Preparing for a Year in Latin America

There was SOOOOO much to do to get ready for the next leg of our trip! After entering Mexico from the U.S. we have every intention of traveling South for the next year and that in turn means we won't be back in The States for quite a while! The longest either of us have been away. Because I'm a list person, I had a list of 4728389283 things that needed to be done to prepare to cross the Southern U.S. border and it felt just a tad overwhelming gathering all of this information from so many different sources, so I compiled everything here to give a sense of the types of things we focused on to prepare to cross the Mexican border and kick off our year in Latin America. 

The Warmup

By spending the first 4 months traveling around the U.S. and Canada, we were afforded a good sized adjustment period to acclimate to traveling full time in our van. Because we were in countries where there were really no language or cultural barriers we truly felt at home and were able to focus on what it meant to travel full time.  There are SO many factors to every day life in the van: making sure we have safe drinking water, making sure we have enough drinking water, sticking to a budget, shopping around for affordable gas, figuring out where we are going to sleep every night, making sure those nights of sleep are in places that will ensure they are restful, dumping our gray water tank, parking in places that are free, parking in places that are legal, monitoring our battery levels and power usage, finding places to shower, and so much more behind the scenes that you don't see when we post pretty pictures of the amazing places we are lucky to have seen. But again, these first four months have really allowed us to learn how to handle all of these things and do so seamlessly. It's something that will make the language and cultural barriers when traveling to Latin America a little bit easier to handle.

Prep-Work

To enter Mexico from the U.S. in our van, there were a number of things that we needed to prepare. We are lucky enough that my family lives in Phoenix, AZ, so we made their home our home base while we tackled all of the things! And spent a little time with loved ones as well :) I'm going to list out the major categories that we focused on here and then we'll dive in to the details:

• Van Maintenance
• Van Upgrades
• Temporary Import Permit
• Insurance
• Vehicle Registration
• Personal Documentation
• Medication & Vaccines
• Pet Documentation
• International Phone Plan

Van Maintenance

This is sort of self explanatory. There were some screws to be tightened, leaks to be sealed, additional brackets to be fastened, oil to be changed, and tire pressure to be adjusted. This was rather simple stuff, but extremely important when your house is on wheels and the road conditions it is about to travel over are going rattle the entire place even more so than it's been conditioned to handle. These quick adjustments made sure we were all safe and secure to continue our journey.

Shopping for maintenance items.

Had to give Fran a bath!

Allyson wasn't much help.

New bench seat covers.

Van Upgrades

Ahhh back to our van build days! Over the course of the last four months we'd been able to really test out what works and what can be improved in the van, and honestly there isn't much we would change! But there were some key things we wanted to upgrade- some out of convenience, and some out of necessity for how our day to day would change when entering Latin America. 

Additional Screen

Our bug screen on our sliding door has been AMAZING! We have it up 24/7 and it really works to keep out bugs from the van. We always knew that one in the back could also be helpful but was never a necessity. However, throughout Mexico and Central America there will be an uptick in the number of mosquitos present, so it's time! This second screen is a welcomed addition to strengthen our bug barrier :)

Mesh screen to protect us from mosquitos.

Floor Mats

This is a simple one, but one that we've found ourselves on more than one occasion stating it'd be a nice to have. We added a removable coir floor mat that is held on by heavy duty velcro to the main door step.  This will help us from tracking dirt into the van even more and give us a place to wipe our feet off if needed. And the fact that it is removable will allow us to knock it if we need to.

Fancy new floor mat.

