We made it! After 681 days, 43850 km, and $6755 CAD in gas, we arrived at the southernmost city in the world. It was a dream come true…and somewhat of a miracle. We made it the whole way without any show-stopping breakdowns, a rare occurrence for vintage vans like ours. Lucky was definitely living up to her name. (more…)
Gregor and I were super excited to enter Argentina. We were 19 months into our Pan-American journey and we still hadn’t set Lucky’s wheels on Argentine soil. There was a good reason to wait: we needed Lucky to be in tip-top shape before entering the country. Frankly, Argentina is not the place for your vintage camper van to have a breakdown. Reputable VW mechanics are scarce and foreign car parts are inaccessible due to the country’s unfavourable import policies. (more…)
When Gregor first told me that there was no road connecting North America to South America, I thought he was joking. That’s ridiculous, I thought, of course there’s a road.
Well, you can’t actually drive between North and South America because of a 50-km break in the Pan-American Highway called the Darién Gap. It’s a roadless stretch of swampland and forest between Panama’s Darién province in Central America and Colombia’s Chocó department in South America. (more…)
August 1, 2015, marked the beginning of our 8th month on the Pan American trail. Of those 8 months, 7 were spent living in our Westy in Mexico and Central America. Gregor and I had perfected the art of living and working in the van through ever-changing conditions in a predominantly Spanish-speaking world. We were loving nomadic life and we felt unstoppable.
All of that changed in August. (more…)
The Nicaraguan government opened a brand new all-in-one Immigration and Customs building at Peñas Blancas during the week of Aug 17, 2015. This article provides updated instructions on how to exit Nicaragua with a vehicle at this border crossing. The process to enter Costa Rica with a vehicle remains unchanged. (more…)