Hello to everyone.
We are home. Actually we have been home but had to go back to South
Carolina to get the vans which we did day before yesterday. We decided
to ship to Charleston, South Carolina, since it was sort of midway between
West Virginia where we live and Florida where Kai and Valeria live and
also since we wanted to avoid the hassle of shipping into Miami. We
thought it would be better to ship to a smaller port. Not so.
The container had to go from Guayaquil to Panama to Miami to Baltimore
to New York and finally to Charleston, SC. After it arrived we found
out our container was the lucky one chosen to be "stripped" by US Customs
to search for drugs. Why? Because we came from Ecuador which borders
Colombia and because we had been gone for 9 1/2 months. Guess what else...
when Customs "chooses" to search your vehicle, you must pay a fee ($380)
for them to unload the van for the search. Since we had the keys with
us, we asked them if they could set up a time to do the search so we
could come to SC bringing the keys with us in addition to showing them
how to access the hidden compartments we had built into the vans to
foil South American thieves. Nothing doing! You are not allowed to be
anywhere near the search area when the search is done. So we had to
pay $20 to FedEx to get the keys to Customs. The process to get the
container from the Wando terminal of the port of Charleston a mile or
so to the Customs search area and to get it unloaded has now cost nearly
half as much as the 3,000 mile voyage from Guayaquil, Ecuador. Nonetheless,
the search did get done and last Monday we were notified that the vans
would be ready Tuesday morning so we headed out Tuesday evening getting
to Charleston on Wednesday where we first paid the customs broker his
$275 ($125 for submitting the paperwork and $150 for drayage (hauling
by truck) from the port to the Customs area. Then we finally found Customs
hidden away on a side street off another side street neither of which
showed up on one of those computer GPS map location finders that my
brother-in-law who took us to South Carolina had in his van.
Once there we paid our money and were asked to sign a release that
the vans were received in good order even though we had yet to see them.
I asked that we see them first so someone there accompanied us around
a warehouse building to get to the vans. We couldn't go through the
warehouse even though every door was open because customs was supposed
to be doing a search that day. But since no one could find the key to
the gate we were supposed to go through to go around the building, finally
we were allowed to scurry through the warehouse where we saw no one
doing anything but at least we finally saw our vans. There they were
parked much to our surprise inside the warehouse. We looked inside the
vans and were surprised to see that customs had done almost no searching
except to look through one box inside and check into the locked containers
we had had constructed to replace the luggage rack up front. I suppose
if the drug dogs don't sniff anything, they don't do a very thorough
search. We did notice however that they are fairly inept at opening
a door. The interior door handle to the sliding door was broken off
in two pieces and was laying in the floor. Of course, there was no note
on any of the paperwork how it got broken. Also, someone had tried to
pry the rear hatch open from the side even though they had the keys
to open it. We noted the broken handle on the paperwork, signed it and
were told to leave. We were not allowed to even park in the parking
lot to check over the rest of the vehicle since it was a bonded customs
lot and no strangers were allowed there. This terminates our US Customs
experience. We then left and headed home: Kai back to Florida and us
to West Virginia.
Our 9 1/2 month near 28,000 mile trip to South America was over when
we finally made it back home last night at midnight. We had gone through
the accumulated mail and paperwork last week while awaiting the vans
arrival. Now today there is "stuff" all over the house from unpacking
the van. Will has already discovered that two of the four motor mounts
are broken but other than that we escaped South America with no more
than a couple of dents. We left with 6 Michelin Agilis tires which Will
religiously rotated every 5,000 miles and we came back with six having
had no flats along the way. We did however note one that was leaking
in Argentina and had it removed and patched where a small spine from
a tree had gone through it. Will rebuilt the engine before we left and
again, religiously changed the oil (Castrol 20W-50) every 3,000 miles.
Billy, our Vanagon, used not more than a third of a cup of oil per oil
change. We had no problems with the motor except once when the computer
got wet and about three or four times when the fuel pump relay decided
to take a short break of an hour or so. This happened usually when we
were at high altitudes stuck in first gear at low speeds for a prolonged
period. Then, after we had waited awhile, it would correct itself.
We did have problems with our batteries both of which we replaced
and with the rear brakes which were sabotaged by an Argentinian brake
man who didn't know what he was doing so he turned our drums and got
them "eggy" which plagued us for the next three months. We bought nearly
1,400 gallons of gas over 9 1/2 months and averaged 20 mpg for the whole
trip which is the same gas mileage we got before we left and the same
we got yesterday driving home from South Carolina. Gasoline in Argentina
was the most expensive and cost us nearly a tenth of the total money
we spent...around $1700 US just for gas in Argentina.
