Vehicle Selection

In the choice of a vehicle, we had a few criteria in mind:

• Inexpensive
• Able to carry our sports equipment (bikes and boards)
• Relatively good dependability record
• Able to handle rough roads
• Availability of parts in Central and South America

The obvious choice was an SUV. They would be tough on rough roads, and South Americans were driving plenty of American-made pickup trucks with similar parts. After looking at a few vehicles though, it became pretty clear that even putting a couple longboards inside one would eat up most of the space. Given that we don’t want to look like tourists from a mile away in Central America, putting them on the roof wasn’t really an appealing option.

We turned around and looked at minivans, and the GMC Safari (aka Chevrolet Astro) was a pretty obvious choice. These popular minivans are large, and are the last minivans built on a truck chassis, meaning they had better ground clearance and were (apparently) built more for rough roads than most of the newer front-wheel drive models. There was also an ample supply of used Safaris for sale in Toronto at decent prices.

We checked used car classifieds websites in Mexico and Chile and found there were also some Safaris around, which would hopefully help us blend in (and have access to parts).

After a couple days of searching we found just what we were looking for: a 1999 Safari with 280,000km on it that was previously used as a work truck by its owner (for $3200). Although old, the car was looking great and had all the options including air conditioning which, when you’re planning to follow the sun south through the tropics, is likely to be very useful.

Modifications

Sleeping platform
We wanted to set up the vehicle in such a way that we could sleep inside it, as well as store our boards and bikes, and be able to take friends or hitchhikers along. We removed the rear bench, keeping only the middle one, and built a sleeping platform halfway up in the back of the vehicle. We put our camping mattresses on top of the platform, and often sleep with the back hatch open. A mosquito net keeps the bugs out.

With the middle bench seats tilted forward, the platform extends forwards, making it long enough to sleep in the back. We wanted to make sure we can still slide the platform back to keep the middle seat there and have room for guests and hitchhikers

Underneath the platform, we slide our boards (7’8” and 8’ longboards) along the right side, where they pass beside the bench. Our gear, clothing, food etc… we kept in plastic bins in the remaining space.

Unfortunately, there was no great place to put the bikes. We put them on top of the bed, and pulled them out when we wanted to sleep, sometimes locking them up. In the pic below we also had a flat tire and acquired some short boards, both of which further cluttered the back.

Security system
Our car came with an aftermarket security system, which includes a two-way remote, which we’ve found very handy and would definitely recommend to any traveler if you could get one installed for a reasonable price. It definitely adds peace of mind if you’re sleeping in a hotel or eating at a restaurant wondering if someone is breaking into your car.

Physical security
We replaced our gas cap with a locking one, in order to prevent anyone from trying to siphon our fuel, or more importantly, damage our car by pouring something in there. This is an inexpensive modification ($12 USD) (revision: thieves in Sinaloa, Mexico managed to defeat the locking gas cap and steal 20L of gas!)

License plates
We also glued on our license plates, hoping to deter theft. Foreign license plates seem like they would be a draw to any collector or petty thief. It remains to be seen if this is enough – others we’ve talked to have copied their plates. Later on, in Guatemala we covered up the “Ontario” on ours plates with electrical tape, since Guatemalan plates were the same colour otherwise as our Ontario ones. This never seemed to bother anyone, though after Guatemala our plates always looked obviously foreign anyway since each country has different colours, number combinations, and fonts.