2 Gringos drive the PanAmerican Highway in a 1987 4Runner

We hit the highway once again from San Agustin. Looking at the map we are so close to Ecuador we could taste it.

There are 2 routes from San Agustin towards the border. One involves a bit of back-tracking north to catch another highway back south again. I hate going backwards. The other route led us straight down to Ecuador but our friends at fromAtoB.org warned us of poor road conditions. Apparently the route between Mocoa and Pasto was very rough, rugged, and dangerous with lots of wash-outs, large trucks, and little clearance between you and a sheer cliff drop-off.

Being the kind of people who usually hear good advice and then completely disregard it, we of course chose to take the hard route.

It started off easy enough from San Agustin. We were on smooth well-maintained highway. After about an hour I started to wonder what the hell AtoB was talking about...

We were in some pretty remote country, apparently popular with Colombian FARC and guerrillas. The military presence was strong along the highway. We passed a few of these bad-ass truck TANKS.


We hit the town of Mocoa and the pavement ran out. We were driving on a very poor rubble road. I checked the maps and GPS a few times to confirm we were on the right track. Guess this must be the rough part they were talking about?

The poor road started to wind up into the side of the mountain. This road is the most direct route between the border and the interior of Colombia's Amazon jungle. It is primarily used by hardcore semi-trucks hauling logs/goods and the occasional lost gringo.


The road was chopped out of the side of the mountain. You could see many wash-outs where it completely had fallen away and road crews dug deeper into the side of the mountain to keep on truckin. The drive was actually quite beautiful. We were inside a mix of cloudforest and rugged mountains. We had to drive through tons of waterfalls and rivers which were slowly eroding into a muddy soup which made traction diffucult.

Eroding Cliff roads+No traction+No guardrails=Sketchy


In many parts you would have to stop before a blind corner and listen for a giant truck coming and sounding his horn. If you hear the horn you better back up and get the hell out of the way before you get run off the cliffs.


We plied this unpaved mountain route for most of the day. I think in total the route was less than 100 miles but it took us around 7 hours or so to cross. When we finally reached pavement I got out and kissed it.

Sweet sweet tarmac!


We pushed on spent a night at a hostel in Pasto near the Ecuador border. Next morning we were up and headed to the border.

One last stop before we cross though. Ever since I first saw a picture of the Las Lajas church I knew we had to visit it. The pictures made it same like a surreal castle nestled in a magnificent valley, the whole place looks unreal.


The inspiration for the church's creation was a result of a miraculous event in 1754 when an Amerindian named Maria Mueces and her deaf-mute daughter Rosa were caught in a very strong storm. The two sought refuge between the gigantic Lajas (Stone walls), when to Maria Mueces's surprise, her mute daughter, Rosa exclaimed "the mestiza is calling me..." and pointed to the lightning-illuminated silhouette over the laja. This apparition of the Virgin Mary caused pilgrimage to this location, with occasional miraculous cases of healing reported. The image on the stone is still visible today.

Ever since then the area has been blessed, the church was built between 1915 and 1949 with donations from the local churchgoers.


The intricate patterns and level of detail on the church is quite impressive.


In the parking lot, We saw our first BBQ'd Cuy (Guinea Pig) on a stick! Looks delicious!



5 minutes down the road, we hit the border for Ecuador. Stood in line for about 15 minutes to get stamped out of Colombia and into Ecuador. Then walked down the street to get our car permit. All in all it was less than 20 minutes and best of all COMPLETELY free! I am loving South America borders.

WELCOME TO ECUADOR!

After completing the worlds easiest border crossing we headed on down the highway into Ecuador.

We had technically been traveling in the Andes mountains for about a month now, but we never seem to get tired of the views.



Our first Llamas! Or Alpacas? I dont know the difference yet.


I had heard about the cheap gas in Ecuador. But man I was shocked when I finally saw it on the board. $1.45 USD/gallon. Insane! I pulled over giddy with delight and gave the man a $20. Fill her up!


The man gave me a confused look, gave me $10 change back immediatly and started pumping our gas.

Apparently within 50 miles or so of the border all the gas stations are limited at $10 per car to keep Colombians/Peruvians from coming across the borders and filling up. The gas station attendants are equipped with radios and are supposed to report to other stations in the area who has filled up already.

We got our $10, headed to the next town, and topped off the tank. No one bothered with the radio.

Our first stop in Ecuador is a popular town by the name of Otavalo. Otavalo is home to the biggest craft market in Ecuador. Locals travel from the surrounding areas to sell their goods here in the large open-air market.


Lauren tracked down a pair of Alpaca gloves, a Alpaca hat, and a kick-ass pair of ninja slippers. All for $7 USD. Crazy.

We camped for the night nearby and checked out some of the beautiful mountains surrounding Otavalo.


Cruising down the PanAm I knew we were supposed to eventually cross the equator (Protip: the word ECUADOR is spanish for EQUATOR) but I did not know exactly when. We ended up driving right by the damn thing without realizing it. Luckily we doubled-back trying to find a campsite and saw the GIGANTIC YELLOW TOWER LABELED EQUATOR. Not sure how we missed it the first time....



The lines in the concrete line up with the shadow of the tower to create a giant sundial.



It has always been a dream of mine to drink a beer on the equator. Well not really, but we had some in the truck so what the hell. Equator beers!


We ended up making friends with the tour-guy there who gave us a cool lesson on the equator itself and explained the many ancient monuments that surround the area. Pre-Columbian ancient civilizations have been using this particular area to accurately tell time, forecast future seasons/weather, and observe the cosmos for thousands of years. None of that water drains backwards, balance an egg, hoaky fake equator B.S. here. Sorry to disappoint guys.


Our new Equator/Ecuador friend said he was getting off in 30 minutes and asked if we would like to camp on his fathers farm just up the street for free? Why yes we would! We spent a wonderful night hanging out with our new friend, his father, and some amazing stars. The father even hooked up the water in his cabin for us if we were interested in taking freezing cold showers. We passed but appreciated the gesture! This was the first of many encounters with Ecuadorian locals, we found them all to be friendly and accommodating.



Check out Laurens new hat. 2 Happy campers.


Read the rest of the story and more pics on the blog at http://homeonthehighway.com/home-on-the-highway-crosses-the-...

Journalism still runs in my veins

Throughout the 90s, I reviewed Industrial, House, Trance and Techno music for different Fanzine's, Club Promotion magazines, Trade magazines and Music magazines - some with International distribution. That was in the 90s when a majority of people got their information about music releases from print. Now, this has shifted to virtual magazines and the 'web. You have so much original material, it's too bad that these magazines have not contacted you. Just keep trying...