VAN PROBLEMS: Here is a breakdown of the problems we had with the
vehicle:
- repaired gasoline leak where vent pipe enters gas tank (twice)
- repaired antifreeze leak
- replaced exhaust support bolt
- replaced auxiliary battery switch (twice)
- bought and replaced exterior sliding door handle
- front end alignment
- repaired and then replaced plastic bleed screw in rear heater
box
- changed air filter
- switched to our back up computer for two days while original dried
out after crossing end of lake
- changed throttle cable
- replaced clutch master cylinder
- relined rear brakes twice due to ignorant brake man mentioned
above
- replaced hose clamp
- bled clutch several times.
As you can see - all we had were minor problems. This was entirely
due to Will who checked the tires and oil and the antifreeze each and
every day before we started out. Also, he would inspect the vehicle
all around every day looking for anything unusual especially anything
leaking underneath. He also inspected the engine from above and underneath
as often as we could and whenever it wasn't covered in mud or dust.
We had the bottom of the van washed more frequently than the top. As
I mentioned above, oil was changed every 3,000 miles and tires rotated
every 5,000 miles.
Tires: I can't say enough about the Michelin tires. I would
have no others. The punishment they took can not be explained to anyone
who has not seen the roads in the Andes of Chile, Argentina,
Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador not to leave out the potholed moonscape they
call roads in the north of Brasil.
Money: Traveler's checks are not needed. Take some emergency
cash in dollars. Use ATMs exclusively and sometimes you can use your
credit card for tours, flights, rental cars and such. We charged a bit
more than $2,000 on credit cards for the two of us and we withdrew about
$12,000 in cash from ATM's along the way. The only thing missing from
this total is about $400 to get the vans in Charleston, the $1400 it
cost to ship ours from Guayaquil, the $1000 or so to ship them from
Miami to Venezuela and perhaps $1000 miscellaneous which I carried in
cash and used mostly in Ecuador where the dollar is accepted which brings
our trip total for two people for 9 1/2 months to around $18,000 or
a little less than $2,000 a month which is more than what I thought
it would average out but much less than other travelers have spent on
similar trips. The reason for this is the fact that except for the beginning
of the trip when we stayed in a hotel in Venezuela awaiting the vans
to be released from corrupt port officials and again at the end when
we stayed in a hotel in Guayaquil, we stayed in the vans in city squares,
in service stations, in people's yards, in effect anywhere that was
free and safe for nearly 9 of the 9 1/2 months we were gone. Once when
we linked up with Jeanne and Tyler in Chile, we rented a "cabana" for
a few days and twice in Brasil we stayed with friends of mine for about
a week each time where we had a house of our own but otherwise, we slept
inside the vans nearly every night.
Carnet: Our carnet served us very well everywhere. You do not
need an official one for which you have to pay money but if you make
your own, it has to look official with gold seals, ribbons, rubber stamps
and such. Be sure and leave a big space for the border officials to
sign their names...they like that.
Drivers: I might have ranted and raved over the insane things
that the drivers in South America did but now I actually miss them.
Our interstates are clogged with people who have a drivers license but
haven't the faintest idea of how to drive whereas in South America,
you have to be an expert to even attempt the chaotic conditions that
are continent wide. We were the odd drivers who clogged traffic. We
were the ones who nearly caused accidents. We were the ones who reversed
our course while walking on a sidewalk and caused others to have to
veer away from the congestion we had caused. We also were the ones who
became angered at other drivers. To them, chaos is normal and they accept
that and manage. We became frustrated with it.
South Americans in general are hard workers who are doomed in many
cases to toil all their lives just to feed themselves all the while
their often corrupt governments squander the money of the country enrichening
politicians. In Peru for example where it is common to see people going
through trash cans to find food for their families, we saw Toyota Landcruisers
costing perhaps $60,000 each all over the country parked beside the
highways in which sat two policemen reading comic books or sleeping.
