Good to see people following their dreams .Thankyou for posting I wish I could have done this when I was younger .Now I get joy watching other people doing it on RU-vid etc.
I recently lost my dog in a car accident. Seeing you both walking such a happy dog brings such good memories but reminds me why I haven't been hiking since.
Really sorry to hear that Ivan. Gotta appreciate every minute with the little furry family members in our lives. As Nugget gets older and we know our time with him isn't forever, we try and do as much with him as he's able to. Hopefully getting back out hiking brings back some good memories for you and helps with your loss.
Great video! Gave us a lot to think about in regards to our build.. And the best advice, just go! We're building a 4x4 motorhome and plan to leave Sept. 2022. Cheers! Matthew and Stacey.
That's awesome! Stoked you guys are getting on the road. Yea, no matter how much you prep and get things ready, there's always more to do... And you can do all of it after you leave. Life is too short, just gotta get out there and live it. Best of luck, hope you have an epic time!
That is really awesome! You covered everything what people will need to do the Pan-American Highway. Good job, probably the best video about it in RU-vid!!! Good luck with your next trip.
Your coffee maker is "The Bomb!" I stumbled on that piece of kit after many try's and its killer. Easy to use. Easy to clean. Good coffee. Loved this. I am planning a few trips culminating in the Pam American. Can't wait!
thanks! yea, been using an aeropress along side a v60 everyday now to compare. love them both! mocha pot isn't bad either! good luck on the Pan-American, you're going to have a blast! let us know if we can help with any info.
Hey guys! How did you manage to pass Costa Rica and Panama with the right hand drive? Did you freight a cargo track or something? I guess Bolivia also doesn't allow you to pass? Who else? Thanks for sharing this!
Great video guys very informative and to the point. I own a Suzuki Vitara three door and it's the best rig for a single guy, it goes anywhere. All the best for your future travels.
Thanks! Oooooh yea, Candice's absolute favorite vehicle is the Suzuki Samurai, similar vibes! Such great little trucks, glad it's getting you out and everywhere you want to go.
You should get one of those battery-operated mosquito/ pest repellent….it comes like penlight or small tabletop size…. Thanks for sharing….will follow your trips….❤🇺🇸
Great content guys! Thanks for sharing. We're starting the Pan American in April and we're also going to use a Lifesaver. Were you always confident in filling it up literally just in any river or lake?
Wow, a bit behind on comments, I know we've chatted many times since this! Sorry about that. We didn't generally fill it up in anything too dirty as there were so many water sources that were at least clear/looked clean everywhere we went. Mostly from concerns about clogging the filter? Not sure if that's a real worry or not... A year later, have you guys filled yours anywhere sketchy???
I just learned of this highway. It's nice of you to share your experience. Were you in Guyana? It would be nice to know your total expenditure for such a trip. Safe journeys. From Guyana.
Hey Jason, no we didn't make it to Guyana -- nowhere East of Colombia in the North. Would have loved to, but our original plan of a year on the road evolved to two years, but still money and time constraints kept us to the Western portion of South America. We figured it would have taken a whole extra year to add Brazil to the trip, and thought that to do it right, we'd have to come back sometime instead of just skimming the surface. We have written down every single expense during the whole trip, but haven't added it all up yet. It will be on the website someday. I think in total we were looking at somewhere around 33-50k CAD for the 2+ yrs. Not the most lavish lifestyle, but we did like to eat food in local communities when possible (though we cooked most of our own meals) and we do enjoy beer and wine. I think our largest expenses were shipping (Darrien Gap and Uruguay to Texas at the end of the trip), vehicle repairs, diesel, food/drink.
Haha, yea, swimming was more the idea we had in our minds, but a couple seconds in the water and my brain was full headache mode, something instinctual kicked in to say get out of this. We did some pretty cold swims -- a couple even more than a dip, but none of them were Olympic distance ;) -- in glacial lakes on the trip, but that had to be the coldest for sure.
Just found your video, my wife and I are thinking of doing the Central America portion of the PanAmerican, but I have a JDM RHD Hilux...research showed me I cannot drive through El Salvador with RHD But all other countries were ok. You mentioned that you cannot drive through Panamá and Costa RIca with RHD, Did you try? or did you find an article saying you cant?
We were under the same impression about El Salvador being the only block -- but we had friends in a RHD Delica drive through El Salvador no problems. These things change all the time, but as of 2018 when we were in Central America, Costa Rica was a no-go. We didn't try it as our research at the time lead us to believe the risk wasn't worth it for us and our timeline, especially since we had spent a couple weeks in Costa Rica the year before. We do know someone who got a RHD Delica through Costa Rica, but took them 3 tries and some border trickery... I would search on the Pan American Travellers Association FBook group to see if there are any more recent stories/reports, but for us, the going news was you could enter the north of Nicaragua, but Costa Rica would not let you in, and the worst case scenario would be that the Southern border of Nica wouldn't let you back in either -- saw one story of this, so probably not common, but would have been a nightmare (money/time wise) if it happened. We also heard that Costa Rica put pressure on Panama to not let in RHD. So if you made it through CR, you would have to battle to get into Panama too, though we can't confirm. Hopefully things have changed, but would definitely give it a bit of deeper research from people that are on the route right now. Best of luck though, stoked for your trip, it's going to be awesome!
