Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Border Crossings and More Border Crossings

For the first leg of our trip down to the bottom of South America we are trying to get there as fast as possible. From there, our plan is to slow down and take in the sights on our return trip. So far we have travelled six countries in 13 days! We started in Mexico, moved on to Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and now Panama. In the smaller countries we were able to pass through in a day! It has been quite the culture shock in Central America and quite interesting with the language barrier. The phrase "Mi español es muy malo" has become a staple in our conversations with locals. 

The biggest learning curve was when we crossed the Mexico-Guatemalan border. With our only previous experience coming from the borders at Canada and Mexico (which were painless in comparison) this was, to quote Aladdin, a whole new world. But not a very good one... The Mexican side was pretty straight forward. At the border into Guatemala we needed to cancel out Temporary Vehicle Importation Permit (TVIP) and cancel our Tourist Cards. It all happened at one office with a woman who spoke some english and there was very little confusion. Then, we went to the Guatemala side. The immigration office was in a poorly labelled shack with no actual office to walk into, just windows to walk up to. After filling out a little form with our basic info, we got our passport stamped. From there we had to find the Aduana to get a new TVIP and insurance for the vehicle. This was a trick. We found it, then found out we had to find a different establishment to make copies of various documents for their records (vehicle title, registration, passport, license, etc). Then go back to the Aduana to finish the paperwork. Oh but wait! Its lunch time! Meaning that all of the offices close for a full hour. After waiting for them to open again, we were finally able to get everything done and we could be on our way. All of this took four hours from start to finish. 

It doesn't seem to bad... But mind you that this whole time we are being hassled by people walking up the the cars selling things, busy roads, language barriers, and the scammers trying to 'help' us cross, and try to make a buck off us. First of all, the scammers are in no way affiliated with the actual border officials and they even go as far as making fake name tags in plastic holders slung around their necks to try to convince you. But, we noticed they were obviously printed at home, and everyone has a different design on each tag. They spotted our car pulling up to the border and immediately jumped into action. They rushed us into the immigration office and try to tell us the steps of how to do everything. Don't be fooled, they tried to scam us four times. The first time it was for entry into Guatemala, they said we had to pay $5 to just get past the cones they put in the road. We did end up paying that one, but it was a small loss in the grand scheme of things to get things moving. The next was that we had to park in a certain lot for $20 USD while we did our paperwork. This lot was made to look like it was being used and that people actually paid to park there, but it was all broken down cars when we looked closer. And they required our license plate number for some reason? Needless to say, we skipped that, and opted to have to move the vehicle every time a shop owner told us we were in the way of his storefront (like four times). A small price to pay, really.

After stopping at immigration so that we were allowed into the country, Seth had to venture out to try to get the Guatamalan TVIP. No doubt the scammers were hot on his heels the whole way. Although we tried many times to have them back off, they were persistent. Too persistent. At one point while Seth was at a booth working with an official, one guy took him to the side and said he had to pay $300 USD in cash so he could go onto the next step of the 'paperwork'. Good thing Seth also noted that the man had taken him to a place outside of the security cameras, wanted cash, and the guys' story was that Seth had to specifically hand the money off to him (not an official) for more 'paperwork' that didn't exist. Um, no. Nice try. 

Eventually after hours of trying to figure out where to go, who to talk to, and dodging two more scams, we finally were on our way! That border left a bad taste in our mouths, but it was a good learning experience. Since then, all of the border crossings have been much more successful and much less stressful. There haven't been as many scammers at the rest of the crossings we have done, and the sure as hell aren't as persistent as in Guatemala. It was probably for the best that we had that experience right off the bat. Now we are better prepared to handle scammers and notice the tricks they will try to play. 