My last couple of articles consisted of these two Monster Models at a Rosarito Beach 4WD event, and my Jeep posing on the sand at Cantamar - near Puerto Nuevo, B.C. - also near Rosarito Beach.



An article I authored for In Gear Magazine in 2004


Monster Models at Reto 4x4, 2008

Getting out to the deep amazon jungle on your own is a bit difficult. The primary form of travel in the Amazon is via the millions of rivers and water ways that wind through the jungle. There are very few roads and access via automobile is rare. We always regret not installing deploy-able Pontoons on the 4runner in situations like this...

I looked at our map of Ecuador and found the Cuyabeno National Park which appeared to be the most remote Amazon jungle area that we could actually drive to. Well you could not really drive INTO the park but you could get damn close. At the end of the road we would have to hitch a ride in a motorized canoe to actually make inside the parks boundary.

We hooked up with a cheap jungle lodge company in Quito that would agree to let us drive to the jungle ourselves. We had less than 24 hours to make it all the way across Ecuador to a random bridge in the jungle where there would (hopefully) be a canoe waiting to pick us up.

No big deal.

We hauled ass from Quito that afternoon. We crossed up and over the Andes mountains into a thick fog. We broke through the fog to see the low-lying Amazon jungle below us as far as the eye could see.


We dropped down from the mountains into the hot misty jungle. By this time night was falling, we found a spot to post up the night in front of an old clapboard house on stilts. This construction was typical of the area, reminded us of the homes seen along the Caribbean coasts of Central America.


Up in the morning and back on the road. We were zooming past miles and miles of oil pipelines and drilling rigs.


<RANT>
I usually try keep my personal politics off the blog but feel this needs to be shared. Ecuador is home to one of the largest oil reserves in the Americas. For over 25 years Texaco/Chevron and PetroEcuador have been pumping the hell out of the rainforest to the tune of 1.5+ billion barrels. Great for gas prices but absolutely devastating to the environment. The oil companies have been leaving behind their drilling waste products in large open pits in the rainforest. These pits overflow in the rainy season causing widespread contamination to the water table, soil, and farms of the local communities. There has been ongoing litigation in Ecuador between the 30,000+ locals effected in the rainforest and the oil companies who have exploited it. There is a great documentary called "CRUDE" which goes into much more detail on this situation. The movie is available streaming on Netflix. You can watch the trailer HERE on youtube. HERE is a short 60-minutes piece on the issue as well. I encourage readers to watch these segments and learn about the exploitation taking place, this kind of crap would absolutely not fly in the U.S.A.
</RANT>

Eventually we arrive at a lonely bridge in the middle of the jungle. We see no one. Crap! Did we miss the boat? We park and start looking around. We go underneath the bridge where we discover a toothless old man snoozing in a canoe. We gently nudge him awake. He sits up and I see he is wearing a Cuyabeno River Lodge t-shirt. Score! This was our guy.

We stash the truck at the old mans shack, load our stuff into the canoe, and hit the river. The small 5 horsepower motor slowly idled our canoe through the thick forest canopy. The morning was full of jungle sounds, frogs, monkeys, birds, insects. The sound of the jungle in the morning is something you must experience to believe.




We travel for around an hour or so via canoe seeing nothing but dense rainforest. We come around a bend and rising up out of the jungle is the "Cuyabeno River Lodge". The lodge consists of one large primary building and about 10 separate open-air cabanas.




We unloaded our stuff and were directed to our open-air cabin. Complete with hardcore bug net (very necessary out here in the jungle)


Home Sweet Home.


After a quick 30-min rest up the main bell sounded. We headed back up the clubhouse and met, Diego, our jungle guide. We also met a great group of ladies who have been volunteering with a street children education program in Quito for the past few months. They would be part of our group for the next few days.


First order of business. Suit up! We were all given a pair of knee-high rubber boats AKA Wellies to hike through the jungle with. Our guide tells us, "It's pretty wet out". (This would prove to be an understatement...)

Geared up we headed out into the jungle.


Read the rest of the jungle book and lots more pics on the blog at http://homeonthehighway.com/welcome-to-the-jungle-cuyabeno-r...

envious!!

Stellar trip report and I think you have the makings of a feature film or dramatic movie!

As for the petroleum mess... there is a minimum duty government should do to insist they are as clean there in Ecuador as they are when drilling in the U.S. or Canada. If they leave a mess behind, it is only because they are allowed to do so by locals... yes that is shameful, but when-ever that was done or who ever did that (could have been a non-American oil company?) has a responsibility to leave a site as close to original as possible. Thank you for sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly!

While we were camped out in the jungle, our guide Diego was reveling us with stories of Ecuador's coast. Hearing tales of the Ruta Del Sol (Route of the Sun), Galapagos Islands, and fresh ceviche was enough to have us change our destination from mountains back to the coastline.

Headed out of the jungle we picked up a flat-tire, we easily tracked down a vulcanizadora in a nearby town. A 14-year old boy and his 8-year old brother came out to greet us. As they were removing the tire I realized it was a Tuesday and asked the kids if they should be in school. They both looked at me confused and said "This is our school". I felt guilty as I spent most of my 14-year old childhood doing my best to make my teachers lives a living hell. I think they should send little jerks like me to fix tires out in the jungle for a few months. I would be begging to come home and study. Perspective.

15 minutes and $2 later the tire was patched, filled, and we were back on the road.


We made a pitstop near the touristy town of Banos to relax for a few days at the wonderful Pequeno Paraiso, a highly recommended hostel/campground run by a friendly couple whom primarily cater to large "overlanding tour groups". These tour companies rig up giant buses with kitchens, camping equipment, and other overlanding gear, load 30 people on the bus and drive all over the place for months. A concept I had never heard of but is apparently very popular in South America, Europe, and Africa. Personally I don't think I could be stuck on a bus with 30 strangers for 6-months but some people must enjoy it. Luckily no group was there and we had full run of the joint. Its a great spot to hang for a few days.

We explored the areas waterfalls and recharged our batteries for a few days enjoying the cool mountain air.





From Banos we hit the highway, passing up and over the Andes, waving hello to Mount Cotopaxi on our way.


Pick your cut!


Eventually we were cruising closer to the coastline through some interesting dry tropical forest like landscape, it was full of these giant "bottle trees" which looked more like something out of Africa than South America. I later learned these are called "Ceibos" and actually are related to the famed Boabab trees of Africa.


Lauren, ever the queen of wildlife, picked up a new friend along the way, somehow this guy ended up landing on Lauren's hand while we were cruising at 55MPH. Amazing colors.