They did nothing all day long but sit or in one case pull us over to
try to extract money from us. We saw the Land Cruisers everywhere...
they numbered in the hundreds. A plausible scenario for this waste of
public money might be as follows: the Minister for Security for the
country of Peru suggests to the President that they equip their road
police with new Land Cruisers. The Minister's brother-in-law in Lima
just happens to be the Toyota dealer so the three of them make sure
that twice as much money is appropriated for the purchase of the Land
Cruisers as is necessary and the three of them pocket half the money
so they can buy 50,000 more hectares of land just S of Lima where the
new industrial park will be built so they can sell it back to the government
for a tidy profit of a million or so dollars each. Of course this kind
of corruption happens everywhere but in Latin America it happens from
the president all the way down to the man at the license bureau who
says that if you want to get your "cedula" (an ID card that everyone
has to have) today instead of next week that you have to pay him $5
knowing that you live 100 miles away.
To wind this up on a positive note, I must say something about the
"normal, everyday" people of Latin America especially South America.
I haven't words to express the gentleness and friendliness and helpfulness
of the thousands of people we met. In 9 1/2 months, we probably came
across fewer than five people who were unhelpful in addition to three
policemen in Paraguay and two in Peru who tried to rip us off. ALL the
rest of the people we encountered who numbered in the thousands went
out of their way to aide us in any and every way they could. I could
drive up in my fancy vehicle (to them it was very fancy), get out with
my $2,000 camcorder beside a house made of mud bricks where there was
no electricity, no plumbing, no bathroom inside where people slept on
pallets on the floor at night and there was no animosity toward me.
On the contrary - after I had asked if we could park there for the night,
the family would many times go off in different directions only to reappear
later with fresh limes from the lime tree, fresh oranges from the orange
tree, chirimoya, bananas, passion fruit, guavas or some kind of freshly
prepared juice - always something.
If I asked a taxi driver out the window at a traffic light what the
easiest way to get through town was, often he would lead us through
the town. Sometimes another driver who overheard us asking would offer
to lead us all the way through town. Sometimes people would ride with
us to show us the way and then take a bus back to where we had first
encountered them. We could learn a lot from them.
Thanks to all my old friends in South America and to all the new ones
we made. Now I have friends in all nine countries we visited with whom
I can stay the next time. Yes, there will be a next time. Thanks to
Kai and Valeria and Les, Vicki and Jozey for making our trip a "memorable"
one especially Jozey's caricature drawings. It wouldn't have been the
same without you. I miss all of you.
Thanks to Ron for preparing the Caravana site which I happened upon
shortly after purchasing my Vanagon in the Fall of 1998. Thanks also
to him for posting the pictures from our preliminary meeting at Custer
State Park in South Dakota and posting the pictures from our dispatches
from South America. Thanks much to Jeanne Maly for gifting us with her
walkie - talkies which proved invaluable throughout the rest of the
trip. Thanks also to her for the book, "Birds of the Beagle Channel"
which she lent us when we met her in Chile. Thanks to my friends Fabio
and Ba and Fabio Jr. and Fernanda and Ricardo for putting up with five
vans full of people in Atibaia and to Renato and Celia in Pelotas, Rio
Grande do Sul who gave us a house to stay in. Thanks to my friends in
Carlos Barbosa, RGS and special thanks to Graciela and her family who
graciously put us up under a mango tree for nine wonderful days at Agualinda,
Venezuela. Thanks to Irma Gamboa and her family in Argentina for receiving
me after a 12 year absence. Thanks to the Lahausen's for showing us
their estancia in the Provincia de Buenos Aires. Thanks also to Eduardo
in Buenos Aires for receiving a package for us and then finding us a
place to stay and for the empanadas at his apartment.
Thanks to my family who took care of things in my absence especially
my sisters Cay and JoAnn and my nephew Roger who sent us a new carnet
for Les after his was stolen and who sent me a cable for my CD - writer
after it was stolen. Special thanks to my brother-in-law Bob who managed
a website to receive nearly 3,600 pages of my diary and hundreds of
photo pages. Thanks also to all our friends here who sent us e-mails
which were like "mana from heaven" when we wandered into an internet
cafe, dirty, sweaty and tired from driving and saw that we had 15 new
messages!! Thanks to Karen Keck for keeping our house intact and our
dogs healthy. Now can I have my Academy Award please?
I am sorting through some 10,000 digital photos and have yet to even
attempt to look at the 50 hours of video I made on the trip but here
are a couple of photo pages I have been working on. (Sent this once
and it bounced saying the message was too big so will post the message
sans photo pages and try to send them later one at a time.)
Larry and Will high on a hill in West Virginia
