Quick Tech Talk

Technology is important these days, and especially on a trip like this. I just talked about gear in my last post, portable power and a portable speaker, obviously tech gear. But even more important than these pieces of equipment is my smart phone, and the various apps I have used during this journey. I mentioned earlier that I rely on a smart phone, my Motorola Moto G (think maybe 3rd generation, but who knows). I buy local sim cards for local network access (Claro in Peru, Entel in Chile, and Movistar in Argentina), buy lots of data (which other than in Argentina, is really cheap compared to buying data in the USA, and everything is more expensive in Argentina), and as long as I have cell service, a signal, I have access to the internet and e-mail. Of course, I have not always had access to a cell signal, often for days, such as the entire time I was in Parque Patagonia in Chile. But in addition to this, using my smart phone to keep in touch via d-mail, I have found certain apps to be extremely useful, and others to simply be interesting. First, you have to have iOverlander, an amazing app where fellow overlanders post information on, and locations of, campgrounds, wild camping spots, gas stations, hostals, restaurants, and other services. I have found iOverlander to be extremely important, pretty much a necessity for me. I have occasionally disagreed with the reviews or assessments provided (like, "...the road is not that bad, we drove 40 to 70 kph.", a description of a road in Argentina which was brutal, took me 2 hours to drive the 50 km mentioned), but generally, fantastic app, got to have it (and works in USA as well). I have also used MAPS.ME a lot, though mostly this is of importance in towns and cities, hugely important to help me navigate a strange town and find hostals, campgrounds, grocery stores, banks, etc. I used Google Maps early in the trip, but it just seemed like a lot of places, business, etc., were missing, things did not seem to be as up to date when compared to MAPS.ME. Some folks have found WAZE to work ok as well, I just never really used it outside of Lima, Peru, pretty good to help you work through traffic congestion in cities.  I also used Google Translate, again more early in the trip, seems to work well English to Spanish, but not as well in the other direction. And finally, I found a few other apps to be occasionally useful, though mostly these were more for entertainment purpose, like the altimeter, "....hummm, 12,000 feet above sea level, no wonder my head hurts, maybe time for more coca leaves". I used an altimeter, Accurate Altimeter Free (ver. 1.2.2), a compass (Compass 360 Pro, ver. 1.2.9), and Earthquake Alert (ver 2.0.3). There are also communication apps which are very useful as well, most of you are aware of Skype, Google Hangout, and WhatsApp, all of which seem to work well in South America, as long as you have good, and I mean much better than average, wifi, which is not often the case. Technology is important, why not use, it helps.
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