Date:         Mon, 23 Jan 95 10:42:29 CST
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Joel Walker <JWALKER@ua1vm.ua.edu>
Subject:      story: 7 months in a 1967 Camper


7 Months in a VW Camper - Part Tne
by Ernst A. Jahn
POPULAR IMPORTED CARS, May 1967

My wife Edith and I decided to visit all Central and South American
countries in our Volkswagen Camper as our share to the United Nations
International Cooperation Year.  We prepared for the trip for more than
eight months, running into all sorts of problems with documentation and
formalities.  A $2,000 cash deposit had to be made to obtain the Carnet
de Passage en Douanes, valuable for all South American countries, while
Argentina required an additional $4,000 and Brazil $3,000 to enter their
country by automobile.  This is a security bond guaranteeing that one
will not sell the car in those countries.  A VW Camper in Chile, for
example, is worth $10,000.  The sums were refunded upon our return.

We left cold New York in December and returned 7 months later, after
passing through 5 seasons, 21 foreign countries and driving 27,888 miles
plus 270 miles by ship from Panama to Columbia and 4,066 miles by plane
for the last leg of the return trip from Belem, Brazil to New York.  We
had spent $507 for gasoline and wore out two sets of tires.  Our
troubles and adventures were plentiful as we followed the Pan American
Highway through Central and South America as far as we possibly could
go: Belem on Brazil's mighty Amazon Delta.  We never slept in hotels
and, with half-a-dozen exceptions, did not eat in restaurants.  A 2.5
gallon portable water tank and two spare wheels were our reserves.  The
tank we frequently replenished in ostensibly "safe" areas.

We had only the most necessary spare parts with us for the car such as
spark plugs and points, extra sealed-beam headlights, a few bulbs, an
extra spare wheel assembly, a fan belt and a few miscellaneous items
including electrical wire, a water hose (to replenish water tank),
insulation tape and asbestos sheets (for emergency replacement of
seals).  We also brought an electric refrigerator of the 12v-110v
Bernzomatic type. A 6v to 110v inverter produced the voltage necessary
for the operation of the portable refrigerator on 110v.  I could also
use my electric shaver and tape recorder this way.  The battery drainage
was so low as to be negligible.  What we should have taken along were
extra inner tubes, a tire repair kit, extra heavy six ply tires, a set
of shock absorbers and a spare generator.

The lowest point of travel was the Salton Sea area in California,
235 ft. below sea level, while our highest was the ski resort area of
Chacaltaya just outside La Paz, Bolivia, 17,384 ft.  20 per cent of all
our travel was above 10,000 ft. altitude in the Andean highlands.  The
Volkswagen motor was not adjusted for the high altitude roads of the
Andes but the car climbed the steep grades of the world's highest
highway from Lima to La Oroya with an astonishing ease.  About 70 per
cent of the roads were paved; the rest were gravel and cobblestones.
During the trip we suffered a few times from colds in the icy high
mountains, even though it was their summer season.  While I was shaving
one morning in Mexico I heard Edith's loud scream.  I found her writhing
on the ground near our camping place and immediately thought that she
had been bitten by a snake. "I tried to jump the ditch and slipped,"
she exclaimed half conscious.  Relieved, I carried her to bed to treat
a badly sprained ankle and served her an early morning cognac.  Two
days later my ex-ballet dancer wife, limping on one leg, managed to
sprain the right ankle, too, thus excluding herself from the driving
schedule for the rest of Central America.

The highlight of our trip was the visit to the ruins of the ancient
Inca Empire of Machu Picchu near the South American archaeological
capital and sacred city of Cuzco, Peru.  Here on the steep slopes of a
mountain, embraced by the roaring Urubamba River, deeply hidden in
tropical jungle, the Incas artfully carved and ingeniously fitted
together massive stones without the aid of mortar.  In Cuzco,
poncho-clad indians lead their their llama herds over narrow cobble-
stone streets and hold their open market in the city squares.  A
shishkebab of llama meat bought on one of those markets caused Edith to
get a bad allergy.  Days later in a desolate Lake Titicaca region her
allergy accompanied by spells of high fever turned worse.  No pharmacy
... no doctor ... In a small village natives informed us of a first-aid
station where an old Indian in a dark unclean room gave her a chlorine
shot that fortunately helped.  She was to sick to have objected.

