Happycampers on Tour

Happycamper · Sep 26, 2015

After Mompos we did two 6 hour days to have us in Medellin, where we stayed two weeks at the Black Sheep Hostel having Spanish lessons with the wonderful Yadi. We went one on one and she tailored the lessons to match our progress. Jenny put more effort in to her homework and leapt ahead of me.

We had two days off in the two weeks and every afternoon as well and did a bit of sight seeing, got the laptop cleaned up and protected, Jenny did a paraglide flight, took a walking tour of the centre of town and saw the dodge dealer a few times.

The truck overheated coming in to Medellin on the way up a steep hill. We stopped and waited for it to cool and proceeded more slowly on the hills with the A/C off. Dealer says it is the temp sensor in the head and the car did not overheat! New one ordered privately from USA so we will put that in and see. Not convinced yet. Also the brakes had a flush and new fluid to give them a new lease on life and are now good. The hills in this place will find any issues that may exist in the drivetrains!

After all that Spanish we sought new people to try it out on and jumped a jet to Cuba for a week. This was a relaxing time in a big hotel in town, and we just took in the sights, via a classic car tour and a walking tour of Havana and a couple of day bus trips to the beach and the mountains. Lots of history here and the revolution of 1961 is still in the minds and psyche of the people. They are keen for the new liberalism of relations with the US to deliver them more freedoms to travel to the families they all have in the US. The number of old cars is mind boggling, and that they are all 1950s vintage and still on the road even more so.

On arrival back in Colombia we took an airbnb place near the airport as we arrived at midnight. The hosts here were great and took us on a daytrip to El Penol and Guatape, a couple of tourist traps nearby that we wanted to visit. El Penol is The Rock and the 740 steps to the top are a challenge, but the view is well woth the effort. Continuing on the next day to Rio Claro was an easy run of three hours and we got there in time to do a rafting trip down the river, super fun. We camped here and camped the next night as well, at Los Lagos Hotel a further 100 km along the way. Decided not to vist Bogota as we are starting to push up against our next deadline of a Galapagos trip booked for 12 October out of Quito. So we turned to the west and Manizales. We keep hearing great things about places to stay which are not camps and Mirador Finca Morrogacho is one of these. It is walking distance from the centre of Manizales but on a remote hill with a killer outlook to the west, which just shows farmland. Three days were spent here. The weather is abit cooler up here as well, making for comfortable nights

Here are afew shots from Cuba. I don't recognise all the cars, but you will see the site the pope was to deliver mass at last weekend, under the watchful eyes of Che and also the new American Embassy, now open!

Happycamper · Oct 1, 2015

After Manizales we stopped at a coffee farm, La Hacienda Guayabal, and got the full tour on offer. We are now experts on the growing beans all the way to the production of the perfect cup. Then Jenny convinced me to ride a horse in the Valley of the wax palms, for three hours yet!. This was a new experience for me but luckily I got the tame horse that knew where to go and all I had to do was stay on. There were some pretty good climbs and descents so that was fun too. at the stop at the top there were hummingbird feeders and many varieties live here. We stayed that night at Camping Monteroca and met Jorge, the owner, and quite a character. He has created 12 different themed habitaciones for up to 6 people, tents, caravans, tree houses, cabins etc as well as campsites for another 150 people. well worth a look.

We are using the iOverlander app and find some wonderful spots to stop. Last night was one and we were at Best Kiteboarding school, or Fish's school on lake Calima. It is always windy here and one of the three best places worldwide to learn, apparently. Fish welcomed us and we had a spot inside the big shed which is the school. Very cosy and comfortable. It is a bit hard to get used to cold showers when the weather is cooler than 25 degrees though.