Soon we met up with the coastline itself, ah the Pacific, nice to see you again!


We discovered the "Route of the Sun" was more akin to the "Route of Grey". It is common knowledge (to us now as well...) that this time of year in Ecuador the coastline is primarily clouded over with grey clouds. Undeterred, We trekked on down to Puerto Lopez, our next destination.

Arriving in Puerto Lopez we quickly tracked down a little campground with wifi, hot showers, and a bar. Check, Check, and Check.

We made arrangements to head out to the "Isla de la Plata" the next morning. We had read that Isla de la Plata was the "poor mans Galapagos". Home to blue-footed boobies, frigate birds, and other forms of rare wildlife usually seen on the famed Galapagos islands. The difference was, a trip to the Isla de la Plata is $40 whereas a trip to Galapagos can range from $1000-$5000 depending. One day we would like to return and explore the real Galapagos. For now, the $40 Isla is more in our budget range.

Next morning we were out to beach where we were mingling with the fisherman hauling in the days catch. Seemed like 1/2 of the damn ocean was being hauled in to the shore.


We saw giant squids, tuna, dolphin, shrimp, you name it, being loaded by the crate into refrigerated trucks.



We weren't here for the food today, I doubt my stomach could handle eating a giant squid at 7:00AM anyway.

We met our boat captain, suited up, and walked out into the ocean to board our vessel. No fancy docks here, you gotta get wet to get onboard.



We were soon tooling along across the Pacific, the weather had cleared up and it was a gorgeous morning. My eagle-eyes caught many whales breaching the water off on the horizon. We also passed a few trawlers out hunting for shrimps or squid.


After a 2-hour ride we spotted a small island in the distance. From afar the island island appeared to have strange white patches all over it, as we approached I could see why, surrounding the island were thousands upon thousands of birds flying to and fro. The white patches? Awww ya thats doo-doo baby.



On the boat ride over we made friends with some fellow english-speakers, Aaron and Bri from Canada. We teamed up and got ready to hit the trails. However, once we actually made it onto shore we learned we were not allowed to just freely roam the island, we needed to go with a tour guide. Pretty lame, especially lame since we ended up standing around waiting for an hour for a late boat to arrive with more touristas. Oh well, We made the best of it practicing our best boobie jokes in preparation.

What kind of bees make milk? Boobies!


Finally our hike started and within 15 minutes we came across our first booby-sighting!


Read the rest of the story and loads more pics at http://homeonthehighway.com/ecuadorian-coast-isla-de-la-plat...

This is great stuff. Following on the blog and fb. Thanks and continue to enjoy

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Up and on the road the next morning we quickly approached the Ecuadorian side of the border, turned in our paperwork, got our passports stamped out and jumped back in the truck. A few miles further the large Peruvian tourism logo greeted us. Welcome to PERU! Country #12.



It took us an about an hour to clear through the entry paperwork. We encountered the standard hiccups which we are used to by now. Note to future overlanders, If your car title has your license plate number listed, make sure it actually matches the tag on your truck.... Our original plates were stolen back in Baja, we were issued new ones and have the proper registration paperwork but it always causes a snag when they see the title and the registration don't match up. Just a tip!

Paperwork completed, we were free and clear for 90-days of fun in Peru!

We scooted on down through the sketchy border town of Tumbes and were soon cruising some of the best blacktop we have seen the entire trip.


Suprisingly, the landscape also quickly changed from the low-lying coastal jungle of Ecuador to straight Peruvian desert. I soon learned the entire coastline of Peru is actually a giant desert, appropriately nicknamed "The Egypt of South America". The dunes rose up out of the earth towering everything in sight. Bundle in the lower range of the Andes directly behind them and you get jaw-dropping scenery unlike anything we had ever seen before.








As we cruised along the coastline, we checked in with our friends SprinterLife for some Peruvian travel tips. SprinterLife gave us the downlow that the mountains are actually the perfect place to be right now. We cut up from the desert coast and started heading into the Andes. Closer towards the low-range of the Andes we saw the desert transform from a lifeless sandbox to lush green fields and rivers.



Climbing further up the mountain we soon discovered the source of the greenery below. A giant dam has been constructed here to collect water from the mountain snows/rains and slowly disperse it to the farms in the valleys below.


It's a dam lake


We crept further and further into the mountains until eventually arriving at a small city named Cajamarca. Cajamarca sits around 9000FT. The city has a very rich history dating back thousands of years to pre-Chavin culture. The Incas took up residence here for a while as well, before being conquered by the bloody Spainards. It has a lovely colonial style town-square, we found a cheap hostel and setup shop.


We strolled around the town taking in the beautiful colonial churches, hospitals and various other historical sites. SprinterLife had been right, the weather was perfect up here the mountains.



Located just outside of Cajamarca are the "Banos del Inca" (Inca Baths). Here there are naturally occuring hot springs that the Inca elite used for bathing and ceremonial purposes. Nowadays even regular Joe's can swim or bathe in the waters. The Peruvians have constructed a large complex of various showers, pools, and baths. You can get even get a massage on site. The baths are cheap, around $2. An hour long massage only running $10 or so.

Steaming thermal pool


Lauren testing the water in one of the ancient Inca bath houses. Yep, its hot!


We paid our soles and got our own private bathroom where they pipe in the thermal waters. The water was insanely hot straight from the tap, luckily you could regulate the temp with a series of valves. Even so, after 20 minutes of being in there we felt pretty light headed. Lauren actually had to quickly step outside and sit on a bench before she fainted.

Ladies, Try your best not to swoon.


We explored the hills around Cajamarca, passing through many small Andean villages, seeing people go about their daily lives.



Cruising these backroads you often come across locals trudging up the mountain towards their homes. One guy flagged us down and jumped on the sliders. He let me wear his sweet ass hat so it wouldnt blow off in the wind. I was pretty excited as you can see.


Currently Cajamarca and the surrounding villages are in a huge battle against large foreign gold-mining interests who have been destroying their land, rivers, and food sources. There are daily protests, roadblocks, and there have even have been some attacks on the miners by locals. Read more about the situation here.

Unfortunately, we managed to get mixed up in a roadblock where the villagers mistook our large Toyota truck as being a "Mining truck". Things got a little intense as we approached about 20 villagers including grandmas, children, and pregnant ladies all armed to the teeth with various implements of destruction. Rakes, hoes, pickaxes, and other farming tools take the place of guns here. As we approached the roadblock they started screaming and banging on the sides of the truck. I yelled out the windows that we were "solo touristas!" and pointed to the innocent looking Lauren as proof that we were in fact NOT greasy miners. Once they realized we were just a bunch of dumb gringos, they yelled at us to get the hell outta the way so they could finish their roadblock! Whew, that was a close one! Sorry no pics.