People everywhere were quite surprised to see a foreign car equipped
with a bed, kitchen and refrigerator, not to mention the running water.
Many times we were surrounded during lunch stops or in the evenings and
had to demonstrate our mobile home.  In the equator village of San
Antonio a proud father of 20 children asked us whether we were married.
When he learned that we have recently had our second anniversary and
no children yet, he cheerfully comforted Edith: "Don't give up hopes."
At one time we parked opposite a college in Ibague, Columbia, and while
I was taking pictures nearby, 60-70 students swarmed around the VW,
some offering their autographed pictures to Edith.  I had a hard time
getting back to the car and even then they completely ignored me as her
husband.  This incident occurred in the midst of the dangerous Tolima
Province where notorious bandits still kill people in villages and on
highways in an undeclared civil war.  Just a week before our arrival
in this area bandits had held a raid and killed several natives in a
large town.  Even though we did not carry firearms we chanced this
route, the only one we could travle south.  Our nights were spent in the
camper but always parked at gas stations between many long-distance
trucks.  Religious shrines alongside the highway indicated the
execution of natives by rebels or location of fatal accidents on those
ever twisting-winding-dropping and climbing roads.

We saw of course very little passenger car traffic , just trucks and
busses overloaded with people and animals packed liked sardines in a
can.  Had we taken along the many fare-offering hitchhikers we
encountered, we could have recouped our travel expenses but experience
told us never to pick up strangers.  Some of the toll roads in
Columbia were in such poor condition that we almost insisted on being
paid for using them.

La Paz, Boliva, the highest capital of the world is a gleaming gray city
of faded red rooftops guarded by the towering snowy crest of Mount
Illimani.  We were thrilled by the spectacle of this picturesque town
with its steep streets and breath-taking vistas.  This city is noted
for its lack of a fire department; even we had difficulties keeping a
match or stove burning in this thin, cold air.  Cut off from any ocean
the country has all types of climates and 60 miles from La Paz we were
swimming in rivers of the moist tropical Amazon basin.  Most of the
country's population consists of two types of Indians, the Quechuas and
Aymaras.  A visit to the pre-Inca Tiahuanaco monoliths and ruins gave
us evidence of the life of two civilizations that once flourished here.

7 Months in a VW Camper - Part Two
by Ernst A. Jahn
POPULAR IMPORTED CARS, June 1967

Between Lake Titicaca and the Peruvian coast, on a 200 mile gravel and
sand road with altitudes ranging from 15,700 feet to 1,500 feet, we had
one flat tire too many with no service station anywhere.  Rather than
having one of us stay behind with the car, we made the next 30 miles on
three tires and the one rim we had as a second spare.  We moved 40 mph
is drift-sand section to Tacna.  The severely bent rim is presently
being used by a Belem fisherman as a small boat anchoring weight.

Passing through many hundred miles of the world's wildest arid region,
the Atacama desert in northern Chile, with no rainfall ever to give
life to anything, we reached Santiago where we witnessed the greatest
tragedy of the trip, the March 28 earthquake.  We sat in our car,
parked on the beach near Valparaiso, 15 feet from the thundering South
Pacific, when the 85 seconds tremor shook our car and displaced
everything inside.  We were panic-stricken when we realized what had
happened and thought of the enormous tidal wave that followed the 1960
earthquake in southern Chile, flooding thousands of acres of land and
causing great loss of life.  We quickly tried to back up to higher land
but of course the sand was soft and the wheels spun in.  Panicky but
helpful beachgoers noticed our calamity and helped to pull us out.
Fortunately there was no tidal wave.  The loss of homes and lives in the
villages was extensive and the small mining town of El Cobre with 450
inhabitants was completely flooded by thousands of tons of copper-mud
sludge after the tremor broke a dam; a shocking sight.

In Santiago we were in the midst of a student uprising in demonstration
against a hike in bus fares, where police teargas made our eyes water,
noses burn and throats tickle.  We got out of Santiago in a hurry.
Due to the earthquake, the weather pattern in Chile changed and brought
an early rainy season and snow season up in the Andes which spoiled our
visit to the Chilean Lake district.  We crossed to Argentina through
the international railway tunnel instead of going over the pass which
due to heavy snowfall was closed.  Magnificent and impressive 22,834
ft. high Mount Aconcagua, the world's second highest mountain, towered
over us while we passed within 10 miles of her leaving the mountains
for the monotonous, flat Pampa.

