After a quick trip across the US from Philadelphia (complete with stops at, yes, you guessed it, several train museums along the way) we are settling into our new community of Montrose, Colorado.

We only had two days in Denver, and it was bitter-sweet. We were able to get together with a few of our friends, and it was great to see them. But we only got to spend a few hours with them, and with everyone’s busy lives, being five hours away isn’t that much different from being in South America. But we do hope get some visitors our way this summer.

Montrose is a town of about 25,000 people located five hours west of Denver. Traditionally it’s been a ranching community, but over the past 10 years they’ve really started to develop a tourism infrastructure, building a whitewater kayaking park in town as well as expanding hiking and mountain biking opportunities.

Some people have asked us how the re-entry has gone, and to be honest, overall it’s been pretty easy. When we returned from Africa over 10 years ago, going into a supermarket was overwhelming – we’d been used to something the size of a convenience store being something to look forward to!

In Latin America, and especially in Chile and Argentina where we spent the last months of our trip, large supermarkets are common and can be found in almost any medium sized town. Some of them are even owned by Wal Mart, and it shows as soon as you walk in. I have noticed that the prices of everything here in the US seem to have gone up since we’ve been gone, but I guess that’s to be expected.

Being here during the presidential election season isn’t exactly fun. Some of the candidates seem to try to prey upon and even stoke fear and hatred of anyone who is not American. That kind of thinking goes against everything we’ve learned as travelers.

In moving to Montrose, we’ve decided to eschew our previous corporate lives and with that forego the cushy healthcare and 401k plans that came along with them. While traveling we had a travel medical insurance policy that cost us roughly $2000 per year. In Montrose, which by unfortunate coincidence has one of the highest private insurance costs in the country, we’re paying almost $1400 per month to get a high-deductible plan under the ACA.

Twice in South America we went to a hospital or clinic for treatment for an injury, and both times (in Ecuador and Chile) the treatment was quick, easy, and free. I’m not saying these countries have perfect healthcare systems; I’m not sure how easy it would be to access care for major or ongoing medical needs, but it sure seems better than paying an extra mortgage payment for what amounts to catastrophic coverage. I try not to think about it too much. Just writing this makes me want to move to Mexico! Okay, that and tacos.

Another thing I’ve noticed, especially when we’ve had television, is the sophistication of the American marketing machine. It’s not like they don’t have TV ads in other parts of the world, it’s that here the marketing efforts seem more focused, subtle, and pervasive. I can’t quite put my finger on what it is, but it feels a little bit sinister to me.

On the up side, Quinn is loving being in one place, having his own room, and being close to his grandparents. And I’m pretty sure his grandparents are happy to have him back!

Shipping a vehicle is always daunting. You’re dealing with big companies as a little fish – they ship thousands of containers and vehicles every month, and one little RV doesn’t impress them much at all. Add to that the stories of vehicles being damaged with no recourse available, and the shipping process can become very stressful.

Although I can’t take the headaches out of the experience, here’s how we went about shipping the Sparksmobile back to the US from South America.

We found a great deal on airfare back to the states from Santiago, so it would have made sense to ship from Chile to the West Coast of the US. We investigated that, but we couldn’t find any roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) vessels doing that route. Most everyone we talked to shipped out of either Montevideo, Uruguay, (to Europe)  or Buenos Aires, Argentina (to North America).

We contacted Martin Flores (operaciones AT capri-arg DOT com.ar) with K-Line and German Weber (gweber AT webersi DOT com.ar) and requested quotes. For our situation, Martin’s quote was much less expensive.

K-Line doesn’t post their schedule much more than 4-6 weeks in advance, so we didn’t get a ship date until we were just a month away from when we wanted to be on a boat. K-Line updates their schedules about once a week.

Our shipping charges amounted to about $2300 including port charges on both ends and a $200 destination change fee that most people won’t need.

Dropping our car off at the port of Zarate (near Buenos Aires) was fairly straightforward, and took about 3 hours. Here’s a complete write-up of the process that we received from Toby Conroy of Carpe Viam:

The company we shipped with was K-Line. It is a company out of the states. It has a different name in Argentina. The name in Argentina is Capricorn. We contacted Martin Flores, his email is: [email protected]. He is not an agent so you do not pay him a fee and you do all the work yourself but it is easy. All you have to do is contact him and send him all your paperwork and then he will tell you when to drop your car off at the port. Here is our write up for the port in Zarate, Argentina:

1. Drive past the port entry to the “caja” to pay the port fees. The GPS coords for the caja are: S34* 04′ 07.1″ W59* 02′ 48.0″

2. Right before the caja, there is a parking lot on the right. Park there and walk towards the coordinates. Ask for the caja if you don’t see it. You will not have any documents from Martin at this point, I would suggest emailing him the night before you go to ensure that he sent them over because he did not in our case. When you get there and they finally find your info, they will tell you how much to pay. We paid 1960 pesos. They only accept pesos, no credit cards. If you need wifi, there is a spot in front of the modular building outside of the caja. We used it to call Martin when they couldn’t find our documents.

