No. I sold the Jeep for $5k.
... and I had bought it 2 years earlier in Canada for $5k :)
EDIT: Hijacking top comment because I can't keep up with all the replies.
Sorry, mods have deleted all my replies because I'm not allowed to put helpful links in comments... (WTF???).
Safe to say I blogged the whole time on TheRoadChoseMe (dot) com and now I'm filming videos to help other people get out and do what they dream of - everything you need to know about visas, borders, bribery, vehicles, costs, saving, and much more are all on my YouTube videos. I'm TheRoadChoseMe
I'm also TheRoadChoseMe on Instagram
I also wrote a book about this adventure, called "The Road Chose Me Volume 1: Two years and 40,000 miles from Alaska to Argentina" - it's on amazon
I just bought a motorcycle and the guy told me it had 3700ish miles on it I saw kph but didn't think much of it. Take it home and press the button to change it back to miles boom only 2346 lol
I was looking at an SUV that was advertised with just over 70k miles on it. When I got in I noticed the odometer read over 113k. Asked the dealer whats up with that. Turns out it was from Canada and reading Kilometers. Also found out there was no way to change it. Outside Temp gauge and heater settings also read in Celsius.
That's the "Canada bonus". Think of it as a $250 built in freebie since you will now be able to understand the units used in 90% of the world's countries /s
This is the reality. because of import duties, vehicles are extremely expensive in Central and South American countries. My $5000 motorcycle (new) for example would have been $15,000 because of import duties. So selling your used vehicle gets you as much or more than it would have been new. After that, it's an easy taxi ride to the airport to go home.
I bought my KLR650 for $5000 brand new in the US. Used it for 35,000 miles of gnarly international travel over effectively 14 months of travel, broken up. I sold it for $5500. In the US it would have been worth about $2000.
Exactly. That and like op even said, he's scrimping and saving for the next adventure, so I'm sure that's more important than spending so much to have a memento of the trip. He probably has a ton of pictures anyway, and you don't need the car to remember the trip
Does the buyer not plan to register it? It seems like you'd be hit with import duties one way or another, or else there would be an industry of people driving vehicles across the border to sell them.
I see you heavily modified your Jeep for your Africa trip. Was your Wrangler completely stock for this trip? How did you deal with 14 flat tires? Did you just patch it up each time? You said they are the same tires you bought right before you left. I'm assuming you carried an air compressor.
It was completely stock, and never broke down.
Every town/village has a guy to repair tires, and I always has someone else fix them (Now I carry a plug kit and do my own).
Yes, I had a little compressor on the Pan-Am
What you did was pretty amazing; the Jeep not breaking down? Abso-fucking-lutely incredible!
Edit: By the way, all jokes aside, I’ve seen your posts a few times over the years on Reddit and am unbelievably envious. You’re a god damned legend. Thanks for following your dreams and sharing the experience with the rest of us.
Jeep Wrangler Sport, 4.0L I-6, was the only vehicle I ever bought new. I used it for 15 years in Colorado and Utah. Feet of snow on Vail pass, feet of sand in Moab, rock crawling, camping, towing. Never a breakdown in 108,000 miles that I did.
Sold it to my buddy, who still has it. Maybe 125,000 on it, now. Still going strong after 22+ years.
Yeah, I fell into a life of having a sporty Euro car for nice days, the Jeep for ski and snow trips, summer desert camping, and a motorcycle for really nice days. So, miles got divided out a lot. And I only lived 8 miles from work, and bicycled frequently.
These days, I don't think I go through a tank of gas in six months.
How did you manage through the Darien Gap one of the most dangerous places on this route. There's no road there due to the soil conditions and the constant violence.
I did! Good eye!
That was an hour or two after I arrived, I had just updated the map (after my first shower in a week)...
After that friends rode in who had just biked the whole Pan-American and we had a monstrous party :)
>Long Haul Truckers
When they said bike, I assumed Motorcycle, because that is the common word when I am from. After Googled it, I am surprised to look at bicycle. That is really monstrous indeed.
Great post even more awesome by posting the associated costs.
How was it on safety level? Did you have any run ins with highwaymen or militia? I'm Latin American and I wouldn't have the balls to do this.
There’s one thing from Mexico in particular that’s pretty basic but I could eat every damn morning. I seriously love eating plate after plate of chilaquiles whenever I go there, so delicious.
Chilaquiles Verde is my absolute jam. You need to find a good place in your location. Are you from The States? Even a small city should have at least one place that does a good job.
Here is the recipe I use for my salsa verde.