Happycamper · Oct 31, 2015

South of Manizales we stayed at Camping Monteroca just outside salento hosted by the irrepressable Jorge He has many “cabanas” available in various themes, 80's, caravan, arctic etc and these are quite cheap, as well as room for a few rigs and many tents. There is also a room where Simon bolivar stayed and a geological museum. Worth a visit.

iOverlander app showed us a place on Lake Calima that took homeless wanderers like us and we stayed with Fish at Fish']s Kite School, right inside the big shed that is the college. The wind blows hard here every day and they teach up to advanced levels of kite surfing. It was very snug inside, but the cold shower was not used!

A bit further south and we stopped outside Popayan at Ecoparque Rayos del Sol for three days just taking it easy and also went into Popayan and enjoyed that place for a few hours. Chachagui was next at the very comfortable Hostal Kundur, but camping. There is a pool here although it was cool weather because of the altitude. We met a few other overlanders here, Mike Matthews on a KLR and another couple on two BMWs also heading south..

Two days later and we were on to the border to Ecuador. A glance at the sanitario De las Lajas and then we crossed. It was straightforward and without incident except for the car import permit which was not stamped and the officer realised and chased me down the street with the stamp and got it done. It all took an hour and we were in Ecuador. More adventures await.

This is the church across a river, what a site!

we followed these blokes for 7 km, getting a free ride behind a semi trailer, at speeds up to 70 km/hr. They looked very comfortable, probably do it every day!

Typical road scene

Happycamper · Oct 31, 2015

To the Equator

Once in Ecuador we had an adventure getting fuel. Because it is so cheap at $1.03 per US gallon we crossed with the guage on the 1/8 th mark so could not go too far. I passed one station knowing there would be more at or near the big town Tulcan just near the border. Of course we got to the end of the bypass with out sighting one that was open, or not closed down. So a “U” turn was in order and into the forbidden border town. Funily enough there were no bad things happening that afternoon and several wonderful people directed us to the fuel station right in the heart of town. We joined the queue and ultimately were able to get almost filled within the sales limit of 20 gallons and off we set for Summerwind 100 km away.

Summerwind is run by Hans and Patricia who have created a haven for travellers with lodges, rooms and sites for rigs and tents too. It is isolated a bit but on the shores of a lake with fine views and quite peaceful. They do some meals and cakes on Sundays but ordinarily you have to cater for yourself.

A little further south and we reached the equator. This was an achievement for me, to cross on land and means that there are only 54 degrees more to Ushuaia, and 70 done from Prudhoe Bay.

Sorry about the angle, apparently if we had the camera on the side when we took the photo, that is what you get here.

We stayed at a little finca nearby and met the neighbours. Jenny had some fun with this mostly female family and showed them some embroidery stitches.

The dreaded unlimited hot water heater, unlimited depending on how long you are prepared to stand under the electrical connections with all that water about!!

Happycamper · Nov 6, 2015

Galapagos side trip

We had a deadline to be in Quito on Saturday midnight to pickup our mate from Alice Springs, Australia, Helen, who was to be with us for the next 2.5 weeks. We got there and stayed at Arie’s Cabanas for the two nights before we flew to the Galapagos Islands for a week of cruising, awesome creatures, being well looked after, and educated by the guides on all things natural. Here are shots of the wildlife.

Happycamper · Nov 11, 2015

Helen's last week

Helen was with us for another week or so and we made the most of this time. First we took a tour with Arie on his bikes. This involved visiting Papallecta hot springs for a couple of hours before getting on the bikes at the top of the pass back to Quito and freewheeling almost all the way back down, for 55 km. The last 15 k was along a disused railway line and a very pleseant day was had.

Next day we packed up for Mindo, a famous area in the cloud forest on the west slopes of the Andes and down at about 1500m. Had a stop at the fake equator and went to the museum as well. We found a beaut spot on iOverlander that had a verandah undercover and and hummingbirds in their tens coming to feed at the feeders. There were also woodpeckers, motmots and a toucan or two, apparently. Very restful couple of days..