@@beoldlater More research and CR will be unlikely. Someone did say I could flat bed it LOL but that is not worth it. Fingers crossed that it changes in 1 year!
yes, we found diesel the entire route, sometimes had to drive a little further and plan ahead via iOverlander stations, but we found it everywhere. we couldn't always tell that it was clean, but used an additive and changed our fuel filter more often than usual. no issues. but our van is from '97, so doesn't need low sulphur, some newer engines might need to be more cautious.
We bought it as a mini van, and it kind of evolved. We looked at tons of reference on forums and websites and youtube, but in the end you just start ripping things out, and putting things in, then you rip some of those things out and try to patch up the holes as much as possible. No vehicle is perfect, but the best way is to just get out and start using it, and then add things on as you think you need them, and delete things that you find you never use... We picked the Delica as a platform as they are very common in BC, so a bit cheaper than the bigger newer vans around, especially for a 4x4 setup. It can be very expensive, and you can build it out super cheap as well. We did most of it ourselves, so depending on your comfort level, cutting corners on price can be easy...
As you said one doesn't need much but will likely spend ten's of thousands before hitting the road. If you had to cut your budget in half how much of your trip would have been sacrificed?
That's a good question. We definitely made choices based on a budget we shot for and saved. We didn't save as much as we would have liked to, and we had to put our trip on hold for a few months to come back to Canada and work before finishing the Southern portion. So in general, it took double the time we planned, and we had to decide what was the most important thing for us based on our budget -- No Galapagos Islands, no Antarctica, no Rapa Nui, limiting our climbing to our skillset aside from one or two big mountain objectives, sometimes changing our diet or activities based on how much freelance Candice was doing or what our remaining funds looked like... We met people on the road that went to all of our dream places we skipped to save on budget, and we met people who made the trip over many years, chipping off small pieces each year until it was completed, and often skipping a lot of the things we did too. It's like anything, there's many options to deal with budgetary issues, money is a limiting factor in some respects, but it's not the only, or even biggest thing. So to directly answer your question, cutting our budget in half would have given us a different vehicle, or maybe bicycles with our tent, possibly different choices on food and alcohol consumption, possibly less splurges on visiting historic sites that require a fee or tours/climbs that require guides, but I'm still confident that we could have made the entire trip. It would have been a different trip for sure, but for us personally, I feel that it could have been just as enriching.
We ended up skipping Nicaragua/Costa Rica/Honduras/Panama -- since we couldn't get in to Costa Rica with the RHD (we had some friends in a Delica make it through but was too much trouble for our timeline), we decided to skip some bits of CA this trip and ship from Guatemala. We had been to CR before, but a bit sad to miss the others. We'll have to go back. As for Nica, allegedly the Northern border is OK to get in, but coming up from the South is less of a sure thing... Check the Pan-American Travelers Assoc. on Facebook for current beta.
@@beoldlater OK, thanx - That is similar to what I have read so far as well. We have a house (better aid building a house) in Masaya Nicaragua and was looking for first-hand info to do the drive there. Right now we just fly but recent events show us we need a backup :-) . I have been a member of the Panamerican FB group for a couple years now. We have a JDM 97 Prado, had an 88 Pajero for 15 yrs prior. Watch that 4M40 - They have a history of needing major injector pump rebuilds as they go over 160,000 km Cheers from Ontario
Costa Rica has had laws against RHD vehicles entering the country for years. And they've put pressure on Nicaragua and Panama it sounds like too. Best to check the Pan American Travellers Association FB group for current details/stories. We knew about similar laws for El Salvador -- which I don't think are enforced now, we had friends go through -- but we weren't aware of all the regulations when we decided to use our RHD vehicle for the trip. It obviously wasn't the perfect vehicle for the trip in that regard... That being said, it would be smart to research the full route you plan to do, and any logistical barriers before committing to a vehicle or any trip decisions, but you learn as you go I guess. And even knowing then what we know now, I don't think we would have been able to switch the vehicle and try to buy a new one, just wasn't in the cards for us, so had to make a plan for shipping around and obeying the laws of the countries...
Generally pretty easy everywhere... For Chile/Argenita, we got an adapter for a US tank at a hardware store, and that worked fine for every fill -- some stations (aka, some guy's backyard) would have their own adapters for all kinds of tanks, but sometimes they would use ours.
That is a great question. I would love to just say time vs priorities... But we will start focusing more time on video creation and documenting our new build. Thanks for the motivation!
