Alaska to Brazil - Completed!!!
Posted by Karen on February 3rd 2008
Written on the 2007 Alaska to Brazil expedition
WE MADE IT! RIO DE JANERO! THE FIRST EXPLORATORY OVERLAND EXPEDITION ALL THE WAY FROM ALASKA TO BRAZIL – COMPLETED!
Arriving exactly on time we have just now finished our epic journey that started in Anchorage, Alaska in the snow and finished in Rio de Janero, Brazil in the humid heat!
40 weeks is an awfully long time to live together and an even longer time to camp but through the extreme cold weather (-28°c for the coldest nights bush camp on a frozen tundra near Prudhoe Bay in Alaska), to high altitude camping in The Andes (5500m at the highest point), to the steaming hot jungle heat of Central America and the intense tropical heat of the Argentine and Paraguayan border (50°c degrees at it’s hottest) we have managed it all with relative ease. We have done, seen and experienced so much it’s amazing to think back but even more incredible to think that it’s all over – On one hand it seems like Alaska was forever ago and then on the other, the 9 months has simply flown by, since arriving in South America it’s been full on adventure after adventure and the time has pasted so quickly.
We celebrated Christmas in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, at the ‘End of the World’ which saw us to the end of the Pan American Highway, and then it was New Years in a Valdes Peninsula, a Marine Reserve in remote Argentina. We then stayed as long as we could at one of the best cities in the world – Buenos Aires, where Tango Dancing is done on stage, on the dance floor and spontaneously on the streets (with rhythm like we haven’t seen since the Columbian salsa days)!
From there it was into Uruguay where far from being behind the times as was partly expected, it proved to be one of the most modern counties in South America, the beaches, the people, the food and the climate was about as good as it gets.
Then weaving in and out of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay we have been into the wetlands, experienced one of the most powerful waterfalls in the entire world – The mighty Iguacu Falls! Seen from both the Argentinean and the Brazilian side, it was truly incredible! From there to a protected area in Northern Argentina which is likened to a ‘mini Pantanal’, we explored by boat and were lucky enough to see Capybaras and Caimans (very similar to an alligator) in their natural environment along with several types of birdlife unique to that area.
Heading back to Brazil everybody participated in a snorkeling excursion, which involved a 2 hour snorkel down one of the clearest rivers in the world. You are not allowed to wear any sunscreen or mozzy repellent and your feet must never touch the ground, therefore creating an environment that they say is the closest you will get to what the earth was like before mankind came along. The aquatic life has never been hunted so therefore the fish, caiman and (if you lucky enough?!?) the anacondas are not fearful in the slightest!
From here some ventured into the Pantanal to explore the wetlands and where piranha fishing was followed by feeding the piranhas caught to the local wild caiman – by hand! Others chose the option of repelling down 72 meters into one of Brazils largest hidden caves and either snorkeling or scuba diving in the underground lake amongst rock formations that were thousands of years old, it was an incredible experience and well worth the effort we had to make. And as if the absailing down wasn’t hard enough, we then had to repel back up the bloody thing - all 72 meters!
We then headed for our second last destination, the beach side town of Parati, where as we had a few days in which to wind down, pack up all our gear, do a finial mammoth truck clean and relax on the beach, trying to get as much last minute tanning in as possible in between the rain showers – this was the most rain we had experienced all trip! We finally met up with all the other overland trucks all headed for carnival and although it was good to catch up with some other travelers, it was a bit of a shock to find ourselves surrounded by 20 other trucks, we have had almost everywhere to ourselves so it took a bit of getting used to, even if it was only for a few days.
And then that was it, our Exploratory Overland Expedition from Alaska to Brazil was over – just like that! A short drive took us into Rio where we took our gear off and kissed our truck goodbye. William and our beloved orange truck have driven us safely all the way with not so much a breakdown and we (well ok, the blokes then) only had 4 flat tyres to change the whole way – 50,500 kms From start to finish!
Although mostly all who were meant to made it, we had a few unplanned farewells along the way, some unfortunately had to return early for family reasons and some because over-landing and living in a tent for the best part of 9 months proved a little too long! All and all it’s been fantastic, the good and the bad times, and I don’t think it will sink in until we are back in the real world again.
From William and I we would like to thank each and everyone one of those who participated, especially those who put in more effort than we ever expected and those who went out of their way to constantly support the expedition.
To Lynn, thank you so much for all your hard work spending hours and hours putting our EOE You Tube DVD together (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=JriE6tY-9t0) and to Rob the biggest thank you possible for letting us, therefore including our friends, family and everybody else following our trip, have ‘carte blanche’ access to your incredible photos – they really made our trip diary something!
Even though the Overlanding side of the adventure is over we still have one last party to attend tonight… one of the greatest shows on earth… THE RIO CARNIVAL!
Until our next big adventure…
Ciao!
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