Some of the border crossings are pretty easy (such as going into Honduras), some are more complex (like going into Panama), and some are just down right hectic (like going into Guatemala). It all depends on how well the crossing has been set up. Some crossings require us to go to five different locations and talk to many different people, while some only require two buildings where we can go from immigration to the aduana all in one stop. All of them are different, so there is no way of knowing what to expect other than our one reference- ioverlander. Ioverlander is an app where people have marked waypoints for hotels, gas stations, food, good places to go and places to avoid, and info about boarders. It like a google maps review page with everything you'd want to stop at nearby. It is seriously amazing, and we aren't quite sure what we would do without it! It has saved our butts on a few occasions. 

The crossings sound impossible, but with a whole bunch of perseverance and energy, it all works out. From here we are shipping our vehicle from Colón, Panama, to Cartagena, Columbia! Stay tuned!

Sunday, July 10, 2016

Driving and Killing Time

Since returning from the Dalton Highway we knew we needed to head in the general direction of south. After running into some hiccups along the way including seth losing his wallet and me and Mat's bank freezing our debit cards every transaction, we found ourselves needing a few 'adulting' days. While figuring all of this out, we realized we would have to take our sweet time getting to Los Angeles, CA to wait for new cards and Seth's new ID to show up at a relatives house. 

On the way down we decided to take the Cassiar Highway as our route south in Canada. This road was honestly kind of disappointing. It was described as being wonderfully scenic with narrow windy roads. The winding hilly roads got annoying after awhile, and the scenery was just like driving the ALCAN. Some people told us it was dangerous because of the turns and road conditions, but after driving the Dalton, it was a cake walk. We can't even take 'Bump' signs seriously now after experiencing how bad they were on the Dalton. It took two days to finish the Cassiar Highway since we were able to drive long distances at a time. After the Cassiar, we decided to drive on a Canadian interstate.

After a couple hundred miles, we decided to take a scenic byway just to get off of the monotonous view of the Canadian interstate. It was a had a really awesome view of mountains and then deep canyons alongside the road. We made camp for the night alongside a river. In the morning we decided to take a 120km long 4x4 trail equivalent to being the scenic byway of the scenic byway we had already been on. The trail started out great! It followed along another river with many waterfalls joining into it with spectacular views of the mountains. About half way through the trail started splitting off into a whole bunch of different routes. Yikes. We were originally trying to find some hot springs we had heard of from a local, but we never did find them. Along the way we found out that there was a huge logging industry here and the road we were taking went right through some the places they stacked the wood. 

Mountains on 4x4 trail in Canada
Waterfall on 4x4 trail in Canada
Waterfall on 4x4 trail in Canada

This is about when things started getting hairy... We had driven about half way through when it was no longer discernible which way we would take. All paths looked equally wrong. One route was a dirt path only wide enough for a skinny vehicle with four foot tall plants growing in a field into the woods, the other route ended at a dam, and another route went up a big hill, only to end abruptly after less than half a mile. So, we gambled and took the dirt path thinking we were probably going to have to turn back. Apparently it was right! We kept looking for kilometer marker signs, and after missing them for about 10km, we finally found one! Although it was written on a styrofoam plate and stapled to a tree, we then knew it was the right path. This happened three more times where the trail would  split and become quite interpretive. In all it took us about 6 hours to drive only 120km. The views and scenery made it worth it. That night we drove into Vancouver and rested at a hotel. :)

Bridge into Vancouver
After crossing the Canadian boarder the next day, we drove into Seattle. Here we stopped for food and went to the Chihuly Garden and Glass. It was my heaven. Unfortunately, I can't post the pictures of his work, but it was amazing. Breathtaking. Inspiring. The way he used bright color and shape to create pieces inspired by the sea or gardens was pure genius. From there we went to the Space Needle only a few hundred yards away. 

