Sorry for the long delay on this thread. We travelled through the Amazon Region of Brazil for a long time. We finally made it back to central Brazil in December.

The trip was amazing!!, and we saw a lot of incredible things. But the hardships were also much bigger than i expected.

By far the biggest danger ... were local drivers. Especially drivers on the mountain roads of Peru. They are impatient and reckless. Although the Internet has reports about robbers and terrorists in Peru ... we never had these problems. But we did have 2 incidents with oncoming trucks, dtiving on mountain curves. Both vehicles were way over the centerline, and the collisions would have been head-on and devastating. I only avoided them by very quick reactions ... and a miracle from above.

The effects of high altitudes (the Andes), and extreme climates in the lowland Amazon, were also very difficult problems. I fought a 'running battle' with heat stress in the Amazon forests for many weeks. The problem was worst in Acre, but the Amazon is hot everywhere. If you ever drive in S. America, be very careful with the high altitude passes in Peru, and the hot-humid conditions in the Amazon Basin.

As a 'last laugh' ... we drove 9200 miles on this trip in our Jeep ... and we never had any car insurance!! I am not an irresponsible person ... the problem was that the insurance was impossible to obtain. In Chile, they refused to give us insurance ... no coverage for foreign-registered vehicles. And US companies will not cover you in S. America. In Peru, one company offered insurance, but only if we paid for a whole year. That was clearly a rip-off and we didnt accept. These types of ridiculous scenarios are common in S. America. The S. American countries do not create laws or business to facilitate safety and good travel for visitors ... they just want to extract money. Always keep this in mind if you travel there. And NEVER lose your paperwork!!

If anyone wants specific advice ... you can send questions by personal mail here. But it may be a long time before I log into this page. Above all ... beware of miscellaneous advice and travel tips on other Internet forums that supposedly offer info about travel, Jeeps, expeditions etc. We found that most of the Internet tips were completely wrong, and none of these forums described the real difficulties in S. America.

I would say this ... NEVER drive your American car in S. America. It is not worth the hassles, costs, and risks. If you want to go there ... rent a local vehicle in S. America.

There are amazing places in S. America, but the problems on the road can be very real. Illogical situations are commonplace.