Going East P2

Sunday was spent preparing Lipstick for its return journey to South Africa meaning that the spare Diesel canisters had to be removed from the roof carrier to reduce the car’s overhaul height so that it would fit in a container.

The last 500 km drive for Team Lipstick in south America towards the harbour towns of Navagantes and Itajai was started after a nice breakfast and seemingly the sunshine returned to Brazil and the clouds started to disappear.    

Although cloudy there was no rain this morning so the boys decided to visit some landmarks in Rio de janeiro with the most famous being the statute of Chris the Redeemer     A symbol of Christianity across the world,

First action of the Day was a phone call to the shipping agent in Cape Town who still could not tell Team Lipstick who their agents in Brazil are and where they are based.   However, they promised to give

Today the boys decidedto give it a big push right through to Sao Paolo rather than to Curitiba like originally planned. They wanted to gain some extra time in case of problems with the shipping agent and the potential need

Today Team Lipstick is crossing from the second smallest country in South America (Uruguay) to the biggest on – Brazil. This also means that they leave the Spanish speaking area of South America and entering the Portuguese speaking country.  

Originally he boys wanted to use the Ferry from Buenos Aires to Montevideo in Uruguay but after yesterday’s heavy traffic they decided to rather use the Land Border which time wise would not make much of a difference. This however

  A short drive of some 360 km mostly on the highways is on the cards today for Team Lipstick. More and more beautiful cattle Ranches were visible along the road as the boys reached the outskirts of Buenos Aires

  Only a short drive today for Team Lipstick as the next stop is only some 180km away in the coastal Town of San Bernardo.   The roads were very good and often straight for over 20km reminding the boys

Mar del Plata is an Argentine city in the southeast part of Buenos Aires Province located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean.. Mar del Plata is the second largest city in Buenos Aires Province. The name “Mar del Plata” has the meaning of “sea of the Silver

  Leaving Esquel the boys needed to decide whether to go further South or making up some lost time ( due to Lipstick’s delay in getting shipped from Honduras to Columbia ) and having a look at themaps they decided

  Leaving the old german settlers town of Frutillar behind Team Lipstickis leaving Chile behind today and cross over to Argentina trying to reach Esquel but not before having a breakfast where a Kuchen (Cake) is a must have.  

  The trip continued along the edge of the Andean Mountains through beautiful farmlands and the goal of the Day was to reach Frutillar a well-known holiday destination with old german history.   Frutillar is a city in southern Chile’s

  Today the boys made an early start and took a decision to not enter into Santiago de Chile but rather spend some time in the wine resorts on the southern side of Santiago. So off they went along the

A great drive was waiting for the guys today as they started their drive down along Chile’s pacific coast line.   Although the landscape showed mountains on the left and the Pacific on the right there were quite a few

  Early morning wakes up for the boys again under freezing conditions which made Andre decide to wear long pants for the first time on the trip a   and off they went to the Salares how the Bolivians call

  The boys woke up to a rather cold Day with temperature around 13 degrees C and set off on a beautiful drive along the shores of Lake Titicaca and around 40 km later they had to use a ferry

  Great breakfast was had at Sol Natura guesthouse owned by a German couple in Ollyantambo before Team Lipstick hit the road on their way to Bolivia.   Fortunately, there was no need of crossing any mature Andean mountains as

MachuPicchu can be visited either in the morning or in the afternoon, so after a long drive the day before the boys decided that the afternoon tour would be best and they proceeded to the local railway station round 10.30am

A challenging trip lies ahead for the boys today as they will have to cross a variety of mountains in the Andean ountain range.     The Andes Mountains is the mountainous spine which dramatically dissects South America in two

  Due to the ignition switch problem the boys had to bypass the electrical system just to start the car and hence were unable to use Radio or switch the air conditioner on and due to this fact, they did

  Straight after breakfast the boys searched and found the Toyota garage in Trujillo only to be told that they would not have the brake shoes as a Toyota Landcruiser 100 series is not commonly used in Peru but that