Since then we visited Portland, OR and went to a really cool outdoor craft market, the worlds largest bookstore, ate wonderful Italian food, and then outside of the city we hiked a short distance to a waterfall. The next morning we went to Haystack Rock on Canon Beach, WA. The rock formations along the beach were incredible and we had fun searching the tide pools for creatures of the deep. Later  we drove to Medford, OR to meet up with a friend of Seth's. We met up at a cool Irish bar called The Four Daughters, then went back to his house for drinks. After leaving Medford in the morning, we decided to drive through the Redwood Forest. The Avenue of the Giants takes you through some of the most lush green forest with the tallest and widest trees you can imagine. There are many places to stop, look, and hike to these huge trees. We posted some pictures of us standing in or beside the trees on our Facebook page already. 
Haystack Rock (right)
Rock formation at Canon Beach
Star fish in a tide pool.

From there we kept driving on Highway 1 along the California coast. This has beautiful views of the ocean below, and stops through any small towns with cute gift shops and restaurants. On the 29th we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, but as usual, it was too foggy to see more than 50 feet up in the air. We decided to stop for food at the Golden Gate Grill and Tap. This was located on the third floor of the building, with a tap room on the second floor. It had hundreds of different beers, a few games, and delicious food. We decided we would definitely go again. 

After this we went on to Pismo Beach. Pismo is a city where people can drive out onto the beach and camp. It was only $10 to camp for the night with no specific time to be out the next day. Since the holiday weekend was coming up, it was rather busy, and we had to drive miles down the beach to camp. More inland were dunes where many dune buggies, and ATVs could go have fun. 

Once in LA, we found out we had more days to waste before our things would arrive in the mail. Mat got to tour Icon Collective (the school he's going to in January). It was located in a building that used to be a real production studio 15 or more years ago. The previous studio did recordings for artists like Beyonce, Nine Inch Nails, Earth Wind and Fire, and Marvin Gaye. We spent one day walking the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and then bought tickets for the Wax Museum, World Record Museum, and Ripley's Believe it or Not! for only a $30 bundle price per person. Why not? We saw some cool stuff! The next day was spent at Six Flags Magic Mountain. Thank you to Chris for the season passes so Mat and I got in for free! We only had to pay for Seth to get in! We went on a whole bunch of rollercoasters, but our favorite was called Full Throttle. I can't ruin it for you, but it's so fun. Later that night we went to an EDM show at a club called The Exchange. On the 4th we drove to Laguna Niguel to visit family and get our important mail. A big shout out to Uncle Jerry and Auntie Rene for letting us use their address! Thank you! It was pleasant getting to see them for the first time since middle school. It was a nice relaxing meal with good company. 

That night we decided that we needed to go to Colorado to get the title for the Jeep. Earlier in the week we had found out that we would need the title for boarder crossings and shipping the vehicle across the Darien Gap. We made it to Las Vegas and stayed in a gas station parking lot. Never in our lives have we seen so many fireworks going off in all directions for the Fourth of July. From there we crossed into Arizona and Utah to get to Colorado.

Our day spent in Colorado was mainly just to get the title and figure out what we might need for the upcoming cross into Mexico. After running errands and eating, we made our way toward the Alpine Loop outside Lake City, CO. The Alpine Loop is a 4x4 off road trail that warns against any vehicle without a lift kit and 4WD. We drove up Cinnamon Pass at 12,600 ft elevation and then up Engineer Pass at 12,800 ft elevation. It was a 40 mile trail usually only wide enough for one car, and in many places there was a cliff on the other side. We also had to navigate over large rock formations in the trail and drive through small river crossings. It was a fun time and great experience. I drive a short distance at the beginning, climbing a few rocks and crossing a river until it was Mat's turn. Mat drove a long way up steep hills, passing other vehicles on precarious ledges, and navigating around tight switchbacks. Seth took over for the last leg and finished out Engineer Pass. Along the way we saw abandoned mines and ghost towns from when the mining industry failed in those areas. It was Seth's third time doing the Alpine Loop, and our first. 
Alpine Loop trail
Summit of Cinnamon Pass

Summit of Engineer Pass
From there we made a mad dash south to El Paso, TX where we plan on crossing the boarder into Mexico. We decided to get a hotel for the two days prior to do more research and planning for what is to come. Our cell phones will not work outside the U.S., so we will only be able to update our Facebook and this blog when we have wifi. We will get a Trac phone to make short calls, but we will not be able to use it much. We will update when we are in Mexico!


