Bip Bip gets adopted out.... Bip Bip a été adopté...

Before/Avant

After/Après

Kicking back in the new pad - our 'interim'...a vacation.  Or rather our transition.  Thanks to Jere, we have sold our home-on-wheels and we have relocated into a Palermo-center apartment in Buenos Aires.  While the apartment is a 'studio' we have effectively quintuppled  our living space and Fanny is fairly dancing about the joint (and without boundaries her STUFF is everywhere!).  AND, embarrasingly, there is all together too much time spent in the bathroom.  A clean and fresh-smelling bathroom available at all hours.  What a luxury!  Ca change la vie, quoi!


Installés dans le nouvel appart' - notre «intérim»... des vacances. Ou plutôt notre transition. grâce à Jérôme  nous avons vendu notre maison roulante et nous avons déménagé dans un appartement à Palerme, quartier du centre de Buenos Aires. Même si l'appartement est un «studio», nous avons effectivement quintuplé notre espace de vie. ET, nous passons trop de temps dans la salle de bain. Une salle de bain propre et fraîche, disponible à toute heure de la journée. Quel luxe! Ça change la vie!

We have been spared the hassle of shipping and selling our Bippers back in Canads AND we arranged an apartment in the deal.  Double SCORE.

Nous avons été épargnés des tracas de l'expédition et la vente de Bip Bip au Canada et nous avons négocié un appartement dans la transaction. Double réussite!

We were lucky to catch the last days of summer in Patagonia and get out before the cold sets in for real.  Now we get to spend the wonderful fall days in the big city.  We get to act all grown up and city slick (read: Sushi gobbling) for the next 30 days and then we jet off to the 'real world'.  Just in time for the northern hemisphere spring.  wowsers.  It did work out nicely.


Nous avons eu la chance d'attraper les derniers jours de l'été en Patagonie et partir avant que le froid s'installe pour de vrai. Maintenant nous pouvons passer les merveilleux jours d'automne  dans la grande ville. Nous apprendrons à vivre comme les grands  (lire: se gaver de Sushi) pour les prochains 30  jours avant de nous envoler pour le «monde réel». Juste à temps pour le printemps dans l'hémisphère nord. Pile poil!

hmmm.  So what next?  I personally find the mind-crushing possiblity of having to return to work and having it turn into a state of permanence a bit depressing.  It doesn't have to be that way; someone I knew used to say 'your life is what you make it'.  Time to pony up to bar and pull a draught and roll the dice.  I'll probably buckle into a quick gig somewhere in the Middle East, although I am angling for something in Afghanistan.  Quick and easy; the world is in turmoil and doesn't look like it will improve soon.  


hmmm. Alors qu'allons-nous faire? Personnellement (Chris et Fanny aussi d'ailleurs...), je trouve la possibilité d'avoir à retourner au travail et d'avoir à le transformer en un état permanent  un peu déprimant. ça n'a pas besoin d'être comme ça, quelqu'un que je connaissais avait l'habitude de dire «votre vie est ce que vous en faites». Il est temps de faire un projet et de lancer les dés. Je vais probablement signer pour un contrat de courte durée avec un ONG quelque part au Moyen-Orient, ou bien en Afghanistan. Ce sera plus rapide et facile, le monde est dans la tourmente et il ne semble pas que ça s'améliorera bientôt.

Fanny is super excited to return to Paris and visit her friends and family.  Seems in the middle somewhere of our trip the powers in charge of Paris have started a publicity campaign to convince the Parisians to be more friendly to the tourists.  THAT would be something to confirm.  Fanny is swimming deep in the internet to scope out working and upgrade training opportunities - she is dying to get back on the saddle and into the hospital and refresh her skills, rebuild her nurse-muscles.

Fanny est super excitée de retourner à Paris et rendre visite à ses amis et à sa famille. Parait- il quelque part dans le milieu de notre voyage la France a lancé une campagne publicitaire pour convaincre les Parisiens d'être plus convivial avec les touristes. Ça reste quelque chose à confirmer! Fanny est à fond sur le net à la recherche de travail et sur les possibilités de formation - elle meurt d'envie de se remettre en selle à l'hôpital et d'actualiser ses compétences, de reconstruire ses muscles d'infirmière.

