Time to get back in the blogging mode :)

Getting excited and ready for our 8 months in South America!! :) 

Sept 7th we dropped off your Pleasureway Van at the shipping company in Vancouver. It will be put into a container and leave Vancouver on Sept 14th. On Oct 1st it will arrive in Cartegena, Colombia. We decided to ship from Canada instead of Panama because the price was not a lot more ($3200US) then shipping from Panama, plus it gives us more time to be in South America.

We packed the van with all the stuff we need other than some clothes and electronics. Those we still need for the next few weeks while still in Canada. We fly to Panama City first on Sept 27th and will spend 3 days there. We haven't seen the Panama Canal yet so really want to check that out. Then on Oct 1st we fly to Cartegena and wait for our Van to go thru customs and ready for us to pickup. 

I've been following a number of blogs to find out some places we should see along with books. Our plan is to spend a month in each country starting in Colombia and heading south. Mostly following the Pan American highway down to Ushuaia, Argentina. Then back north to Uruguay and Brazil. I have lots of notes and a map highlighted with places to see :)  

September will be spent between BC and AB visiting before heading out. 

Yes this van is much smaller then the one we had while travelling in Europe for 9 months 3 years ago, but at least it has a bathroom and shower LOL!! 2 things that are always on my "must have" list. We can both standup in the van so that's a plus :)  We figure most times we will be outside under the awning when we are parked and not inside.

We bought a portable solar panel to recharge the batteries while parked so we can have some power. Hoping we won't have any problems trying to refill the propane tank attached to the van which we need to run the fridge and stove. We had to empty the tank before loading the van in the container. That was also the case with the gas tank - had to be down to 1/8 tank. So hoping we have enough gas to get out of the Cartegena port to the nearest gas station LOL!! We also packed a 25lb propane tank to use for the bar-b-que and if we NEED TO - refill the propane tank on the van. 

So now until end of September we'll be visiting and thinking of what we forgot! LOL!!

Here's a few pictures of the inside of Vanna :)

While travelling we have to store our outside chairs on the bed. Nice comfy queen sized bed 

Great box on the back to store BBQ and tank plus a few other things, and also have 2 spare tires 

Ahhh the dinner table at the front of the van. Seats both turn to face backwards to give us this eating area since the back one is left set up as our bed