Driving the Dalton

The main part of our Alaskan journey is along the Dalton Highway. This road takes us from Livegood, Alaska, to Deadhorse, Alaska and follows along the Alaska Pipeline for a majority of the way. It is known for being one of the most dangerous roads because it is mostly gravel with only small sections that are paved-- and when they are, the road is littered with potholes anywhere from five to ten inches deep spanning across it's width for hundreds of yards at a time. The road is mainly used for truckers, but there were other vehicles and motorcycles along the way. It is recommended that travelers bring a full spare tire, an emergency kit, and warned that the windshield will probably come out with a chip or crack. Since the road is mainly gravel and semi's are the most common, rocks are often caught in the tires, and subsequently flung through the air as the trucks get to higher speeds. We finished the trip with four chips in the windshield that had turned into cracks by the end of the journey. Although Deadhorse is the farthest a civilian can drive, we paid to take a tour to Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean. Many who drive the Pan-American Highway consider this a must-see location to officially start or end their journey.
Unofficial sign at the beginning of the Dalton Highway. 

Although leaving Seward was bitter sweet, there was also the thrill of being on our way to the first major landmark on our trip. While on our way north we decided to stop by Denali National Park to check out the bus tours. Unfortunately, we were too late to take a tour that day, but there were still openings for the next morning. Just outside the park we ate at a wonderful place called The Salmon Bake. Honestly, the food was great, the atmosphere was relaxed, and it was also the most crooked building we've ever seen. Honestly, I'm not even sure how it is still standing considering when we walked into the restaurant the floor was most obviously slanted so that the double doors had at least a three inch difference in the gap at the bottom.

The next morning we drove back into Denali, and in the interest of getting the most bang for our buck (and not die of a 12-13 hour bus ride) we decided to go to mile 66 of the park (about half way). Along the route we saw a whole bunch of wildlife including bears, caribou, big horn sheep, ground squirrels, and more. The roads in the park that the busses drive on are precarious at best. In some places the busses pass each other with mere inches between with a couple hundred foot cliff to the other side. Needless to say, we just didn't look out the window in these parts. Once the seven hour bus was over, we started right back up again and began our trip on the Dalton Highway. This night we drove until 2am and found camp. This had to be the most interesting section of road we've ever seen. It started out great-- nicely paved and great scenery, until we got a bit further in. To describe it as a roller coaster would be the most accurate description. Along the side of the road there would be 'Rough Road' or 'Bump' signs, which usually doesn't mean much-- maybe slow down a few miles per hour and call it good. Nope. There were times when our refrigerator went airborne, and all the duffle bags ended up in Mat's lap in the back seat. So what did we do? Turned on Don't Stop Me Now by Queen and laughed our way along what we dubbed the "wup-wups".
Official sign the the beginning of the Dalton Highway.

The next day we left our camp headed north and crossed into the Arctic Circle! We stopped at a place called Coldfoot Camp. This is one of the few places to fuel up, eat, and access internet (the whole Dalton highway there was no cell service at all). This is just a hodge-podge of building put together with a gas station, restaurant, motel, and mini store for the basics. From here we drove to Galbraith Camp in the middle of nowhere. There was a river near by, so we went exploring. We crossed where the rocks poked up higher than the river, and walked roughly two miles around the shore. The most amazing part was a 30 foot deep canyon the river went into. Crawling onto the rocks in this canyon where the river was rushing past was amazing if not a bit scary knowing it would be awful to fall in. Being up that far north called for cold nights when we had to cook dinner out the back of the Jeep or sleep in the unheated RTT.
Mountains along a rare section of smooth road.

