Introduction

In October 2010 I drove to South America. The trip lasted until January 2011.  I kept a handwritten journal writing entries for each day.  On this blog I will be posting each entry along with pictures to illustrate the journey. I hope you enjoy reading about my adventure. To read the entries in chronological order please click on the widget located on the right.

To download a PDF or EPUB file to read on your ebook device click on the links to the left.  Each file has a title page and is formatted like a book.  There is also a quote from Jack Kerouac:

I couldn’t imagine this trip. It was the most fabulous of all. It was no longer east-west, but magic south. We saw a vision of the entire Western Hemisphere rockribbing clear down to Tierra del Fuego and us flying down the curve of the world into other tropics and other worlds. “Man, this will finally take us to IT!”, said Dean with definite faith. He tapped my arm. “Just wait and see. Hoo! Whee!” 

- Jack Kerouac, On the Road, page 265

Movies I Watched on the Trip

During the trip I downloaded a lot of movies to watch when the time arose.  When I was caught in the rain for a few days in Costa Rica I watched quite a few movies. I do not remember every one I watched but what follows is a partial list.

2 or 3 Things I Know About Her - (Antarctica)

North By Northwest

La Mala Educación - (Antarctica)

Easy Rider - (Costa Rica)

Ché - (Costa Rica)

Inception (Costa Rica)

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - (Antarctica)

Y Tú Mama También - (Antarcitca)

Perroes Amores

On the Waterfront - (Costa Rica)

Lenny - (Nicaragua)

Strange Brew - (Colombia)

Secret of the Kells - (Nicaragua)

Wicked City - (Argentina)

The Motorcycle Diaries - (Costa Rica)

Shogun Assassin - (Panama City)

My Camera

Even though I took a lot f pictures on this trip I am surprised at how many pics I did not take.  For instance there are only two pictures of the interior of the ship that sailed to Antarctica.  And there are no pictures of the subway in Buenos Aires.  There are also hardly any pictures of the food I ate or the places I stayed.

I had thought about buying a camera before I left the USA.  A nice 15 megapixel digital thing to take pictures of the journey of a lifetime. While wandering Best Buy I decided against it.  Not just because of the prices or the risk of getting an expensive device stolen. Using my phone would be more aesthetically in tune with the genius of the trip which was not showing off but getting away and not telling anyone.  Of course I told everyone I was leaving and now my journal is online but still that  was never the point.  I was never driving to make a blog about it or a big show of it or any of that. Part of my ever evolving original plan was to drive to Chile and live there.

I think the pictures turned out well for what I was using.  And keep in mind the goal of taking pictures was not to take the clearest most awesome picture with the sharpest image. It was to document the trip.  To be my second pair of eyes or memory. 

This is the phone I used.

The model is an LG Versa. Pretty good phone.  Decent photos.  2 megapixel camera.  Verizon paused services while I was away and I had zero capacities on this phone to call or text while I was out of the country. 

However I did receive this curious text message while I was in Peru.

You won't get a message like that on a digital camera.

How Far Did I Drive?

How far did I drive?

The truth is I do not know.  I forgot to take a picture of my odometer when I left the USA and when I visited the car at the house of the guy who towed it after I crashed.  

I took a picture of my odometer in Guatemala when it reached 200,000 miles. 

I took another picture when I arrived in Ushuaia.

Undoubtedly I drove more then 9,909 miles. I would add at least 2,000 miles to the total which gives 11,909 miles though I probably drove further than that.

Although I put so many miles on the car in such a short time I never had any major engine trouble except towards the end on the very last day of driving.  Because I wrecked the car I was never able to find out just what the problem was. The biggest problem with the car was having to change the tires so many times.  But that is the fault of the roads.

It helps that the original owner of this car was the state of Wisconsin who certainly performed proper maintenance. The person I bought the car from had bought it at auction and also took good care of the vehicle.  

The car was a 1997 Ford Escort station wagon.  

Music I Listened to on The Trip

Besides obtaining maps and funds I also bought an iPod and stocked it with with a lot of music.  My car radio stopped working a few months before I even began the journey, in June I think, and I never repaired it so I listen to music through headphones the whole time. Dangerous I know but thats how I did it. 

Below are a few of the many albums I listened to and places I remember listening to them. Music makes driving memorable. I will never forget the rush I had the first time I listened to Ponytails’s album Ice Cream as I was driving through the lush green Andes in Colombia. Or the time I listened to The Dodos’ Visiter driving at night through the Pampas towards Buenos Aires. Such a good album I listened to it twice before switching over to William Shatner’s Has Been. But most of all I cannot forget listening to the haunting eastern melodies of Devotchka just as a semi plowed into my car and almost killed me.

