South America Route Maps - POI recommendations please!
 

Hello,
I'm planning a S to N trip through S America starting in Puerto Natales 3/15/15 and reaching Cartagena 5/31/15 or later. Goal is to plan the route in 2 week stretches between major airports for the option for 2UP at times (or a 2nd bike).

Hopefully I'll update this post with each phase of my route as created. Each day route is a different color. Please add suggestions on POIs, better routes, lodging, etc. Thanks!

(3/15/15-3/28/15): Puerto Natales - Santiago
Part 1 (2UP Planned):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B62...it?usp=sharing

(Note, Large Files!, Chrome Browser may work best, click "100%" in the upper right for readable size).

Hello Visceral,
I'm in the early stages of planning my trip from Texas to Ushuaia. I don't have specific dates yet, but I think it's possible we may cross paths in SA. I'll continue to follow your route planning for ideas, and will try to contribute a few that I've acquired as well.

My POIs points of interest
 

Hi Visceral,

After reading tons of blogs and making notes, I started saving the points of interest in a personal Google map. Some believe in the saying, "over plan and be ready to improvise." Others prefer to totally wing it. There is no right answer, only go with you instincts and enjoy the moments.

Here is my map. I hit many of these places and missed a bunch too.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=
206020801630774537915.00049e3cd5973a5693e24

You can save the above to your own Google map collection where you can edit it and make it your own. If you are clever, it is possible to download the points by clicking on the KLM icon, run it through some GPS conversion tools, then import them into a GPS...

My general advice is to avoid tight and ridge dates. Reading between the lines I am guessing you thinking of meeting a girl friend at certain places or you might talk her into riding with you, two up or with two bikes. If at all possible, go with the second. It absolutely sucks trying to meet someone hundreds of miles away, over dodging roads. So much can happen that will make you late or you will race at some point to get to that major city and airport, skipping good stuff in order to arrive on schedule. I have structured not one, but two trips with meeting points built in, and it cramps the travel style. Half way through South America I planned to meet my wife in TdF for Christmas. Her schedule was inflexible and airfare from New York City needs to be purchased with some advance planning to keep the price reasonable. I ended up take a month riding through Brazil and I wasn't trying hard to hang out hardcore. I had to skip a number of places I wanted to see. Why? To keep on schedule. In the end I couldn't make it TdF without absolutely screaming the whole way down with monster riding days. Her ticket hadn't been purchased when the plan was reworked. We connected in BA instead, then flew to Patagonia where we hung out for three weeks... And there is the reason why I didn't ride the bike to the end of the world...at least not yet.

Peter Bodtke's nice file made easy :smartass: Just copy it into the 'GPX' folder off your Garmin one in your unit.

cool
 

Hi Bertand,

Thanks for the tip. The method I used was so complicated I didn't want to begin to describe it.

Copying the file directly to the device is so easy, nice. Is it possible to transfer the POIs to BaseCamp for editing?

I am currently without a GPS, so I can't try it myself right now. I went through 4 units in 9 month while traveling. 1x died, 1x fried, 1x lost and 1x stolen. Maybe that is a record...

:eek3:
Crikey Peter that really is a bit of bad luck; 4 devices in 9 months, arrrgh!

Yes you can import those into Basecamp or Mapsource
If it is simple to edit and I recommend you just use Mapsource as it is simpler program to use.
You can edit, classify, change icons etc etc then remember to save your file!!:balloon:

I started using MapSource back in 2008 and then decided to switch to BaseMap after attending a presentation by Garmin. They said Garmin was phasing out MapSource, so I figured I would get used to it sooner than later. BaseCamp still has a ways to go and there were somethings I could only do easily with MapSource, I forget exactly what.

At this moment I might wait for the next model to come out of Garmin. I really liked the Zumo 665, but I don't have a big trip planned. I'll stop here so the thread doesn't go too far off thread...