We eventually made it to our destination "Ventanillas de Otuzco"(Little Windows). The ancient Cajamarca cultures dug these small crypts out of the side of the mountain. Inside they would place the bones of deceased leaders along with tools, gold, and other important items much needed in the afterlife. Pretty cool, unfortunately looters had pillaged most everything before scientists ever got a chance to get in there.


[url=http://homeonthehighway.com/peru-land-of-the-incas/]
Rest of the story, tons more pics, and SOME BIGS NEWS on the blog
http://homeonthehighway.com/peru-land-of-the-incas/
[/url]

Great pics and trip !!

the first pic right after the peru sign is a dead ringer for hwy 1 south of san quentin !! been following you folks on the blog !! some how lost it in my "favs"... so now I can redo it !! what happend to your friend with the broken vanagon ?? and are you seeing/meeting many other folks doing sorta the same traveling ??? and lastly...are you checking into countrys or going in "transito" ?? have fun !!! K&T

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We settled into to life at our apartment. It was nice to have some routine after being on the move for so long. We would wake up in the morning, make some coffee, and hang out on the roof of our apartment watching the waves, the sun, and life waking up in our little town of Huanchaco.

It didn't take long for word to trickle out on the streets that "Home on the Highway" had a sweet beach pad and the visitors soon started rolling in.

Our first friends who came were our Canadian buds we had recently met in Ecuador. We spent lots of time strolling the town together, drinking Trujillo beers, and sitting on the beach. Standard Hunachaco life.






We paid a visit to Trujillo's largest ruin, the infamous CHAN-CHAN... ChanChan is a massive ruin covering over 20KM of land. It is actually the largest Pre-Columbian ruin in all of South America. The main complex is surrounded by giant adobe walls and divided up into various sections inside for ceremony, farming, and everyday life. At its peak over 30,000 people lived in this city. It was the capital of the Chimu empire.

The adobe walls are full of intricate patterns occasionally depicting animals as well.

Squirrels?


Pelicans?


ChanChan was kind of cool at first, however, after strolling along through the mud hallways eventually it gets pretty damn boring. We usually shy away from guides and prefer to discover a place by ourselves, I feel ChanChan needs a guide to do it justice.


We are headed out of the mud fortress when we come across a Peruvian family who has drug its 2-year old little boy out to see the mud. Surprisingly, the boy is not at all interested in staring at brown walls for hours at a time and its throwing a straight up tantrum as his clearly annoyed parents continue to drag him through the ruins.

At one point the crying kid walks in front of me and plops down directly in front of my feet as I am walking, not thinking much of it and not wanting to punt the kid, I just step over him and keep on strolling.

Looking back... perhaps that wasn't the best move.

A few seconds later I hear loud shouting behind me, I turn around and find a red-faced 5ft tall Peruvian man holding his kid in his arms screaming his ass off at me. His overweight equally red-faced wife behind him also yelling. Surprisingly, for the first time all day, the baby is silent...

I glean from the screaming that he is mad that I walked over his kid, I apologize but the man won't let us alone. He starts cursing at me, screaming about how Americans come to their country and disrespect them. Lo Siento Senor, No queiro problemas. At this point his loud shouting had gathered quite a crowd all standing around to watch the show. I stand there a while more getting threatened by this little red-faced man until a security guard comes over and tells us our group of 4 gringos we should probably leave. As I eyeballed 20 Peruvian males all around us itching to let out some pent-up aggression, I agreed.

We all hauled ass outta ChanChan laughing at the absurdity of the situation. Hey, at least we got some excitement out of the place!

Our Canadian friends hit the road and our next set of visitors arrived, the infamous Team LifeRemotely.


We had not seen each other since Costa Rica, and had lots of catching up to do. We quickly fell back into our routine of gluttony and excessive libations.

Jared went crazy finally having access to a real full sized kitchen and cooked up all kinds of deliciousness. Kobus busted out his world-famous empanadas, while Lauren and Jessica provided moral-support from the sidelines, their enthusiasm fueled by the finest of boxed red wine ("Gato" is the finest if you were wondering...)


It was during Life Remotely's visit that we first discovered our downstairs neighbor had recently acquired a new kitten.

Unfortunately my neighbor is not home much and the very young kitten was left on the backpatio alone for most of the day and night. He spent most of his time meowing and crying for some attention. I would sling down some tunafish from the second-story window from time to time to shut him up, but inevitably he would start back up again. Eventually the cat would cry himself hoarse and start doing this weird squeaking noise. Hence we named this random cat whom we had never actually met, Squeakers.

It was a combination of being tired of listening to Squeakers whine all damn day, a lot of rum, and Jared's comment of "If you don't rescue that cat soon he is going to have permanent severe mental problems" that sprung us into action.

Unable to access the first floor patio, we had to somehow catch him from the 2nd story. We rigged up a wicker basket, some rope, and a can of tuna fish trying to create a sort of trap for the cat. Hoping he would jump into the basket and we could pull him up.


We were able to get him into the basket but he would bonzai jump out as we were trying to bring him up to the second story. Not wanting to be a part of a kitty suicide we shelved the plan. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

The next day we waved goodbye to Life Remotely and waved hello to our pals from DriveNachoDrive


Brad and Sheena were onboard instantly with the cat rescue operation. We upgraded from our crappy wicker basket to a high-sided bin and soon enough. We had him!


As luck would have it our neighbor came home just as we are stealing the cat. As Lauren and Sheena pull the cat up into our apartment. I run downstairs to explain to our confused neighbor why she sees her cat being carted away to the 2nd floor in some old plastic bin....

I don't think she really understood my horrible spanish but she got that jist that we had just stole her cat and she didn't seem to mind too much. OK?

He was one dirty and peeed off cat, the girls, of course, instantly fell in love.



We put a shine on him and he cleaned up pretty good, I usually HATE cats, but even I had to admit he was pretty damn cute.


We burned through the days playing cards, taking advantage of having an oven, and playing with the cat.

Rooftop Card Sesh. Sheena is the worlds fastest card player. Brad, antsy to throw down his last card and call Rummy.



Brad is a master Nacho chef. He loves them so much his blog is named after them. Well not really, but the man does love some nachos.




We said goodbye to Brad and Sheena and prepared for our next adventure. Lauren's friend is flying into Lima in just a few days. We will meet her there and then drive to Machu Picchu.