Fill Port and Portable Water Pump

Until now, we have been filling our fresh water tank by hooking one end of a hose directly up to the tank from a potable water source. This source is usually a water spigot where the other end of the hose hooks into. Being that our travel up until now has been in the U.S. and Canada, these water sources have been safe to cook with and drink from and we haven't ever worried about water quality or getting sick. Entering Mexico, that will be a different story. We are going to need to fill our water tank from a different source- a water store or water fill station. These stations/stores allow you to purchase fresh/filtered drinking water filled into jugs, typically 5 gallons at a time. This means that for our large 21 gallon fresh water tank, we will need to fill a 5 gallon jug 4 times. But the bigger dilemma is getting that 5 gallons of water into the 21 gallon tank each time. Too heavy to lift and pour, we opted to use a portable water pump that will pull the 5 gallons of water out of the smaller tank and push it into our bigger 21 gallon tank. Additionally, this is where our initial planning for our build pays off a ton- the pump needs to plug into an AC outlet which we luckily installed in the back of the van initially! So we are covered there. To make this whole pumping process even easier, we added a water fill port in a more accessible location that feeds to our large fresh water tank and has totally improved our previous situation where we would have to weave through obstacles to hook our hose up to our fresh water tank. We think this enhancement will be a huge game changer moving forward.

Fill port on the bed frame that leads to the water tank tucked in the back.

Additional Curtain

We previously made a reflectix window cover for the side T-vent window before we started the trip; however, over the last few months, we noticed that we hardly ever used it due to the inconvenience of pulling it up and it's awkward shape making it hard to stay in place. However, we do see the value in having more privacy as we continue this trip; so we decided to put in a curtain in the side window that we can pull open or closed easily with little effort. All of our other window covers still work great and we are so glad we made them!

New curtain tied up.

Fully extended.

Secondary Rear Door Lock

Security is important.  While we have heard mainly good things about other overlanders traveling the Pan-American Highway down to South America, there is one part that has us concerned.  When we ship our van from Panama to Colombia, there are a few options:

1. A private shipping container- $$$$
2. A flat rack shipping container- $$$$$
3. Roll on/roll off (RORO)- $$$

Option number one will not work for us due to the size of our vehicle- too large. Option number two is extremely costly. And Option number three poses the most risk. Our most likely path for this process is going to be RORO. The process in its most basic concept consists of us handing over our van/home as well as our keys to a complete stranger in Panama that will roll on our vehicle to a ship and hoping that a week later our van is rolled off said ship in Colombia by another stranger with all of our belongings in tact. Basically every report we've come across has guaranteed that vehicles that are being shipped via RORO method will be rummaged through and that the individuals that steal from these vehicles are looking for cash or items that can be easily sold, like electronics. Yeah... we know... sketchy.  BUT there are things we can do to protect our belongings.  One, we can take all of our electronics and valuables with us as we travel to Colombia by plane. And two, we can install a secondary lock on our van that will not be attached to our main vehicle key. And this lock we think is just a good idea in general.

So here is how we are doing it.  We purchased a padlock that is typically used for applications like sheds or commercial cargo vans, not unlike our van. This padlock can be installed on the rear or sliding side door to act as additional security.  We decided to install this lock to our rear doors but on the inside of our van, so that on the outside it is not visible, and therefore not bait.  With the layout of our van, when the back doors are closed you cannot get anything out from underneath the bed, unless you pulled apart the entire build- which is unlikely.  So we bolted down our bed frame from underneath and our plan is that when we get to the point of shipping our van, we will store EVERYTHING from our upper cabinets/front of our van underneath the bed, lock the padlock, and boom- it's like a giant safe in plain sight. We know there is still a risk that some of our things may be stolen or rummaged through, but taking this step will make it 20x harder for that to happen, and in the chance it does... that leads me to the next item on the list.

One side of the mount and the puck lock that connects them.

Insurance

Traveler's Insurance

We decided to get traveler's insurance for the time we are traveling abroad.  Not only will it cover medical expenses, but any trip cancelation/delay, lost or stolen items, evacuation for extreme circumstances, etc. will be covered. Being that in Latin America there will be language and cultural barriers we will be dealing with, the peace of mind that traveler's insurance brings was a no brainer.  We decided to go with World Nomads as they've been highly regarded by other full time traveler's and are backed by the reputable insurance company, Nationwide. The longest policy we could purchase was for 6 months, but when it expires we will re-evaluate and purchase an additional policy at that time.