Then we were off to Summerwind again but not before the Otavalo markets and Cotapaci leather markets were visited. Helen took a bag of her and our souvenirs home. Hans from Summerwind accompanied us on a visit to the far north west of the country to the area where there are some native villages and also descendants from a far worse time when slavery was rife. Very interesting places, including the world’s smallest archaeological museum and nice people. Camped in a unit at Las Penas. Not too many include Borbon and Limones on their itineraries.

Summerwind neighbours changing tyres.

Then it was goodbye to Helen after some fabulous times together, thankyou. Jenny and I had another night with Arie and then headed off to the south to see a few things while we wait for our carpart to arrive from the States. One night we were at Lago Quilotoa which is a volcanic crater. You can walk around it but we elected to just go to the lookout then gat back in to the warm of the camper. This was out coldest night so far at about 4 Celsius. After one night in Ambato we propped at Pequeno Parasaio for a week. This is a very peaceful place with waterfalls a few minutes walk up or down stream and only 20 minutes bus ride to Banos, a backpacker haven (160 hotels) with hot springs and extreme sports available to all.

trailsurfer · Nov 13, 2015

Fantastic Update!

conniem · Dec 10, 2015

truck parts

i'm really enjoying reading your entries. would you mind sharing your spare parts list for the 1998 dodge? and...what is the most common problem you have concerning the truck? and...how long did it take you to find it once you decided on the dodge? I love this truck.

thank you

conniem · Dec 10, 2015

one more thing please

at anytime during this adventure have you considered towing a small trailer?

thanks again
connie

Happycamper · Jul 8, 2016

Conniem,

Sorry about the delay. We carry a front wheel bearing and two rears, fuel, oil and air filters along with radiator hoses. Problems have been few, the main was an overheating issue which has been put down to operator error. We now keep the auto box in 2 or 1 on the long and steep climbs in the northern countries. The front brakes are also avictim of auto and steep country and we have used 4 sets. We destroyed some aftermarket shocks and the rear tyres said 'no more' at about 35000 miles. (Fronts will go to 40000+). We took a few months on the car sales sites from Australia and ultimately found our car. We paid top dollar but it seems we got a top car too. A manual gearbox was preferred but they are hard to find in good condition, no snow, not too much work,no 5th wheelers etc. We are very happy with our choice. Trailers are not in our mind over here as there are issues in cities, ferries, other shipping. We only have two axles to worry about and 4 tyres on the ground to get punctured.

Happycamper · Oct 20, 2016

South Ecuador. Nov 2015
There was an animal refuge, Los Monos, talked about and shown on iOverlander not far from Pequeno Parasaio and we decided to spend a couple of days here. Our parts had finally shown up so we got these from Quito and then camped with the monkeys. All the animals, and reptiles are saved from a life as a pet and many cannot be released to nature as they would not survive so they have a lovely life here. We fed monkeys, parrots, pecarries, turtles, ocelot and snakes. It was hard work but with keen and fun staff and other volunteers, fairly enjoyable. Ate a meal prepared by the owner one evening but preferred our own most of the time. It is uplifting to see what these people are achieving for the animals, but it is never ending, and the struggle for funds and helpers constant.
Alussi was next to ride the devil's nose railway - another good campsite and company of some travellers around the dinner table. Got ourselves on the train the next day (but I would advise booking ahead) and enjoyed the experience. Despite the hype it is not scarey and there are two zig zags which are an interesting engineering solution to negotiating the steep slope of the terrain.
The drive the next day was on a great road but we came across a truck that had crashed off the road and down a steep hill, would have been quite a ride, before stopping on its side. Broken windows seemed to be the main damage and the recovery was well underway. The tow truck was winching the, now empty, truck up towards the road with men ahead preparing the slope. There were many cars stopped and people everywhere watching the recovery, mindless of the implications of a cable break or other potential mishap. At one time the police permitted some vehicles to pass under the winch cable and get on with their journey. We were too tall. We watched for a while before some mini bus drivers showed us an alternate way around the blockage and off we set.
A couple of days were spent in Cuenca dodging rain and storms, but this was a good break as we were in an hotel! Mariscal Inn and Suites. The car was in a carpark a few doors away paid for by the hotel and easily accessible. This is where the real “panama” hats are made and we visited a couple of factories which do this. The best ones are very expensive, hundreds of $AUD. Soon enough it was time to move on and we were on to Peru, arriving a bit late in the day, 1700.We had to go back 5 km to clear the car out of Ecuador and then it was easy at the new border buildings which were a one stop Migration for both countries and Aduana for Peru (Ecuador too before 5 pm!). We were through by 1845 but it was good and dark by now and we had 80 km to go to the campsite. It was a harrowing drive with lots of unlit slow vehicles, tuktuks and horse drawn wagons, with seemingly suicidal tendancies dodging in front of the truck.