First leg of the trip... the 9 hour drive from Huanchaco to Lima.

We hit the road south and soon were cruising through giant sand dunes and the beautiful desolate shoreline of the Peruvian coast.

Next post is about machu picchu, getting there was 1/2 the damn battle.

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Driving through Central America is pretty cool, you can drive from one side of a country to the other in a single day or decide to stay a month or more really getting to know a place.



South America, is a bit different. Most of the countries on this continent are MASSIVE. You really need to adjust your scales when thinking of driving distances in South America vs Central America.

Sometime back in Panama we were speaking with our friend Vanessa about coming down to visit. We weren't exactly sure WHEN but we knew we would eventually make it Peru, home of Machu Picchu. The quintessential tourist destination in South America. A quasi-gameplan was set for Vanessa to fly into Lima, Peru where we would pick her up and then drive to Machu Picchu. I quickly glanced at the map online, Lima to Machu Picchu was only like 1.5 inches on the map. No big deal. A tentative date was set, plane tickets were purchased and we didn't really think about it further.

As our friends arrival date approached I finally starting looking into the logistics of this upcoming excursion. From our homebase here in Huanchaco it was a 9-hour drive to Lima. From Lima it was a nice and easy... TWENTY HOUR drive from Lima to Cusco.

Crap!

That's 2 solid days of driving on either side of the trip, effectively knocking her 7 day vacation down to a 3-day vacation.

We started scrambling for alternatives, we looked into flights from Huanchaco to Lima and Lima to Cusco. The last minute flights were going to be expensive, more than we could afford on our dwindling budget. I crafted a solution I like to call...

"THE GAUNTLET"

1. Wake up buttcrack early in Huanchaco
2. Drive 9 hours to Lima
3. Pick up Vanessa from Lima airport at 10PM
4. Drive 7 hours from Lima to Nazca throughout the night.
6. Arrive in Nazca, if the sun is not up yet, sleep for a few minutes.
7. Once there is enough light, hit the hairpinned highway up into the mountains towards Cusco, drive drive drive drive 13 hours.
8. Arrive in Cusco. Collapse into lifeless ball on ground.


Close to 30 hours of driving in a span of 48 hours. It sounded do-able, certainly not fun but I knew the 4Runner could handle it, if I could. Lauren called me crazy, she said we should just take our time. But now that "The Gauntlet" was crafted in my mind there would be no turning back. It was "Me VS The Road"

We packed up the truck and hit the road south.


We passed beautiful coastline and expansive deserts on our way to Lima.



Peru is jammed with so much history that occasionally you just randomly stumble across it. This adobe fortress rises up out of the desert on the side of the PanAmerican highway. I later learned that is it is the Fortress of Paramonga, part of the Chimu empire. We visited the Chimu capital, ChanChan, in our last post.


After a long day of driving we finally made it to Lima. Ugh. I hate driving in cities, especially Peruvian cities. Peruvian drivers are the WORST we have encountered on the trip thus far. Driving in Lima is truly a no-holds-barred grudge match. I have seen more than 1 public bus swap paint with a taxi cab while jockeying for position. Luckily we drive a big rusted/dented truck with gnarly steel bumpers on either end, add in the fact that I also drive like a madman and we have our own dog in the fight.


We posted up in Lima, caught some quick winks, and headed to the airport. The 10PM airport pickup went off without a hitch. We threw Vanessa in the back of the truck and hit the road. Lauren climbed back there as well and the ladies started chatting away about girly things.

I wasn't paying attention. I was focused. The Gauntlet has no time for chatting.

Eventually the girls talked themselves to sleep. I was alone. The 4Runner slipping through the inky black night of the Peruvian desert like a grey wolf hunting his prey. I continually pressed my face against the windshield ogling the billions of stars that blanketed the sky above us.

As the hours ticked by the lines on the road slowly blurred into a one long streak.
[img]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_F1SBe4uH-60/TN1TC_Y5KCI/AAAAAAAABMk/DUc76lpd3ts/s1600/driving+at+night+1.jpg[/img]

Sometime around 2:00AM I felt my brain start shutting down. Oh no you don't brain! I reached into the passenger seat and grabbed one of the questionable stimulants I picked up at a late-night Peruvian truckstop. I slammed the sickly sweet tincture into my gullet and felt an instant headrush and boost of energy. WOOOOOOWWEEE! TAKE THAT GAUNTLET!

Throughout the night I was teetering somewhere on the edge of F1 Racecar driving perfection and crashing the truck into a giant fiery ball. It was a healthy balance.

I snapped back to reality at a police checkpoint entering Nazca. I glanced at the clock. 4:45 AM. I glanced at the passenger seat. It was littered with Oreo cookie wrappers, various truckstop uppers, and a few empty beer cans. Luckily, the cop paid no mind to this crazy gringo driving in the middle of the night with 2 girls passed out in the back and waved me through.

I pulled over in between a bunch of other 18-wheelers parked past the checkpoint, turned off the truck, and tilted the seat back to try to catch some sleep.

Who was I kidding? I was so cracked out on truckstop go-juice there would be no sleep for me. I rolled down the window and stared at the stars for a while, watching the black sky slowly turn purple as dawn approached. It was very beautiful, I couldn't recall the last time I had been up to see daybreak.


My calming dawn moment was soon interrupted by a cacophony of big rigs roaring to life all around me. It seems we all had the same idea and had been waiting for enough sunlight to hit the wild mountain roads.

Not wanting to end up stuck behind a slow-moving convoy, I cranked the truck and hit the road once more.

We were soon winding through the low-lying front range of the Andes. As the sun came up, so did the girls. Good morning!


This part of the long drive was amazing. We rose from the dusty desert at sea-level all the way up to ~15,000Ft driving along the high altiplano of the snow-peaked Andes.



At one point we crossed through a Vicuna (A smaller member of the Llama family) wildlife zone. These little dudes were everywhere, jumping across the road, grazing the short grass of the Altiplano.


We dipped into a low valley town, dropping out of the mountains down to around 4000FT. After the town it was a long switchbacked climb back up to 15,000 ft. We passed a few roadside cemeteries, perhaps foreshadowing of things to come?


It was on this long climb up that the 4Runner showed her first signs of rebellion against this slogging I had been giving her over the past 2 days. As we climbed I kept a steady eye on the temp gauge. She slowly started rising, I pulled over, checked the oil, checked the water, everything looked fine. Back on the road, I kept climbing. The gauge slowly creeping up into the danger-zone once again. It was holding fairly steady just above 1/2, hotter than normal but nothing to crazy.

