unURBAN Adventures - Alaska to Argentina to AFRICA!

[unURBAN]

greetings,while enjoying your blog i kinda thought your patrol looked familiar...did you stop in jacksonville beach on your way north? I think this is your truck. it stopped me dead in my tracks...sweet patrol!!

Thanks for that, docclem! The one and only Y61 Patrol! (...in North America????)

Temporarily imported the Patrol in Jacksonville. Took me a few days (the most complicated and beurocratic border crossing I've ever had!!!), and I left Florida in the beginning of April.

E

 

[docclem]

HaHa nice! I thought it was yours! it was funny i was on my bike and slammed on the brakes, and said holy ******t!! thats a patrol! my friends thought i was crazy, I walked around it for a good 15 min's. I've had the pictures saved on my phone since then. Looking forward to your updates.

 

[nightfoam]

Great, I just spend my bits and pieces of free time over the last week reading your blog and now I've discovered this thread with so much more information. Guess I'll start over. Great read so far though, thank you for sharing

 

[unURBAN]

No, we are definitely not going there...

But we ended up in Guatemala City. The Patrol desperately needed new oil and filters after travelling through North America. No parts for the ZD30 engine to be found anywhere, and the filters we brought along had been used for the service we had up in Whitehorse on our way south. Guatemala is the first country on our way south that actually imports the Patrol. Hopefully it will be easy to find parts from here on. Well, easy is in relatively easy. The only place we could find the parts was in Guatemala City – down town!

We took off from Antigua in the morning, trying to get into the city just after rush hours. We had plotted in Nissan’s position on the GPS, but we knew from experience that the maps in the GPS didn’t include one way streets and accurate highway on- and off ramps. So even if we knew we were in the right area, and that the Nissan garage should be right around the corner, we spent almost an hour trying to find the entrance. Frustrating when you actually can see it, but it is only possible to turn in coming from the other direction and no U-turn is possible.

But finally we pulled in, and the office came to live. They told us they had been following our blog, and that they had been hoping we would drop in. Excellent! An hour later the Patrol was up in the air, and at least two mechanics were working on changing the filters, oil, tightening up the wheel bearings, and looking over breaks and suspension. And I really got the impression that they knew what they were doing. We were even allowed into the garage to take pictures so we could document the happening.

And when the Patrol was taken care of (and even washed!) we were invited over to the main office to say hi and to a photo session! We were really taken good care of during our short stay in Guatemala City.

A BIG THANKS to Nissan for helping us out - you’re the best!

We left 15 minutes to six, and half way through the city center (this time in rush hour), our GPS switched to night mode. By the time we reached the city limit it was dark. Interesting. This was actually one of the two places we had told our selves we shouldn’t be or drive after dark. The other place is Caracas in Venezuela. But it all went smooth, and people seemed friendly - even those driving. Around seven thirty we were back in Antigua.

Mission accomplished!

E&M

 

[jpvm]

Great x 3 = Great coverage Espen , great support from the guys of Nissan, great pics as usual ! :coffeedrink:

 

[valeriano]

Do you intend to pass through Brazil?

 

[RMP&O]

Super awesome stuff about your service in Guatemala City! I find people in Guatemala to be soooo nice and helpful and the mechanics are really good too.


I hope we can bump into each other next month. I will be heading home about March 15th so maybe we can meet up somewhere?

 

[unURBAN]

Do you intend to pass through Brazil?

Good question! But I'm afraid the answer is not very good: We just don't know yet...

The planning for the trip so far kind of stops in Panama when the rainy season starts, and we hopefully are on a southbound ship. Suggestions for nice places and routes are of course VERY interesting.....

I'll make sure mention it here when we''ve updated our Route sections with plans for South America!

E&M

 

[unURBAN]

I hope we can bump into each other next month. I will be heading home about March 15th so maybe we can meet up somewhere?

Hey RMP&O!
Would be super fun if we could meet up for a beer or seven! We have had a little change in plans due to some family coming over to "visit" from Norway. We are now in Yucatan and will spend the next three weeks here. They fly home a couple of days after you leave Panama, so we should be able to mmet up somewhere between here and there...

Let's try!
E&M

 

[valeriano]

Good question! But I'm afraid the answer is not very good: We just don't know yet...

The planning for the trip so far kind of stops in Panama when the rainy season starts, and we hopefully are on a southbound ship. Suggestions for nice places and routes are of course VERY interesting.....

I'll make sure mention it here when we''ve updated our Route sections with plans for South America!

E&M

I can suggest you tons of beautiful places in Brazil. But you gotta just give me an idea of a route, cuz Brazil is a little big and the places depend on your intentions (entering on north and going south, entering on south and going north, entering on west and going east, etc...). Coen and Karin have been for a year here and didn't see it all.

If you enter through the north, there is the Serra do Sol near Guyana. Very nice place with some (very) challenging off-road. There are some picrutes here: http://www.4x4brasil.com.br/forum/showthread.php?t=8530

On the west part of the country, there is the Pantanal, witch is a very beautiful place. Here are some pictures of another traveler that went there during the Panamericana: https://picasaweb.google.com/gregs.legs/Pantanal#

Bonito is also a very nice place to visit on the west part of the country: https://picasaweb.google.com/gregs.legs/Bonito#

In the center of the country, there is the Jalapão Desert. Awesome place and very unURBAN (1.2 inhabitants/km²).
There is a video here from when I've been there: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5FklG7pzSQ"]YouTube - Expedição dos Sertões, parte 1: Jalapão[/ame]

And of course there is the southeast part of the country (I live in Rio de Janeiro), which is nice, but not so unURBAN.