Two years 'on the road' has not quenched the fire of adventure.  More likely it has self-evolved into a little monster....Since it is way cheaper, and not at all likely I will ever be able to afford my Stonehouse Gite in the French countryside, I can see a moving, rolling, advancing, circling future.  A summer wedding in Edmonton sounds fun.  Another European Camino maybe (more likely Turkey's Lecian Way)?  Hiking the length of the Great Wall of China, ON the Wall, would be sporty.  Maybe more 'out there' is to walk across the Sahara.  Or time to dust of the motorcycle for a rip across Africa?   Growl around the perimeter of India in a Bajaj 3-wheel Rickshaw? The 'Everest' of trips for us would be a 4x4 Merc Sprinter across Central Asia.  Yea right.  Good to keep the dream outside one's reach.

Deux ans sur la route n'a pas éteint le feu de l'aventure. Il est plus probable que ce se soit auto-transformé en un petit monstre .... Comme c'est une façon de vivre économique, et que il soit peu probable que je puisse acheter mon gîte en pierre dans la campagne française, je peux voir une vie en mouvement, roulant, coulant vers l'avenir.  Voila qu'un mariage en été à Edmonton serait amusant (la fille de Chris). Un autre Camino européen peut-être ( ou plutôt  le Lecian Way en Turquie ) ou plus intéressant une randonnée le long de la Grande Muraille de Chine, SUR le mur, serait sportif. Peut-être plus «extrême» serqit de flâner à travers le Sahara. Ou bien c'est le bon moment de dépoussiérer la moto pour un périple en l'Afrique? Rugir autour du périmètre de l'Inde dans un rickshaw Bajaj à 3 roues? Le «Everest» du voyage pour nous serait un Mercedes Sprinter 4x4 à travers l'Asie centrale. Oui bien sur! C'est bon de rêver!

We hope that our trip has polluted many minds with aspirations and lofty journeys.  Don't dare, just go.

Nous espérons que notre voyage a pollué beaucoup d'esprits avec des aspirations à des voyages possibles. N'hésitez pas, lancez-vous!

Statistics/Statistiques:
2 months advertising/2 mois de pub
24 inquiries/24 demandes d'infos
3 lectures on being crazy - somehow, some reason, folks feel free to comment on not-their-shit
3 leçons de morale sur le fait d'être fous, d'une manière ou d'une autre certaines personnes se sentent libres de commenter des choses qu'ils ne les regardent pas
4 offers of 6000USD or less - WTF?  Get away cheapskate! Smoke another reality-check.
4 offres de 6000 USD ou moins- Pardon? Allez chercher ailleurs!
3 offers of cash same weekend
3 offres de versement le même weekend
1 winner/1 gagnant

AND THE WINNER IS...Jerome Blum.  Jere is pretty excited about his upcoming journey and you can follow it, him and Bip Bip here: How I Met the Others

ET LE GAGNANT EST ... Jérôme Blum. Jere est très enthousiaste à l'idée de son prochain voyage et vous pouvez le suivre, lui et Bip Bip ici: How I Met the Others

Trip Statistics

Our trip is winding down...I suppose it is about time.   So let's look at some interesting statistics.

578 Nights

Thanks to Bippers, we had a home as well as a set of wheels.  Being in the shape of a van, we got a little more interior space than other 4WD alternatives and so we were able to take advantage of boondocking (free parking/camping) opportunities as we got more and more comfortable with the idea.  For example our as we started out in the USA we opted for more paid campings and when we finished - Chile and Argentina - the ease of finding a highway rest-stop with shower, clean toilet and wifi meant that we never ever had to go to a campground.

And if you want to see a photo-representation of the above breakdown go to Bip Bip 1001 nights

DAILY EXPENSES

It was interesting to see our daily expenses...This includes everything from laundry, to internet, to customs and border crossing fees to food and gas and camping (and to the odd restaurant).  It must be pointed out that we did not start tracking our expences until we hit Belize and thus it is a shame we don't have costs for Mexico.  We liked Mexico but have no more than a gut-feel that it was cheap.  Food was great and that goes without saying.  