Suddenly the motor bogged, I lost power, and the entire truck shut itself off. Fearing the worst (head gasket) out I pull off to the side of the road and pop the hood. Overflow tank is going full bore, steaming and gurgling. CRAP! Did I pop the HG!? I looked at the valley town far below us, nothing more than a dusty mountain pitstop. Not much chance of any decent mechanic down there. We were still 3 hours from Cusco. If the truck couldn't get us out of here we were going to be screwed. Oh well, at least we had a nice view to break down by.
[img]https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/303668_337159363043958_1181100089_n.jpg"

Lauren assured Vanessa this kind of stuff is normal... and Vanessa went back to sleep. lol

After letting the truck cool off, I cross my fingers and cranked her up. She roared to life happy as a clam. Yeehaw! Not sure what that was all about... the truck displayed no other hiccups for the rest of the trip.

Snow on the mountain.


Cruising along the high Andes we encountered giant free-roaming herds of LLamas, Alpacas, and even more Vicunas. These guys were everywhere, you really had to be careful sweeping a blind curve up here.



SUP?


Cruising at 4500 meters (15,000Ft)


Highest I have ever seen this altimeter roll-over!


High altitude lagoons dotted the landscape.


The ladies take turns sitting in the front seat. The bed is comfortable for sleeping, not the best for riding 20 hours on.


River pit-stop. We enjoyed a nice gas station soup which comprised mostly of boiled chicken feet. I ate Laurens for her...



IS THIS DRIVE GOING TO LAST FOREVER!!?


We pulled into Cusco right around sun-down.


We thought our journey was finally complete. Unfortunately it took us 2-hours of driving the maze-like streets of Cusco to finally find our campground.

Campground located. I park the truck, open the door, and collapse into a ball on the ground...

JAMES - 1
GAUNTLET - 0

[Edited on 1-27-2013 by BajaNomad]

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We had a few days to explore Cusco before heading off towards Machu Picchu.


Machu Picchu is the #1 tourist destination in all of South America. The city of Cusco is the gateway to this destination, which by my calculations would make it the #1 Touristy city in South America. Despite the constant barrage of touts slinging everything from guided tours to 15-minute massages we found the town to still have some noble charm. Though sometimes you needed to muscle your way past a lumbering group of Llama-sweater clad gringos to get to it.

We roamed around the many large parques and admired the beautiful colonial churches and buildings.


There are a plethora of Inca and pre-Inca ruins surrounding Cusco aside from the big dog Machu Picchu. This ruin was located just a 5-minute walk from the campground. Sacsayhuaman (try saying that 5 times fast) is a sprawling walled complex which contains over 200 separate archeological sites. The walls were made up of giant meticulously carved boulders, some weighing up to 70 TONS! How the ancients carved, transported, and placed these giant stones is still a mystery to us all.


Since we were in the land of the touristas we decided to live it up. We got down on all kinds of Peruvian treats.

Here we have, the neon-yellow bubble-gum flavored Inka Kola. This drink is the #1 softdrink in all of Peru. I have yet to meet a foreigner who could stomach the stuff. I learned the the Coca-Cola company tried for years to defeat Inka Cola in a war for beverage market share in Peru. However, after 30 years of trying and not making any ground they went ahead and purchased the Inca Kola company all together. If you can't beat em... buy em!


The #1 Alcoholic beverage of Peru. Pisco Sour. Pisco is a type of liquor made from distilled grapes. It is insanely popular here in Peru. My favorite Pisco drink is a Chilcano, basically ginger-ale and Pisco. A traditional Pisco Sour is made with 1.5 shots of Pisco, egg whites, simple syrup, lime, and ice. Blend it all together, add a single drop of bitters for decoration. Drink up!


Vanessa and I got down on an Andean specialty. Alpaca meat! Alpaca is a furry cousin to the llama. Alpacas have been farmed for centuries. Their wool is used for clothing, their meat used for sustenance, and their bones used for jewelery and tools. Not a piece of the Alpaca goes to waste. Especially not when I am at the dinner table. Properly prepared Alpaca rivals the best filet mignon. It is a delicious meat which could be big in the states as long as no one ever saw the cute animal it comes from.



We strolled around the giant Cusco mercado. The market is split into two sections.. The first section contains various arts, crafts and clothing from the highlands. The second section (my favorite section) is a traditional food market along with rows and rows of sit-down eateries.


My favorite food stall was the frog soup lady. She had a bucket of live frogs and a giant pot boiling with frog broth. You pick your frog, into the soup it goes and a few minutes lady you have a bowl of fresh frog soup. Cures what ails ya!


We spent the rest of the day touring around being dopey tourists.


That night we met up with our Canadian friends (freshly decked out in the latest Llama fashions) and we got to drinking.


and drinking... and drinking some more. We ended up at a small locals bar later that night where we danced our face off till 3AM or so. Good times had by all.


Next morning we were up and packed the truck. Feeling a little groggy we stopped for some Peruvian pick-me-ups. A cup of Coca leave tea and some Coca hard candies and we were wired up ready to go.



A quick stop by the Nacional Banco de Peru to pay for our Machu Picchu ticket (~$50 per person) which is about 25x more expensive than every other ruin in Peru... and we were off!

The drive from Cusco to Ollyantantambo, where we would catch the train, was spectacular. We dropped in and out of various little pubeblos and passed at least 5 separate Inca ruins along the way.



My favorite town sign represented their hometown specialty. Cuy Al Palo AKA Spit-roasted guinea pig.


We had originally planned to drive the 4x4 route as close to Aguas Calientes (the final town before Machu Picchu) as possible, but with light dwindling and no real idea on a route, we decided to catch the train from Ollyantantambo to A.C instead. It was ~$50 per person per ticket per way!

We found a cheap lot to stash the truck and posted up while waiting for the train, the ruins of Ollyantantambo as our backdrop.



Lauren, of course, managed to make a new dog friend in our 30-minute wait.



The train was surprisingly fancy and you got a little snacky-snack to eat as you gawked out the panoramic windows engulfed by giant snow-capped mountains.




We arrived into Aguas Calientes just as the sun was setting. An unremarkable maze of a town. Machu Picchu "Made in China" knickknacks flooding out of every store front.


We found a cheap hostel, grubbed out, and hit the hay. We had to be up at 430AM to try and catch the first bus up to Machu Picchu in the morning.

Up before the dawn we rounded up some bus tickets, ~$9, and queued up. We thought we were slick getting up early, seemed like everyone else had the same idea and we were around the 300th or so in line. Eventually the buses actually started running and the line moved fairly quickly, shuffling all our sleepy butts up the mountain.