Through Argentina and Uruguay we finally made Brazil, the land we never
thought we would reach.  It was a glorious feeling to enter Rio de
Janeiro, the "Cidade Maravilhosa,"  as the Brazilians proudly call it.
The Brazilian Touring Club gave us an official welcome to Rio's 400th
anniversary celebration and congratulated us as the first U.S.
registered car in a decade to arrive here officialy, entirely via road.

The city of contrast offered us enough excitement, from tropical jungle
mountains to the most beautiful beaches in the world such as Copacabana
and Impanema. The heavy traffic here is comparable with New York's.
Parking violators, however, are treated with greater dispatch.  The
policemen deflate the tires and take away the valves.  Most drivers are
equipped with hand-pumps and spare valves to beat the inconvenience.
A wrong left turn netted us a U.S. ten cent fine.  On our way to
northern Brazil, in the state of Mato Grosso we passed 8 feet high
termite hills covering the fields by the thousands.  These termites are
known to tear down everything in their path when they start moving
across the land.  Modern Brazilia was a disappointment ... an empty city
suffering from acute deterioration.  Nobody wants to live here, it is
too far away from the well-developed playgrounds of the coastal region.
We do agree with Most Brazilians that the basic idea of building a city
in this area is wonderful, but not with the country is stricken by so
much inflation and political turmoil.

Some 800 miles short of our final destination a fire in the engine
compartment almost put an abrupt end to our trip.  On the way to Belem
in a thick jungle area of the Amazon basin, far from any population and
help, a rag caught fire.  This rag was to stop the heavy powder dust
from entering the air filter which was short of oil and it accidentally
touched the hot manifold.  Quick action by throwing road sand on the
engine extinguished the flames before they could reach the gas tank.
Most of the hoses and electrical cables were burned.  We had no spare
parts for such unforseen accidents.  My ingenious wife came to the
rescue with her idea of making hoses out of asbestos sheets stapled
together.  To replace the oil breather line we cut up our water hose.
First-aid tape closed the gap on the carburetor intake hose.  The
electrical wires we replaced with wires we had with us.  We worked four
hours in 110 degree F temperature.  After a complete clean-out of the
engine compartment ... we had to spoon out the sand ... we continued
our travels.  It was only after our return to New York that we replaced
those temporary parts with original ones!  This was not the end of our
misfortunes, however.  Two days later on this very same road the
generator failed.  The coils were burned and there was not a single
technician in the area who could help us out.  An Irish missionary we
then happened to meet, helped us to buy an extra 6 volt battery at the
only gasoline station around.  The only one the had cost us a mere
US $53.  Fortunately the dry-charged battery was defective and the
money was cheerfully (!) refunded.  We made the 400 miles to Imperatiz
the first city where we could find service, on the battery alone.

The only way to wash our laundry and have our daily bath was to follow
the natives' custom, so we joined them in the many rivers we passed.
In hot northern Brazil we could not resist the cool waters although
they are infested with carnivourous piranha fish, electric eel,
crocodiles, snakes, oxfish and devil fish (sting-ray).  Not even at
night could they keep us weary travelers out of it.  In this same area
malaria and filariasis (elephatiasis) mosquitos were a plague.  We did
take malaria pills for prevention.  Regular meals were cooked by Edith
on our gasoline and alcohol stoves.  Except for a few cans we had
brought along, most vegetables and meats were inexpensively bought at
local native markets.  From local people she learned to prepare many
delicious specialities.

The last leg of our return trip started in Belem, from which point we
shipped the car back to New York.  Then we took a jet to fly to Surinam,
Guyana and Curacao, where we spend one week each relaxing before
returning home.

The nicest experience of this tour was making of friends with many local
families and fellow travelers.  Our visitor's book has more than 180
entries, topped off with a sketch of Edith done by Brazil's well-known
painter Scliar.

The total car repair and service bill excluding tire service was $187
... for seven months and 27,888 miles travel.  The continuous life in
the VW camper was exceptionally comfortable.  We plan to keep the camper
for our next trip to Bolivia--Brazil later this year.