PanAmNotes is a really enjoyable blog documenting a couple's trip from California to the tip of Argentina, and includes many useful travel tip articles on budgeting, GPS navigation, etc. Their campsites page is comprehensive and helpful.
LifeRemotely is the site that all the overlanders we meet on the road recommend to us as the most useful. They have lots of great features, including a photo-filled blog, border-crossing guides, campsite lists, an interesting guide to how they make working remotely while traveling work, and lots more. Unfortunately we found out about them about 2 weeks after we must have passed them going north, as they were going south, or we would have tried to meet them.
NessiesAdventures has a lot of the same info as the other blogs, but it also has a lot more useful info. They have a page on each country they visit that lists all the information they found that could be useful for an overlander, such as good mechanics, cost and quality of fuel, location of supermarkets, road conditions, tolls, propane fill-up locations, campsite locations, and tons of other helpful details. Most info accompanied with GPS info.
The owners of this blog have collected a bunch of GPS waypoints from various places and made them available for download.
This site offers their overlanding waypoints in multiple formats.
An international overlander blog portal where you can find lots of great blogs covering overlander travel all over the world.
A wiki that collects overlanding info from around the world.
A travel blog with a very comprehensive campsite guide section.
A list of campsites in Northern South America.
GPS: -4.0886, -79.1886
Location: 9 kms south of Loja and about 30 kms north of Vilcabamba is the entrance, then 8 kms up a dirt road is the Refugio where the rangers, cabañas and camping area are.
Prices: Entrance was free and cabañas are $3/person which includes a nice enough cabin with electricity and two single beds with nice mattresses and no bedding.
Facilities: bathroom (which has a shower head that might work, it looked questionable), rustic kitchen, outside eating area, and parking. No wi-fi.
Notes: We were going to camp but it was raining so we stayed in one of their cabins so we don't really know the camping facilities. Rangers are very nice and helpful.
Dogs: Cute little yellow dog. Very sweet
GPS: -4.47812, -79.22400
Website: www.izhcayluma.com
Location: 2 Kms south of the town of Vilcabamba, on the right if you are heading south
Prices: $4 USD per person. Breakfast was an additional $4 USD
Description: A really nice place which is very welcoming to Overlanders, and is working to improve the overlander areas. There are dorms, regular rooms and cabins too, and supposedly the cabins are super nice but I didn't see them. There is beautiful landscaping everywhere and excellent views of the valley and town of Vilcabamba. The owners are German and speak english and are very friendly and helpful.
Facilities: a big parking area at the base of the property near the road. The area on the right has electricity but they are going to bring it to the left side in the future. There are nice bathrooms and showers in one of the cabaña areas that campers can use, as well as the bathroom in the restaurant. There is a pretty good restaurant with great views, a bar with hammocks and table games, wi-fi, a book exchange, a pool, laundry, board games and helpful info on local walks and treks. There is also potable water that comes out of a local spring and originates from the nearby Parque Podocarpus.
Notes: Since we are in a small truck we actually parked in the parking lot near the reception and restaurant because there was water and electricity there, and no road noise, but I would suggest not doing that unless you are an early riser because the ladies doing the laundry and people arriving into the parking lot talk a lot, so we couldn't sleep much past 7:30 AM. Good place for kids.
Dogs: 3 very friendly ones. One yellow and one black lab and one that I'm not sure of. The labs are nice and goofy and are crazy about sticks. There also at least two cats that are very sweet.
GPS:-3.692256, -79.609792 (this is a guess)
Location: on the left in the corner as you enter the main plaza. Zaruma itself is right near Piños in between Mechala and Loja on a side road.
Prices: $12 USD per person in a double room with bathroom, nice owner and wi-fi, with a window looking over the beautiful town
Description: Beautiful historical gold mining town with unique architecture and deserving of way more tourism than we saw. Super friendly locals who are very helpful. The tourism office (and museum) is right across the street from the hotel and was very helpful when we asked for a good route to take a walk. Zaruma is famous for its coffee and breakfast of Tigrillo, which is plantains, eggs and cheese. I found the tigrillo too salty and heavy but strangely enjoyable.
