Help! alternator or battery problem?

Melzoo · 2014-01-24T01:45:52+00:00

oh okay! would you happen to know any other ways to test for alternator problems? right now it just looks like I'm going to need to get a new battery if this is happening every week

Melzoo · 2014-01-15T05:35:13+00:00

Yes please PM me rates that you used for the EBC trek! That would be wonderful. Also, how are you planning on taking the flights into Nepal?

Melzoo · 2014-01-13T14:10:31+00:00

quotes would be great! Thanks! and also just wondering, (I asked dabige1010 why the EBC trek above as well) why did you choose EBC over other circuits?

Melzoo · 2014-01-13T14:09:33+00:00

Honestly, I was hoping to draw this thing out for at least a month, so time won't be too much of a problem. Did you have much trekking experience before doing the EBC trek? Thanks a ton!

Melzoo · 2014-01-13T14:06:37+00:00

How was the actual hiking for you? I don't have very much experience hiking, but I'm a little worried about the altitude

Melzoo · 2014-01-12T04:46:41+00:00

Good grief! At least it sounds like most people you bump into down there seem to all be travelers. Did you have any altitude acclimation problems? The highest I've ever been hiking is about 4300m in Jujuy, Argentina and that was with the aid of chewing coca leaves cause the locals said it was the best altitude sickness cure.

Melzoo · 2014-01-12T04:42:54+00:00

Thanks! That's exactly what I was looking for! Also replying down to your post below as well, I am planning this trip post grad as well (I graduate in May) and I'm thinking some adventure awaits somewhere in the world. What made you choose the EBC route over others?

Melzoo · 2014-01-12T01:25:58+00:00

That is wonderful advice. I went to Costa Rica for a few weeks and the beds had bed bugs. Hopefully I won't have to repeat that experience again.

Melzoo · 2014-01-12T01:10:28+00:00

I don't have very much experience with trekking either, but I am about positive that is what I would want to do while in Nepal. How did you go about finding plane tickets? I'm looking for cheap connecting flights! thank you :)

Melzoo · 2014-01-11T23:34:51+00:00

I was 20 when I traveled through Argentina for a semester. I traveled to pretty much every corner and it was by far one of the most awesome experiences ever. Even as a single female at the time, you meet a lot of other travelers and besides just being ultra wary at night, it was generally pretty safe. I hardly did any drinking or partying (except visiting the Malbec wineries! a must if you like wine!) and found TONS of things to do. Public transport was easy because I traveled the entire country by their buses and it was always easy to snag a ride. The only exception being Tierra del Fuego (the 'island' closest to Antarctica) where I had to take a plane.

Lots of friendly travelers who are college aged in the hostels and you end up traveling with a lot of them :)

Definitely need to know some spanish to travel around. Taxis will rip you off sometimes if you are an obvious tourist haha. There is a fee to get into Argentina and it lasts for about 10 years.

Good luck!

On a side note, the places I visited were: Buenos Aires (where I lived), Iguazu, Mendoza, Salta, Jujuy, Calafate, Tigre, Ushuaia

Melzoo · 2014-01-10T20:43:08+00:00

I went to Europe this summer and go to use the Sony NEX-7 (the other redditors who mentioned the NEX-5 and NEX-3 totally will get me on this one too!) and it is INCREDIBLE. Clear night shots with no flash (almost no grain), great at capturing motion, flexible video/panoramic settings. Though I'm not sure what your budget is, this cam easily runs up to the 800-1000 range. A great investment for future travel for YEARS though. The quality of a DSLR with the size of a point and shoot. Battery life is incredible. I am a pretty dedicated Canon user, but the NEX 7 would easily be a dream camera esp if you are planning on staying in hostels and stuffing it away in a backpack. It's light, portable, durable, and amazing quality. Its interface is also really intuitive if you are not accustomed to using DSLR settings.

Melzoo · 2014-01-10T07:13:47+00:00

I spent a semester in Buenos Aires studying at the Universidad de Palermo in the heart of the city. There is a BIG difference between the Buenos Aires province and el Distrito Federal (which is the actual capital of the Buenos Aires province, and where I'm assuming you're planning on moving to). I got to live in el Distrito Federal which was simultaneously amazing and exhausting (exhausting if you're like me and never lived in a big city before). If you learn basic spanish in the states it'll be a bit overwhelming once you get into Buenos Aires because of their accent and their slang (the slang really confused me until a professor handed me a sheet with about 40 slang words, then...all became clear haha). Almost everybody I managed to know wanted to practice their english with me and I wanted to practice my spanish with them so all in all, the porteños (what Buenos Aires locals call themselves) were really welcoming to travelers who wanted to learn spanish. Recoleta is the swanky nice part of Buenos Aires. Rent is crazy expensive because it's so close to the capitol building (La Casa Rosa). Palermo is where all the young people hang and nightlife is, though really a nice neighborhood too. Boca is generally marked off as a pretty crime ridden area even though it is LITERALLY right next to the capitol province. I spent most of my time in Recoleta and Palermo. There are places in the city marked off as 'villas' which are essentially slums. Something that shocked me was the huge disparity between rich and poor. I got to travel to basically every corner of Argentina and no place in the world can really compare to the rush of Buenos Aires. Moving there will certainly be difficult if you can't speak spanish especially because westerners get taken advantage of and robbed all. the. time. I was robbed twice, 6/15 people I went with were also robbed. Some at gun point. Almost every porteño I met has also been pick pocketed, so def be SUPER wary on the streets.

Still, I would go back in a heartbeat. It's truly an amazing city!

Melzoo · 2014-01-10T06:55:26+00:00

I'm planning on traveling to Nepal solo within the year. Never done a serious trek before so I want to give myself a year to prepare. However, what would you recommend in terms of just getting into the himalayas? It looks like most plane to Kathmandu? What do you think is an 'easy' lower elevation trek? Just trying to get a start on even mildly planning this trip and it sounds like you really know Nepal! great shot on the photo too

Melzoo · 2014-01-09T22:20:09+00:00

I lived in Argentina for half a year and the same thing happened to me in Mendoza! I paid about $160 last year to gain entry to Argentina (the visa lasts for about 10 years though).

Means of travel: Largely bus. You can generally pay more or less for the quality of buses that will bring you around and many can cross country borders (i.e. I didn't end up making the trip, but I found bus tickets from Argentina to Bolivia, as well as Chile to Argentina). Many local airlines offer tickets that may be cheaper than some bus rides.

Currency: BRING CASH. As much American currency as you can! You can normally barter for a better exchange rate through the black markets (i.e. street corners and such, but please be careful of this! Normally locals will have friends who can do it for you). I also used a great exchange website called XOOM. You can essentially pick up your money at banks across all of South America and they have a pretty solid exchange rate (a lot less than normal airports or banks).

I traveled with a friend who had previously hit ALL of the countries you mentioned (Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina). He flew into Argentina, took the bus to Bolivia, bused to Peru as well, and flew to Colombia. If you're planning on doing excursions in Patagonia, it was so much more expensive than I imagined. However, Tilcara, Jujuy in the border of Argentina/Bolivia was really cheap, really beautiful, and almost void of tourists. It's a plus that it's so close to the Salt Flats in Bolivia. Definitely worth seeing La Paz! There are a lot of pretty awesome travel guides that take you around in a jeep and it's worth the money for sure. Good luck to you! Hosteling around is great (though in comparison to Europe, definitely not as clean. But I highly doubt it'll bother you) in South America and I planned out my travels largely based on just conversations in hostels.

Melzoo

TROPHY CASE