…South America!

Hola América del Sur – Yo voy!

Olá América do Sul – Eu vou! (for the Brasilians…)

(Don’t even think I can talk Spanish or Portuguese (yet) – but I may be learning a bit…thanks to Google translator so far…)

My (very) rough schedule is:

I’ll be doing it in three for my family and business “socially acceptable” legs – yes, call me a “wimp” 🙂 …

I’ll be starting my first leg around Sept/ Oct 2011 in Valparaiso/ Chile, just west off Chile’s capital Santiago on the Pacific Ocean. It is also the main harbour of the Chilean Navy. They use to supervise big kayak trips along their coastline, as Justine and Barry just now have to deal with them, going around Terra de la Fuego. I borrowed them my sat-phone…good luck to you both!

I’ll be around x-mas in Punta Arenas, probably going through the Magellan Strait, leaving Cape Horn south. The entire trip will be long enough…but I’m not 100% sure yet about that “shortcut”.

The first leg will finish after 7-8 month probably in Buenos Aires/ Argentina.

I’ll have 4-5 month in our summer off at home, continuing my second leg up north again in Sept/ Oct 2012: Uruguay – Brazil – French Guayana – Surinam – Guyana – Venezuela.

This leg won’t be a perfect match in seasons, as I may have to paddle quite a bit around the equator in the rainy season…but you can’t have it all on an expedition and have to take what you get. I should be allright most time at the coast, and even happy about a free tropical freshwater shower every day :-)…

I’ll finish my second leg again after 7-8 months probably in Caracas/ Venezuela.

Then again 4-5 months off in our summer 2013, continuing in Sept/ Oct 2013 for the rest: Venzuela – Columbia – through the Panama Canal – Columbia again – Ecuador – Peru, and back to Valparaiso/ Chile – right before my 50th birthday in May 2014!!!

Very roughly it’s about 22.000km to paddle, and I’ll spend about 22 months on the water.

On this trip I’ll be not “racing” – though keeping up a good pace as usually. There won’t be anyone to “race” anyway – besides myself. To my knowledge no one has ever paddled the entire South American coastline, though most parts have been paddled before.

Challenges will be “a bit of everything” – 11 different countries are to pass, extending from the northern 10th-ish to the southern 50th-ish latitude, crossing the equator twice.

From tropical heat and calmish seas to the challenging windy and unpredictable cold weather and rough seas at the southern tip – everything will be there.

Just the salty crocs will be missing this time, maybe replaced by the challenge of dealing with different people of 11nations in a foreign language (mostly Spanish, just Portuguese in Brazil).

I’m looking forward to all those challenges!

I’ll be updating my website in the usual way I did along Australia, so you can follow along again!

Most important – the world’s best “weather man” Karel Vissel will provide me again with daily weather updates on my satellite phone, as he did already around Iceland, New Zealand and Australia (and as he’s doing on plenty of other mayor expeditions on this world) – THANKS, KAREL!!!

Now I’d love to ask YOU for help – to help me with contacts, experiences, knowledge in Spanish or Portuguese, links to interesting websites and such.

Thanks a lot!