Meet Bishi - our car which we call home

I love the Overlander phrase, “It isn’t a slow car, it’s a fast house.” We normally spend our days on a house which floats, so why not travel in a home which we can drive?!

Bishi is a 2007 Mitsubishi Montero Sport. The car has been adjusted so we can comfortably sleep our entire family of 5 in the car while we also have the 3 backseats in tact with car seats for The Littles and driving time.

In our 2 months of travel (so far), we have never had all 3 kids asleep at the same time! We have found a way to hang the ipad and place the speaker so they have a "movie-theatre-like" experience back there. And we are trying to watch movies in Spanish so they learn the language.

We have a pop-up tent on the roof and the inside of the car lays flat for more sleeping space. We even have a stove, propane gas, table, chairs, storage for plates, pots, pans, and a cooler for produce. We can go completely off the grid.

I have received a lot of questions about the setup and how we found / bought the car. When Zander was born healthy, we had our green light for the trip. I had been looking for a car for a few months already within a Facebook group Overlanding PanAmerican. When Zander was 10 days old, I saw the post about Bishi. We weren't leaving for another 4 months, but I was worried that we wouldn't find another car like this - and indeed, I have yet to see something similar. Bishi was perfect for our needs - and somehow we won over the couple selling the car.

The purchase was complicated. Bishi has Chilean plates (very important!), we were buying it as Americans, in Ecuador, and from a German couple. We were still in the US and somehow needed to transfer ownership and inspect the car from abroad. On top of that, the TIP (temporary permit for Ecuador) was only valid for 90 days after the car entered Ecuador, and we would miss this window by 1 week. Every extra day beyond the TIP was $450/day.

Together with the German couple, we pieced together the details, which took 2 whole months to figure out and coordinate. There are only a few countries in the world where you can easily transfer ownership of a car. The US, Australia, and Chile are a few. We needed to get a legal, notarized document giving us permission to drive the car over borders to Chile (this is called a Poder). Then we needed someone local in Chile to help sponsor the ownership and transfer of ownership. Of course, we needed to trust the current owners & ensure that the car was in good shape (because we had to mostly pay for the car upfront before we saw it in person and with no one local to help). Lastly, we needed the car to be parked in Colombia to avoid the daily fine. Good luck to us, right?!

It all worked out perfectly as planned. Bishi is in good health and we will transfer ownership officially when we reach Chile with the help of a Chilean dude who helped walk us through the entire process a few months ago. He checks in on us regularly and is reliable. Social media helps mitigate this - people rely on their social reputations on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

Below is a video of how the back is built by the previous owner. It is in German (and kind of long!), but you get the idea.

This means that we never need to worry about where we will sleep - we just keep going until it’s time to stop and then find a great place to set up our home. How do we find these places? iOverlander - a free, crowd-sourced app which works offline and guides us on where we can safely sleep each night - often completely off the grid. We have slept in some amazing places (and in some necessary places) en route.

We follow a few golden rules:

1. If there is a home nearby, we ask for permission.

2. We don't drive when it gets dark.

3. Always have a lot of water in the car.

4. Always have some food essentials - pasta, rice, beans, oatmeal, coffee.

Sometimes a campground even has a laundry machine!

This was a great spot in Caraz, Peru which had the nicest camping bathrooms that we have ever seen. Totally modern and all ours.

I don’t have a drone, but here are some pics from the prior owner - we are basically following the same path down the PanAmerican Highway.

In the beginning of our trip (In Ecuador), we slept in hotels and Airbnbs. We found some great places - especially the glass house in Mindo and the industrial loft in Quito. However, once we started the long journey south to Patagonia, we found ourselves on very long drives, which we expect to continue over the next 2 months as we cover thousands of miles to the tip of South America. The drive from Cuenca, Ecuador to Huanchaco, Peru was 15 hours through sand dunes and desert. There was nothing around. The car truly became our home. As we found a process and rhythm to set everything up quickly, the kids started to prefer sleeping in the car verses a hotel or apartment. Jonah and I agree and prefer to sleep in the car rather than a shitty roadside hotel.

I love waking up to the sounds of nature, sitting back in a natural environment and having a morning cup of coffee. I also love the evenings, sunsets, and when we snuggle up together in the rooftop tent to watch a movie.

A "home cooked" sunset meal and a morning cup of coffee.

One time, our campsite host had a projector and we all watched a movie together with a sheet on Bishi and a firepit to keep us warm.

Jonah, Zander, and I sleep in the rooftop tent (Zander is in a baby tent within the tent or in my sleeping bag when cold). Dashiell and Imogen sleep in sleeping bags inside the car. We feel they are safe, but we can also lock the car with them inside. We have walkie talkies, so if they need us, they just speak up through the walkie talkie, “Mom, Imogen just woke up and needs to pee. Over.” It’s very sweet watching the kiddos look after each other and hang out. So. Much. Love.

Bishi is like our 4th child on this trip. We take care of her constantly. If she is sick, we take her to the doctor / mechanic and leave her behind for a proper repair. She certainly had worse altitude sickness than all of us - so we bought her a new radiator to help cool her down on those steep, high-altitude climbs. If we could import Bishi to the US, we would, but sadly we cannot. So, we will sell her at the end of the trip and in better shape than we bought her in. Know anyone who wants to overland South America in January - ping me!

Did I mention that we have another tent for sleeping outside the car? Sound ideal to you - come and join us - this tent is for you.

Bishi takes us everywhere and anywhere - from the beach to the glaciers.

Next up ... A desert drive through Northern Peru.