We’ve named the van La Tortuga – turtle in Spanish. For anyone that’s been behind one of these portable houses on the road, this is self explanatory. It’s a 1982 Westfalia that I traded my brother’s Geo Metro for. It came with a bum aircooled motor which I replaced with a 1.9L turbo diesel from a 1998 Jetta TDI (AHU engine code). This could not have been accomplished without the help of the Vanagon TDI Conversion Yahoo group. Many thanks to David of Fast Forward, Karl M, Costica and many others. As part of the conversion I re-geared the transmission. This was really nice in North America, however down here the speed limit is usually 60kph which is just in between 3rd and 4th. Oh well, 3 speed with overdrive. We’re getting 30-33 mpg, fully loaded. And diesel is everywhere in Central America. We even stopped at a gas station that *only* sold diesel. Anyone that wants a wonderful camping vehicle with more pep than a Vanagon, this is the way to go.
We are both amazed at how comfortable the living space is. At night we sit facing each other (the front passenger seat swivels) or snuggling on the couch typing, reading, knitting, much as we did in our mansion in Durham. The cabinets inside easily hold our clothes, books, more books, camping gear, food, pots, and more books. The stove and sink are great for cooking. Once we pull into camp and close the curtains, light the candle lantern (thanks Cecile!), we are in our cozy little home, and it’s amazing how great that is on a trip like this one when every day is full of foreign language and sensory overload.
We’ve made a few modifications which make it a little more comfy. For extra storage, we bought 2 120mm mortar canisters (ebay). One is painted beige (which ended up looking more like desert camo) and is strapped to the roof and chained on. The other one is painted black and 2 metal straps hold it under the van. It would take a keen observer to notice this as anything other than part of the car, as intended. It only takes a couple of minutes to get out, but does require groveling in the dirt. We have spare car parts, fuel filters, snorkeling gear, that kinda stuff in there.
We also installed mosquito netting everywhere – in the tent top, across the van door (two big overlapping pieces that roll up and tie up above the door when not in use) and two envelopes of netting that fit over the front windows and are held in place by magnets. We wish we had enough netting to make two more windows in the sides of the top tent, for more ventilation. A 12-volt fan would have come in handy, too. It’s HOT here, and the mosquitoes are fierce.
We reupholstered the back seat and back seat cushion with some black cordura, because the old van upholstery was, well, kinda grungy, and no amount of cleaning would make it look better. We also put some “Bound” brand seat covers on the front seats. These have endless pockets and an almost magical ability to repel dirt, so they’re very handy.
Refrigerator: After 2 years of fighting with the Dometic fridge, we ripped it out and turned the space into a large 2 shelved closet. The fridge was very temperamental, not surprising since the instruction manual mentions a Ouija board. Good riddance. Our German friends have a solar powered compressor fridge, similar to what our next rig will have, that they love. We do miss cold beer.
One ‘modification’ we made was maybe a bad idea. At the beginning of our trip, the van was pretty loaded down. We spent at least a month throwing stuff out. It was an orgy of purging. Our table, alas, was a victim of the purges. Westys come with 2, and we only brought one, and now we have none. Poor thing, we left it on the side of the road in Mexico because it made access to the pantry a bit of a hassle. We go back and forth on whether that was premature, but mostly, we wish we hadn’t thrown it out.
Overall, living in the van has been so good that we are actually seriously considering moving into an RV full time for the next while (no bigger, just without an engine in the back). This would let us save up for the house we want to build in BC, and we are excited about the prospect of living ‘mobile’ in Europe. We keep meeting folks traveling around in practically bombproof expedition vehicles, and we’re a little jealous.
There are a couple of things that we’d change, but not many. We’d like a bathroom and shower. Although showering outside has been wonderful, I don’t think I’ll have quite so much enthusiasm in the Andes in the autumn. The blue box is fine for emergencies, but it does NOT need a magazine rack next to it. 4 wheel drive. Not that the van has gotten stuck, we just want more ground clearance and a more comfortable ride on the endless corduroy dirt roads that we hope to explore in the future. Although I drool at the sight of a Unimog, we are thinking about something like a Toyota Landcruiser with a camper shell on the back. More payload capacity. With fuel, water, bikes, books, we’re probably pushing 5000lbs which shows when we bottom out on the paved roads. To be fair to the van, this was never a problem before the Mexican border.
We had to make list of all of our belongings for the customs agents (in Spanish!! I’ll bet they’ll have a good laugh when they read it). It was 314 items long, and it took forever to make. They told us it had to be ridiculously detailed – that if we had 4 pencils in the car, we should write ‘4 pencils’. Sheesh. It was interesting to look at what we still have with us, though. It reminds me that we wanted to make a list of our favorite gear, to help out anyone else planning a trip like this one.
REI quick-dry towels. They’re huge, soft, dry in about 30 minutes, and best of all, they’re orange.
Sani-Fem Freshette FUD – The name is ridiculous, but this handy doodad lets me pee standing up. I can’t tell you how many times a day I’m glad I have this. REI, also.
Pressure cooker, 4 quart. We love this!!! We cook everything in it, in a fraction of the time it would take otherwise. Why didn’t we ever have one at home??
Plastic buckets we bought in Guatemala for $1 each. We put one of them under the car to catch the greywater from the sink. The other is good for doing laundry, or for washing in on those days when using the solar shower is tricky (see below).
