Discovering Pan-America: A Voyage Through Time

From the Arctic Circle to Fin del Mundo
On the 6th of August 2023, our journey South began, with the rugged roads that form the Dalton highway. Over the course of the next 8 months we, like Richardson’s team crossed, mountain ranges such as the Andes, traversed through jungles, and vast deserts such as the Atacama. We crossed through 16 countries admiring their culture, and landscape while witnessing the impact that the Pan American Highway has had on the locals. Our total team consisted of 21 adventurers from around the world who joined for various legs helping the bus along the way.

We were warmly welcomed along the route and soon learned how iconic the bus was across the Americas. It was often referred to as “The Simpsons bus”, or associated with Hollywood movies. One of our favourite experiences was in Chile, when a passer by on the motor way, pulled off ahead of us, so he could photograph us driving by. We later found ourselves tagged on Instagram feature on a bus fan club page in Chile.

We were fortunate not to experience any major break downs, unlike our test run, however we did need to change a few tyres here and as a consequence of leaving the bus parked up in Panama for a month our alternator had corroded with the humidity and needed to be replaced.

Our core team of four made it from start to finish over 20,359 miles (32,764 kilometres) by land and a shipping route from Panama to Colombia. There were certainly many ups and downs along the way but fortunately no major injuries or arguments!