I quit my corporate job as a business consultant in Germany in 2014 and booked a one-way flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina. I was tired of the business world, PowerPoint presentations, and night shifts in random hotel rooms. I had no idea what to expect, I had no plans. After spending a month in a school learning Spanish I booked a flight to Patagonia to do some hiking through its magnificent landscape. However, getting off the beaten tracks was difficult since distances were quite far and rental cars incredibly expensive. When I travelled the Carretera Austral in Southern Chile, I became more and more frustrated by public transportation which was almost non-existent. Bus tickets were sold out for a week in advance and even if I got a ticket, the bus went straight from town to town, each one looking exactly like the other. The real beauty of Patagonia passed by the windows of the public bus and all I wanted was to find more freedom! It was already planned that two friends from Germany would join me for a while.

Another reason to get rid of endless bus rides and hostel dorm rooms; we wanted to do our own thing. While I was riding in buses, I was thinking about potential vehicles for our trip. Something like a proper 4WD that I could easily sell further up north for more or less the same amount of money after finishing my trip – wherever this would be.

The day I arrived in Santiago the Chile, though, I found this old VW van. The previous owner asked me about my plans and what I would be going to do with it. When I told him that I wanted to travel all the way to Colombia – at least – he replied: “Dont do it, man! You’ll have many problems with the van. It won’t be fun.”

I’m a VW enthusiast and one of the goals of my trip was to acquire some mechanical VW skills in Mexico in order to be able to fix my 1974 VW Beetle back home. I thought: Why not? I have time and I’m eager to face a challenge. It will be fun! I bought it the same day without even looking for other cars. I became proud owner of a VW van!

So tell us more about this bus?



The van was manufactured in Brazil in 1983 and is called Kombi in South America. Compared to its German brothers and sisters, it has the bay window front but the back of the previous T1 model with barn doors instead of the sliding door and some other details of the old model. It has the typical 1600ccm air-cooled boxer engine. Of course, it has no off-road features such as 4wd or differential lock. The paint and tires were new and the interior was already made for camping, including a proper bed frame. The only thing that needed to be done is the lash of the crankshaft. Thats a typical problem with those old VW engines. The previous owner highly recommended getting it done in Santiago since it’s really time consuming and experienced mechanics are hard to find along this road. He knew two guys in Santiago who are specialized in rebuilding thes kind of engines.

Within two weeks, we put everything apart and overhauled the entire engine. I have to admit – due to my lack of mechanical knowledge – I’ve been more of a spectator. But we had a lot of fun and there was my internship for VW engines. I learned all the basics and how all the parts are called in Spanish. That’s absolutely essential in case you have to see a mechanic in South America something that would prove to be very helpful later. With a brand new engine in the back, I started my trip to somewhere!

Can you describe the shipping process to send your van from South America to Europe?

