One of our main travel goals for 2013 is a trip, travelling by truck (and camper), from the Arctic Ocean at Tuktoyaktuk, NT, Canada to the southern-most city in the world on the tip of the South American continent, Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.
Some of the highlights we hope to see and experience inlcude;
- seeing the Arctic ocean
- crossing the Arctic circle
- driving the Ice Road
- volcano heated hot springs in Guatemala
- natural pools in El Salvador where tiny fish give you a “massage”
- volcanos in Nicaragua
- 12,000′ pass in Costa Rica
- Panama canal
- fly to the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador
- Nazca lines in Peru
- Machu Picchu in Peru
- maybe even ski at Cerro Catedral, near Bariloche, Argentina
- petrified forest in Patagonia, Argentina
- Perito Moreno Glacier near El Calafate, Patagonia, Argentina
- finally, Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world
To accomplish this goal, we plan to break the trip down into various sections;
- Tuktoyaktuk, NT, Canada to Grande Prairie, AB, Canada (our hometown)
- Grande Prairie, AB, Canada to south-eastern Ontario, Canada – visit our families in that area
- South-eastern Ontario, Canada to McAllen, TX, USA
- McAllen, TX, USA to Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina – we plan on travelling in a group with an expedition RV trek called “Trek of the Americas” operated by Adventuretours RV Tours
*** Update March, 2013 – Change of plans – We now plan to fly to Ontario in April to visit family and friends. We will be back home in May and leave for McAllen, TX in early July of 2013.***
Our goal is to complete each leg of the journey sometime in 2013.
- Leg #1 will be approximately 3041 kms one way and will be done over a 2 week period in late March and early April 2013.
- Leg #2 is a trip we have done many times using various routes. We can easily complete this part of the journey in 4 to 5 long driving days sometime in June 2013. It covers approximately 4033 km. ***See above change of plans***
- Leg #3, to McAllen, TX, will cover about 3344 km. We will take our time, a little more, on this route as it will be new to us. We plan to arrive in Texas mid-July 2013 as the trek departs on July 25, 2013.
- The final leg of the journey takes us through Central and South America over a period of 120 days. Campers will be shipped across the Darien Gap from Panama to Columbia and then back again to the Houston, TX, USA probably from Buenos Aries, Argentina. We plan on driving a total of about 29,000 km over a 4 month period. Our plan is to be home by mid-December 2013.
The trip is expected to cost between $40,000 and $50,000 depending on side trips and excursions. The tour fee will be around $16,000. Fuel will be the largest single cost after the tour fee. Our current fuel costs in Canada, with the camper loaded, is about $0.30/km. So, if we drive an estimated 45,000 kilometres in total, fuel costs will be somewhere near $13,500.