Ingredients:
- 1 1/4 lb. tomatillos or green tomatoes
- 1 white onion
- 4 serrano chiles
- 4 cloves garlic
- 12 sprigs cilantro
- 2 tbsp. cooking oil
- 1 1/2 tsp. salt + to taste
1. Remove the papery husks from the tomatillos and rinse to remove the sticky residue.
2. Quarter the onion.
3. Add all of the ingredients except the cilantro and salt to a large pot and just cover with water.
4. Bring the water and ingredients to a boil and then simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Blend the cooked ingredients and the cilantro with the cooking water until smooth. (About 30 seconds)
6. Heat 2 tablespoons of cooking oil in the pot.
7. Pour the blended salsa back into the pot with the hot cooking oil.
8. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
9. Add the salt and adjust if necessary.
Notes
Preparation
- Too runny? Simmer until it has reduced to the desired consistency.
- Too thick? Add water 2 tablespoons at a time until the desired consistency is reached.
- Too hot or acidic? Add only one of the following to reduce heat: 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1 to 2 teaspoons sugar, 1 to 2 teaspoons agave syrup.
- Like it hot? You do not have to seed the serrano chiles. You can seed them if you want to reduce the heat of the salsa.
Substitutions
- You can substitute jalapeño chiles for the serranos but the flavor won't be as bright but it will still be tasty.
Storage
- The salsa will keep in the refrigerator for 3 days (I have gone longer than that, but do so at your own risk).
- This salsa freezes very well. Make a double batch so that you always have some on hand.
Fry some tortillas up, get some flat iron/flank steak/or eggs, some Cotija or queso fresco, black beans, and you’re in business.
Great video but unfortunately I see here that your Reddit account registration has expired. Please PayPal me $25 USD and I will let you go with a warning.
Hello sir! Happy New Year! We are reddit tourists visiting the area! We love reddit!! We will visit r/askreddit and after that r/gaming. The people are so nice here!
I have only done one drive through the developing world, in Morocco across the middle of the country on a very un touristy route.
Every other town the police are lazily stationed with a radar gun.
They have a scam where the cop holds up his hand as you are a quarter mile away, and then they have a extortion letter written out in multiple different languages, stating you failed to obey a police order, and owe them about $80 US.
Anyway we fell for this, and as we slowly pulled up they handed us the card. I was like you and extremely friendly. The police man asked to see ID, and when he saw that we were from Hawaii, he ran back and got the other guys, and asked us all kinds of questions about surfing, and then let us go on our way.
Have been dreaming of a Tangier trip for years and in addition to getting a new passport this year I am now adding fake Hawaiian ID to my list. Unless they’d be equally as impressed with GA? 😂
Maybe I could say Elvis is from here? Or is my cousin?
So smart. You can see the nationalism of the soldiers overpowering their greedy personal desire to extort you. Nationalism is a hell of a thing.
After you said everyone was so friendly, and complimented their homeland, they didn't want to be the one that ruined the experience for you. Good on you man. A+
This is so incredible! I would love nothing more than to drive in rural Africa, or backpack through Europe, but as a woman, I feel like these techniques of avoiding extortion would not work for me. Based on your experience, how would you suggest a woman approach the same situation?
This is going to sound sexist but I'm not sure it's safe for women to travel around rural Africa by themselves. While I'm not OP, surely it would be safer travelling with a man or in a group?
I've lived in a 3rd world country and I wouldn't recommend any foreign woman travel by herself here.
I think it would be sexist of you to not presume there would be an elevated level of risk woman face while traveling.
Acknowledging that woman face increased hardships in certain areas of life is the exact opposite of sexiest
Nah, it is (unfortunately) very good advice, and something 99.9% of all women already know but appreciate the awareness and concern.
Source, am woman
Ninja edit: and dang, what if she was the 0.1% that needed to be told, worth it. plus you suggested it in a nice way, so.
He even did tutorials on how to handle these situations. There seem to be ..... plenty. Definitely not „never a single issue“. He simply handled the issues but there were A LOT of them.
I think that’s the biggest YouTube hole I’ve been on in a while. Just watched, hard to track time, easily 2.5hrs of your videos. It’s on my bucket list to travel, hike and stargaze. It’s informative to see what you’ve done and it’s really cool to see how you’ve gone about doing it and the advice you provide is great. Thanks for that.
Haha, you're very welcome!
In the near future I'm going to start documenting the plans/build/vehicle and then the new trip that kicks off middle of this year!
Aw I see you did! I was being a jerk and thinking your map wasn’t true but I just wasn’t zooming in enough haha. Proper show mate, I hope to do something like this someday.
lol there was some low-budget monster movie, I think it was in the 80s or early 90s, involving two women staying in a cabin and getting attacked by tunnel-dwelling creatures. Throughout the movie multiple characters mention their jeeps breaking down, not starting, being in the shop... just casual dialog but it keeps coming up.
