Long distance traveling by land

Our experiences on the trip to Patagonia and the route to the North from Montevideo to Cartagena have made us realize that the concept of long distance traveling by land (now called “overlanding”) is a concept in flux. The differences from when we travelled around the world in 2011-12 till now are notable (and in many ways shocking). There are simply many more people doing it. There has always been restless people, particularly younger people, but now there are more, and they are notably older (many well to do retired Europeans – particularly German, French, Swiss and English). And people travel in all kinds of vehicles – some expensive and well-equipped, but far from always (more like us). If a vehicle has wheels – and an engine it can travel. The budget or your vehicle is usually not a limiting factor – the limit (of your dream) is in your mind.

For instance, as a digression, when we started out at UY-Parking in Montevideo, we briefly talked to a young couple from Germany repairing their 4×4 Mitsubishi who told us that they had sold everything and had no intent of returning to Europe. They were looking for a place to settle down in South America…    

Europe, with its congestions, uncertainty, stress, high level of all kinds of regulation combined with out-of-control real estate prices many places, can easily feel fixating and challenging – for young as well as older people. We seem to be seeing a new version of go west young man or young woman.

However, the increasing number of overlanders, travelers and tourists are also causing headaches in terms of overcrowding in many typical tourist sightseeing spots (for instance in Machu Pichu, Iguazu or Torres del Payne). While this is good for the local economy and employment, it is increasingly becoming an issue which needs attention and some kind of monitoring (of how many people are allowed to visit at each point in time). Time will show how this can be resolved in a just manner – nature should be free and not reserved for those who can afford to pay, or those with sufficient patience to wait in line for hours and then be guided through a circuit elbow to elbow with hundreds of others. In this case, the solution is probably not only using the price system, but also making people understand (i.e. teaching them) that brief, long-distance vacation-traveling only to achieve a snapchat selfie is unsustainable.