Notes: We were trying to take the shortcut to Loja through Portovelo even though we heard the quality was bad. We are not sure whether we regret it or not. It had just rained and some areas of the road were terrible and some were quite good. The scenery was gorgeous. We had to ask about 4 people in Portovelo for the road to Loja because there were several turns that were not so obvious that weren't on our map.
Dogs: Nope
GPS: -3.48123, -80.24095 and -3.53296, -80.17783
Location: slightly to the east of Huanquillas for the Peruvian Aduana and Immigration, and the Ecuadorian Immigration offices. This location is new and very nice, avoiding the mayhem that is Huanquillas. The only problem is that the Equadorian Aduana, where you get the car importacion papers, is several Kms farther into Equador and when we got there they required SOAT (insurance) and photocopies of that and all our other documents, and the SOAT office was back in Huanquillas. I don't know if there is a place to buy SOAT at the first stop, but if you find one, don't pass it up. If you don't get it there, the SOAT office is right off the main plaza, around the corner from the Banco de Mechala. They are closed for lunch, at least on Saturdays.
Prices: Insurance is $7 USD for one month and you can only get one month at a time.
Notes: There is an Equadorian tourism office at the first stop and they gave me a map of Equador plus a few brochures.
Dogs: None
GPS: -3.69619, -8070572
Website: casagrillo.net
Location: 2 Kms south of the town of Zorritos, PanAm Norte KM 1235.2
Prices: $10 Soles/person.
Description: A huge place right on the beach with some moderately priced (doubles are 90 soles) cabañas and a huge camping area right on the beach. There are a bunch of palapa shelters with hammocks strung up and you just pick one and park next to it and that's your spot. It was just about two feet to low for us too fit our truck under it with our tent opened, so we didn't get to sleep under the shade, but it was a lovely place to hang out it during the day to read a book or cook and eat your food. The lady owner is from Spain and very nice and quirky. She was dressing up like a pirate for one of the kids in the restaurant while she was serving dinner. There were a very nice mix of people when we were here. Lots of families, both Peruvian and overland, and lots of traveling couples and a couple singles. It was very friendly and very relaxed. Also, very importantly, the ocean water is warm and inviting. Recommended for families.
Facilities: Supposedly some of the palapas have electricity but ours didn't. You can plug in computers or whatever in the restaurant/lounge, where there is wifi and plug-in internet available. The bathrooms are very quirky, with rock walls and floors with shells embedded in them in both the toilets and showers. Not super fancy and no hot water but they do the trick. The restaurant is pretty good with very nice staff. It was tasty enough and moderately priced and the relaxation of the place made us too lazy to go anywhere else to eat during our stay.
Notes: Just before we arrived we stopped at the restaurant Juanito's for lunch. It is about 1 Km south of the entrance for the hostel. The food was very good.
Dogs: They have between 6 and 9 (they all look alike) Peruvian Hairless Dogs, which were, for the most part, very friendly. A couple of them ignored me but the rest were more friendly than any dogs of this breed I've met before. There were also a few sweet kittens.
GPS: -4.67844, -81.32516
Location: Right on Playa Balcones, which is south of the town of Negritos, which is south of the city of Talara, right off the Panamericana Norte, GPS is important, but to get to the right beach, ask in Negrito for directions.
Prices: Free. The local cops do a drive-by every few hours to check on things, and both nights we went there they wanted to talk to us for a few minutes, but they said it was fine we were there. They were either bored or wanted a tip. We weren't sure.
Description: This is the westernmost point in South America and you can hike out on the point to the very tip. The beach is really beautiful, with "puntas" on both ends, and really cool tide-pools at low tide. Excellent sunsets and lots of birds.
Facilities: Pretty much nothing. We went to the bathroom in the surrounding sand dunes. There are some flat concrete areas that would be good for tent camping.