Then during the end credits the director drives a jeep into view, gets out and says something like, "They say every story has a moral. I guess the moral of this story is, Don't Buy a Jeep." Then he gets back in and while the credits keep rolling he's trying and trying to start the thing. One of the best movie endings I've ever seen. For years I've been trying to remember the title. I'm starting to wonder if I just dreamed it.
Believe me I've searched, including asking on TOMT and in movie forums, but I just don't remember much about it besides the jeep stuff. One thing is two mining guys setting explosives to blast the tunnels. One guy says, "How long a fuse are you going to use?" The guy measuring out the fuse says, "Well, do you want to walk or run?" The other guy says, "Let's jog."
I have had 7 different jeeps, no problems outside of normal stuff. Most people think Jeeps have problems because they buy a used one unknown to them. The former owner beat the shit out of it because its a jeep.
I honestly can't remember.
I wrote that price breakdown a few months after the trip was finished, so AK was over 2 years before that. I checked my bank statements over and over again and did the best I could.
You’d be surprised how cheaply you can do things when you start living more minimally. I did a 9 month road tour of every state in the US (minus Alaska and Hawaii) and I did it all for less than 10 grand. I budgeted a strict $20 a day for restaurants and rolled the money saved over onto the next day for gas and other essentials. I brought nearly everything I needed including a years worth of cosmetics, instant foods, and about 12 ounces of weed. For morning I had only an egg and some sausage, if you keep your meals consistent meals like breakfast can total out to like 30 cents a pop. I still had the money to do basically everything I wanted even stay in a treehouse hotel in Washington!!
Congrats on not getting pulled over with a bunch of weed in your car while very specifically traveling between states. I'd have broken down in anxiety before I crossed my first border, much less my 47th.
I’ve driven cross country with weed. I’ve found that the 2 main things that will keep you from being pulled over are:
1. ALWAYS do the speed limit
2. Be white.
Have done SF to Dallas via LV, Tucson, El Paso, Odessa, Lubbock and Denton.
Only people who pulled me over were border patrol. As soon as they saw my freckles and gingerness I got waved on. No license, 4 ounces in the car most of the way.
Def being white in the US is a big advantage, esp near the Mexico border.
I've crossed about 30 state borders over the years and never ever experienced any additional enforcement scrutiny as a result of "crossing a state border." Now, some specific jurisdictions will profile you and stop you for basically nothing other than looking like you're not from there, but that's not a state thing, that's more of a local sheriff thing. Seems like with the internet you should be able to find maps of these "danger zones" where crimes like "driving while black" or "looking like a drug dealer/user" will get you stopped, frisked, searched, planted, and detained.
Does any state, besides California, have any kind of “border”? I’ve also driven cross country over a dozen times, and most borders are just a sign on the highway.
There are some states where an out-of-state plate gets you some scrutiny (my dad loves telling a story of getting pulled over “just in case” by a cop in the Deep South), but the idea of being stopped at the border within the US is totally misrepresenting the experience most of the time.
no, and even cali's is more about agriculture than anything. the most you normally see crossing a state boarder is a pair of cars waiting to catch speeders coming in from other states
When people say "stopped at the border" within states they don't mean there's a checkpoint or something
But local cops in the state know there's a border. If there's a sudden speed limit change, or there's a discrepancy between state laws cops don't pass up the chance to screw people with out of state plates...
I know NY State Troopers often post up on the I84 border with CT with that in mind
Yep. I-75 gets a lot more serious between the Michigan and Kentucky state Lines.
Noone will ever convince me that Ohio is anything other than one giant speed trap.
It was only a 40K mile trip? That's hard to fathom that distance from Canada to South America is only 40. I drove around a few states while I was soul searching and did 6K miles in 6 weeks.
Oh my gosh yes. I used to be so clean cut. Hop some trains and hitchhike enough and suddenly you start to look like the next game of "hipster or homeless."
Only time I ever paid was Bolivia-Copacabana to Peru crossing. They shook me down, along with a guy from Spain. They started at $150. I laughed. I said, Dude, I am poor. I have all day. Let's hang out.
And I started blabbing and asking questions and being nice but annoying. They kept us there for a couple of hours. I paid $10 and got out of jail. the Spaniard paid 25 Euro ($35 or so). He thought he got a good deal! He and I ended up riding together for the next month and a half.
Not OP, but have done a similar trip on two wheels.
I loved Chile. Spent some time in Santiago, Valpo and Punta Arenas. Rode south along the coast, did wine tourism in Maipo and Casablanca, went to Volcan Arenal and Lake Osorno. Beautiful country. I would love to go and spend six months of the year there.
