Overland in WV Camper

We met our friends Homero and Lisa over 20 years ago, during a summer program in Puebla, Mexico. It was the first time I had been out of the United States for more than a day, and it changed our lives in many ways. It changed their lives even more profoundly -- bringing two young students  from two different countries together for the rest of their lives. We do not see them often, but were delighted to visit them and their beautiful, bright children during our current visit in Charleston to study tea (more on that in a later post).

All of which is preamble for this short post: Homero took on a "second wife" in the form of a 1984 VW Westphalia camping van. It is the perfect "yin" to the "yang" of their sleek, late-model VW Jettas. It is also a nostalgic reminder of our 1965 VW honeymoon mobile. (I am also reminded that some VWs were made in Homero's home town of Puebla.)

In the course of becoming a VW enthusiast -- and particularly a fan of the microbus -- Homero has discovered the many rallies, associations, and other phenomena associated with vee-dubs, including the amazing journey that is the actual point of this post: Wide-Eyed Wanderers is book by another US-Mexican couple -- Richard Ligato and Amanda Bejarano-Ligato -- who traded tranquility for adventure in the form of an old VW and a long series of roads on three continents. I have just begun to explore the pair's web site, and see that our paths have crossed in a few places. I look forward to reading more about the places they have been -- both the few that are familiar and the many that are not!

I am thankful to Lisa and Homero for their friendship, and for turning me on to this VW treasure!