Notes: Right in between the end of Negritos and the road to the beach is a little neighborhood called Caleta San Pablo. It is full of cevicherias. Some locals recommended Costa Mar as the best restaurant there and it was amazingly delicious for great prices. I had Seco de Chavelo, which is a regional specialty of pork (I think) and plantains and it was so yummy that I want to try making it at home. Jordan had the softest, tastiest ceviche he had in his whole time in Peru. Both dishes were just 10 soles which is crazy cheap for what we got. On the other end of Negritos is a bosque petrificado that we went to. Not spactacular but interesting enough.
Dogs: There are a nice couple that walk on the beach every morning. They are Betty and Betto and they have an adorable and friendly black scottie dog. You should say hi.
GPS: -6.70198, -79.89566
Website: www.mamitahelmitaperu.com
Location: Hard to find. Either use better GPS than we have or ask once you get close. It's only about 5 blocks from the Lord of Sipan museum but on some dirt backroads that weren't on my google maps.
Prices: he said it was free, but when we insisted he said to give a tip to the employees. We gave 20 soles and he thought it was very generous.
Description: A very nice place with cabañas built around a pool and nice landscaping. There is also a restaurant where we had breakfast but I'm not sure about other meals.
Facilities: There are some very nice bathrooms right outside the restaurant, and a nice (but cold) shower in the pool dressing rooms that you can get a key for. The parking lot is fine but nothing special. I am not sure about tent camping spots. There was a wi-fi network, and maybe available electricity, but we didn't ask about either since he wasn't charging.
Notes: It just so happens that the museum, which is the reason we stopped here, is closed on mondays. Unluckily for me, that is the day we were there, so no museum for me.
Dogs: Two nice dogs.
GPS: -7.16313, -78.52880
Location: On a hill overlooking central Cajamarca. Hard to find. GPS is very helpful, and most locals know where it is.
Prices: 25 soles for two people and the car.
Description: A quirky and slightly rundown hotel with a lovely view of the city. There is a small restaurant that serves breakfast and maybe other meals. Hugo, who I think is the manager, is very nice and loves to talk.
Facilities: Good wifi, bathrooms with supposedly hot water but it didn't work for me, electricity. Parking is just in the main parking lot of the hotel.
Notes: Taxis are relatively affordable into the center of town, so we took them rather than figuring out safe parking and driving ourselves.
Dogs: Two dogs and two cats who are all very skittish and wouldn't come near us.
GPS: -7.70631, -79.45011
Location: on the south end of the beach of Puerto Chicama/Malabrigo Prices: Quoted 120 soles per night but we bargained down to 80 soles per night for a double room with bathroom and a great view of the beach.
Description: A comfy basic hotel on the beach. Nice owner and employees. Very convenient to the amazing beach. The town is famous for having the longest wave in the world, which might be true. It is mainly a surfer destination and many of the businesses are geared towards that, but it is still a simple, mellow, friendly town. There are a bunch of ceviche places and a small supermercado called Jessica's where you can get supplies.
Facilities: There is a nice but basic kitchen, inconsistent wifi, and a huge parking spot that they may let you camp in, but it has no views of the beach, which is the best thing about this place.
Dogs: The hotel has a very sweet dog who seemed sad. The owner said something about how he just lost his great love. :( The town is full of friendly frolicking dogs.
GPS: -8.07298, -79.11842
Website: www.huanchacogardens.com
Location: On the north end of Huanchaco, 1 block from the beach
Prices: 20 Soles/person.
Description: A place with cabañas and an RV parking area. There are two pools, one of which is right next to the camping area. There are two peacocks which make a little noise but not crazy amounts. Most of the noise was during the day when families played in the pool. Facilities: Wifi, electricity, laundry. There are toilets near the pool but for showers ask at the office and they will open a bungalow for you to use.
Notes: The best spot to park is the back right corner, under the big tree. There is the most shade here and it's farther from the pool.
Dogs: A sweet cocker spaniel hangs out near the entrance. There are also the two peacocks and a tortoise who I discovered wandering around behind our truck in the camping area.