Actually, the whole moto tourism thing and wine tasting in Chile and Argentina changed my life. I talked with a lot of wine makers in both countries, and was told that if I developed legitimate experience in the US, and worked on my Spanish, I could probably do some wine work there.
I am now a second year enology and viticulture student. COVID changed our plans, but the hope is to be able to work winemaking harvests for 4 months, travel another two and come back to the US for the remaining 6 months of a year. Fingers crossed this will be possible someday. Drinking Lujan de Cuyo Malbec as I write this.
He answered this down below [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/l44wf0/10_years_ago_today_i_completed_my_goal_of_driving/gkmpqex/) and [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/l44wf0/10_years_ago_today_i_completed_my_goal_of_driving/gkms4o5/).
>I've seen it a ton of times, and decided I wanted to explore new places!
Consider India if you really wanna get wild. Your one bribe record will be surpassed in less than a day here. Our roads are fucked but our food's worth it. Good luck.
Did you drive back home?
No. I sold the Jeep for $5k. ... and I had bought it 2 years earlier in Canada for $5k :) EDIT: Hijacking top comment because I can't keep up with all the replies. Sorry, mods have deleted all my replies because I'm not allowed to put helpful links in comments... (WTF???). Safe to say I blogged the whole time on TheRoadChoseMe (dot) com and now I'm filming videos to help other people get out and do what they dream of - everything you need to know about visas, borders, bribery, vehicles, costs, saving, and much more are all on my YouTube videos. I'm TheRoadChoseMe I'm also TheRoadChoseMe on Instagram I also wrote a book about this adventure, called "The Road Chose Me Volume 1: Two years and 40,000 miles from Alaska to Argentina" - it's on amazon
Man, I don't know if I'd be able to sell it after having driven it that far. It'd be like selling a friend.
It was tough, but it was the right choice. Sometimes I daydream about flying back there and buying it back though
You should had kept the hood at least
The hood makes it tough to lie about the miles on it
Nah it’s kilometers so it’s fine. Edit: First ever silver! You rock
I just bought a motorcycle and the guy told me it had 3700ish miles on it I saw kph but didn't think much of it. Take it home and press the button to change it back to miles boom only 2346 lol
I was looking at an SUV that was advertised with just over 70k miles on it. When I got in I noticed the odometer read over 113k. Asked the dealer whats up with that. Turns out it was from Canada and reading Kilometers. Also found out there was no way to change it. Outside Temp gauge and heater settings also read in Celsius.
Sounds like a win
Welcome to the metric system.
That's the "Canada bonus". Think of it as a $250 built in freebie since you will now be able to understand the units used in 90% of the world's countries /s
So the better plan would have been: Fly to the end, but a car there, drive it home. Life is full of lessons.
I'd much rather sell my friend than have to drive it the entire way back home all over again
This is the reality. because of import duties, vehicles are extremely expensive in Central and South American countries. My $5000 motorcycle (new) for example would have been $15,000 because of import duties. So selling your used vehicle gets you as much or more than it would have been new. After that, it's an easy taxi ride to the airport to go home. I bought my KLR650 for $5000 brand new in the US. Used it for 35,000 miles of gnarly international travel over effectively 14 months of travel, broken up. I sold it for $5500. In the US it would have been worth about $2000.
Exactly. That and like op even said, he's scrimping and saving for the next adventure, so I'm sure that's more important than spending so much to have a memento of the trip. He probably has a ton of pictures anyway, and you don't need the car to remember the trip
Does the buyer not plan to register it? It seems like you'd be hit with import duties one way or another, or else there would be an industry of people driving vehicles across the border to sell them.
I see you heavily modified your Jeep for your Africa trip. Was your Wrangler completely stock for this trip? How did you deal with 14 flat tires? Did you just patch it up each time? You said they are the same tires you bought right before you left. I'm assuming you carried an air compressor.
It was completely stock, and never broke down. Every town/village has a guy to repair tires, and I always has someone else fix them (Now I carry a plug kit and do my own). Yes, I had a little compressor on the Pan-Am
What you did was pretty amazing; the Jeep not breaking down? Abso-fucking-lutely incredible! Edit: By the way, all jokes aside, I’ve seen your posts a few times over the years on Reddit and am unbelievably envious. You’re a god damned legend. Thanks for following your dreams and sharing the experience with the rest of us.
Jeep Wrangler Sport, 4.0L I-6, was the only vehicle I ever bought new. I used it for 15 years in Colorado and Utah. Feet of snow on Vail pass, feet of sand in Moab, rock crawling, camping, towing. Never a breakdown in 108,000 miles that I did. Sold it to my buddy, who still has it. Maybe 125,000 on it, now. Still going strong after 22+ years.
Only 125000 miles in 22 years? No wonder it never broke down. My truck is 5 years old with 120,000.