Curt Daniel - History of Calvinism

Joel Beeke - 1 John series and various

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell, Show Your Bones, It’s Blitz! (Buenos Aires, listened to Gold Lion several times driving through Buenos Aires)

Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)  (Guatemala after passing through immigration)

Ponytail - Ice Cream (driving through Andes in Colombia)

Menonmena - Mines (Nazca, Peru and other places)

Deltron 3030 - Delton 3030 (Argentina driving in the pampas South)

Chet Atkins - Guitar Legend, The RCA Years

GZA - Liquid Swords

DJ Shadow - Endtroducing, Preemptive Strike (Chile)

Conor Oberst - Conor Oberst (Argentina)

Deftones - Diamond Eyes (Argentina driving to Cueva de los manos and other places)

Decembrists - Discography (Argentina last day of driving South)

Bright Eyes - Discography (Argentina driving in Pampas)

Air - Moon Safari (Chile leaving the stars at night)

Arcade Fire - Neon Bible, Funeral (Argentina heading North from Bariloche)

Broken Bells - Broken Bells

Mega Man Soundtrack (Peru)

Final Fantasy VII Soundtrack (Peru, Antarctica)

The Doors - The Doors (Panama)

The Dodos - Visiter (Argentina twice on the way to Buenos Aires)

The Cure - Disintegration

Miles Davis - The Complete Birth of the Cool (Argentina)

Echo and the Bunnymen - Echo and the Bunnymen

Fruit Bats - Spelled in Bones

Pearl Jam - Rearviewmirror (Colombia)

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F#A#∞ (Chile)

The Stranglers - Golden Brown (only the song, on the ferry back from Tierra del Fugeo)

Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head, Viva la Vida (Colombia)

Sufjan Stevens - Age of Adz (Panama)

Glenn Yarbrough - Honey and Wine, Time to Move On (Chile)

The Hobbit Soundtrack

The Return of the King Soundtrack

Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue (Panama in Colon)

mewithoutyou - [A--> B] Life (Peru leaving Cusco)

My Morning Jacket - Z

Pixies - Surfer Rosa, Doolittle 

Owen - No Good For No One Now (Peru)

Novos Baianos - Acabou Chorare (Panama, many other places)

Seiji Honda - Final Fantasy VII Piano Collection (Antarctica)

Nas - Illmatic (Colombia in the mountains)

Sister Suvi - Now I am Champion (Chile at ferry crossing to Tierra del Fuego)

Spoon - Gimmie Fiction, Ga Ga Ga, Transference

Tune-yards - Bird Brains

The Wipers - Is This Real? (Argentina)

Nina Simone - The Best of Nina Simone (Chile driving to Torres del Paine)

Grandaddy - The Sophtware Slump (Chile driving to Torres del Paine)

The Thermals - More Parts per Million, Fuckin A, The Body, the Blood, the Machine (Costa Rica)

Yes - Fragile (Peru driving away from Puno and Lake Titicaca)

William Shatner - Has Been, The Transformed Man (Argentina)

Leonard Nimoy & William Shatner - Spaced Out - The Very best Of.. (Argentina)

Leonard Nimoy - Leonard Nimoy Presents Mr. Spock's Music From Outer Space (Argentina driving to Bariloche)

Devotchka - A Mad and Faithful Telling (Argentina, listening to as I wrecked. Still have never finished listening to this album.)

These are only the albums I remember listening to.  I am sure there are others but they escape me at the moment.  It was a long trip and most of it was taken up with the History of Calvinism series but I did listen to a lot of music.  I also attempted to learn Spanish through an audio course but I got tired of it quickly.

25 January 2011

After putzing around in Buenos Aires for a few days, this is finally it. The plane was supposed to leave for Panama City at 3 am but was delayed until 7:15 am. Now I am on the plane. From Panama I will fly to Miami. This journey is over. Who knows what lies ahead?

Adios, Buenos Aires

The End

21 - 24 January

There are no entries for these dates.  I don't know why I did not write anything down.  Not much happened anyway.  Mostly just a lot of wandering around Buenos Aires.  

One notable thing did happen and that was when I went to buy my plane ticket from an outlet at a hotel I started speaking in horribly butchered Spanish. Thankfully I was stopped by the clerk who said, "We speak English."  I told him what ticket I wanted but my credit card was declined. Very embarrassing.  I told him I would sort it out and be back.  

In Buenos Aires there are internet cafes which also have phone booths.  I called my bank and was told my credit card and others had been cancelled because the information had been hacked. It wasn't my fault.  After pleading to the operator about my situation he agreed to reactivate the credit card and authorise the one payment for the airplane ticket.

Also at some point in Buenos Aires I happened upon a really snazzy jazz club.  I walked in and stood in the back until the song finished.  Then I got a table and a beer.  A couple from Brazil joined me after the show.  So did an American guy. We shared a bottle of wine. I remember the American guy said he had always wanted to drive to South America. So this must have been before I wrecked my car. He also gave me his email address.

I see in my files that I do not have a lot of Buenos Aires pictures.  This is really surprising to me. I cannot explain it.

Walking around the city I noticed all the graffiti so I decided to take as many pictures of that as I could. 

January 21

January 22

January 23