Amerikanomade: Two Argentinian Gypsies On the Road For 3 Years in 1965 VW Van Road

I saw this van on the next beach down from where I’m staying, was fascinated and stopped in at sunset last night to meet Diego Mariot and Veronica Bavaro from Argentina. Diego started out on a road trip in the van 3 years ago and on the fifth day of the trip, met his soulmate Veronica and they have been traveling together ever since. Their main source of income comes from Veronica’s handmade necklaces, bracelets, and ear rings. They look like beadwork, but are woven knots (I don’t know what the correct name is for this craft). They are lovely things.

Diego and Veronica were fascinated by Home Work. I left it with them overnight. We were immediate soulmates as soon as they saw the book

Every square inch of the van inside is decorated, and it’s neat and orderly and intelligently designed. Diego does all the mechanics on the van.

You VW van fans will love this: Diego showing off the “air conditioning.”

Parts are sometimes hard to get, he says. They are vegetarians. So far they have spent 2 months in Argentina, 20 days in Bolivia, 6 months in Brazil, 1-1/2 years in Venezuela, 2 months in Columbia, 9 months in Panama, and have been here in Costa Rica for 2 weeks and will probably stay 3 months. Then on to Mexico “…for 6 months or 3 years.” They don’t speak English, so I’m gathering this info in Spanish.

They have a killer: website (in Spanish). Trust me, check it out even if you don’t speak Spanish. These two have a beautiful, interesting, exciting life.

By the way, America does not just mean the United States. It also refers to Central and South America.

About Lloyd Kahn

Lloyd Kahn started building his own home in the early '60s and went on to publish books showing homeowners how they could build their own homes with their own hands. He got his start in publishing by working as the shelter editor of the Whole Earth Catalog with Stewart Brand in the late '60s. He has since authored six highly-graphic books on homemade building, all of which are interrelated. The books, "The Shelter Library Of Building Books," include Shelter, Shelter II (1978), Home Work (2004), Builders of the Pacific Coast (2008), Tiny Homes (2012), and Tiny Homes on the Move (2014). Lloyd operates from Northern California studio built of recycled lumber, set in the midst of a vegetable garden, and hooked into the world via five Mac computers. You can check out videos (one with over 450,000 views) on Lloyd by doing a search on YouTube:

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