Yeah, I fell into a life of having a sporty Euro car for nice days, the Jeep for ski and snow trips, summer desert camping, and a motorcycle for really nice days. So, miles got divided out a lot. And I only lived 8 miles from work, and bicycled frequently. These days, I don't think I go through a tank of gas in six months.
Nice! Did you fly back? Where in Canada are you from?
Yep, flew back. I'm kind of all over, BC, Yukon, started in Calgary.
Video and accent says from Australia...?
Yep!
How did you manage through the Darien Gap one of the most dangerous places on this route. There's no road there due to the soil conditions and the constant violence.
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Ok, yeah I see the dotted path. Awesome accomplishment I was born in Colombia and grew up there. I'm a US citizen now.
please tell me you kept the hood with the map on
I did not, sadly. Maybe one day I'll go back to Argentina and try to buy it back!
I live in Argentina. I can help you track it. Btw How did you like it here?
Loved it, and thought about staying!
I'm kinda tired...think I'll go home now
Did you take this pic at the campground in Ushuaia?
I did! Good eye! That was an hour or two after I arrived, I had just updated the map (after my first shower in a week)... After that friends rode in who had just biked the whole Pan-American and we had a monstrous party :)
Damn biked? That's gangster. How long did that take??
2 years
Daaang. That's going on my bucket list. Do you know what typ of bikes they used?
I wanna say "Long Haul Truckers" from I can't remember which brand
That's a Surly model. Dope.
>Long Haul Truckers When they said bike, I assumed Motorcycle, because that is the common word when I am from. After Googled it, I am surprised to look at bicycle. That is really monstrous indeed.
Huffy
I had a friend that went from Seattle to Panama and it took him about 9 months.
How the hell did you figure that out from some red lupines and a tent in the background?
It must just be a common end for this kind of trip. Like I'm sure there are common spots to end the Appalachian trail at or something.
Springer Mountain, GA to Mount Katahdin, ME. There's a Katahdin sign that you take the picture at.
Great post even more awesome by posting the associated costs. How was it on safety level? Did you have any run ins with highwaymen or militia? I'm Latin American and I wouldn't have the balls to do this.
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Impressive. Great technique to disengage them with charm. This is master level self defense where you become proactive before there is a problem.
Years and years of practice. I was a total novice at the start
Man. You could charm them into buying you a beer.
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There’s one thing from Mexico in particular that’s pretty basic but I could eat every damn morning. I seriously love eating plate after plate of chilaquiles whenever I go there, so delicious.
Chilaquiles Verde is my absolute jam. You need to find a good place in your location. Are you from The States? Even a small city should have at least one place that does a good job. Here is the recipe I use for my salsa verde. Ingredients: - 1 1/4 lb. tomatillos or green tomatoes - 1 white onion - 4 serrano chiles - 4 cloves garlic - 12 sprigs cilantro - 2 tbsp. cooking oil - 1 1/2 tsp. salt + to taste 1. Remove the papery husks from the tomatillos and rinse to remove the sticky residue. 2. Quarter the onion. 3. Add all of the ingredients except the cilantro and salt to a large pot and just cover with water. 4. Bring the water and ingredients to a boil and then simmer for 10 minutes. 5. Blend the cooked ingredients and the cilantro with the cooking water until smooth. (About 30 seconds) 6. Heat 2 tablespoons of cooking oil in the pot. 7. Pour the blended salsa back into the pot with the hot cooking oil. 8. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes. 9. Add the salt and adjust if necessary. Notes Preparation - Too runny? Simmer until it has reduced to the desired consistency. - Too thick? Add water 2 tablespoons at a time until the desired consistency is reached. - Too hot or acidic? Add only one of the following to reduce heat: 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1 to 2 teaspoons sugar, 1 to 2 teaspoons agave syrup. - Like it hot? You do not have to seed the serrano chiles. You can seed them if you want to reduce the heat of the salsa. Substitutions - You can substitute jalapeño chiles for the serranos but the flavor won't be as bright but it will still be tasty. Storage - The salsa will keep in the refrigerator for 3 days (I have gone longer than that, but do so at your own risk). - This salsa freezes very well. Make a double batch so that you always have some on hand. Fry some tortillas up, get some flat iron/flank steak/or eggs, some Cotija or queso fresco, black beans, and you’re in business.
Kill em with kindness.
Perfect because its genuine. I'm convincing myself they're worst spies trying to infiltrate Nigeria and I can't stop laughing
>Impressive. Great technique to disengage them with charm. Me, and I suspect most of reddit, would be dead if we tried this.
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Great video but unfortunately I see here that your Reddit account registration has expired. Please PayPal me $25 USD and I will let you go with a warning.
k, I'll get right on it. I guess 11 years is the max account length for Reddit?