Dumped off in front of the insanely expensive Machu Picchu hotel (which I later learned was accidentally built on-top of some Inca ruins, nice going guys!) we queued up in yet another line.

Battling our way through the line we made a mad dash up towards the terraces near "The Guardhouse", one of the best viewpoints, and waited for the sun the come up.

From our terraced lawn we watched the sun slowly rise over the rift. We could see no other life but the llamas grazing sleepily on the tall grass. The crazy 30 hours of driving, the boatloads of spent cash, and the dopey tourist towns all faded away as we soaked in the moment. This is what we have been working for...


We took some time just sitting there enjoying the early morning then started touring the ruins.

/START
DELUGE OF MACHU PICCHU PICS!





Lauren making Llama buds



or at least trying not to get kicked in the face!



More ruins!



TINA, EAT YOUR FOOD!




Inca Bridge. Wooden bridge spans ancient path, the Incas would pull up the bridge when they did not want intruders to pass. Pretty slick.








Final Thoughts.

Machu Picchu, as you can see, is an epic sight. There is no argument there. That being said the entire process surrounding getting to this ruin is a damn racket from end-to-end. Everything is incredibly overpriced and a true testament to foreigner price-gouging.

So should you still go see it?

Hell yes.

Nice post

When we originally started out on the trip we had plan for it to take around 1-year to get down to Ushuaia. We had a quasi-budget and timeline that seemed reasonable.

Somewhere around Month #9 and the country of Peru we realized that our budget was way off. We really should have alotted more like 30-40% of our budget to booze and box wine instead of 15%... and given ourselves at least 1.5 years if not more for this trip.

Damn you Clos!! You know we cant resist.



We were faced with the fact that we could either...

A. Haul ass straight to Ushuaia, see nothing, and basically be broke at the end of the trip.
B. Try to hunker down and figure out a way to make money in Peru to keep the trip going.

We figured worse case scenario we had enough cash to float us for 2 months in Huanchaco and then we could stash the truck, fly home, work for a bit and fly back.

We REALLY did not want to go back the U.S.A. yet. The thought of bonehead bosses, daily commutes, and Applebees sampler platters are enough to turn my stomach. We got started searching for work.

We made some friends in Huanchacho who told us there was plenty of work teaching english classes to locals. We looked into it and to do it legally, you were required to sign up for a fairly large time commitment and the pay was less than stellar (around $7/hour after taxes). No thanks.

Back in the states I worked as an IT Consultant, 95% of my job was done remotely. I figured it would be easy to call up some old contacts and find some temporary work. Well... most of my friends had moved on to new gigs where they didn't pull much weight or their bosses wanted me to be available for onsite calls as well. Kind of hard to do from Peru.

Desperate, I picked up some shady craiglist gig doing Midnight shift end-user remote support for some Motel internet support company. The calls were from the deepest levels of hell (You can imagine the type of person calling you up from the Big 8 Motel at 3AM trying to get porntube.com working...) and at only $8/hr. I lasted about a week.


Talking with a buddy of mine (What up B-rats!!) about the situation he told me about a remote IT support gig his friends were doing. He said they were making decent money and it was 100% remote. It sounded to good to be true but I signed up anyway and went through an interview process. About 2 weeks later I started taking calls. With this job you were able to work as much or as little as you want, no set schedules, no bosses. Straight 1099 Contractor pay. It was absolutely perfect for us. Lauren found another online job that was bringing in cash as well. We were sitting pretty!

I would work from about 9AM to around 10PM at night, 6 days a week. The calls were horribly mind-numbing but the pay was great and I was able to do it in my underwear sittin' on the roof of our apartment looking out over the beaches of Peru. I could not complain at all.

View from my office, Ignore the 3rd world ghetto TV antennas and you can see the Pacific!


After the first month I received a legit paycheck deposited into our Paypal account. It was enough to keep us on the road for at least another 2 months.

SUCCESS!

We had figured it out. In the face of adversity and a dwindling bank account we made it work financially here in Peru and along the way we discovered how to technically extend our travels indefinitely.

Elated, We buckled the hell down and grinded out 3 months of solid work in Huanchaco.

It wasn't all work and no play though. Laurens sister, Carly, flew into Lima, caught a bus to Huanchaco and hung with us for 2 weeks. We partied it up in our hometown of Huanchaco and toured tons of Peru with her.

Carlys back!


She was a hit with all of our Peruvian friends of course.


With Carly around we all of the sudden became the most popular people in Huanchaco. Dinner invitations and parties every night!



During one drunken night we were talking about going sandboarding. Our best buddy in Huanchaco, Pinky, knew some folks who rented boards, and also knew a spot that we could 4x4 too and sandboard for free. This sounded like a lot more fun than paying for some dopey gringo tour. The next morning, hungover as hell, we loaded up the boards and bounced across the deserts of Peru to some towering sand dunes.



Trekking through some farms to get to the dunes.


The one downside to doing this the locals way is you gotta hike your butt up to the top of the dune. Hard work indeed!


Pinky gave us a few quick lessons and away we went! Sort of...


The girls were much better than I.




But I make this stuff look good!


After 2 hikes up the dune we were spent. While I originally thought sandboarding was going to be kind of lame, it was actually a load of fun. It was way easier than snowboarding and a lot less painful when you wipe out. Plus you can do it in a bathing suit rather than 100Lbs of cold weather gear. Highly recommended.




After a few days of fun in the Huanchaco sun we loaded up the 4Runner and hit the road, headed to the Andes.

Sorry Carly, only 2 seats in the 4Runner. We convert it into a Cama-bus for passengers.


Adios beaches. Hello mountains!


We cut up from the coast and soon entered into the famed "Canyon del Pato" (Canyon of the Duck). Canyon Del Pato runs between two gigantic Peruvian mountain ranges, the Cordillera Blanca and the Cordillera Negra (The latter being the second highest mountain range in the world, only defeated by the mighty Himalayas). The route is a dirt road originally built to mine the mountains out here. It has over 35+ tunnels hand-carved straight out of the face of the mountain with the raging Rio Santa always at your side. It is an amazing trek and a must-do for any overlanders.


More pics and the rest of the story on the blog at
http://homeonthehighway.com/carly-comes-to-visit-part-1-cano...

We cruised down the bumpy road heading towards the town of Yungay.

Along the way we stopped to have some lunch. They had a full menu of Andes treats. Guinea Pigs, Stream trout, pork, and hen.


