about 6k in my bank account which I had saved over a few years.

>>1292412
>In 2010 I drove from the USA to South America
>I have just finished posting my journal about it

American edumacation at it's finest

>>1293710
what? I drove there in 2010 and have been sitting on my journal for 7 years now not sure what to do with it until recently.

File: Unknown-1.jpg (8KB, 196x293px) Image search: [Google]

8KB, 196x293px

>>1293710
in the 1960's a guy hitchhiked from CA to South America. He wrote 400 page journal and only now did he get around to making it a book and publishing it.

https://www.amazon.com/Road-Tierra-del-Fuego-Hitchhiker/dp/1499147295

>>1292549
Did you spread the good word while traveling or allows the sudaca local to continue worshipping an old man in Italy, or a monkey-god?

>>1293725
I spoke with a few Mormon missionaries about how their religion is false. Thats about it. I was not on a missionary trip.

>>1292412
Cool thread

File: 1118001505.jpg (66KB, 640x480px) Image search: [Google]

66KB, 640x480px

this is the guy who I shared a container with when shipping my car from Panama to Colombia. He was driving from LA to Brazil. He was driving a Dodge Charger.

He was fluent in Spanish and if not for him I would have had a hard time navigating customs in Colombia. He was also broke and had to have friends wire him money. I even wired him money once. I also paid for his hostel room and food while we were briefly together.

>>1293766
to bad the land border between Panama and Columbia is still closed. So everyone from Alaska to Antarktika has to pause the route at that point and switch to another means of transportation.

>>1294012
its not that its closed. It's that there is no road to speak of. There is no road through the Darien Gap.

>>1294027
that is correct. I meant more for those who are walking/hiking/biking, the border is closed.

File: pwilliams001.jpg (21KB, 600x413px) Image search: [Google]

21KB, 600x413px

reminder that the actually most southern city in the world is Puerto Williams, Chile

>>1294187
yeah but i don't think you can drive there. when i told my friends i had gone to Antarctica one asked if i had driven there. WTF???

>>1292416
>>1292416
>>1292416
>>1292416

GAP'S CLOSED!

>>1293706
Ah, so you're a leech. Thanks for clarifying, i'm a lot less interested in your story now.

File: darien gaps closed3.jpg (163KB, 744x597px) Image search: [Google]

163KB, 744x597px

>>1294027

>>1294187
>Puerto Williams

I think it's actually Puerto Toro, same country

>>1294617
a leech? not at all. I worked pretty hard and used all the resources I had to save money for this trip.

It's what I have done all my life.

>>1294617
All my life in the USA I have always had a job. I have worked 40 and sometimes more hours a week. So I am by no means a leech. Being able to supplement my income with SSA does not make me a leech.

I decided to drive to South America in April 2010. Between then and when I left I worked in a box factory, a plastic mold injection factory, did a medical test, and received a 1000$ settlement from a class action lawsuit against Wal-mart.

In the previous years I worked other jobs which laid the starting foundation of 6000$. I worked in warehouses, factories, construction, as a garbage collector, and did a medical test which netted 2500$ for 7 days of being a guinea pig.

When I retuned to the USA I got a job in a warehouse, had another job at a factory, and worked my ass off to pay for the parts of the trip I had to put on my credit card.

So please do not call me a leech because it is absolutely not true. Not in the slightest.

And if you are wondering how I have had so many jobs it's because since 2005 I have worked temp jobs. It mean guaranteed work and even during the recession of 2007-8 I was never out of work.

>>1294837
I hiked through it, crossing the border from Colombia into Panama

>>1295073
Pretty sensitive mate.

Please explain how you didn't cheat the system to get NEET bux while working temp jobs.
You've worked, alright, but you're still a leech since you got money from the government that your situation shouldn't have allowed you to.

That is the definition of a leech, not simply being a couch potato.

>>1295081
Because I was allowed to do so. You are allowed to work wile receiving SSD. They knew all about it. And if things go wrong and you earn too much then you pay a penalty and even then its taken out of the monthly check so you never see it.

I have qualified for NEET bux since 1997. First it was SSI then it was SSD. I was able to qualify for SSD because while working I contributed to the SS fund. So while working and collecting SSD my check grows bigger because I put into the fund. All workers are entitled to that fund. Usually at retirement but sometimes before. I met and continue to meet the requirements and everything I have done in that regard has been perfectly legal.

Now did I game the system? It depends on your perspective. I have used all the available tools at my disposal to get by and I have done that for a long time. But it does not make me a leech.

>>1295078
tell us how you did that. I heard it was all jungle with no roads and no crossings.

>>1295078
how? proof? I thought there is no land based border patrol for foreigners?

>>1292654
>cartageña

why, it's cartageNa

>>1295073
>being able to supplement my income with SSA does not make me a leech

Actually yes, it does. SSA is for people who are so disabled that they can't work. You claim to work 40 hours a week, so you are a leech if you collect SSA on top of that.

>>1295144
His spell-check might have got him.

>>1295078
Do not come onto OUR board and DISRESPECT OUR FUCKING MEME!

We only have like three, since the Canadian-flag-on-backpack meme died out.

>>1292412
When you got to Antarctica why didn't you kill everyone that went with you?

>>1295260
is this a movie reference?

has anyone else been to Antarctica? The only way you are going is on a cruise as a tourist unless you are a scientist.