It is! I flew into a national park (Kavak?), which had some great trails/swims, and on the way out, the pilot took us by Angel Falls. I bet it's even better from the ground (though I'm not sure it's accessible by road).

Anyway, a few things:

You mention selling the car, assuming it survives. Double-check into that. I think I remember that you have to fill out paperwork saying you're taking a vehicle back out when bringing one into a country. Seems like I remember reading about big fines, or headaches, or something trying to get rid of one down there. Though I suppose there's always a market with varying shades of gray.

Also, the reason I mentioned being more than conversational in Spanish before is it seems like I've read that border officials need everything filled out just so, and anything wrong sends you back to square one. Especially in the Darien Gap workaround, since it's between countries.

In that link I posted earlier, I think I remember Dan taking a side trip to Belize. Might be something to think about. I guess it's really nice, might be able to see Tikal too.

I think you mentioned being in BA a while back, but can't remember if you were in Ushuaia. Ushuaia itself isn't much. A tourist town whose reason for existence seems to be Antarctic cruises and people going to Tierra del Fuego NP. Not sure if Torres del Paine NP in Chile is road-accessible from Ushuaia.

Anyway, there's plenty of places to eat and stay there. If you take the road to Tierra del Fuego NP, there's a sign that's the unofficial-official 'end of the pan-american highway. Need to get the FJ pictured there & Ushuaia's "Fin del Mondo" sign.

Also, one thing I've read on (I've researched this but am too chicken, have to live vicariously through others) is to make sure you know about all the safety requirements for each country. Sounds like it removes one way for the police to shake you down if you have the hazard triangles, fire extinguishers, etc, etc that are required.

Finally, find the episode(s) of the old Top Gear (Clarkson, May, and Hammond) where they have a Patagonian adventure.

Best of luck, I hope you're able to accomplish this. Looking forward to hearing adventures from the road.

Awesome - thanks for the tips. I will check back in as details start to emerge.

?

Do you have your blog set up already? I'll follow. Make sure to check out Torres del Paine down there and eat centolla by the spoon.

Yeah it's started. Needs a lot more work. https://ushuaiaorbust.com/

I just got back from Torres del Paine a month ago.

Is that Torres Del Paine in your background photo or something else? I'm already tilted looking at it because the top of the mountains are cut off, so you might want to look into recropping it on the website

Will you be able to take any decent landscape photos without Marc holding your hand?

haha I'm trolling, I look forward to seeing the photos and trip reports!

It's Mt. Fitz Roy on the Argentina side. Not my pic I just grabbed it off the web to start. I will put my own up in a bit (still working on them of course). I'm a little swamped with two jobs and Spanish classes right now.

Actually a good number of my best photos were taken on my own. Even on Marc's trips - I don't like it when he tries to set up the shot. Some want that, I usually just wander off and do my own thing. I mostly do the group tours for the camaraderie and the adventure. Going solo is fine but after a while I go a little batty talking to myself. It's nice to have others to share the experience with.

But also there are soooooo many places I would never know about, or never know the right conditions to be there w/o him. It would be like trying to do your own Safari in Africa w/o a guide or something. He lived in Patagonia for months exploring before he started doing the tours. On everyone else's Patagonia trip (and there are a lot of them now) - you're in a van with a driver, which limits how spontaneous you can be. We're in rental cars driving ourselves and hitting places no one else goes to. He tends to avoid the super-iconic stuff.

The funniest part was two different times we met other photo tours, and when they found out who Marc was they treated him like he was a mega-movie star or something. We walked through their campground and they were all lined up gawking.

The trip next year is getting into fjiords on the Chile side on a boat - and hiking up into some of them on land. No one else does that. This will be his first time too so it will be fun to see how he approaches it. We met the captain of the boat - he's a super cool guy who also works for the government helping them get into those spots to do research.

Apparently the hiking is just brutal because it's densely packed low scrub - like Alaska, and you're fighting through it the whole way. Half the time you're not even stepping on solid ground but scrambling over low trees and stuff. Obviously I couldn't arrange something like that on my own.

lol it wouldn't be a Suzz photography post without some good Marc worship. It is kind of funny though, I'm picturing something like this: "I flew down to SA to join the tour group, then we drove another few hundred kilometers to get a specific shot marc liked, but then when he tried to set a shot in one exact location I felt like it was too superficial and cliche so I wandered off 30 meters to get my own unique vantage point"

Lol I said they were worshipping him. I don't give a ****. Truth be told my style and what I get into is very different than his. I tend to like more simplistic stuff like Art Wolfe. Also I just don't have the talent to pull off the big epic landscapes that Marc likes, and I seem to resonate more with more intimate scenes. Like these two that I took on Marc's Glacier trip, but while I was on my own which are two of my favorite shots:


This was in the middle of the day while we were on our own.


This was in the morning getting up at my camp site.