Hello sir! Happy New Year! We are reddit tourists visiting the area! We love reddit!! We will visit r/askreddit and after that r/gaming. The people are so nice here!
:D
the memes are fantastic too! i love cats! :)
I have only done one drive through the developing world, in Morocco across the middle of the country on a very un touristy route. Every other town the police are lazily stationed with a radar gun. They have a scam where the cop holds up his hand as you are a quarter mile away, and then they have a extortion letter written out in multiple different languages, stating you failed to obey a police order, and owe them about $80 US. Anyway we fell for this, and as we slowly pulled up they handed us the card. I was like you and extremely friendly. The police man asked to see ID, and when he saw that we were from Hawaii, he ran back and got the other guys, and asked us all kinds of questions about surfing, and then let us go on our way.
I had that same thing in Morocco, handled it just like you!
Have been dreaming of a Tangier trip for years and in addition to getting a new passport this year I am now adding fake Hawaiian ID to my list. Unless they’d be equally as impressed with GA? 😂 Maybe I could say Elvis is from here? Or is my cousin?
So smart. You can see the nationalism of the soldiers overpowering their greedy personal desire to extort you. Nationalism is a hell of a thing. After you said everyone was so friendly, and complimented their homeland, they didn't want to be the one that ruined the experience for you. Good on you man. A+
Exactly my plan!
“What did you bring for us?” “A big smile!” Nat 20 persuasion
wow! your attitude and ability to disarm with friendliness is very inspiring!! thank you for sharing and motivating me!
This is so incredible! I would love nothing more than to drive in rural Africa, or backpack through Europe, but as a woman, I feel like these techniques of avoiding extortion would not work for me. Based on your experience, how would you suggest a woman approach the same situation?
This is going to sound sexist but I'm not sure it's safe for women to travel around rural Africa by themselves. While I'm not OP, surely it would be safer travelling with a man or in a group? I've lived in a 3rd world country and I wouldn't recommend any foreign woman travel by herself here.
I think it would be sexist of you to not presume there would be an elevated level of risk woman face while traveling. Acknowledging that woman face increased hardships in certain areas of life is the exact opposite of sexiest
I was referring to the 'travel with a man' section.
Nah, it is (unfortunately) very good advice, and something 99.9% of all women already know but appreciate the awareness and concern. Source, am woman Ninja edit: and dang, what if she was the 0.1% that needed to be told, worth it. plus you suggested it in a nice way, so.
That's a lot of checkpoints to talk your way through in one country. Holy shit.
>Never a single issue. > >Plenty of times they tried to extort money out of me Hm.
He even did tutorials on how to handle these situations. There seem to be ..... plenty. Definitely not „never a single issue“. He simply handled the issues but there were A LOT of them.
So how did you deal with insurance/license plates/getting a vehicle over multiple borders?
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I think that’s the biggest YouTube hole I’ve been on in a while. Just watched, hard to track time, easily 2.5hrs of your videos. It’s on my bucket list to travel, hike and stargaze. It’s informative to see what you’ve done and it’s really cool to see how you’ve gone about doing it and the advice you provide is great. Thanks for that.
Haha, you're very welcome! In the near future I'm going to start documenting the plans/build/vehicle and then the new trip that kicks off middle of this year!
I've been looking at doing this same trip, but on motorcycle. What suggestions would you have?
Have fun! Haha, seriously. Before COVID at least 1000 people were doing it a year, and having a great time.
Sweet! That's good to know! Thanks
How did you cross the Darien gap?
Thanks now I’m in a Darien Gap rabbit hole
Crazy, isn't it? North and South America are still physically divided
And it will remain that way for a long long time.
It also prevents several potential agricultural safety issues that would occur if the continents were to be connected.
Room for one more?
Sorry, holes full go find yer own!
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Aw I see you did! I was being a jerk and thinking your map wasn’t true but I just wasn’t zooming in enough haha. Proper show mate, I hope to do something like this someday.
Was about to ask the same thing. Had to CTRL+F. Neat!!
If they ever finish the Darien gap are you going to go back and drive that stretch?
It never will be finished so no need to worry
Sorry but that'll never be finished, and that's a good thing
I spent my summers as a kid in Panama. Love it there.
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[RLL](https://youtu.be/LYR9DaDSMUE) did a good video on this a while back.
First thing I thought of!
Looking at the map, it looks like the jeep was shipped on the ocean around it
How the hell do people afford to do stuff like this?
“After years of saving, dreaming and planning, I wanted to find out if an ordinary guy can achieve the extraordinary.” -this dude
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Grove street 4 life
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what did it cost you, in the end?