GPS: -9.04856, -77.81406
Website: www.lospinoslodge.com
Location: In the town of Caraz, which is at the base of the mountains you drive up to see Laguna Paron. It is 1 1/2 blocks of the main road leading through the valley, right next to a plaza.
Prices: 15 Soles/person plus 5 for the car. Description: A hotel with nice enclosed parking area in the back. It is on the edge of town but still walkable to the center.
Facilities: Nice gardens and lounge to hang out in. Wifi, bathroom with nice shower, electricity. They have a nice restaurant where we got breakfast.
Notes: You can also camp in the Laguna Paron park but when we were there the weather wasn't that amenable.
Dogs: A big friendly yellow lab and the cutest little stuffed animal of a puppy that was too short to climb steps and perfectly content to spend an evening on your lap.
GPS: -9.09585, -77.69949
Website: www.llanganucolodge.com
Location: Hard to find because they have no sign at the main road. Either use better GPS than we have or search for it before on google maps so you can see what the roads look like. It's on the top of a big hill overlooking Yungay and slightly north of the entrance to the Lago LLanganuco park.
Prices: 15 soles per person
Description: The Llanganuco Lodge doesn't have anything specifically for the overlanders, but they let you park on the hill right over the hotel, with a nearby bathroom. The amazing thing about this place is what surrounds it on all sides. In front is the view of all the green valleys covered in fields. Behind are the two tallest mountains in Peru, Huascarin and Huandoy. In between the hotel and the mountains are a small chalky blue/white laguna with two ruins on it's shores. Supposedly you can swim in the laguna and the ruins are over 3000 years old, yet are not a tourist attraction so you can walk around them all alone. A half-hour's walk away is the entrance to the Lago Llanganuco park with it's awesome scenery and trails, plus a bunch more trails.
Facilities: There is a toilet nearby the camping area, but it doesn't have a door. I think this is an advantage because you have a beautiful view of Huandoy while you go to the bathroom.
Notes: If you don't have your own cooking set up and food supplies it is very important to reserve meals in advance. There is an excellent chef in the restaurant, but since the hotel is so remote, they don't keep extra food and only have enough food for the current guests. The food is kind of expensive, but I would say it is worth it, from how the guests were all raving about it and the small tastes I got.
Dogs: Two nice big rhodesian ridgebacks.
GPS: -9.09585, -77.69949
Location: Hard to find. 1 Km past The Way Inn on the left. Use the driving directions The Way Inn provides on their site: http://thewayinn.com/location/
Prices: 10 soles per person plus the cost of food. Breakfast is included in the cost of camping.
Description: A guy from the US (I think named Chris, we forget) went to the nearby The Way Inn and fell in love with the area, so he rented this nearby piece of land that had a couple cabins on it and turned it into a Permaculture collective. When we were there, there were several international kids living there and volunteering to help build it into the vision that Chris has for it. His vision is of a self-sustaining farm that is part of a larger permaculture community that includes the local indigenous farmers and expats, where all profits are shared. Right now they teach classes to the local communties on Permaculture farming. They are at about 4000 meters elevation and surrounded by gorgeous mountains and rivers. There are several hikes close by, both easy and hard ones. As far as camping spots, there are great ones if you are in a tent, but we had a hard time finding a level spot for our truck, as the parking area is on a slight hill.
Facilities: There are toilets and cold showers, and some solar powered electricity. They cook group meals that are quite good and affordable, and you are welcome to join them. I imagine they would let you use the kitchen as long as they weren't using it, but we didn't ask about that.
Notes:The Hoff is also called Cabañas Cujup, and that is what the sign says. "The Hoff" is actually the nickname of the owner.
We had originally made the drive up into the area of The Hoff because we were trying to stay at The Way Inn, but when we arrived at the Inn, we were told that they were having a week long Ayahuasca retreat and no outside guests were allowed during a retreat, and they suggested that we try out The Hoff. Call or email ahead to see if they are open for guests. They were quite nice and the Inn was really beautiful with amazing views and a coi pond and ducks, and had nice facilities, but if you don't have your own cooking setup, it might be really expensive to eat there. We had a simple veggie sandwich before we headed to The Hoff, and it was $7, and everything else on the menu looked expensive too.