Happycamper · Oct 20, 2016

Peru Nov - Dec 2015

We moved again next day to Mancora and stayed above the town, just a few minutes walk down though to restaurants and bars and shops. We met a colourful local, Roberto, he showed us around and we saw the iguanas here, all for the price of a beer. The camp owner told us of a good mechanic in the next big town and we planned to get there next day. With the heavy vehicle and no engine braking from the auto gearbox we are hard on brake pads on the front and were due for a change again. So we lobbed at Talera at 1030 on Monday and the Mitsubishi workshop dropped everything and got on to the job of replacing pads and machining discs. We were done by 1730! The two hour lunch break slowed things a bit and we decided to “camp” in a hotel. Drove around in the dark for a while in this industrial city and eventually found a big place which had seen better days but our second room was comfortable enough after the first had a water leak. The restaurant was good.

Continued south again along a new freeway which was still getting the finishing touches in the form of the concrete barriers down the centre, dividing the 2 north from the 2 southbound lanes. These are boxed up and poured in situ in great lengths, 100s of metres, so there are men all the way along working on this job, then a break and more doing another section. This means that the traffic is down to one lane each way and speed reduced passing the works. It went for 10s of kilometres, be good when it is done, but slowed us this day. We lost a lot of time and diverted to Trujillo as overnight stop. So then the next day we would go via Canon del pato, Duck Canyon, 50 odd km of corrugations and 40 km of bitumen with lots of tunnels. The truck did not enjoy the dirt and we later found that all 4 aftermarket shocks failed on this section. Had a great camp at Camping Guadelupe, sharing with Chris and Lesley, cyclists from Scotland, Anders and Petra, 2Bikers1world from Sweden and a couple from Oregon.

A couple of days later and we were in Lima staying with friend Ben, an expat Aussie who found work here a few years ago. We enjoyed a few days with him and bought our Macchu Piccu tickets. This was an effort, we tried online and struck troubles paying through Paypal, ultimately we went to the Peru Rail shop and got them there. I would recommend this method. It took a month for Perurail to refund the money payed in the aborted attempts. Then we headed off again to Nazca. We flew over the lines the next morning, to avoid any bumps that can start in the heat of the day, and we did not need any upsets as we had been poisoned by some restaurant and were very fragile! Thankfully we were OK!. We enjoyed the two pilot operation in the C206 and marvelled at the designs on the desert floor. After two more days we were in Cusco at the Quinta Lala camp, the only occupants.

Happycamper · Oct 21, 2016

Macchu Pichu and Titicaca

The following day there were 8 couples camped here and it was great to experience the camaraderie among like minded travellers. We checked out the city and got a bit of admin out of the way, printing docs etc. and shopping before cabbing it back up to the camp and an early night in preparation for the Macchu Piccu trip. There is plenty of info about this so I won’t add to it here, save to say, GO. It is a must do.

Our last stop in Peru was to be at Puno where we camped on the concrete next to a fabulous hotel and is an OK base for a trip to lake Titicaca, which we did next morning. This is interesting to do but is really a way for the islanders to showcase their handicrafts and sell some to the tourist! Back on dry land we had soup and alpaca and chips for lunch, with a free pisco sour included!