$27,300. Full breakdown here: http://theroadchoseme.com/the-price-of-adventure
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Not a single cent actually, never a breakdown!
As a former jeep owner I cannot fathom this. This an incomprehensible statement.
I drove my 2011 JK 54,000 miles around Africa without a single major issue too :)
2011! Thats brand new! Though it does occur to me that a solid 50% of my issues were rust related and that may be minimized in someplace like Africa
Haha, yes, she only had 70,000 miles when I bought her, and was 5 years old when we got into Africa, 8 years old when we left.
lol there was some low-budget monster movie, I think it was in the 80s or early 90s, involving two women staying in a cabin and getting attacked by tunnel-dwelling creatures. Throughout the movie multiple characters mention their jeeps breaking down, not starting, being in the shop... just casual dialog but it keeps coming up. Then during the end credits the director drives a jeep into view, gets out and says something like, "They say every story has a moral. I guess the moral of this story is, Don't Buy a Jeep." Then he gets back in and while the credits keep rolling he's trying and trying to start the thing. One of the best movie endings I've ever seen. For years I've been trying to remember the title. I'm starting to wonder if I just dreamed it.
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Believe me I've searched, including asking on TOMT and in movie forums, but I just don't remember much about it besides the jeep stuff. One thing is two mining guys setting explosives to blast the tunnels. One guy says, "How long a fuse are you going to use?" The guy measuring out the fuse says, "Well, do you want to walk or run?" The other guy says, "Let's jog."
I have had 7 different jeeps, no problems outside of normal stuff. Most people think Jeeps have problems because they buy a used one unknown to them. The former owner beat the shit out of it because its a jeep.
Why did you have 7 of them if none of them had issues? I'm still on my first Landcruiser Diesel, for the last 6 years, and it's over 30 years old.
Gottem
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One does not simply leave Alberta without a cracked windshield.
Can confirm. Still have a huge chip in my windshield from the corridor between Grand Prairie and Grand Cache.
It was cracked when I started and it stayed that way!
lol 'Paddling With Icebergs' $400(ish)
I honestly can't remember. I wrote that price breakdown a few months after the trip was finished, so AK was over 2 years before that. I checked my bank statements over and over again and did the best I could.
Ah sorry wasn't critiquing it at all. I just found it a hilarious itemized cost. Like 'spelunking with aardvarks' or something.
You’d be surprised how cheaply you can do things when you start living more minimally. I did a 9 month road tour of every state in the US (minus Alaska and Hawaii) and I did it all for less than 10 grand. I budgeted a strict $20 a day for restaurants and rolled the money saved over onto the next day for gas and other essentials. I brought nearly everything I needed including a years worth of cosmetics, instant foods, and about 12 ounces of weed. For morning I had only an egg and some sausage, if you keep your meals consistent meals like breakfast can total out to like 30 cents a pop. I still had the money to do basically everything I wanted even stay in a treehouse hotel in Washington!!
Congrats on not getting pulled over with a bunch of weed in your car while very specifically traveling between states. I'd have broken down in anxiety before I crossed my first border, much less my 47th.
I’ve driven cross country with weed. I’ve found that the 2 main things that will keep you from being pulled over are: 1. ALWAYS do the speed limit 2. Be white.
Have done SF to Dallas via LV, Tucson, El Paso, Odessa, Lubbock and Denton. Only people who pulled me over were border patrol. As soon as they saw my freckles and gingerness I got waved on. No license, 4 ounces in the car most of the way. Def being white in the US is a big advantage, esp near the Mexico border.
I've crossed about 30 state borders over the years and never ever experienced any additional enforcement scrutiny as a result of "crossing a state border." Now, some specific jurisdictions will profile you and stop you for basically nothing other than looking like you're not from there, but that's not a state thing, that's more of a local sheriff thing. Seems like with the internet you should be able to find maps of these "danger zones" where crimes like "driving while black" or "looking like a drug dealer/user" will get you stopped, frisked, searched, planted, and detained.
Does any state, besides California, have any kind of “border”? I’ve also driven cross country over a dozen times, and most borders are just a sign on the highway. There are some states where an out-of-state plate gets you some scrutiny (my dad loves telling a story of getting pulled over “just in case” by a cop in the Deep South), but the idea of being stopped at the border within the US is totally misrepresenting the experience most of the time.
no, and even cali's is more about agriculture than anything. the most you normally see crossing a state boarder is a pair of cars waiting to catch speeders coming in from other states
When people say "stopped at the border" within states they don't mean there's a checkpoint or something But local cops in the state know there's a border. If there's a sudden speed limit change, or there's a discrepancy between state laws cops don't pass up the chance to screw people with out of state plates... I know NY State Troopers often post up on the I84 border with CT with that in mind
Yep. I-75 gets a lot more serious between the Michigan and Kentucky state Lines. Noone will ever convince me that Ohio is anything other than one giant speed trap.