Dogs: One sweet and skittish little dog named Achilles.
GPS: -10.88358, -77.52414 (approximately)
Website: www.caraltambo.com
Location: Hard to find. If you look on Google maps you can see where it is, but there is only a back road that is 4x4 worthy to get there. The way we found it was to park at the little church/tienda around here: (-10.86934, -77.52414) on the main road, walk up the little road into the fields that was across the street from the church, until we found the owner, Scott. He then hopped into our car and then guided us through the back roads to get there.
Prices: We were Scott's firsts guests who found him by his new website, so he didn't let us pay...and he shared his pisco and Crush (orange crush) with us.
Description: This place will someday be super-great, with all Scott's cool sounding plans for it, but now it is very much in the building process and is pretty bare-bones. It is a large section of land accross the river from the Caral-Supe ruins, with lots of nice areas to explore. Scott and his brother are building a building for lodging, as well as a covered outside area for what Scott envisions as the music, dancing, card-playing, book-reading, socializing area. He is building a spiritual learning/library building, and has lots of other great plans too. There is a really cool labyrinth he made based on medieval French designs for meditational walking, and a small beekeeping area to increase the health of the local flora. Scott and his brother Bruce (European parents) are really really friendly and enthusiastic and love getting to know people. They were the highlight of the experience.
Facilities: There will be a lot more in the future, but now there is a working toilet, places for car and tent-camping, and I am not sure what else.
Notes:One thing to be aware of is that there are lots of mosquitos during the wet times of the year (Nov-Apr probably) but Scott says during the dry season it is the best time to visit. If you are there in the summer it is still nice, but cover up!
Dogs: 3 really friendly, happy dogs.
GPS: -12.12240, -77.03602
Website: www.hhikersperu.com
Location: In Miraflores, on Bolognesi and Francia. About 5-6 blocks from the coast and close to restaurants and a supermarket.
Prices: 15 soles/person. 60 soles for a double room with shared bathroom, with simple breakfast included.
Description: Nice enough hostel with friendly employees. It is in a good area popular with tourists. There is a large parking lot big enough to fit 4 large overlanding vehicles. We camped the first night but it was so loud with people ringing the bell to get in at all hours and people hanging out till late hours right next to the cars, so the next 2 nights we moved into one of their rooms.
Facilities: Good wifi, electricity, hot showers, a big kitchen, helpful staff, tv room, secure parking lot, etc...
Notes: Though this place is totally convenient, in hindsight I would have booked ahead in some hostel in Barranco, which I found to be a much more appealing neighborhood, with a lot more character. We tried to move to a different hostel in Barranco during our time there in Lima, but all the places we looked at were either all booked up, quite expensive, or when we showed up at the address there was nothing there anymore. Book ahead!
Dogs: None.
GPS: -12.96153, -76.14285
Location: There are lots and lots of places to camp around here. The best ones we found were all for tent camping and were on the river, but car camping doesn't seem to be as great. Just drive along the main road and find a place that has a camping sign and looks good.
Prices: We paid 50 soles for a double room with bathroom, but the camping in the same place was 20 soles/person, so we figured the room was a good deal.
Description: This area is really beautiful, with a weird mix of deserty canyon walls and lush tropical flora along the river. It is a huge pisco-grape growing region, with lots of bodegas along the road, as well as being an adventure-sport center, with excellent river-rafting. The actual town of Lunahuana has tons of adventure sport companies and was actually not so appealing because of how touristy it was, but the central plaza and church are really nice. East and west of the main town along the river and main road are the nice areas to stay. There are multiple ruins through the canyon, and it seems to have an important history.
Facilities:The place we stayed at was nice, but simple. Not very interesting since we can't even remember the name. :)
Dogs: None.
GPS: -13.89222, -76.30919
Location: Once you get in the park, either follow the signs to Playa Lagunillas, use the map they provide at the entrance, or ask directions. It's not too hard, but there are a couple turns to make.
