Lima, 6 months after this trip
After 7 years in the USA the “road trip” is part of a routine. It is easy to leave everything behind and just hit the road and go. Roads are straight, large, and always lead to an interesting place, more exotic and relaxing than home. Driving 15 hours per day is doable.
In South America the bus network and the shared taxi (colectivos) system are impressive. The patient and resourceful traveler will easily go from one small village to the other. It is a very convenient and cheap way to travel, following the diverse opportunities. But when one wants to visit this far away, isolated and wonderful place that he has heard about it starts to be more difficult. Everything is possible, but it might be much more expensive and it could be time consuming too.
After being sure that the goal of this trip was definitely the Nevado Ojos del Salado there was still a question: by car or by bus? We then realized that this mountain, the Ojos del Salado, was finally just an excuse to travel the High Andes and there were a lot of amazing places between Lima and this big volcano. Linking all those places by bus would be harder and more constraining. And what about the unexpected encounter, the stunning bivouac hidden near a lake, what about this left road that is more appealing than the planned right one?
Once the itinerary more or less mapped, it seemed obvious that we would be on an independent road trip. However, nobody really encouraged such a project. On the Internet, few overlanders have some amazing blogs that are encouraging, but on some other websites, most of the people recommend some agencies and strongly discourage the independent adventure. On a forum someone even stated that trying to visit a place that is not on the agencies list, is a waist of time! How extraordinary it is to see that on the Internet some have an opinion about everything, especially about what they ignore.
Getting ready for such a trip was not the easy part. First it was time to buy a car… in Peru! It took 2 months to finally find a reliable vehicle: a 3 years old Toyota Land Cruiser Prado, 4.0 L. A powerful and efficient gas engine, greedy in town or on the highway, but pretty reasonable in high altitude and on bad tracks. Of course such a car needs a wide panel of accessories, just in case: good tires, compressor, sand ladders, Jerrican, skid plates to protect the engine and the transmission, … and GPS. Maps are generally not precise enough and sometimes even wrong… It is then much better to download some good and recent maps on the GPS.
And it is time to leave. During the first few hours on the road a weird feeling is palpable. Is it really reasonable to leave on this trip? Maybe not, but is it good to be too reasonable?
But after crossing the first border it is just pure amazement and excitement. Finally everything will be fine. Road trip rules are the same here: follow the road (or the GPS), find some gas, drive with caution and of course enjoy!!! Yes, you are here to enjoy the landscape, the mountains, the remoteness, and the people… Even now, more than 6 months after this trip, I still enjoy this awesome trip on a daily basis.
Gas could be a problem, especially in North Chile and in Bolivia. Jerrican of gas can be bought in some shops, but it is impossible to really know what kind of liquid we are pouring into the gas tank. Sometimes patience is mandatory to find the person or the shop that still has few liters of the precious liquid to sell. Or to find a gas station that accepts to sell gas to tourist at a much higher price of course (Evo Morales law…)
Dirt roads and tracks can be an issue too. Nothing is too hard to be crossed, but on the 8000 km of this trip, about ¼ of it was on dirt roads, sometimes excellent, sometimes terrible. Tracks are rarely technical, and the most difficult parts are often deep ruts (high frequentation) that require caution. It could be an isolated and badly maintained track like the one between the Chilean/Argentinean border and Antofagasta de la Sierra: pot holes, corrugated… A mechanical issue there could be serious as it is a difficult stretch and far from any assistance.
Finally… Car or bus? To anyone who is adventurous, resourceful and curious, I would strongly recommend to go for the independent trip (car or bike…). Encounters will not happen in the bus then, but in a village, on the road… Bivouacs will be amazing and unique, and it is then possible to discover places that we ignore even the existence…
Contact with people is then different too, curious and polite. “How did you arrive here? Why? Tourists are never coming here… How long are you staying? You should visit this or that. I would recommend this road… Or this herbal tea to fight altitude sickness…”. And it is time to hit the road again, the eyes full of images and the head full of memories.
Few links :
Blogs :
http://wikioverland.org/Bolivia
GPS Maps :
http://liferemotely.com/gear/choosing-gear/266-the-best-free-gps-maps-for-central-and-south-america
Viajeros Mapas was probably the most useful map we had, specially in South Lipez, but not routable. It is good to download a couple of maps and to switch during the trip as the informations are often complementary.