There are a few notable comments -

1) Panama was expensive, as most developed country in Central America...but mostly because we sped through to catch up with our shipping partners.  Thus the daily tally includes the $1200 shipping of Bippers AND the $1100 for the 5 day 'cruise' from Portobello to Cartagena (noted as 'hotel' above).  Stink!

2)The daily average for Chile shocked me, but probably because I liked Chile; it should not have been such a shock as we had heard that it was an expensive land.  I found the landscape reminiscent of Canada, and the people calm and respectful (as opposed to the loud and sometimes hot-headed Argentinians).  But as you will see below, daily costs are directly related to price of gas and Chile was expensive in gas.

3)Argentina came in the bottom-half of the collective.  Not surprising since we were able to capitalize on the black-market exchange for US dollars.  While the 'official' rate for the period we were there was 5 pesos per 1 USD we were able to get 6.3 (in the early days) to 8.3 pesos per dollar.  Thus more than 60% more purchasing power.  Oh and the fuel is subsidized to half-price south of the Patagonia line and that is where we spent most of our time.

4)Rate of travel - faster you go the more costly it is.  You use gas (#1 factor, did I say that already?), you cannot find the cheapest restaurant, you cannot set up camp on the beach with your neighbourly aligator,  you cannot develop a relationship with your favorite Nene in the veggie market....

5)We got lucky and didn't have to bribe any cops or pay  for any accidents.  This could run into thousands....

FILL-'er UP

Today Fanny was driving so I distracted myself with a small analysis of the fuel tracking sheet I have been keeping.  I was shocked, initially by the total amount of money (14 000USD!!!) we spent on fuel on this trip.  Wowsers, I don’t like to think of what the total MAINTENANCE costs were!  However, doing the calcs shows us we spent 24USD per day on fuel (for two people).  That is not so bad eh? Phew.

The ranking of most-to-least cost per country was surprising; countries I thought expensive were actually not so bad (the converse is true...who would have thought that NICARAGUA was so expensive?).

The ranking USD/Litre reads like this:

CHL-BLZ-CR-NICA-PER-COL-GUAT-CDA(!)-HON-ES-ARG(N)-USA-PAN-BOL-MEX-

ARG(S)-BOL(Local price)-ECU

After all that...and two years on the road, the average cost per litre calculating for all countries is 1usd/litre.  I find that interesting.

The photo below gives a short-list (66%less) of our fill-ups.  There are some anomalies to discuss:

1.       We will probably have to acknowledge that Ecuador gets our ‘most favorite country’ now.  Mexico goes down to number 2!

2.       Argentina was quite cheap on gas for two reasons-

a.       Fuel subsidy south of the Patagonian line effectively charging half price per litre

b.      The capacity to capitalize on the ‘blue market’ value of the US dollar.  We got between 6.3-8.3 pesos per USD where the official rate is about 5 which slashed our fuel costs.

c.       Argentinean beef wasn’t that great and we preferred the Chilean wine.  What’s up with that?

3.       While we loved everything about Chile – our daily costs were absurd (100usd-ish per day) and since our daily expenses are directly linked to fuel prices, fuel ranged from 1.6-2USD per litre.  BAM.

4.       In Bolivia fuel-life depended on your ability to negotiate – Local price OR Foreigner price.  Either way it seems, considering the global picture, the foreigner price is middle-of-the-road.  Thus it was not necessary for us to be so critical or anal regarding fill-ups...bummer that the people were less than interested in tourists.

5.       Costa Rica- aka Gringolandia-  was rudely expensive we found, considering what you get and where it is located vis-a-vis its neighbours.  Where the aging pony-tailed staggering drunk gringos outnumber  the poor working and landless peasants, well you can imagine the influence on the local economy.  Thus it is not surprisingly the fuel costs were high.  Too bad the surf wasn’t better when we were there.

6.       Panama doesn’t show up on our short list – we only fueled up 4 times.  However the price per litre is smack in the middle of the range of USA.  Does that surprise you?

7.       Colombia had a black market in Venezuelan gas (read jerry-can peddlers on the side of the road) that took the price of fuel on the border region down to 60 cents/L!  Otherwise Colombia was quite expensive.  Colombia has a trade agreement with the USA now so I wonder if costs will change now.