The usual weather and road conditions on the Dalton Highway. 
The Alaska Pipeline following the road to the left. 
The big day was here, we were going to Deadhorse Camp! It was a short day of driving, only 115 miles, so we could have time to find a place to sleep. When we got there it was strange. Very strange. In Deadhorse there are no houses or buildings like seen in a city. All buildings look like giant shipping containers put together or like over sized trailer homes, but without the homey feel. Almost all of the building are on stilts to allow for the insane amounts of snow, and almost all of them can be moved if need be. Mind you there are only four permanent residents of Deadhorse. All of the work there is seasonal on the oil fields, with a huge influx of workers in the spring and then they all leave in the fall. Everywhere you look there are trucks, machinery, and construction equipment. It is very easy to feel out of place when there are 'Private Property' signs everywhere declaring the property owned by specific oil companies.

There is a tiny airport for bringing in mail and supplies for the one store called Brooks Range General Store. It is a conglomerate of a Napa Auto Parts store, Post Office, laundry, showers, tiny room of gas station-like goods, and a small clothing store offering souvenir t-shirts, and a lot of Carhartt gear. All of this is strung together through narrow passage ways and odd flights of stairs where you are welcome to explore anywhere you want. Oh, and people live in the upper floors. In this town there are only two gas stations, and by that I mean the dispensers are located in a gravel lot (nothing is paved here) with no humans around. Payment is made electronically at a kiosk nearby.

End of the Dalton Highway sign at the Brooks Range General Store.
After calling a few of the 'hotels' we came to the conclusion that there was only one place to camp out for the night. It was basically a gravel version of a beach 30 yards off of the main road into Deadhorse. This is a place where the winds ripped by us at 30 mph and a decent sized body of water another 30 yards further from the road (we forget the name of the lake). As for the geography and climate of this place, we were too far north for trees to grow, the ground was completely flat, the earth was either half-dead grass or gravel, and while we were there the temperature never got over 39 degrees with a low somewhere around 25. The biggest kicker though, was that the sun never set. Never. It would only dip low in the sky, and then come a bit higher, but never directly above. It just circled around the sky constantly. It was quite hard to sleep, and there was no guessing what time it was without looking at a clock.

The next day was a high of 35 degrees with 25mph winds. Perfect weather to jump into the Arctic Ocean, right?! .....Maybe. We did some adulting (our way of saying being responsible and planning) the few days previous and had set up a tour to go north of Deadhorse into Prudhoe Bay. Only authorized vehicles are allowed to go into Prudhoe Bay, since the majority of the land is owned by big oil companies and for some reason the Dept. of Homeland Security feels the need to regulate who is allowed to go in and out. Seriously. After a small tour of Deadhorse and Prudhoe Bay we found ourselves looking out at the Arctic Ocean. As everyone piled out of the tour bus, we noted it was cold, windy, and there were a whole bunch of little ice bergs floating further out in the bay. The three of us walked around for a bit and contemplated our lives and if we were actually going to run in. After saying "F#!K it, we can't come this far, and not jump in" we did it. We had packed our bags with towels, a few extra warm clothes, and a GoPro. Seth went first running wildly into the water holding the GoPro on a selfie stick with a string of explicatives trailing behind him. He ran back and we worked as a team to dry him off and get him dressed so we could help Mat do the same. He ran out yelling, flipped backward and sank into the icy water. Then it was my turn. Ohmygod. Ohmygod. Ohmygod. I ran in. My legs were completely numb. The bottom was sludge-y. It was cold. So Cold. I ducked down real quick yelling "This counts! This counts!", since I technically didn't sink my head underwater. I ran back finding Mat had gone to the tour bus, and Seth laughing so hard that he'd rather take a video of my freak-out reaction than help me dry off and get clothed.
The Jeep coming out victorious after four grueling days on the Dalton.

In the end we got certificates stating we are now a part of the Polar Bear Club, the coldest experience of a lifetime, and Mat recalling an Australian man from the bus saying "Is that sheila gonna do it too?" as the other passengers watched us from the warmth of the bus. Once back in Deadhorse we drove on back to Coldfoot Camp to spend the night and return to normal civilization.