The Adventure

Planned departure date:

This is the story of our journey. Starting in New Hampshire, USA, we will travel to Ushuaia, Argentina, the southernmost city in the world. In our travels, we will pass through Mexico and all of Central America before shipping our Land Rover from Colon, Panama to Cartagena, Colombia. Once in Colombia, we will continue driving south through Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and finally, Argentina. Along the way, we will travel off the beaten path and visit places that aren’t in any guidebook.

The website also contains information about traveling in each country. On our pages you will find information about border crossings, local foods, money, places to sleep, and more. The site will be updated as we progress through our trip and discover more about each country.

View NH to Ushuaia in a larger map

The route will follow the above directions, for the most part. We have a very loose itinerary and nothing is set in stone. Often times we are told that we should visit some place off our route and we usually oblige. Paper maps will take priority over Google Maps, and GPS will be enabled as a sort of confirmation for our paper maps. GPS is great, but the maps for Central and particularly South America are not as detailed as a typical USA GPS map. The GPS will be used to provide a base map, which has major highways on it.

The vehicle we will be taking on this trip is a slightly modified Land Rover Defender 110.

Defender

One of the main reasons we chose a Land Rover Defender was simplicity. The Defender is equipped with a turbo-diesel engine that is all mechanically controlled. There are no sensors or computers involved. The Defender is a proven platform and we shouldn’t have any issues getting it serviced anywhere in the world. Any modifications we make will be kept simple. There is no point in adding fancy shocks or specialized springs that won’t be available where we are going. The Defender has been almost 100% mechanically restored at this point. The goal is to minimize possible break-downs and failures. If something needs replacing, I want to do it here where parts are easy to get and I have all my tools.

Defender 110 on some local NH trails

We installed a Mombasa roof top tent and an ARB awning so that we can camp in comfort. Lodging is a huge cost for a trip like this, so any night that we can camp is welcome. We plan to stay in hostels a couple nights per week, but for the most part, we intend to camp.

Defender 110 with tent and awning

We installed cabinets in the back to hold all of our gear.

Cabinets in the Defender

Opposite of the bench is a pull out table in the cabinets. This will allow us to eat inside the vehicle in inclement weather or work on the computer, or doing any of the other things that a table is used for.