Southbound and Down!

[jimmyrobby]

So folks, it's been a while since I last posted on 60Patrol, but I thought I'd give an update!

Since last when we were in Colombia the Patrol (or Carlos, the name which he's somehow acquired) has been (amongst many more places) through coffee covered hills and red/grey deserts of Colombia, dry oil plains and wet Amazon rainforest in Ecuador, the desolate desert-meets-ocean and high alpine altiplanos with vistas of craggy snow capped peaks in Peru. Not to mention a variety of beach boggings, tiny winding mountain roads next to beautiful/terrifying sheer- drops and various other travellers with us for parts of the journey.

I've got some great photos that I'll post up asap, but right now I'm computerless again so the mundane text from the keypad of a smart phone will have to do.

Carlos the Patrol has had his fair share of woes to match ours:

-A good twelve or so flat tyres (lessened now by jettisoning our extra passengers- their choice not ours..), new tubes, and mostly rust- free rims.

- an astonishingly fast fuel leak and handbrake assembly falling completely off (thankgod for zip ties) while lost in the Northern Peruvian desert that also coincided with our getting dysentery. Half a new fuel tank cut and welded and we're fixed.

- All our locks forced in a dodgy border town, didn't lose much really, but having to watch inexperienced mechanics / locksmiths literally hack at the patrol with hacksaws while trying to figure out how to replace the lock barrels (I honestly don't know what possesses some of the guys down here), was far more painful than losing a bit of cash...

- Altitude sickness for us all in the upper Peruvian Andes, nasty headaches and difficulty breathing, the Patrol had losses of power and sputtering under load (difficulty breathing too..)

And other minor bits and pieces in between.. But we're all holding together pretty well really! In Lima at the moment. Gonna get Carlos some fog lights & spotlights and a custom designed roof tent (labor's super cheap here) before we leave. Although it does all seem a little flashy for a classy yet modest Patrol like Carlos... But when the road calls, you gotta be prepared...



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free

[Coyote Patrol]

Sounds like one heck of an adventure. Its good to hear from you, and I cant wait to see the pictures. take care.

[jimmyrobby]

Wait, I lie. I think I can add a couple of images that I have saved here on the phone. Just tasters...



Cordierra Blanca mountain range Peru.



Desert meets Ocean.

More to come...

More to come...

[jimmyrobby]

Sounds like one heck of an adventure. Its good to hear from you, and I cant wait to see the pictures. take care.

Thanks! And yep it's been an adventure alright.. We'll see what happens next I guess

[Coyote Patrol]

WOW! And thats just tasters. I really cant wait to see more.

[bosque]

Cordierra Blanca, tallest mountains in Peru.......the true story of Joe Simpson "Touching the Void" was centered here. His partner had to cut him off the rope after he had an accident and was dangling mid air about to pull them both off.......desperate story. Beautiful mountains most above 18,000 ft. What a fantastic picture jimmyrobby!!!
That loss of power at elevation can be humbling when trying to climb loose steep mountainside roads......"don't stall now!". Did you have the option to change the main jet on your carby?

[RiverPatrol]

Thank you for the update! I've been wondering how your trip was going. Yes, it does sound quite adventuresome, but that's what you went there for to find. Great stories so far! Carlos has had some issues, but actually from the sound of it is holding up amazingly well for the terrain and demands you are putting it through.

Esteban can provide some sound advice for driving in altitude.

Awesome teaser pictures!

[mdawg4x4]

Thanks for the update. Sounds like quite a journey. Can't wait for the remaining pictures.

[miller]

Great photos, thanks for the update

[jimmyrobby]

So the last I updated we were in Lima Peru... Dealing with desert meets ocean and perils of alpine driving. Since then we made our way from sea level back up into the Andes, did the obligatory Machu Pichu visit, and made our way across the andean altiplano past herds of llamas and around Lake Titicaca into Bolivia.

lake titicaca crossing barge.

Spent a lot of time driving around lima looking for metal workers and industrial sewers to help make our roof tent a reality. We realized that when people run on south american time it can be hard to get things done. After many debates in broken spanish we changed tack and decided to source as many materials and do as much as we could ourselves in stages. The catalyst was when we arrived (after a week) to pick up our tent and our peruvian worker Edgar hid out the back like a child hiding from a punishment. We waited and were told he was away for a few days. So we returned later to see him see us and jump behind a stack of things trying to keep out of view. Unfortunately Carlos is no good for stealth drop ins, in peru he sticks out like a sore thumb (in a good way.. a diamond in the rough). Our initial frustration turned to amusement and we decided to let that deal go.

While patrols of all ages are conspicuously absent in Peru they seem to have a presence here in Bolivia, with the very occasional sighting of an old banged up 60 series. By contrast The landcruiser FJ40 is everywhere, I've never seen so many. Much like the 60 series in Colombia.

We've had a lot of offers for carlos and just as many bewildered looks from locals obviously confused at the sight of what must seem an odd car with odd Gringos in tiny south. American country roads.

We came down to the colonial city of sucre where "esteban por gobernador" is plastered all over the place on random walls and various rocky outcrops (I agree with the bolivians, esteban for governor!). we did some work in a country hotel and generally went into hibernation for a couple of months. Luck for us they had a workshop. So off to town to buy some steel, into the workshop to hijack the arc welder and on to the home made roof tent!

After making the structure with the help of Ed the owner we again had to do lots and lots of waiting for upholsterers to sew it all together. Finally we got there after sharing lots of coca leaves and many debates about whether Emerald (my partner) or Carlos (the patrol) was worth more as payment - I stayed conspicuosly silent in this debate...

camping beside lake titicaca

marc camping in the new rooftop tent.

With most things down here there's a sort of "use what you've got" kind of mentality to "make what you can". We've adopted this method ourselves out of both necessity and due to our limited tools and budget restrictions. In that way we've built the tent, i've done all the extra electrics with what I could find, even to the point of making an extremely crude duel battery system. We've used a bag of fuel and a tube to gravity feed directly to the carburetter when we were having fuel pump issues up the high altitude, high angle inclines of La paz, used zip ties to hold together the handbrake assembly and stop the rear shock from popping out of a gash in the chassis mount and changed more punctured tyres than I can count.

After Sucre off we went back up to lake titicaca to pick up some friends headed into the jungle and up "Death Road" infamously the most dangerous road in the world due to the high number vehicles having plummeted over it's tight turns and down it's sheer drops. While once very dangerous especially with large buses and trucks having to negotiate past each other and around blind corners the Bolivians have built a safer route and the road is now more of a tourist attraction. The evidence was the various mountain biking tours that whizzed down past us during our ascent. It really was stunningly beautiful with moss and ferns hanging over the dirt track and the occasional waterfall cascading down over us helping to wash away the jungle mud while we gazed out over the mountainous landscape (well I gazed mostly at the road but you get the idea). Despite the relative ease for a smallish car like us the many crosses on the side of the road and the signs warning to beep your horn on every corner were a sobering reminder that this road had a dark side. Arrived in La Paz where the fuel pump/vapor lock issues caused much havoc on it's mountainous slopes and where we've had the best and the worst mechanics of our trip. We are now heading back up through Potosi the highest city in the world and further down through the Salar De Uyuni (largest salt flat in the world) for a kind of white christmas and further into Chile and Argentina... What'll happen next? Who knows...

'death road'

death road dizzying hights.

Once again the internet aint so strong so i'll have to keep photos to a minimum and put more in later...

Merry Christmas to all!