u/KombiChronicles

In 2019, we quit our jobs, rented out our house and shipped our 1976 VW bus from the UK to New York, for what was supposed to be a 12 month road trip around North America.

Six months in, we had reached the west coast and decided to 'pop' into Baja for a few weeks to enjoy some surf, tacos and tequila. Then the entire world shut down and we actually ended up with a humanitarian visa to stay in Mexico... We were officially temporary refugees. (I'm sure not many people can say that 🤣).

With the US land border remaining shut for foreigners, we decided to head south and have been going ever since. We are currently in Salta, in Argentina, and just drove our 50 year old VW over one of the highest deserts on earth 👍

It's been an incredible road trip so far. One that has shown us that despite what we see on the news daily, there is still so much love and kindness in the world and sometimes it's just best to get out there and see it for yourself.

Our trip hasn't been without mechanical problems. We broke our engine in Baja and bought a terrible second hand replacement online which only got us as far as Panama. Front there, we bought a pretty good replacement, just whilst attempting to drive a 500km dirt road across Bolivia's Altiplano, our air intake fell off and hoovered up so much dust into the engine that it required a complete rebuild. Breakdowns are part of the adventure though and when you have no deadline other than the time on your passport, most things can be sorted.

I'm happy to talk more about our experiences on the road. So if you have any questions, let me know and I'll try my best to answer them.

If you enjoy following adventure travel, you can find us on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube by searching The Kombi Chronicles.

I've just started editing the final film of our high altitude Puna expedition, which saw us drive our 50 year camper up to 4600m above sea level.

The last installment sees us drive to Cono de Arita and pass through the Devil's Desert.

If you want to see more, you can find the first two parts over on our channel by searching The Kombi Chronicles.

We finished our Puna expedition on Sunday. Slowly starting to sort through all the media.

We managed to arrive in the Puna region right during a period of extreme weather warnings. Gale-force winds swept across the area for four straight days, forcing us to wait it out sheltered behind a sports hall in a small town.

The winds finally died down on Monday, so we set off toward our first major destination: Campo de Piedra Pómez.

There are two routes to the amazing rock formations. One is a short 30-minute drive through deep sand. The other is a three-hour trek across the base of a volcano and through its lava field. Both tracks are marked as 4x4 only, with plenty of comments confirming this on the iOverlander app.

Not being 100% confident with deep sand, we opted for the pass around the volcano... there was no way we were driving all the way up to 3,500m and skipping the rock formations.

The drive was mostly fine, save for three fairly steep and cambered sections, but we managed them all without issue.

We spent the night camped outside the rock field and had one of the quietest nights we've had in a long time.

Today, we head over a pass that will take us up to around 4,900m above sea level before dropping roughly 1,000m in less than 10km.

I've still got to go through all our media, but here are a few pictures for now.

Yesterday, we drove the '4x4' track to Campo De Piedra Pomez in Argentina's Altiplano.

The track took us around and over a lava field from a small volcano.

It was probably the most epic drive we have done in 7 years of travelling.

I am filming a feature length documentary which I hope to share later this year.

After years of travelling, we finally made it to Puna De Atacama. Argentina's vast altiplano.

Our plan is to travel across it over the next week and at some point we will have to tackle a pass 4800m above sea level.

The views so far are incredible, but we managed to arrange with severe wind weather warnings. Not ideal when you sleep in a pop top!

Yesterday, we finally arrived at our first planned base camp in Puna De Atacama, in our self converted 1976 VW kombi.

We picked a wild camp spot at 3400m altitude to start acclimatising to the altitude here.

Currently there's weather warnings for strong gale force winds and last night we barely sleep at all in our pop-top.

Today we have moved to a different spot that offered more protection and is often a similar altitude.

Whilst we are here we plan on visiting the following...

• Campo De Piedra Pomez

• Laguna Carachi Pampa

• Volcan Carachi Pampa

• Ojos de Campo

• Laguna Verde

• Cono De Arita

• Ojos Del Mar

• Desierto Del Diablo

Here's a few early pics. I'm also going to document our adventures and hope to release a film towards the end of the year over on our YouTube channel.

I'll post more updates once we have waited out the wind and set off for Campo De Piedra Pomez.

We enroute north towards the Argentinan altiplano. Driving Ruta 40 alongside the Andes Mountains, detouring occasionally to check out the awesome coloured rock formations down here.

Today we are leaving the Mendoza region in Argentina, as we start making our way north into the Argentinan mountains.

This is Laguna Parón. A glacier lake in the Cordillera mountains in Peru.

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4300m above sea level, means it's one of the highest places we've ever camped.

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Fun fact... It's said that the mountain overlooking the lake is the inspiration for the famous Paramount picture mountain logo.

Here's some photos of my drive down Cañon Del Pato in Peru.

It's a spectacular and famously rugged gorge in north-central Peru, formed where the Cordillera Negra and Cordillera Blanca mountain ranges converge. Carved by the Santa River, the canyon is onown for its dramatic geography and its thrilling, sometimes hair-raising mountain road.

The route is unpaved, extremely narrow, features sheer drop-offs, and completely lacks guardrails in many sections.

The route contains 35 single lane tunnels that were carved into the side of the mountain.

It was a really cool route to drive and once we arrived up in the mountains we visited Laguna Parón (4200m asl) and Laguna 69 (4600m asl).

I've just released a film about the drive. It's not as fancy as some of the bigger YouTibe channels. It was just recorded on an I Phone 13 mini and a DJI Mavic Air. But if you want to check the route out more, you can watch it here.

https://youtu.be/L\_g1sG9Du6U?si=yvdIAouU1iMpIGQQ

In 2019, we shipped our classic VW camper from England to New York. It was only meant to be a 12 month trip around the US and Canada, but we ended up driving all the way to the end of South America, arriving in Ushuaia in December 24.

We have been fortunate to stay at many incredible camp spots along the way, but this one on the Carribbean Island of Bocas Del Toro, of the coast of Panama has got to be one of, if not the best place we have stayed at on our entire trip.

In August 2019, we shipped our classic VW kombi from England to New York. It was only supposed to be a 12 month trip around the US and Canada, but our travels ended up taking us across the American continents right down to Ushuaia.

Six and a half years later, we are still travelling and plan on visiting every country in South America.

This was a wild camp post on the island of Bocas Del Toro in Panama. We have stayed in many wonderful camp spots over the years, but this has got to be one of, if not the best.