Date:         Mon, 13 May 1996 08:52:04 +1200
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         william.warburton/OU=tritec@dsw.govt.nz
Subject:      Re: VWs and we're off to Bolivia (long reply, not much VW content)

Item Subject: Message text

 Hi,
	I spent a fair bit of last year travelling in South America,
including Bolivia (it's in the middle, so we kept passing through).
 It's an interesting place- where will you be based?

> 			... and the second, could we continue
> Torbin's epic and drive to the southern tip of America.

 Sure, no problem! You'll have to drive through Argentina, which will be
quite expensive due to their current economic problems/policies but it's
certainly more than possible. My personal recommendation would be to cross
to Chile quite early on and drive down as far as you can through Chile,
until you run out of road and cross over to Argentina for the last section
down to Tierra del Fuego. Chile is cheaper and we found the people more
friendly (Argentinians have a reputation for arrogance throughout Latin
America- exaggerated, of course :-).

> 	 ...What do you think, are the logistics possible? Do others want to
> join this crazy idea? If  reliable shipping can be found from the USA to
> either Columbia or Venezuela, how long might it take to drive down the back
> bone of South America?

  You can ship to either- I'm not sure which is best or how to organise it
(try phoning freight companies in Miami, I guess?). Look through the
guidebooks in your library, the "South American Handbook" is excellent,
though so detailed it's hard to get impressions from, the Lonely Planet
"Shoestring guide" to South America is more accessible but less detailed.
Both have some information about shipping, not enough to do it but pointers
to start from. Note that you can buy a VW bus new in La Paz if you wanted to
a Brazilian one with a 1600dp and disc brakes. I would give this serious
thought- even if you don't want to buy one new it would be easier to get
parts, petrol and mechanics for a familiar vehicle than an American import
and you will be marginally less obviously a foriegner.
 I would estimate that Colombia to Bolivia would take two or three weeks of
quite hard driving, given that you'll want to find safe places to park the
van each night before dark (6pm: tropics) The direct coach services do it
in about four or five days if I remember correctly, but they only stop for
fuel and food. Naturally you'll want to extend this by visiting places along
the way-  we spent about 9-10 months in South America and barely touched
Colombia or Venezuela, let alone Brazil, which is huge. Chile and Bolivia
were our "favorite" places.

>  ...as I
> stand now, I have no idea of the availability of VWs in Bolivia, costs etc.

 You would be able to find a converted camper in one of the big cities, I
think. My recollection is that Ecuador or Peru (read Quito & Lima) would
probably be best. Those countries seemed to have more VWs than some of
the others but enough more affluent people to increase the number of campers.
  Bolivia has lots & lots of VWs but I don't remember seeing many campers,
on the other hand La Paz might be a good place to look if you'll be in
Bolivia anyway (I think you could get a van converted in Bolivia very
cheaply, if you wanted to take that route, though any parts that wern't
low tech would have to come from elsewhere).
 I don't know the details of how this is best organised but we met several
groups of people with their own transport- Motorcycles, 4x4s (Lada), pickups,
so it can definitely be done. You won't meet many Americans (from the US, I
mean) as few seem to make it past Panama, but there are lots of Europeans,
Israelis and Australasians travelling in South America with whom to compare
notes.
 I'll cut this off- it is getting way off topic and quite long. Hope it's
of enough general interest to warrant a list posting! Email me for more...!

Cheers,
	W.