Nude beaches would be a little chilly in humboldt...
Oh, I haven't been anywhere, just Mexico and Guatemala and Italy, but in my mind, as I have mentioned, I have been lots of places. Brazil, I'd like to go to Brazil and Argentina and Chile, so, lottery tickets flying, I'd be happy to meet you there or go part way. I even have several friends of friends in Brazil, and a fairly good friend email type who is an art professor in Buenos Aires...
sigh.
Ah to win the lottery. Osso, you've been more places than I--wanna share on the lottery? I promise not to walk too fast if we go anywhere again. Of course, I know Italy is what you really lust for and that's just fine with me and Dys.
Clary-- wow; that's amazing! Were there many people on this plane? Do they still schedule flights direct to Samarkand?
Deb-- thank heavens that you don't have these Austrian beergutted creatures going around on Australian beaches... it might harm the idea of glamour.
Osso-- thank heavens for the imagination. Did you like Mexico and Guatemala? I suppose that, what we could do, is that- on the Southern drive from Washington to Chile, I could meet up with you in Eureka and take you as far as you wanted to go; I'll definitely be taking that trip before the end of 2005. The problem is that I can't find any route planners that take in South and Central America.. but we'll be able to wing it, perhaps on the Pan-American highway for some of the way and then intuition for the rest. Would you want hotel stops? I have a few fascinatingly mad friends down around America, so I guess we could stay with them and sleep it out in the car for the rest of the journey... although, if there were to be hotel stops, I'd make sure that we stopped in decent places. The trip would go something like this (not accounting for random stops, little towns, other places that you, the others and I might want to visit , changes of route, scrapping of stops due to safety, etc):
Washington-->Oregon-->California (Eureka)--> Mexican Border--> Cumpas-->Guadalajara-->Mexico City--> Puebla--> Guatemalan Border-->Guatemala city-->Honduran border-->Capital of Honduras with the impossible name--> Nicraguan border-->Managua--> Grenada--> Costa Rican border--> San José--> Panaman border--> Panama-->Columbian border-->Quibdó-->Bogotá-->Buenaventura-->Ecuadorian border--> Quito--> Ambato--> Cuenca-->Peruvian border-->Chimbote-->Lima-->Nazca--> Chilean border-->Arica-->Copiapo-->La Sereña-->Santiago
(Then down to the South and back again if we wanted and had the money to do so) But this trip wouldn't be an 'OK, we've got to Chile... let's turn back and go the same way.'
Santiago-->Argentinian border-->Mendoza-->Río Cuarto-->Buenos Aires-->Paraná-->Resistencia-->Paraguayan border-->Asunción-->Ciudad del Este-->Brazillian border-->igaçu falls-->Ponta Grossa-->São Paulo-->Rio de Janeiro-->Brasilia-->Cuiabá-->Pôrto Velho-->Manaus--> Venezuelan border-->Ciudad Bolivar-->El tigre--> Venezualan coast-->Caracas--> Puerto Cabello--> San Cristobal-->Colombian border--> Cartegena-->Panaman border-->Costa Rican border--> Cartago-->Liberia-->Nicaraguan border-->Honduran border-->Choluteca-->El Salvadorian border-->La Unión-->San Salvador-->Guatemalan border-->Belizian border-->Corozal.
We would need to get dozens of gallons of petrol in advance and IDPs... consider safety and driving at night, and perhaps it would be better in an Autumn, temperature-wise? Yet it's perfectly feasible.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I can only take that trip vicariously, but what a trip! Why don't you start a topic on the travel forum, drom, and see if any handy information comes up..
Yes, I like Mexico. I don't know it as well as I know Italy, and I only know italy, after months total there, enough to know how much I don't know.
Drom, the trip sounds long but very interesting. I wonder how many weeks/months it would take? Here are some free maps of the west coast... if you contact the tourism offices of each state, they'll send you packets of stuff including good maps.
Maps (free & not)
What are IDP's?
I suppose that I could take you some of the way, Osso; or you could come on a trip with less stops; perhaps the one through Italy and Eastern Europe. It won't be for a few years yet, so your working circumstances, etc, could have changed. I will post on one of the travel boards; to see whether anyone else is interested and to update on what's happening.
Thanks for the link, Piffka! I don't know how long it would take, because of the lack of South-American route planners, but I would plan it- with all the other trippers- so that we would drive through the night when there's no place interesting/scenically pleasing in front of us. I would probably drive through the night, as there is something quite magical about speeding away on a South American highway.
IDPs are 'International Driving permits' that one must use in some countries. The countries in which one must use IDPs depends on what your nationality is, but us English must have them in nearly every South American country (apart from Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay.)
Ahhh, and I thought IDP had something to do with information data processing!
At least half the fun of a trip, imo, is planning it out. You get to learn so much and imagine many more places than you can possibly go. I think your idea is fantastic. There was a book by Paul Theroux,
The Old Patagonian Express : By Train Through the Americas which may offer some good information even though it is ages old and was via train. I don't think I've ever heard of anyone traveling by car through the Americas. Someone must have done it... maybe I'll google a little.
Well, who'd have thought it... here's somebody who did this on a bike.
The Road South
and here's the Lonely Planet's guide (gads, I am surprised!)
Pan-American Road Trips Planning