And the list goes on forever. Just let me know about your route so I can help you with some nice spots to visit.

 

[Medic14]

Well, I'm a little late in the game, but this trip looks amazing! I have been to Guatemala twice, and have always been blown away by the awesome people there! I'll be eagerly following your trip!

 

[unURBAN]

Well, I'm a little late in the game, but this trip looks amazing! I have been to Guatemala twice, and have always been blown away by the awesome people there! I'll be eagerly following your trip!

Very welcome, and thanks for commenting!
And we also found Guatemala to be a lot better than it's reputation!

E&M

 

[unURBAN]

Lanquin, Guatemala

From Antigua we wanted to travel north via Cobán to Lanquin before taking road nr. 11 north to Flores. Then we heard that Cobán and the department of Alta Verapaz region was under “State of Siege” since mid of December when the army moved in to help the police fighting the Zetas, a Mexican drug cartel. Reading the US embassy’s advice about Guatemala we should probably not be in Guatemala at all. We wrote some emails to the Norwegian embassy in Guatemala City and they told us to that robberies happened quite often in the most popular tourist destinations so look after your valuables. Something we learned our self a Saturday night in Antigua when a friend’s purse got stolen in a restaurant. When we asked the Tourist Police they said Cobán was safe, so we decided to drive the way we had planned to go.
We left Antigua in the morning, and we wanted to drive a road that did not take us through Guatemala City. Driving into the city once was enough. So we took some back roads from Antigua and north to Salamá.

When we came to Rio Grande O Motagua we found that the bridge had been washed away so for the first time on this trip we actually had to drive across a river and not just doing it for fun (The road out past Petersville in Alaska doesn’t count as that whole drive was for fun..).

Since the bridge had been gone for a while it was kind of a “road” where the cars and motorbikes crossed. No problems. It was a really nice drive in these valleys north to Salamá. From Salamá we were back on the “highhway” to Cobán. Took a couple of wrong turns in Cobán, but found our way out of the city at around 17.45, we were pushing to get to Lanquin since we did not really wanted to spend a night in Cobán. And that was good since we later this evening learned from some other travelers that it is actually a 6 o’clock curfew in town…

Spent a nice and quiet night in a hotel’s parking lot in Lanquin. Next day we packed up and drove to Semuc Champey witch is one of the attractions in the area.

It was just a totally amazing place with turquoise water in the jungle. It was great to jump in and swim around in the different pools.

Cahabòn River is flowing down the valley and then the rivers runs into a natural limestone tunnel for 300 meters. On top of the tunnel water flows out of the sides of the valley and forms the different pools with the turquoise water. Amazing place to spend a sunny day.

Second and third night in Laquin we spent at Zephyr, a true backpacker place, and they had a spot where we could park our car and put up the tent. So we joined in for happy hour and stone oven pizzas

Last afternoon in Lanquin we looked around in the Lanquin Cave where there was no need for a guide and we could walk around by ourselves. At sunset we and a few other travelers were sitting in the entrance to the cave as the bats were flying out to look for their dinner. I had never been so close to so many bats before and I was truly impressed about their navigations skills as not a single bat hit us as they were whizzing by our heads.

After some nice days in Lanquin area it was time to head north to one of the major tourist attraction in Guatemala, the Maya Ruins in Tikal.

E&M

 

[unURBAN]

Great pics and video! I can imagine there must be so many places and so much variation that you could use a lifetime exploring this country. I'll definitely let you know if we plan to drive into Brazil - north, south, east or west....

Thanks!
E

I can suggest you tons of beautiful places in Brazil. But you gotta just give me an idea of a route, cuz Brazil is a little big and the places depend on your intentions (entering on north and going south, entering on south and going north, entering on west and going east, etc...). Coen and Karin have been for a year here and didn't see it all.

If you enter through the north, there is the Serra do Sol near Guyana. Very nice place with some (very) challenging off-road. There are some picrutes here: http://www.4x4brasil.com.br/forum/showthread.php?t=8530

On the west part of the country, there is the Pantanal, witch is a very beautiful place. Here are some pictures of another traveler that went there during the Panamericana: https://picasaweb.google.com/gregs.legs/Pantanal#

Bonito is also a very nice place to visit on the west part of the country: https://picasaweb.google.com/gregs.legs/Bonito#

In the center of the country, there is the Jalapão Desert. Awesome place and very unURBAN (1.2 inhabitants/km²).
There is a video here from when I've been there: YouTube - Expedição dos Sertões, parte 1: Jalapão

And of course there is the southeast part of the country (I live in Rio de Janeiro), which is nice, but not so unURBAN.

And the list goes on forever. Just let me know about your route so I can help you with some nice spots to visit.

 

[unURBAN]

Yes, links please

That would be:

here, of course..
http://blog.unurban.no
http://www.patrol4x4.com (just started posting here (australian forum))

...in English. And these in Norwegian:
http://www.pirate4x4.no
http://www.turpaahjul.no
http://www.nissan4x4.no

E