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Here's an idea that I thought might generate some discussion. First a bit of background ...
My wife has been wanting to do some travel around South America for some time now - with our current plan being early 2008. Originally we were looking at doing 4-5 weeks around the south (Chile, Argentina, Uruguay) via some organised tours, with some time on our own between tours to explore some more.
After we started looking at our finances and work situation and doing more serious research into where we might go and what we might do, the plan has changed somewhat into a 5 - 6 month extended trip taking time to explore the region in more depth (and potentially heading further north to include Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and possibly others).
When researching various things on the internet I started coming across websites and blogs describing trips that people had taken where they'd driven down from the US to Panama and then shipped their car to Colombia or Ecuador (you can't drive directly from Panama - there are no roads !!) ... including some people who had shipped motorhomes and towed a 4WD around South America !!! There was even one bunch of female retirees travelling together in a couple of motorhomes.
This started me thinking about the possibilities - I found that the NRMA has some information on shipping a car overseas, the process is not as scary as I thought it might be (although compulsory insurance for your destination can be tricky - but not impossible). It would be great to have a car you knew was sound and correctly set up to cope with the rough roads you are likely to find (even the major roads in some areas are very rough and poorly maintained).
So some options for our trip might be:
1. major cities only, or organised tours for other areas
2. get out of the major cities to explore by bus on our own
3. hire cars to get to areas that buses don't service
4. buy a car once over there
5. ship our own car over
I won't go into the various merits and issues with each of these options - that's another discussion ... the exercise here is to investigate the last option as an alternative to the others ...
So here's a hypothetical question for you ... if you were to ship a car to another country with the intent to explore some of the areas that the main tourist services don't cover - what car would you take and how would you set it up ?
Let's set some parameters:
1. the intent is touring, not serious off-road
2. the roads can be very rough
3. diesel is the preferred fuel in most areas, although the quality is sometimes questionable
4. pretty much everyone you meet is a back-yard diesel mechanic
5. might be better to avoid drawing too much attention to yourself or your car if possible
... would you ship your D4D Prado ?
How about something older ? (potentially easier to work on if you have problems, not as much to lose if something goes horribly wrong when you're there) ?
How about something more commonly found like a Hilux (apparently they are everywhere) ?
What would you do to set up your vehicle for such a trip ?
Discuss
My wife has been wanting to do some travel around South America for some time now - with our current plan being early 2008. Originally we were looking at doing 4-5 weeks around the south (Chile, Argentina, Uruguay) via some organised tours, with some time on our own between tours to explore some more.
After we started looking at our finances and work situation and doing more serious research into where we might go and what we might do, the plan has changed somewhat into a 5 - 6 month extended trip taking time to explore the region in more depth (and potentially heading further north to include Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and possibly others).
When researching various things on the internet I started coming across websites and blogs describing trips that people had taken where they'd driven down from the US to Panama and then shipped their car to Colombia or Ecuador (you can't drive directly from Panama - there are no roads !!) ... including some people who had shipped motorhomes and towed a 4WD around South America !!! There was even one bunch of female retirees travelling together in a couple of motorhomes.
This started me thinking about the possibilities - I found that the NRMA has some information on shipping a car overseas, the process is not as scary as I thought it might be (although compulsory insurance for your destination can be tricky - but not impossible). It would be great to have a car you knew was sound and correctly set up to cope with the rough roads you are likely to find (even the major roads in some areas are very rough and poorly maintained).
So some options for our trip might be:
1. major cities only, or organised tours for other areas
2. get out of the major cities to explore by bus on our own
3. hire cars to get to areas that buses don't service
4. buy a car once over there
5. ship our own car over
I won't go into the various merits and issues with each of these options - that's another discussion ... the exercise here is to investigate the last option as an alternative to the others ...
So here's a hypothetical question for you ... if you were to ship a car to another country with the intent to explore some of the areas that the main tourist services don't cover - what car would you take and how would you set it up ?
Let's set some parameters:
1. the intent is touring, not serious off-road
2. the roads can be very rough
3. diesel is the preferred fuel in most areas, although the quality is sometimes questionable
4. pretty much everyone you meet is a back-yard diesel mechanic
5. might be better to avoid drawing too much attention to yourself or your car if possible
... would you ship your D4D Prado ?
How about something older ? (potentially easier to work on if you have problems, not as much to lose if something goes horribly wrong when you're there) ?
How about something more commonly found like a Hilux (apparently they are everywhere) ?
What would you do to set up your vehicle for such a trip ?
Discuss
Comment