Prices: 5 soles/person for entrance, and camping is free.
Description: You can camp anywhere you like in the park, but they recommend that you stay near a ranger station for safety. At Playa Lagunillas there is a ranger station, which has a bathroom, but at night they close the door, and I am not sure if they will open it if you knock. Nearby (a couple minutes drive but right accross a little bay from the camping area) is an area with a fishing port and a few seafood restaurants with some delicious ceviche and other seafood. We went during lunch and I imagine they are closed after dark. The park is really beautiful in a very desolate, sandy way, and there are a lot of spots to explore.
Facilities: Not much. A bathroom that is open during the day and a camping area along the beach.
Notes: We highly recommend the Islas Ballestas boat tour leaving from the nearby town of Paracas. The boattrip takes you past several small islands teeming with sea-life, including sea lions, seabirds of every description, and crabs. The boats leave at 9 in the morning, so if you are not early risers, it might be better to stay in Paracas the night before and get your tickets the day before for efficiency's sake.
Dogs: None.
GPS: -14.087758, -75.761765
Location: As soon as you get into the very small town of Huacachina, turn right and this place is on the right.
Prices: 50 soles for a double room with bathroom.
Description: This place is not that great so this is not really a recommendation. We arrived without any planning and a lot of places were booked up or expensive because it was a summer weekend. The hostal was fine, and friendly, but it was pretty grungy. There was a nice backyard and they said it was safe to park in the front driveway.
The town of Huacachina is pretty cool, with the little oasis laguna surrounded by palms in the middle of the town, and surrounding the town is towering sand dunes. When we were there the laguna and its beaches were full of Peruvian families swimming and having a great time with small sandboards. There were a bunch of people climbing to the top of the huge sand dunes and running or sand boarding down, and there were dunebuggies carrying several people going up and down the dunes like rollercoasters. The atmostsphere was very touristy but happy and fun.
Facilities: Wifi, electricity, pool, backyard bar, mediocre kitchen.
Notes: Be carefully taking your camera up on the dunes. Sand and cameras are not friends.
Dogs: A sweet boston terrier.
GPS: -15.83904, -74.31302
Website: www.puertoinka.com.pe
Location: At km 610 of the Panamerica Sur, there is a 1-2 km road down to the hotel and camping area
Prices: 10-15 soles/person. (can't remember exactly)
Description: A really amazing spot where you can camp right next to the beach. The hotel there provides a camping area with some shelters for each camper. One of the coolest aspects of the location is the fact that it is the site of the main Incan port and the area is full of ruins within a minute's walk from the camping area. The terrain is also really cool, with crazy boulders and rocky spires surrounding the hotel and jutting into the ocean. There are lots of beautiful places to walk on both sides of the little bay the hotel sits in.
Facilities: There are bathrooms and showers, but the water is salty so showers are not the best. They have a pretty good restaurant with lots of seafood and other options in a nice setting. There is no electricity at the campsites, but they did charge our iPod at the front desk for us. I don't think they have wi-fi but they might.
Notes: The nearby town of Chala has some good seafood restaurants.
Dogs: A small green parrot but no dogs.
GPS: -16.40078, -71.54211
Website: www.lasmercedeshostal.com
Location: Near the center of town along the river. Quite convenient to walk to the center without being in the middle of all the craziness. There is no good place to pull over to ring the bell to get them to open the gate. We pulled into the driveway of the place right before Las Mercedes and I ran over to ring the bell and Jordan waited a bit and then brought the car over.
Prices: 22 soles/person. The most expensive camping we've done so far.
Description: A nice hotel with good facilities for campers. It is about 7 blocks from the central plaze and has a nice high wall to muffle the road traffic.
Facilities: For car campers they have a little tree-shaded grassy area with bathrooms and showers, and a laundry sink and electrical outlets. Wifi is available but you only get good reception inside the hotel.
Notes: There is a huge Vea supermarket just up the street that has everything you could ever need.
Dogs: Nope.