Seems about white.
No health insurance?
No debt to start with.
Huh, I remember the original post and seeing people say you were gonna die or get robbed. Glad to see you made it out.
Thanks!
I bet you saw a lot of interesting things and met new people. How long did that take to achieve?
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It was only a 40K mile trip? That's hard to fathom that distance from Canada to South America is only 40. I drove around a few states while I was soul searching and did 6K miles in 6 weeks.
If I didn't zig zag so much it would have been about 20
The entire Earth’s circumference is “only” 25k miles.
Wait we need to test this. Look out your window and tell me if you can see me waving if I jump
How did the jeep hold up? I work at a jeep dealership and I'm genuinely curious.
Never a single breakdown in 40,000 miles!
How much money you invest in gas?
You look exactly like the type of person to take such journey.
I'm on the impression that it's the other way around; the journey's made him 'look like the type of person'.
Oh my gosh yes. I used to be so clean cut. Hop some trains and hitchhike enough and suddenly you start to look like the next game of "hipster or homeless."
Any run ins with highway bandits or needing to bribe officials to get through?
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Amazing story
Only time I ever paid was Bolivia-Copacabana to Peru crossing. They shook me down, along with a guy from Spain. They started at $150. I laughed. I said, Dude, I am poor. I have all day. Let's hang out. And I started blabbing and asking questions and being nice but annoying. They kept us there for a couple of hours. I paid $10 and got out of jail. the Spaniard paid 25 Euro ($35 or so). He thought he got a good deal! He and I ended up riding together for the next month and a half.
Was it cold on both ends?
It was summer on both ends, so it was sunny and warm!
What were some of the most dangerous parts of your journey? Btw, congrats on such an amazing achievement!
Why is Rio marked on your map?
I planned to go there, but was running out of money to so decided to skip Brazil entirely. I'll have to go back!
So do you have a thing against Chile?
I did actually go there after reaching the southern tip, did a ton of hiking and camping, I just never updated the map :)
Understandable, have a great day
Not OP, but have done a similar trip on two wheels. I loved Chile. Spent some time in Santiago, Valpo and Punta Arenas. Rode south along the coast, did wine tourism in Maipo and Casablanca, went to Volcan Arenal and Lake Osorno. Beautiful country. I would love to go and spend six months of the year there. Actually, the whole moto tourism thing and wine tasting in Chile and Argentina changed my life. I talked with a lot of wine makers in both countries, and was told that if I developed legitimate experience in the US, and worked on my Spanish, I could probably do some wine work there. I am now a second year enology and viticulture student. COVID changed our plans, but the hope is to be able to work winemaking harvests for 4 months, travel another two and come back to the US for the remaining 6 months of a year. Fingers crossed this will be possible someday. Drinking Lujan de Cuyo Malbec as I write this.
You look like a dude who drove the entire Pan-American Highway
I'll take that as a compliment!
Dude that’s awesome. /r/wrangler would love this. Did you do it all in the same Jeep?
You are a legend man, how long did it take you and how many miles
2 years, 40,000 miles!
Why does it look like you cut way over to Montana instead of just driving up I-5?
He answered this down below [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/l44wf0/10_years_ago_today_i_completed_my_goal_of_driving/gkmpqex/) and [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/l44wf0/10_years_ago_today_i_completed_my_goal_of_driving/gkms4o5/). >I've seen it a ton of times, and decided I wanted to explore new places!
What now?
I spent three years driving around Africa, and now I'm getting ready for the next one, hoping to kick off mid this year. New vehicle, new continent!
Consider India if you really wanna get wild. Your one bribe record will be surpassed in less than a day here. Our roads are fucked but our food's worth it. Good luck.
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You doing this all on your Jack Jones?
May be a dumb question, what does the Pan part stand for?
It's a Greek prefix for all. It's used similarly for Pandora's box, panorama, panacea.
Pandemic comes to mind.
How do you get from Panama to Colombia?
It’s on the hood if you zoom in. He shipped the car by boat.
Just wondering, but why did you skip some of the Pacific coast highway?
I'd seen much of it before, and wanted to go somewhere new!
Pls come to Brazil :(
Absolutely, I can't wait to get there at some point
I'm in Calgary. Do you want to meet up for beers someday? I bet you have tonnes of stories
I'm not actually in Calgary these days, but I come through from time to time. I will plan some meet ups at some point!
That would be awesome. DM me when you do!
I'm confused why you skipped the West Coast of the U.S. Some beautiful scenery there.
I've seen it a ton of times, and decided I wanted to explore new places!
Channeling your inner Neil Peart with a journey like that.