IG?

Instagram

Not yet. I will be posting on blog, FB, 500px (sporadically) and twitter. Not sure if I want to add another one. I know there are apps that post in multiple places. But the social media sites seem to give them very low visibility.

IE - if I post a twitter post on FB hardly anyone seems to see it - other than my Mom and the people who always like all my stuff.

cool. I'll be following your Twitter/blog. I'm pretty sure IG would go a long way toward the prospect of monetizing something like this but I don't really know a ton about these things.

Yeah - I need to do it.

I'm looking for someone to fabricate a steel lockbox for me for the back, that would bolt to the floor and be fairly hard to break into (like one of those truck bed toolboxes). Does anyone know what kind of businesses I should look for to help? Seems like cold-calling steel fabricators would result in a lot of confused conversations.

subscribed. best of luck, suzzer! keep 2+2 updated.

Good luck op! sick plan

I want to live in Los Angeles
Not the one in Los Angeles
No, not the one in South California
They got one in South Patagonia

Is this still a go?

Yes! More info. to come.

Currently doing the same trip but on a KLR(motorbike) and from San Francisco, would be happy to help with any info you need, but it's pretty much as you expect it, the mental part is the toughest challenge

Where are you at now? If there yet, did you spend any time in Guatemala?

Currently in Antigua, Guatemala, it's been the best place to stop on the trip by a long way, I took the road from Palenque-border-here, and would have to recommend, its great(although somewhat unsafe)

I was planning to spend some time there. Are you staying in a hostel or rented place? Any specific area to recommend - walk to bars and restaurants would be good I guess.

Good news on this. After not much luck with fabricators, I finally got smart and googled the right combination of words - "FJ Cruiser locking storage box". Found this Tuffy locking drawer, which is perfect. For some reason it never occurred to me someone might make something specifically for my FJ. Duh.



I wrote it up in a new blog post: http://ushuaiaorbust.com/2017/11/08/preparations/

Also I updated all of my pictures and put them in two gallery plugins. Top is just Patagonia from 500px, below that is highlights of all my pics from flickr. http://ushuaiaorbust.com/gallery/

I've been pretty impressed with wordpress so far as far as setting up the blog. Making the actual blog post with a mixture of pics/captions and words seems more challenging than it should be. But hopefully I will get the hang of it.

Unfortunately the dudes on motorcycles aren't doing all of Central America until March 15th, which is too late for me. But they will be in Tulum, Mexico around the end of Jan - and a really hot girl I work with wants to do that part with me. Woot.

So the current plan is to do that, then head down through Central America. Which gives me about 2 months + 1 week to make it from the Yucatan to Patagonia - including shipping over Darien Gap. I'm trying to figure out if that's crazy or not. Will I just be driving the whole time with no time to stop and relax? That seems sub-optimal.

I also may do hang out somewhere in Mexico or Guatemala during Jan - still trying to figure that out.

Thank you for the updates. Look forward to the events leading up to take off.

Thanks.

Oh yeah - the other development is my work asked me if I wanted to get laid off on Dec 15th - which is pretty much when I was planning to ask for a leave of absence anyway. Except now I get severance and cheap health insurance for 6 months to boot. So that worked out well. I probably won't use the health insurance but at least it's there if I have to come back to the states for some calamity.

Biggest challenge right now is trying to find a friend or friend of a friend to rent out my place. I really don't want some random in here with all my furniture, nor do I want to move all my furniture out. I may just leave it vacant and let people house sit or something. My complex vehemently forbids AirBnB and I don't want to get on their bad side. Also trying to deal with that while abroad would be a mess.

I stayed in this place https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/17924677 was awesome, private parking, security, etc. I've gotta work whilst on the road so can't really do the hostel thing. I've had a negative experience everytime I've stayed with a local and a positive one each time I've stayed with an expat. Could be variance but take from that what you may.

Antigua itself is super small so you don't have much of a choice other than staying in the centre.

Also be super stern with rejecting helpers at the boarders, I got one at Honduras as the process seemed pretty intimidating, but althouguh quoted a price of $5 i got scammed for >$200. Guys I met at the next border also had been hit with the same scam.

Awesome that's great advice - thanks.

Have you spent any time at Lake Atitlan? If so any advice there? Sounds like San Marcos or San Pedro is good.

What was the scam?

I skipped the lake which I kinda regret, was fatigued leaving Mexico and just wanted to get to Antigua, I do hear good things though, also don't drive on the south of the lake as it's a pretty famous spot for bandits, you can get a police escort if you have to go that way though(no fee).

Starts saying 'there has been some problems with immigration, they want you to go back to El Salvador, but I will sort it for you', at the end he took me across the Honduras border(he has all your documents so you're kinda ****ed), started introducing me to police men he knew(assume it was some sort of intimidation tactic), then said 'look sorry I had to bribe them, the total cost is $220'

Sure you could argue but with the police beside him hugging him etc and you're in Honduras, I just accepted the whole ordeal as a harsh lesson learned.

That sucks. Semi cheap lesson I guess. Did he at least take care of the business he was supposed to take care of?