Pat and Debora
Names and ages:
Pat Harwood 28
Debora Lima 29
Hometowns:
Pat - Lake Tahoe, California
Debora - Sao Paulo, Brasil
When did you start your travels?
We left Lake Tahoe in early October 2010 and arrived in Sao Paulo almost exactly 5 months later after visiting every country of the connected Americas excluding Canada, Paraguay, French Guiana, Guyana, and Suriname.
Reason for taking this trip:
We both love adventure. Debora wanted to return home ending her travels with a bang, and accompanying her was an opportunity Pat couldn´t resist.
Why did you decide to drive?
We value independence. I guess we also enjoy living out of our car on the streets cooking curbside meals on the tailgate, or maybe its just our wallets that enjoy it.
Are you also taking along pets?
Yes, Pat´s beloved Video Camera which demands a lot of attention.
What type of car are you driving?
1998 4x4 Toyota Tacoma with 4 cylinder 2.7 liter engine.
Did you make any modifications to your car for this trip?
To Pat´s truck, we ourselves installed an air conditioning system, a sliding rear window for access to the truck-bed, constructed a bed in the back with storage underneath and a "secret compartment" with a tricky hidden locking mechanism, secret locks to the back, a hidden kill-switch to the fuel pump, and other miscellaneous goodies. These modifications gave us confidence when leaving our car and belongings unattended for extended periods of time (sometimes days), and although we were never robbed during our journey, it was probably overkill. We also had new tires mounted onto our rims. Something we regret not adding was another leaf-spring to the rear suspension. Our fully loaded truck bottomed out on many of the thousands of speed-bumps along the way. Our ball-joints were also shot before we left Mexico,
but we didn´t replace them. The final month and a half of the trip was spent with a failing power steering pump too. We punctured three tires along the way while driving on dirt/stony roads.
How did you save up or finance your trip?
For almost a year, we both worked and lived cheaply cooking for ourselves, rarely going out to eat, and almost never drinking at bars. We also sold some belongings. After preparation costs, we spent about $6,000 each during the 5 month trip, most of which went towards gasoline.
How long do you plan on traveling?
We´re done, but Pat still has to figure out what to do with the car here in Brazil and decide how and when he´ll return home.
What were your family’s and friends’ reactions when you told them about your trip before you left?
Most of them thought it was a crazy dangerous idea. Some people recommended we bring guns. The common perception of Latin America in the U.S. is absolutely distorted to an extreme of fear and distrust. However, friends and family who have traveled in parts of Latin America were much more supportive and realistic. On the other hand, we did hear true stories from several friends who had friends who had been violently robbed at roadblocks and even sexually assaulted. In
Colombia we also met one traveler who, with his family, was stopped by masked gunned teenagers while driving at night in Guatemala, and then they were tied up and robbed. But in a weird way these extreme risks, though rare, were part of the adventure which allured us.
Did you speak Spanish before you left your home country? How much Spanish?
Pat studied Spanish for 4 semesters in high school and had already traveled several times to Spanish speaking countries, so his ability was mediocre and improved somewhat throughout the trip. Debora, who´s native language is Portuguese (very similar to Spanish), speaks quite well even though she only studied the language for one semester in college. She did most of the talking.
Do you have a favorite place or country that you have visited during your trip?
Its really hard to pick a favorite, but we do have some favorite spots we visited:
Mexico - The Yucatan Peninsula with its cenotes and beautiful caribbean water.
Guatemala - Semuc Champey was one of the most unique and beautiful
places we´ve ever seen.
Costa Rica - We loved the many hot springs and waterfalls keeping us
clean as we bummed our way across the country.
Ecuador - Was one of our all around favorite countries with cheap
travel costs, friendly people, and few road checkpoints.
Peru - The Cordillera Blanca driving up high dirt roads with great
views of the mountains.
Chile - The Carretera Austral was very beautiful.
Argentina - The Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre were our favorite mountains
we´ve ever seen.
What was the weirdest thing you experienced on your trip?
In Nicaragua we chose to take a long 4x4 road as a scenic route along the coast to San Juan Del Sur. It turned into a near disaster. After driving for hours over technical rocky terrain, the road became extremely muddy, but we chose to press on. We got stuck for about 7 hours in the mud digging our way out with our bare hands until 2:00 a.m. Up ahead it continued to challenge us, and we got stuck a few more times. Exhausted, we slept a few hours in the car in the middle of the jungle. The following day we continued along in this precarious fashion but received some help from a couple local villagers who told us we were the first to pass the road that year.
Eventually we made it but the car suffered.
What was the worst border crossing?
The Darien Gap was the most difficult for us. We were lucky enough to share a container with Lacey and Luiz (from The Lost World Expedition) with the help of this website. Things went well at first but became stressful as the late torrential rainy season, which even closed the Panama Canal for the third time in history, caused bad flooding in Colon. On the day we needed to load our car onto the ship, the aduana´s computer system wasn´t working, so that delayed things and made the situation very urgent. Also, the plane tickets to Cartagena were more expensive than usual because it was near the holiday season, so the money we were all saving with the container share just went to the plane tickets. But on the bright side the whole process went
about as fast as it can, so we didn´t have to wait around too many extra days. The second worse border for us was entering Argentina from Bolivia where they required proof of car insurance but didn´t offer it at the border. We spent about 9 hours searching for options and eventually got lucky with a little online insurance printout that one apathetic border official chose to accept.
Do you have any advice for others who may be considering driving the Americas?
Its definitely a great experience. Having a car that you can sleep in saves a lot of money in the wealthier countries. We only payed twice to park our car in campground. Mostly we parked on streets that appeared safe, and when those weren´t available we payed for rooms. We also enjoyed the pay-by-the-hour motels found throughout Latin America. Not only were they often cheap and luxurious, but they always came with a private covered garage where we could work on the car or reorganize our belongings, and sometimes they came with a gratuity beer. Our two little backpacking stoves were very handy for cooking. Some things that we would have done differently include: Using a vehicle with a diesel engine which would reduce fuel costs (by far the
biggest cost for us). With a bigger budget we could have stayed longer in countries and seen some extra attractions that we chose to skip. We could have traveled even lighter, leaving a few more belongings behind. This would have reduced the headache of organizing sometimes.
Would you do it again?
Yes and No. We enjoyed our method of travel, but we wouldn´t take on a trip as large again without getting payed for it.
Do you have a blog or a website describing your trip?
www.crossingtheamericas.blogspot.com