Also there's a lot more hiking than driving. Typical day is get up at 4am - hike 7 miles in up a few 1000', hike back out, do maybe a shorter hike for sunset. After about 5 days of that my legs were completely cooked. Obviously once we hike 7 miles in we're taking shots of the same mountain. The set up part comes in picking the foreground. But I still tend to look for more intimate scenes and am not really that interested in taking a shot I didn't find. That's what I mean.

Anyway like I said I like the camaraderie and the adventure. I do plenty of trips on my own, but I enjoy doing these as well. Not sure why you get so rustled about them.

I know, I know you've posted those before. But how many photos that you really like haven't been part of one of Marc's trips?

For me, I dunno, I hate the concept. A paid photography trip just feels like it would crush every creative bone in my body. Being herded around like sheep, everyone taking some sort of similar photo, in a location that was found by someone else. I mean I get if you're a beginner and you can't scout out a cool location by yourself, but damn, I would just feel like some sort of hack photographer with no vision of my own on one of these trips. I'm sure you disagree...

That's what some are like. Marc generally goes out of his way to not do any of the standard iconic stuff and there's a lot of opportunity to improvise and find your own shot. All the stuff you're imagining is like the hacky one-day photo tour I did in Kauai.

I did a Yosemite tour that was probably halfway between the two - but was still good for me as my camera skills had gotten really rusty in the 3 years where most of my vacation time was spent with my gf (which was dumb - I won't let that happen next time). But I had also gone to Yosemite on my own before that. The tour gave me a lot more ideas about where to go next time. The guide knows the area like the back of his hand.

Like I said I have a lot of fun on them and it's a nice change of pace from wandering around talking to myself. I've met a lot of interesting people on these trips - many of whom I'm still friends with on FB. One of them is planning to join me for all or some of the driving trip. They've also massively accelerated my photography and photoshop skills. And next year I'm going to be standing on a fjord in Chile that (most likely) no serious landscape photographers have ever been to. That's pretty cool imo.

ok fair enough, it's not my cup of my tea, i'll end the derail. What are you shooting with nowadays? Do you think you'll zip through Guatemala? There's a really cool 2d/1n hike (Acatenango) outside of Antigua that gives you amazing views of an actively erupting volcano (Fuego) and you should definitely do it you have the time and feel like burning some major calories!

I have a d810. Very excited about Guatemala. I hope to spend at least a week there. My friend that I traveled through Peru with wants to come for that part. Yeah everyone says make sure to bring gloves for the volcano so you don't cut up your hands (I'm assuming).

Saw a thing on GlobeTrekker last night (shown on PBS around here) about Ruta 40 in Argentina. Might be interesting for you to look at.

text description

Yeah I've driven on this stretch of Ruta 40, also Ruta 23 which goes to El Chalten - and Ruta 9 in Chile:



It's pretty amazing. But will be a lot more fun in my FJ Cruiser vs. these horrible Geo Metro-ish rental cars we were driving - which we almost rolled or died in a couple of times. Apparently they're the only thing you can get, and they still cost $1k/week down there.

I'm getting $2k off the tour next year if I supply a vehicle. Should be just about enough to pay for my shipping across the Darien Gap. Stupid 90 miles of jungle.

Apparently you can take a 4-day ferry ride from Puerto Montt to Puerto Notales in Chile. That doesn't sound fun. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/chile/tr...ng-around/boat

But no ferry across the Darien Gap since the 90s. I wonder if both sides just don't want to be connected.

Edit: well apparently the ferry sucks, but the scenery is incredible. Hmmm. https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUser...os_Region.html

ugh, come on, don't skip Brazil! How about Bonito and the Iguazu Falls? Both amazing and close to the West border

I'm in SEA right now, but will be home by next year

I'm gonna do Brazil for sure. I just may be sick of driving at that point. Also after watching Tony Bourdain I want Minas Gerais to eat the food and see that crazy art museum. https://www.eater.com/2016/11/27/137...s-brazil-recap

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inhotim

The interstate bus system is pretty good and you don't need to book anything in advance. But be ready to face a 15h+ ride and a couple of other smaller ones to get to Inhotim if you're coming from the West

Yeah - I could even put my car on ferries to get across the Amazon if I wanted. I'd like to see Angel Falls in Venezuela - but unless the situation improves that's about it. I sure don't want to get stuck there with my car if **** goes down.

My Spanish teacher has figured out that if she ties things to beer or food I retain it much quicker. It's true - you only have to tell me a food item once and it sticks. Yet I still can't remember what tener means after like 20 times knowing and forgetting. Argh.

Blog is coming along: http://ushuaiaorbust.com/

I found a theme on Wordpress called Zeal. I bought the pro version for $50. I could have lived without it but now I get support. It's not really a blog template, but I think it works pretty well.

do this. those eruptions are super-impressive and the Hike is exhausting but doable for everyone with 2 legs imo

did you end up getting an IG?