8.       Fuel costs in Peru are almost identical to costs in Canada. Peru suffers a duality in its economy – the rape of the bumbaclad tourists and the rape of its indigenous.

This is the End of the World...

et voila....

not much to say...here it is.  Beautiful scenery.

Rainbows and Rabbits

er, what's up doc?  Feburary 14 arrived with sunshine and the skies cleared the way for rainbows.  The rabbits came out to frolic in the magic air; a St Valentine's day  to remember.
Quoi de neuf? Le 14 février est arrivé avec des rayons de soleil et des arc-en ciel. Les lapins sont sortis gambader dans l’atmosphère magique, un jour de Saint Valentin qu'on se rappellera!

We beat our way south from Puerto Montt to the end at Villa O'Higgins and then if that wasn't enough of a beating, we backtracked to Cochrane to overland it to the Ruta 40 in Argentina.  Over 1700kms of gravel road has knocked the nuggets out of us and we are happy to see  the pavement (so much so that we decided to drive on the new pavement of Highway 40 despite it not yet being open to traffic! LOVE Bippers 4x4!)
On a tracé notre chemin vers le sud de Puerto Montt jusqu'à la fin à Villa O'Higgins puis comme si çà ne suffisait pas nous avons fait chemin arrière et récupéré la route 40 en Argentine. pPus de 1700 km de piste. On était tellement content de voir des routes asphaltées que nous avons décidé de conduire sur la route nouvellement pavée bien qu'elle ne soit pas encore ouverte au traffic...

Not thinking very far in advance (oops, who would have thought?) we arrived at the ferry port at ........ to find that the ferry requires RESERVATIONS and is in fact, reserved for the subsequent 15 days.  At which point we had two options - 1)wait it out (not our style) or 2) backtrack (a detestible idea both from the aspect or covering familiar terrain but the last 60kms were so bad that it was really really really unrepeatable).  Hum and haw we finally got some good intel (took three ferry agents to finally cough up the goods) that there was, that very night, a 'special ferry' to assist the 4 PAGE  overflow waiting-list!  That was worth waiting for and so that night the OVERBOOKED ferry started loading cars.  Then the waiting list was announced - it was like a lottery but with a companionable spirit.  And there it was, we got called second to enter the boat - seems that the 4 pages of names decided to give up and go somewhere else - and without a moments hesitation we backed up the gangplank and parked.  Dove into bed and slept in our new waterbed for the night as the boat was due to arrive at 04hrs.  Lucky us.
Sans prévoir à l'avance, nous arrivons les mains dans les poches à l’embarcadère du premier ferry pour découvrir qu'il était nécessaire pour cette traversée de réserver à l'avance et qu'en effet c'était complet pour les 15 prochains jours... Nous avions 2 options 1) attendre (pas vraiment notre genre) 2) revenir en arrière (une idée qui ne nous emballait pas trop d'une part parce que c'était un terrain déjà connu et d'autre part parce que les 60 derniers km étaient tellement en mauvais état que c'était inimaginable). Hummmm, alors comment faire? Après avoir parlé avec 3 personnes différentes nous avons réussi à avoir de bonnes informations... Il s'avérait qu'en fait un ferry "spécial" pour le soir même était organisé pour dégorger une liste d'attente de 4 pages!!!!! Ça valait la peine d'attendre et d'insister. Nous avons donc attendu que le ferry commence à charger les voitures ayant une réservation. Puis la liste d'attente a été annoncé (vu la longueur honnêtement, nous avions à peine l'ombre d'un espoir). C'était comme joué à la loterie, nous avions le C32 ou quelque chose comme çà.... Étonnamment, tout le monde rigolait et à chaque fois qu'un nombre était annoncé et que personne ne répondait, les gens s'exclamait "tombé à l'eau!". Il semblait que pas mal de gens découragés par la longueur de la liste ne s'étaient pas présentés. Finalement notre numéro a été annoncé et en quelques secondes nous étions à bord. Et Voilà! Départ à 23h arrivé à 4h du mat'. La chance nous a souri. 

Stunning scenery and beautiful fish and all together too many rabbits.  Never ever again.
Paysages incroyables, magnifiques poissons et beaucoup de lapins. Chris ne veut pas le refaire (en tout cas pas avant que ce soit pavé) moi demain j'y retourne!