Shur-Flo faucet. We replaced the van faucet with this guy, and we love it. It’s really mobile, and regulates the flow of water from trickle to gush, which the old van faucet couldn’t do.
Small LED lights everywhere – lots of these used to live on bikes, and now they live in the van. We’ve glued some of them to magnets, so they can go (and stay) anywhere we need light, and they use almost no energy, and they don’t run off the car battery. Alas, we wish we’d bought a solar panel for the roof, to recharge the battery. Next trip.
Candle lantern. So handy. We accidentally brought about 12 candles with us, and Douglas has been making fun of me for bringing so many, but I think we just might use them all.
Easy button. Thanks, Louis. We use this thing every day, and multiple times a day when we cross borders.
Sewing needle and thread. I’ve sewn meters and meters of seams by hand on this trip. I’m getting a lot faster.
Water: We often buy our water in the 5 gallon ‘water cooler’ jugs. At $1.50 each this is an easy option. We also brought a Katadyn Base Camp filter. This filter rocks. It’s a filter element inside a nylon bag. Fill the bag, hang it on the side of the van and gravity pushes the water through a hose and into the tank. A recommendation from Great Outdoor Provision Company in Durham and we give it a 2 thumbs up. We will often also add a few drops of bleach to the water for viruses (less than 1 micron). All the bleach bottles down here have instructions on how to do this.
The bleach bottles also have instructions on how to mix up a concoction for vegetable cleaning, essential in a land full of amoebas and other nasties. It’s a stronger solution of bleach water and you soak everything in it for 5 minutes. We’ve notice this also makes the vegetables last for a long time with no refrigeration.
Osram Flex light: A wonder map light on a 20cm flexible stalk. Very handy.
Garmin eTrex GPS. Almost the cheapest one available at $100 and we very nearly did not bring it. Now that we are starting to connect with serious overlanders who rely on GPS a lot and all their information is with GPS coordinates, we’re really glad we did. The eTrex also interfaces with our laptop, which is handy.
Laptop. An old HP NC6000, a real workhorse with a nice combination of power and battery life.
El Cheapo 300 amp power converter. Picked this up at a truckstop a while back and it’s now solidly mounted in the van. Great for the various electronics that want 110V for charging.
Cannon EOS Rebel Digital. This camera is light, cheap when you consider developing costs, and has all the features any amateur could want. Brought a Cannon EF 75-300 zoom for the wildlife and an EFS 28-55 for the rest.
HP 670 digital camera. Thanks mum and dad! We love dropping this little gadget in our pocket for snapshots and its best feature, movies. The lens cover doesn’t really close all the time now, surely not from when it leapt out of the van onto the concrete
Eagle Creek Pack it Cubes. These things are great and keep our clothes organized and in neat stackable cubes.
Solar Shower: Thank you Rob and Christine! Fill it with water and put it in the sun and within 30 minutes you have a hot, and I do mean hot, shower. We use this everyday and it lives tied to the roof. We’re currently building a removable shower stall that attaches to the side of the van. We’ll post a picture when it’s done.
iPod: Gotta love Latin American radio, with its crazy announcers, but sometimes some Le Tigre or Neko Case is what you really want. We also have a doodad that will download photos from our camera straight to the iPod. This is nice when we travel without the laptop.
The Blue Box. Sometimes when you gotta go, you gotta go. Its an old army ammo box, water (and smell) tight that’s strapped to the front bumper. We painted it blue after Jon’s story of the East German guards insisting they see inside their ‘blue box’. This is almost as difficult to explain at the border as Kim’s pee doodad.
Jerry Can: I picked up a European style jerry can on ebay. Unlike the screw top American ones, this does not leak. It fits perfectly on the roof with the storage box on its side. Low profile and hopefully remains unused.
Highlift Jack. After seeing pictures of the Austral Highway in South America I started thinking about winches. Winches cost money, and the highlift was rusting in the back yard. It fit neatly in my rear bumper once disassembled and is inconspicuous. This too I hope remains unused as they are more work than pushing the go button on a winch.
deWalt 9.6V cordless drill. Although this seemed bulky and maybe extraneous, it’s been used almost daily on various van projects. It’s no longer cordless as I brought my old one and the batteries will only last long enough to put in 4 screws. Yesterday I wired it to the car battery, held my breath, and pulled the trigger. Eureka! It likes 12 volts even better than it liked 9.6.
Large Mag-Lite. Not only does it work great for spotlighting monkeys in the trees or finding the right turnoff at night – this thing is BRIGHT – but it spends the night next to the bed when we are in a sketchy spot. I think just the sight of this monster will ward off most evil doers.
Petzl headlamps: For all of you who’ve drooled down the flashlight you’ve got in your mouth, these little wonders make for handsfree lighting for your active lifestyle.
And of course the Van: Thanks Brian and I hope the Metro is doing you well!
We would both like to thank everyone that has contributed to this pool of stuff. We don’t have much, so we use it often, and think of you every time.
1 comment:
Great detailed list! The Sani-Fem is something I could have done with in China... (top tip: roll up your trousers before stepping into the stall). I'm also envious of your 5000 lb "luggage" allowance - we had to stick to 2 x 20 kg for all the internal Chinese flights, which meant no new books and carefully juggling heavy items between our suitcases.
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