They also had Alpaca on the menu but after seeing these cute dudes roaming around in the backyard of the place. I just couldn't pull the trigger.


Plenty of Canchas (Kind of a Peruvian popcorn) and Coca tea were consumed though. It really does help with the altitude sickness at these heights.



We ate up and headed down the road to the town of Yungay.

Yungay while seemingly a thriving town today, has a very sad history. It was here in Yungay that 25,000 people lost their lives during the great earthquake of 1970. The quake dislodged 1/4 of the mountain top sending 50 million cubic meters of debris flying down the hillside at speeds over 400 KMH. The entire town was buried alive before they even knew what hit them. Only the tops of a few tall palms remained after the landslide.


We followed a small dirt road up above the new town headed towards <a href="http://www.llanganucolodge.com/[/img]Llaganuco Lodge</a>. Passing more rural life along the way.


Sheep pelts drying in the sun... and a satellite dish of course. You don't want to miss the latest "YO SOY!". The Peruvian version of American Idol. Which, if you can imagine, is somehow even worse than that drivel they put on in the states.



We arrive at the LLaganuco Lodge... after getting lost for about an hour. Hey Charlie, invest in a sign will ya!?


We posted up camp and explored the beautiful grounds. Charlie really has an amazing slice of land wayyyy off the grid up here in the highlands just below the Lagunas Llaganuco.



Who needs a newspaper with views like these?



We hung out with Charlies' 2 Rodesian Ridgebacks. They do a good job of keeping the property safe.


Next morning we headed up the trail on foot to the lagunas, located about an hour walk from the lodge.


At the lake info center they had a creepy display of some native animals. Including this horribly stuffed mountain derp lion.



Luckily the lake itself more than made up for the derp lion.



The steep gorge walls plunged directly into the azure glacial waters. Quite a sight.



After exploring the lake a bit we took a small footpath through a forest of Queñoa trees. They are more popularly known as Polyepis trees and are native to the Andes mountains. Their flaky red bark and twisting shapes reminded me of the Manzanita trees back home in the Sierra mountains.



More pics and rest of the story on the blog at
http://homeonthehighway.com/carly-comes-to-visit-part-2-lagu...

A few remarks:

I had seen those Quenoa trees as well and thought they were a species of manzanita. Now I know better.

If you went to the ruins of Chavin you must have passed Laguna Quericocha (I believe). Did you happen to stop there? There's a bus stop there overlooking the lake. We caught rainbow trout there fishing from shore.

Your first picture of Machu Pichu is amazing. I guess getting there early really paid off. I thought you two, being the adventurers you are, were going to hike the trail from Agua Caliente to Machu Pichu instead of the bus, heh. Actually, it's best you didn't.

About that roasted corn. The Peruvians really like that stuff. To me it was like chewing on rocks. Hard on the teeth but probably good for the gums.

If you had visited Sachsaywaman just 2 or 3 months later if would have been green like this:



Regarding the crowds at Machu Pichu: I agree that they greatly diminish the experience. That's why I consider the jungle ruins at Tikal, Guatemala a better destination. The experience is greatly affected by the environment and at Tikal I really felt as though we were discovering something.

I really like the Mtn. Lion!

One of my main goals before we left our apartment in Huanchaco was to finally get caught up on our perpetually lolly-gagging blog. Well... needless to say that didn't happen. In fact our blog is now hitting an almost laughable 4-month delay compared to real-time. To all my faithful readers I apologize!

If you are interested in receiving real-time updates then you should check out our facebook page at http://facebook.com/homeonthehighway

Life continued pretty normally in Huanchaco, hanging out with our buds, working, drinking beers, and watching sunsets. We really love our lives here in Huanchaco but we were starting to feel that itch to get back on the road. We finally made the decision to tell our landlord that November would be our last month in the apartment.

Just a few weeks before our departure date we got some more visitors. Jed and Megan from Adventure Americas are fellow Americans who drove their Toyota Tacoma with a Phoenix Pop-up camper all the way from Wyoming down to Peru. They too are headed to Ushaia. When they showed up to the house with 8 liters of beer and a box of wine, we knew we would soon be becoming best friends.


We hung around the house a few days cooking, grubbing, and getting to know each other.


One night we let it slip that we had not been camping in over 4 weeks. Fearing that they were hanging out with a bunch of sissy housecats the plan was made to go camping the next night. We jumped on Google Earth and found some nice 4x4 desert roads from Huanchaco that led out to a canyon that looked great for camping.

We headed out the next morning.



Having a little fun in the soft desert sands


Along the way we picked up two of Jed and Megans friends from Austrailia. The Australians flew to California, purchased two KLR 650's and headed south. We all agree they are much more hardcore than we are.



We eventually found the perfect spot and setup camp.




Many beers were drank, bullchit road stories swapped, and good times had by all around the fire that night.


The next day was Thanksgiving. Them being Aussies and all; our friends had no idea what lie in store for them when we invited them to a good ol' fashion USA Thanksgiving feast.

The next day we headed up to the store to try to find a turkey. Interestingly enough... Peruvians don't celebrate Thanksgiving so it was harder to track down a Turkey than we thought. We eventually manage to find a breast and some legs. We combined the pieces into a Frankenstein turkey with 6 legs, since thats everyone's favorite part anyway. We also bought all the fixin's we could find corn, sweet potatoes, green beans, butter, etc etc. We got home and hit the kitchen.




Our Australian friends wondering where all the butter keeps going, as I run to the store for the 3rd time to buy MORE. Oh if they only knew...


Stuffing, Green Bean Casserole, Sweet potato pie.


Not pictured is the turkey, but here is the aftermath of our feast. The Aussies said they had never eaten that much food in their lives.



In the morning we waved goodbye to Adventure the Americas and started packing up the house. It took us a grand total of 1.5 hours to relocate our entire lives back into the truck. Definitely a nice perk of traveling light.


People have been asking ask what will happen to our newly found kitten Squeakers? Well... We tried taking him out with us a few times on the road but between him throwing endless squeel fests, being scared crapless, and jumping out the window of the moving 4runner we decided he might not be fit for the hard life on the road. Lauren still wanted to take him but she agreed it wouldn't be fair to drag along the cat if it was not interested in this overlanding life of ours. It was a difficult decision to leave the little dude behind, but after the hellish week you will read about in our next post we were convinced we made the right decision.


Goodbye Huanchaco. We hope to return someday.



Next we head back to the Ecuadorian border yet again to renew our vehicle permits and then off to Lima to do some dog-sitting for our buddies at SprinterLife. We gave ourselves 6-days to complete this 3-day trip. Plenty of time right!?

Wrong...