Joyful Find: The Ultimate Travel Shoe
on Nov 13, 2009 in Joyful Finds best travel accessory converse all star chucks good traveling shoes We were talking about the best travel accessories the other day and for me, before the travelling alarm clocks or the plastic ziplocks is a pair of all star canvas chucks… They’re light, they pack down easy and they look better with wear...

Joyful Find: Hilana Wool Jacket
on Nov 10, 2009 in Joyful Finds ecuador Driving the pan american hilana otavalo quito wool wool jacket When we were in Otavalo, a short drive south of the Colombian border, I spotted a wool shop that I wanted to check out and then promptly forgot the following day.  Fate must have been thinking that I was in need of a new jacket because Casa Helbling...

Whale watching and Penguin walking
on Nov 7, 2009 in argentina driving in south america penguins peninsula valdez puerto madryn punta tombo whales After reaching our destination of Ushuaia we saddled up for the long drive back to Buenos Aires.  The landscapes are pretty much the same up the Atlantic coast - mostly large estancias in the empty pampas.  We motored along heading to Punta Tombo,...

The end of the road…
on Oct 30, 2009 in argentina driving in south america Driving the pan american driving to the end of the world no flat tire road trip tierra del fuego ushuaia Volkswagen Golf On October 20, 2009, 20 months, 18 border crossings and 45,946 km later we arrived in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego without a single flat tire. Marlin, our little red battler, survived temperatures ranging from -40 to +40ºC, painfully huge speedbumps,...

Ruta 40
on Oct 29, 2009 in argentina driving ruta 40 driving the pan american highway driving through central and south america Patagonia Driving through most of Central and South America has given us some insight into Latin American border politics, so after narrowly escaping a hefty fine for trying to smuggle popcorn into Chile we were surprised to find a lack of reciprocity and much...

Punta de Lobos - Pichilemu
on Oct 22, 2009 in Chile driving to south america joydrive left hand breaks pichilemu Punta de Lobos road trip surfing The point breaks in Chile are legendary - bonfire rumors of long lefts, icy waters and uncrowded waves had both of us excited about our prospects as we rolled into Pichilemu, home to the world’s largest collection of left hand point breaks. Kel...

Biking with wine
on Oct 20, 2009 in Chile argentina bikes and wine Concha y Toro El Casillero de Diablo maipu mendoza Mr. Hugo wine wine tours We left Uruguay promising to return to it’s chilled out old-school vibe and headed into Argentina with plans to meet up with our friends (and partners on drivetheamericas.com) to get a little conversation and drink a little red wine.  We hight...

Drive around the world…
on Oct 17, 2009 in Uruguay Drive around the world joydrive road trip VW golf driving the panamerican highway to south america The other day our road trip hit 40,000 kilometers which is the circumference of the earth at the equator. I think when we get to Ushuaia we’ll be nearer to 50,000 and Marlin, our trusty little VW Golf, will earn his final flag driving the Pan A...

Yerba Mate: An Uruguayan Obsession
on Oct 14, 2009 in Uruguay argentina bombilla Brazil driving in south america gourd mate mate etiquette montevideo paraguay ritual road trip tea yerba mate One thing we noticed right away in Uruguay were people carrying strange leather cups and thermoses: on the beach, walking around the city, the campground, the hot springs, drinking it in their cars… maté was literally everywhere. Maté actuall...

It isn’t the horse, it’s you: Get your Gaucho on
on Oct 3, 2009 in Uruguay Add new tag country cowboy driving in south america estancia gaucho hummingbird panagea ranch road trip south america Green rolling hills and long quiet country roads led us to Panagea Ranch where Juan and Susann welcomed us in to spend four days ‘playing Gaucho’ in rural Uruguay. The term gaucho can loosely be defined as “cowboy” though it r...