Pan American roads

(First published in Issue 8, March 2023)

We met six years ago in Sierre in the Valaisan Alps in Switzerland during our studies. Audrey studied computer management and Benji studied tourism. We had one goal in mind, to achieve our dream and travel for a long time. The duration, the destination, and the means of transport were still unclear, but our ultimate goal was to save money after our studies. We thought we would work for three years and then leave, but the pandemic delayed our departure.

We were lucky to be able to keep our jobs during those difficult years. The time we saved by staying at home allowed us to plan and set up our itinerary for this big trip, driving the Pan American Highway from Seattle to Panama. With a rough plan, we now had to think about transportation. We wanted to buy a vehicle and ship it from Belgium to Canada. Vanlife was already part of our lives with our Fiat Doblo, which we used for surf trips to France and Spain.

Our first van was a 1982 Mercedes 207 D James Cook, bought on a sudden whim. Barely one month later we sold it because it was too slow, with a maximum speed of 80 km per hour (50 mph) on flat roads. We decided it would be better to buy the next van on the American continent to avoid shipping costs. The itinerary and way of traveling were decided, and with our savings we were finally ready. On May 3rd, 2022, we flew to Seattle.

We bought our truck camper, our off road companion Jeff. He allows us to move wherever we want with great comfort. We have a toilet with a shower, a living room, a bedroom, and a kitchen with an oven, a real tiny house on wheels. We spent two and a half months in the United States traveling the West Coast and inland to visit national parks and major cities. Then we stayed almost six months in Mexico, including one month of voluntary work on a ranch in Baja California next to the beach. We later visited Belize for a week and Guatemala for a month. Currently we are in El Salvador surfing beautiful waves on the Pacific coast.

We are often asked what our greatest moment was. It is a very tough question to answer but we do have some moments that will always stay with us. For example, our first national park in the United States, Yosemite. The sunset with our pesto pasta prepared in our camper in front of El Capitan will forever remain in our memory.

Punta Abreojos in Baja California was one of our best surf spots. Our camper was parked in front of the point break with almost nobody in the water. We thought we would stay one night but we stayed five because we were out of food and water. Nine Palms in southern Baja was our nearest spot to the water with incredible waves. These places felt like they belonged in magazines. They are very rare but when we find them we never want to leave.

And what is next? We are not ready to come back home after Panama. We are planning to continue our journey to South America but with another camper. We want to try something smaller and less luxurious. We also do not want to pay the shipping costs from Panama to Colombia, which are more than four thousand US dollars.