The Plan, For Now

The next month or two are shaping up to be pretty amazing, and  I’m now very aware they will also be the last of this adventure. I plan to drive “up” through the mountains of Southern Chile and Argentina, visiting the extremely famous National Parks along the way. I’ve been told time and time again how beautiful the area is, and I’m ready to spend some quality time hiking, camping and fishing for dinner with the cheap-o gear I just bought.

I’ve been looking into the requirements for selling my Canadian-plated Jeep down here and it looks like I can make it work (legally) in both Ushuaia, Argentina and Punta Arenas, Chile because they have “Tax Free Zones” where the customs & importation rules are different. People are always commenting on how great it is, and how they would love to buy it, but of course none have the money.
I’ll also try to sell it to a fellow traveller, which will make the paperwork a thousand times easier.
In all seriousness, if anyone wants to buy it, get in contact with me.

jeep road 640x480

As for what I’ll do with myself after this is said and done, I have some plans I’m currently working on, though I don’t want to say too much in case they fall through. Hopefully I’ll be flying to a whole new continent and starting a completely new (and different) thing…

Right now I’m out hiking one of the most famous circuits in the world and you can be sure I’ll be posting tons of pictures and trip reports for a while yet.

-Dan

16 Responses

  1. Erik says:

    Heya Dan, I really hope you’ll be enjoying the last month or two in South America. You must have had an amazing adventure.

    I was just curious about one thing, What country are you from? Hehe, I always imagined you like a new zealander or possibly an Aussie (Sorry if I’m completly wrong haha).

    Cheers mate!
    -Erik

    • Dan says:

      Hey Erik,
      Great guess, I am originally from Australia, though I have not been there for almost five years now.
      Its a great place, but there is so much of the world to explore I dont plan on returing anytime in the near future.
      -Dan

  2. Liz says:

    Love you Dan oxox

  3. Chris says:

    Hey Dan!

    So the first part of the adventure has an end in sight! I hope the next continent is Europe, but knowing you it’ll probably be somewhere a bit more challenging like Africa! 😛

    Enjoy the hiking!

    Chris

    • Dan says:

      Hey Chris,
      I´m working on some plans, but like I said, nothing is a done deal yet. I think I will work for a while, save up some money and dream some big dreams before setting out on anything really grand again. What plans are you working on?
      -Dan

      • Chris says:

        Well, I’m stuck here till June finishing up my teacher training, then spending a few days in California in July as a well deserved treat.

        After that, I’m not sure, I still need to complete a full year in teaching employment to achieve ‘full teacher status’, so I think I’m going to do that, whilst saving, once I’m fully qualified, I think it’ll be time to go get lost somewhere, maybe the far east.

  4. Alex Mehlin says:

    Hey Dan,

    Its´s been a while since that gnarrly road to Santa Teresa. It looks like your journey has been great and comming to an end. We too are looking to sell our bus. Unfortunatly we have been getting negative answers from every source we contact. At the boarder into Argentina we were told that it was prohibited to import used vehicles into Argentina, in Puenta Araenas we learned that vehlicles are devalued. Could this be due to the Tax Free Zones? Have you discovered that it is imposible to sell a foreign vehicle in Buenos Aires or other large cities in Argentina?

    We are looking for any info we can gather, driving back to Ecuador is not an option. I will pass any info we learn your way.

    We are two days out from Ushuaia. Are you around?

    The Gypsies.

    • Dan says:

      Hey Alex, great to hear from you man. It looks like you guys have had some amazing adventures!
      Selling the car is getting complicated… I´m pretty sure you can sell it absolutely anywhere you want in Chile or Argentina, but the new owner will have to pay stupidly high import taxes, so high they won´t want to buy it for more than $1000 USD – making that a non-option.
      Enter the ´tax free zones´ – there is one in Ushuaia and another in Punta Arenas, where the new owner does not have to pay any import tax, so they will pay more for it. Unfortunately they will be very limited about ever drving it out of that region of the respective country, and so again, will not be too excited about buying it. Punta Areanas especailly is flooded with cheap imports from China/Japan/etc. and so they are very very undervalued.
      As you can see, your options are closing down very fast.
      Paraguay and Uraguay are very well known as being a lot less strict with paperwork, etc. so lots of people try to offload their vehicles there (probably illegally, but who cares)
      The final (and best) option, is to sell it to another foreigner in the no-mans-land between two countries (any two will work).
      Leave country 1, stamping out all the paperwork from the original owner. Have fake papers ready in the name of the new owner who will be stamped into country 2 as the owner.
      The original owner is free to leave, the new owner has the vehicle, and customs/the authorities are none the wiser. The new owner can continue to travel around with the fake papers forever, or can eventually get ´real´papers if they really want to.
      I don´t know if the bus being from Ecuador will complicate this, though I don´t think it will.
      Of course, this all depends on you finding someone that wants to buy it…

      As you can see, we have a task infront of us.

      Good luck! let me know if there is anything I can do to help.
      -Dan

  5. Rejeana in Alabama says:

    Wow…thank you for taking me along with you!

  6. Jim K in PA says:

    Hmm – sounds like it might be “cheaper” to ship your Jeep to wherever you wind up going, or to a buyer outside of South America. I am sure you will keep us posted on how this part of your planning turns out.

  7. Cisco says:

    How much are you asking for the Jeep?

  8. Alex says:

    Dan,

    Thanks for the info. We spent a few days littering Ushuaia with flyers then decided to head north. We are now in Buenos Aires hanging out waiting to find a buyer.

    Hows your search comming along?

    Alex

    • Dan says:

      Slowly, very slowly. I’ll get there.
      If I were you, I would head to Uruguay seeings you’re so close. It’s perfectly legal and easy to sell it there, and I think you’ll find a buyer.
      Good luck

  9. Alex says:

    Let us know when you get here. We are going to wait around and see if we meet any travelers, but if not we will be going across the boarder to Uruguay.

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