3. Next, drive back to the port entry and park on the right hand side, wherever you can fit before the toll booth thing. GPS coords for port entry are: S34* 04′ 30.8″ W59* 02′ 05.2″

4. Go to the window of the building on the right hand side. You will need your passports. Here, they give you a temporary ID to enter the port. You both need them if you are both going into the port. Go back to your car and drive up to the toll booth. Hand them your temporary ID and the receipt for the port fees you just paid.

5. Drive straight until you reach another booth and park on the left hand side before the entrance to the parking lot/booth. This is aduana. The coordinates are: S34* 04′ 07.1″ W59* 02′ 05.2″ Go into the building and cancel your import permit. We didn’t get proof that they cancelled it, although we asked. They scribbled down in pencil on our import permit which port the truck was going to and the boat to load it on. Then they took the keys. It happens very fast! But they let us take a quick pic and say our goodbyes Then, they call a taxi for you and give you a ride to the entrance to the port where you wait for your taxi.

Our van was loaded onto the Bangkok Highway on November 23 and we were supposed to pick it up in Jacksonville, Florida, on about January 5. The vessel ended out having mechanical troubles, and after a two-week vacation in the Mexican port of Veracruz, our van finally arrived in Baltimore on February 1 aboard a different ship.

The process for picking up the car is a little strange, because unless you’re authorized by the Transportation Security Administration you’re not allowed into a US port. That means you need to engage the services of an escort who is authorized (by means of something called a TWIC card). We hired Kurt Mueller for the task, who can be contacted through his wife Heide at [email protected]. Kurt charges a $175 flat fee for his services. He will pick you up anywhere in the Baltimore area, drive you to the port, and retrieve your vehicle for you.  (Thanks to Melanie Cahill and Justin Smith of Lost in the Americas for referring Kurt to us!)

Kurt had called the appropriate port personnel the day before I was to go to Baltimore and was told that the van was ready to pick up. When we arrived at the port however, Kurt was told that we still needed to get customs clearance. For some inexplicable reason, despite the fact that there is a customs office on the port we had to go to the customs office at the Baltimore-Washington International Airport to do this. This cost a few hours, but I was still able to get the Sparksmobile back by mid-afternoon.

The van arrived undamaged, with only the little convex stick-on mirrors stripped off, just as they were when we shipped from Panama to Colombia. I think if I were to ship a vehicle again, I’d buy a set of brand new convex mirrors and leave them on the dashboard for whoever wants them.

After a few fun days in Buenos Aires, we made the short flight back over the Andes to Santiago, where our Airbnb host picked us up and drove us to the apartment we rented from him in Valparaiso.

We had a very enjoyable and relaxing two weeks there, and we’re very happy we got the chance to explore this funky and sometimes gritty city on the coast.

“Valpo” as the locals call it, was once Chile’s most important sea port. It is the first major harbor for ships coming north after passing Cape Horn. The opening of the US transcontinental railroad and the Panama canal drastically reduced that traffic, and the harbor dimished in importance. Today it is home to part of Chile’s navy, a stopover for cruise ships, and a busy freight terminal.

During our class fellow Denverites and overlanders Chad and Katie contacted us and were able to stop by to share a couple of bottles of wine with us. What a fantastic ending to the last day of our Big Big Trip!

As I write this we are waiting for our flight to Toronto from Santiago. What a journey this has been. We are so incredibly fortunate to have been able to undertake this adventure together as a family, and as this chapter in our lives comes to a close we look forward to spending time with family and friends whom we haven’t seen in far too long. We’d like to thank everyone who has stopped by to read about our adventures and travel virtually with us.

We don’t know what the future will hold, but this site will stick around. You never know when the Sparks will decide to spread their wings and fly once again.

With love,
Witt, Jen, and Quinn

Another year and another 10 countries behind us. How time flies!

For those interested, here’s how our budget worked out for the past year.  Actually, the numbers in the charts below cover nearly 14 months of expenses from 1 July 2014 through 28 Aug 2015.  

These numbers include everything we spent while on the road except our trip to the Galapagos, including our expenses shipping the van from Panama to Colombia. They also don’t include our home expenses such as our storage locker. Here’s how it breaks down by country:

The per-country numbers don’t mean a whole lot. For example, Panama includes shipping the van, Peru includes new tires and batteries for the van, and Chile is where we happened to be when we paid for our health insurance for another year. Our time in Argentina includes a $700 refrigerator repair. So just because the expenses for a particular country are high doesn’t necessarily mean that country is expensive.

What I think is telling is the overall average of $94 per day. When people post the “how much should I budget” question to forums, the answer is often that $100 per day is a good ballpark figure. Our actual results support that. Based on how we travel, and the fact that there are three of us, I think two people traveling on $80/day is probably reasonable. If you have any must-see, big-ticket items on your bucket list (think Galapagos, Easter Island, or Antarctica) those are extra.

Here’s our budget by category:

Feel free to post questions in the comments, and happy trip planning!