Happycamper · Oct 24, 2016

Peru to Bolivia epic day Dec 10 2016

Our last day in Peru was epic. We set off a little later than expected after decanting drinking water into our tank, then realised that Bolivia is on a different time zone, another hour gone. The Bolivian side of the border closes for lunch 1300 – 1400 and we were 150 km away at 0930. Did not think we would get there based on earlier trips but we set off anyway and found that the road was better than expected and we could get up to 80 kph sometimes! Karen, inside our Garmin navigator decided to route us through the centre of parade in a town so that the only way out was up a one way street, the wrong way, in low range and one wheel on the footpath!! It became clear that despite a couple of stops for bathroom and photos and picking up a Peruvian man who wanted to go 15 km to the market, that we had a chance of getting through the crossing by lunch time.

Bolivian fuel is hard for tourists to buy as there is a special price (3 x local price) and paperwork required to sell it so the retailers are not interested. Some places will do a deal at about twice the price, but we did not want the hassle initially, so decided to fill up at the last Peruvial fuel station. We had 253 Soles, and when we put this much fuel in it just spilled out. Full, perfect.

Hit the border at 1225, Migration, Aduana Peru, check out. Then Migration Bolivia, Aduana Bolivia for the car permit, a police check and we were done with 5 minutes to spare before the lunch closure. The Bolivian side was very helpful as they were very aware of the deadline and pulled out all stops. Win!

We went to Copacobana for a lunch stop and bought some Bolivian mobile data, SIM and 1G for $15US. Also robbed an ATM, max out 400 Bolivanos, about $130 so you have to do it a few times, and set off for La Paz.

First there was a ferry to ride to cross a stretch of water, and that was a bit of fun, the boats look sturdy but flex a fair bit, however, ours was dry inside and the 25 hp outboard got us across OK.

On the outskirts of La Paz we saw all the cars we were following turn off the main road at various times. We did not figure out why until we were at the front of the line at a road block. This was in the form of a series of rocks across the road, people waving flags and burning tyres and things. This was a demonstration about something, but we did not wait to find out what and turned to follow the queue. The diversions took us to the south through paddocks on dirt roads for several km. Ultimately Jenny had us back on the bitumen and on a ring route to our destination, Hotel Oberland. The last bit of this was 20 km down a steep hill and we ultimately arrived at 1850, just on dark with brakes smoking and very tired and happy to be in Bolivia.

Happycamper · Oct 24, 2016

Bolivia mid December 2015

The Hotel Oberland is a cross roads for overland travellers and we met Rebecca and Bruce from “Yellow Van Days” who have been in this continent for a couple of years and have a wealth of knowledge which they are very happy to share. We had a good chat. Then we headed out for a bit of exploring in La Paz. Took a colectivo and then the teleferico to the end and back to the start, just for a look. There was some excitement when a hail storm came across and the lightning upset the electricals and stopped the system. We were left hanging for a couple of minutes and then all was good once again. We did a little internet exploring and booked ourselves on a jungle and pampas tour out of Rurrenabaque.

This started next day with a flight on a metroliner, a nice hotel and happy hour drinks at a restaurant/bar. Then we had two days in the jungle and two in the pampas and they did not disappoint. We saw plenty of new and unusual wildlife, monkeys, caimans, macaws nesting in cliffs, pink dolphins, porcupine, and birds galore, Jenny loved it all. We did walks in both places and of course boat trips as well. A couple of fish were caught. Unfortunately we both came away with stomach upsets, we believe from kitchen staff using the river water to wash the food/salad we were to eat. This issue was cleared up after some tests and good medicine a week later. Apart from that it was good value.

On our return to La Paz and back into www coverage we got news that our daughter at home in Brisbane had, on her bicycle, been involved in a collision with a van and and was in hospital with very serious injuries. We had to go home. We made a few phone calls and left the next day for a week in Australia, or so we thought………..