Which GPS for South America

[Mr Steam Turbine]

I am preparing for a solo ride from the USA to Argentina and will be purchasing my first GPS set. I would like recommendations for which unit to purchase and if they come with any usable maps for Central and South America. Will a simple $150 no frills unit be as usable as the more expensive units? My understanding is there are no (or limited) actual road maps available. Perhaps someone that has made the trip can let me know what they used and how well it worked. Thanks,

[Forsellini]

Sorry but I'm responding with no real help. Two years ago I traveled to Panama from the U.S. with a fellow who had two very up to date Garmins. Fortunately we traveled on primary highways and mostly Highway 1 thru central America. We used paper maps on occasion and the only time we really need the GPS, we were in Guatemala City and his devices showed that we where right on "highway 1" (which we were looking for). It was actually about one mile away! Perhaps there are better maps available now. Also one of his GPS's, as I remember, cost well over 400.00. Good luck.
Bob

Bob's Latin America Adventure

[Frank Warner]

There are 'world maps' avalible for both Gramin and Maglelan GPSes...

The 'accuracy' of these maps and the level of detail is not what people expect in populated cities .. they are guides rather than exact ..

Having said that I am lead to belive that Smellybikers 'Wanderlust' map set is the best for South America overall (and best for Russia too?)

There are some Garmin map sets avalible for some of the countries in South America .. usually a local effort ... not connected to the Garmin factory in any way othe rthan by using their products...

[Mr Steam Turbine]

Thanks for the information. I purchased a Garmen 260c on ebay and I suppose I'll fork out the money for the "World Map" as you suggested. I wish I understood more about the "Tracks" that are down loadable, as well as the maps from smellybiker. I'm somewhat computer literate so I'll figure out all this GPS stuff. Anyway, I wanted to thank you both for responding.

[MikeS]

There are some excellent free maps of Patagonia that I used which had street level detail (not routable but very handy) plus you'll find Garmins Worldmap for free too if you know where to look (eg Bitorrents). Javier at Dakar also had a very useful routable map for Buenos Aires. This was a couple of years ago so no doubt there's a lot more out there by now.

[RickMcD]

Proyecto Mapear

This site has some great Garmin compatable maps for Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. The have street level detail and are routable. AND FREE!!!

Rick.

[marky mark]

Hi Mr. S.T
When are you off on your trip ? I am doing the same route but coming from England in early July.
Have you found out any more about GPS's for central and South America,as I have the same question ?
Also do you know if you need an address in America to get insurance in South America please ?
I confess to being a little nervous but I guess that's why we are doing it , to get outside the comfort zone !
Best Regards ,and have a fantastic trip.
Mark.

[PocketHead]

I have a GPS but have hardly used it up until this point, I always find it much quicker to ask for directions, especially in places like Bolivia.

If you can upload some offline-mode google maps onto it (not sure if this is possible for you, I use them on my cell phone which works a treat) then all of the roads are there in detail.

Definitely learn to speak directions in Spanish if you haven't already, it will help you heaps!

[Robson Jaborá/SC]

Originally Posted by RickMcD

Proyecto Mapear

This site has some great Garmin compatable maps for Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. The have street level detail and are routable. AND FREE!!!

Rick.

Yes...
Mapear is excelent...
In Brazil, if you come, use this:
Principal
Is free too.

A hug,

[jeff916]

I've just downloaded the mapset at Smellybiker and will start the process at Proyecto Mapear. Once I get these, I'll take a look and see how the mapsets compare.

BTW, I just bought the Garmin Oregon. So far I really like its capabilities but I've yet to use it on a bike. I'm currently using a Zumo and owned a 276c too (it walked away at a bar).

[*Touring Ted*]

Garmin 2610 with Touratech mount and a 2GB memory card..

You can get fantastic maps of South America absolutely free. Most even have routing..

[Robson Jaborá/SC]

I'm using the Garmin 60CsX, with Ram-Amout support and Tracksource and Mapear Maps.
All maps free and it works so good in all trips...

[Toyark]

+1 for the 60CSx with 2GB micro SD - with gps tracks to be saved to automatically
edit- these micro sd are very cheap now so weigh next to nothing and you can have all your maps loaded up before you go.
News:
The latest update from Garmin for the 60CSX now allows this unit to use the standard 4GB micro SD cards
(not the HC ones btw)

[Robson Jaborá/SC]

Yes, I have a 1 GB Micro SD, and it's short to put too many maps...

[jeff916]

Originally Posted by jeff916

I've just downloaded the mapset at Smellybiker and will start the process at Proyecto Mapear. Once I get these, I'll take a look and see how the mapsets compare.

So, I ended up looking at a few more maps then the two above. The detail in the maps surprised me; there're really very good. GPS Maps of South America is a review I wrote on the topic comparing map detail and autorouting in MapSource.

[I can't figure out how to paste html code in here so here's a summary]

Map Detail and Routing

I started playing around with the maps after loading them into MapSource and was surprised at what I found. These maps are good! I think you would need them all if you want to travel throughout South America, as the map details vary. For example, with the Wanderlust maps, you get a map set that covers the world, and while version 1.6 has a lot of detail, it's not routable. Version 2r03 is routable, but doesn't have as much detail as the other maps. What surprised me the most are the maps from Mapear, CONOSUR, and TrackSource. These maps are simply outstanding. Not only are they routable, but they also have a huge amount of detail. The downside is that they don’t cover every country, so one would need other map sets for countries like Columbia, Brazil Peru, Ecuador, etc.

Below is an example of the difference in detail in maps displayed at a MapSource resolution of 3 miles for Buenos Aires.

Garmin WorldMap - Buenos Aires

Wanderlust 2r03 - Buenos Aires

Wanderlust 1.60 - Buenos Aires

Mapear 8.0 - Buenos Aires