Lost World Expedition (US-Central-South America)

[UK4X4]

Nice to have met you both !

a few beers were drunk and even in a size of city like Bogota we even bumped into each other on my last day.....

I was in a pub as usual, enjoing the view and having a nice pint of "Rojo" from the Bogota Beer Company.

Still can't quite get over the restaurant we visited, I think I needed another 1/2 a bottle and a few more hours to get into the swing of it !

Anyway good luck on the rest of your voyage and if your ever back in Bogota look me up!

Back to the thread !

[dare2go]

Totally friggin' AWESOME!

As I tell everyone I meet who is traveling or wants to travel through Latin America, Colombia is not to be missed!

We second this!

Nicest people we met on our travels

[lostworldexpedition]

It is hard to believe I haven't posted in over a year... This July will mark the third year since we left our house in California and moved into the LandCruiser for a 1 year drive to Ushuaia. That one year has evolved into a pretty unusual life, no longer a vacation or even a trip, I think we are more like nomads (except I guess we are not hunter gatherers, although sometimes we are).

I wanted to give you a quick update of our last year or so: We spent 4 months in Colombia and truly wish we would have stayed there longer. What an amazing country and what hospitable people. One of my favorite dishes so far comes from Colombia, the gut bomb artery clogging Bandeja Paisa
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It has many iterations, but generaly includes chicharron (crispy pork belly with skin), beans, beef (steak or ground), a fried egg, sausage, avocado, fried plantain, rice & beans and an arepa (a corn dough based bread type thing).

We truly loved too many places to post about, but Salento tops the list an area dominated by Jeeps and coffee, the nearby Cocora Valley was mindblowing with its unique wax palm trees
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We considered adding this beaut Honda to our rig, but couldn't figure out a way to carry it
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I highly recommend visiting Colombia, there is an enormous amount of offroading and still relatively off the beaten path areas. Tourism is growing at an alarming rate, but it is a huge country.

[lostworldexpedition]

After 4 months in Ecuador we entered Ecuador and enjoyed the most beautifully painless border crossing of our trip. We never planned for what came next: 9 months in Ecuador!

Part of that was a great job we had at a hostel near Cotopaxi National Park, we spent nearly 4 months working there and loved every minute. Woke up to this view nearly every morning (every clear morning that is...)
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This is a night shot from our bedroom window:
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Our job included guiding hikes and horseback riding trips... Luis also did some BBQing and Pizza baking in a sweet woodfire oven
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On our spare time we drove around the amazing trails in the area and the LandCruiser hit its first 15000ft pass like a champ (although dumping more smoke than a BatMan smokescreen)
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After our time at Secret Garden we drove around the country for a while, enjoying the 1 U.S. dollar per gallon price!
We met monkeys
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Did some of what locals call "sportfishing" which was nothing more than bait on a line thrown into a trout farm (yes, a little sad... but tasty and cheap)
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I got to pet a tapir, who later bit me and Lacey missed the shot
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We visited the Ecuadorian Amazon forest at Cuyabeno Reserve, an Amazing experience to say the least
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and to top it off we spent 2 weeks in the Galapagos Islands which was one of our biggest dreams for this trip, there is a ridiculous amount of pics we took at the Galapagos at our website (LINK)

There is so much we did in Ecuador we haven't posted most of it on our website, but needles to say we loved Ecuador.

[lostworldexpedition]

So after the 9 months in Ecuador we drove into Peru. Our vehicle permit in Ecuador was vaguely legal so we opted to drive out of the country without checking the vehicle out... you see for every day past the vehicle import permit you overstay the owner must pay $264. What they call a minimum salary per day fine (yes minimum wage is $264/per day in Ecuador and pretty close to that every country we have visited in Latin America). We feared an impound and hefty fines so we drove out without checking the vehicle out... no problem, except the LandCruiser can never drive into Ecuador again.

We are currently on our 5th month in Peru and we love it! This is an overlander's paradise (except for the fuel price, close to 6 bucks per gallon). There are trails everywhere and friendly 4x4 clubs willing to share tracks!

Main problem is we have met our fare share of landslides and some have been impassable, some were being cleared as we waited
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there is a ton of desert along the coast, so if sand and desert is your thing...
Sandwich break on a long drive
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We where lucky enoug to coincide with an annual LandCruiser Peru Club event in the dunes just south of Lima and participated in a mini fun rally
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Our 60 won 1st Place!!!
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And I got to hang out with these ladies
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We visited the amazing ruins of Kuelap in the north
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and Pre-Incan sarcophagi nestled high on steep mountainsides
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On a particularly rocky road we experienced our 9th flat of the trip!!! 9 in 2.5 years! A nasty sidewall tire killer.
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After 3 years of faithful service our 33x10.5R15 BFG A/T's have been replaced. Now we are running 285/75R16 Kevlar Good Year's.

[Every Miles A Memory]

We truly loved too many places to post about, but Salento tops the list an area dominated by Jeeps and coffee, the nearby Cocora Valley was mindblowing with its unique wax palm trees
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This almost looks fake its so amazing!!

[lostworldexpedition]

The colonial cities and towns in Peru are quite beautiful and slightly reminiscent of some of our favorite spots in Mexico.
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We found what could be a great low key overland rig
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We see a lot of riot cops everywhere, but mostly peaceful demonstrations
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Nevermind owning a work truck
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Nevermind hills on your bicycle
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Nevermind hair on your dog
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Nevermind clothes on your news anchor
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[lostworldexpedition]

We spent quite a bit of time in Huanchaco, a lazy surf town that just sucked us in... Our friends Sprinterlife.com spent a healthy 6 or so months there.

It is not the prettiest town or the best beach, but there is just something relaxing about it (and everything is super cheap).
It is the home of the Caballitos de Totora
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Beautifully made canoes of a local grass, some claim they were the original wave riding device.
Most sunsets in Huanchaco are breathtaking
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We made it a point to sit and wait for sunset every day (preferably with a cold beer)
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We saw the largest overland rig ever camping at the beach
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Enjoyed some of the best and strangest kabobs ever... Peruvians call them anticuchos. Some are beef heart, chicken feet, gizzard, you name it... delicious!
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We had an amazing time in Huanchaco
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Learned how to BBQ with a 50 gallon drum in which you hang the meat... somewhere between BBQ and smoking, quite good
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Cooked for guests on a regular basis, since the campground was quite busy (yes I wear an apron, lost to many shirts to grease splatter)
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And took/posted the most commented photo we've had on our Facebook account, our kitchen
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[LaOutbackTrail]

You guys are awesome. I keep up with you on facebook since you all don't make it here too often!

Great pics! Keep em coming!

[Redline]

Thanks for the ExPo update!