Another border crossing is on the cards again today leaving Equator and crossing the border into Peru. Again the boys had to go through the lower mountain range on the seaside of the Andean mountain range with endless winding roads

Lipstick left Quito in early morning traffic  and soon found itself on nice double lane part of the Pan-American highway going South towards Machala.       Machala is a commercial centre for the surrounding agriculture industries. There is a large trade

Today the boys will be crossing the Border between Columbia and Equator and aim to reach Quito . The first stretch was again through quiet a mountain range until Lipstick reached PiedraSentadaaafter about 75 km from the road levelled out

Not an easy task to get out of Medellin and soon the boys were back again fighting the enormous trucks for first place in the queue.     Soon the high raise buildings disappeared in the rear view mirror and

First stop of the day was back at the offices of the clearing agent where Willy paid the harbour dues and the agent’s fee whilst Andre was assembling the jerry cans onto the roof rack of Lipstick.   Finally, the

Today the boys hope to be reunited with Lipstick and they were told to be at the agent’s office at 1.20pm (yes not 1 or 1.30 it has to be 1.20pm J).   The morning was therefor spend doing some

Straight after breakfast the boys went to the customs clearance agency in Cartagena with whom they had made previous contacts and Team Lipstick can only recommend this company to anyone wanting to ship into or out of Cartagena    

It’s a 4am wake up call for team Lipstick to make use of the hotel’s airport shuttle in order to catch the 7.35am flight from Panama to Cartagena – on arrival at the check in counter of Copas airline however

Having travelled some 900 km through very interesting parts of Honduras Team Lipstick had to head back to San Jose and connect a flight to Panama the following day.   There are no direct flights from Costa Rica to Cartagena

The boys woke up and the electricity was still down but a nice breakfast was provided before the boys hit the road again towards Arenal Volcano whilst it was still rainy and cloudy. It was really a great pleasure to

  Like in any capitol of the world it took the boys quite some time to get out of San Jose in early morning traffic and on to the route going north west in Costa Rica.   The goal of

With Lipstick being at high sea from Honduras to Columbia and after having explored Panama the boys decided to fly to San Jose in Costa Rica. San Jose is close by with only about 800km distance between Panama City and

After breakfast, the guys proceeded to see the probably most famous piece of Panama- The Panama Canal     The Panama Canal ) is an artificial 77 km  waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is

The boys were asked for the reason to ship Lipstick from Honduras to Columbia rather than driving through all the way down to Panama   Costa Rica is one of only a handful of countries in the world which do

Thursday was spent sorting out all the export documentations and relaxing around the pool if the hotel Azul with frequent phone calls between the boys and their agent – Gloria Aleman.   In the afternoon, the team drove into the

A nice breakfast buffet was on offer and because Willy’s eyes was hungrier than his stomach he could not finished all the food on the plate – especially the coconut porridge and some unidentifiable sausage that looked tastier than it

Early start in the morning and the boys went off to reach the Border between Mexico  and Guatemala at a town called EL Ceiba.   The border can easily be reached by all-paved highways beginning with Mex 186 east from

  Before hitting the road to Villahermosa the boys went to a Toyota garage in Mexico City to see whether they could assist in replacing the ignition switch in Lipstick. Unfortunately they were told that such a part is not

By 8 am the boys were on the road again trying to reach Mexico City by early afternoon and whilst traffic was mild at the beginning it became thicker as they reached about 120km not of Mexico’s capital.    

It was freezing cold this morning when the boys left their hotel at about 8 am and remembering that their good friends back home would now assemble at the meeting points of T58 – so quick picture was taken to

During yesterday’s trip the boys discovered that their DELORME INREACH tracker stopped working all together despite attempts to charge the battery overnight so the first stop today was a battery shop on the way to the Mexican Border. The extremely

After a solid sleep and a nice American breakfast the boys hit the road for a long haul today which would take them through 4 American states – California –New Mexico –Arizona and Texas. The way out of San Diego

Lipstick doing the Americas Central and Southers States After a lot of planning the boys took off in East London today and boarded the flight from Johanneburg to New York – unfortunately there was a severe thunderstorm in Johannesburg forcing