Liability Insurance

Our current van insurance is extremely comprehensive and is more RV insurance than it is personal vehicle insurance. It not only covers the van, but the entire build itself. In addition, it covers personal articles as well so it is sort of like a combination between renter's/homeowner's insurance and car insurance. This plan covers us fully in US and Canada, and partially in Mexico.  The part it doesn't cover in Mexico is liability. Mexican law requires all vehicles to purchase liability insurance from a Mexican insurance provider, so we purchased a policy for 6 months using Mexadventure. This site allows you to price shop and compare multiple providers and make the best selection from there. Note, daily policies are expensive in comparison to 6 month/yearly policies so the 6 month policy was the most cost effective for our trip through MX.

Vehicle Registration

This is a given, and luckily our renewal month is October. So of the many things that we took care of to prepare, this was item #1 to make sure we received our new tags in the mail in time and we would be good to go for another year.

Temporary Import Permit (TIP)

When you drive a non-Mexican vehicle into Mexico, the vehicle needs paperwork- just as any individual entering the country.  This paperwork is called a temporary import permit and there are a few things that need to be provided in order to receive this paperwork:

• Vehicle title to prove ownership of the vehicle (or leasing/credit agreement if the title doesn't belong to the driver)
• Vehicle registration
• Proof of Mexican liability insurance
• TIP fee; approx $60 USD
• Deposit- refundable when you exit the country; $400 USD

We've got all of our paperwork ready to go! This process seems to be pretty consistent with most countries in Latin America with some variation, so we are eager to learn from our first border crossing in Mexico.

Personal Documentation

This is probably the most obvious thing- make sure that our Passports are valid for the duration of our trip.  We've also made additional copies of our driver's licenses and passports in case of emergency.

So organized!

Medication & Vaccines

While we know that we likely can get any medication we need in Mexico because prescriptions are not really needed at pharmacies, we decided to stock up on a few things. I went ahead and ordered 3 months worth of birth control to give some time in case I'm having trouble finding the type that works for me. We also ordered a year's supply of Mile's bladder medication that he's been taking the last 6 months. 

Regarding vaccines, Zach and I have all the necessary vaccines needed to travel through Central and South America. But because 2019 flu shots are now available, we went ahead and got flu shots to cover us for this season- better safe than sorry.

Miles needed an update on his rabies and DAP vaccines so we made sure to get those updated. We also got him treated with heart worm medication as well as flea/tick prevention.

Crossing Borders with a Pet

The main thing that you need to cross into Mexico with a pet is a Health Certificate endorsed by an accredited veterinarian.  This certificate needs to essentially deem the pet healthy to travel, confirm the pet is up to date on their vaccines and medications, and be issued within 10 days of crossing the border. This varies from border to border as we venture South but seems to be pretty commonly required.  We made Miles a vet appointment at a Veterinarian Hospital in Phoenix, and it was a pretty simple process. They needed copies of his vaccination records to ensure he was up to date as well as his rabies certificate.  Lastly, they talked to us to make sure he was on monthly flea/tick medication as well as heartworm medication.  They deemed our 14y old pup ready for travel, gave us the health certificate, and sent us on our way.

Miles patiently waiting for the Vet.

Health Certificate and heartworm meds.

International Phone Plan

Sometimes I wonder how people traveled without all of the luxuries that technology brings. The ability to keep my U.S. phone number as I cross international borders, be connected to the internet most of, if not all of the time, and be able to contact my friends and family as well as any foreign number makes international travel infinitely easier. Especially for the duration of time we'll be out of the U.S., a good phone plan is a necessity.  GoogleFi is the provider that is making that possible and it truly feels like it's too good to be true. Maybe it is. Maybe it won't work that well and service will be spotty. But it's really our only option available that won't break the bank, and in theory the best option we could ask for. So don't worry, Vicki- you'll still be able to track us at all times! And friends and family- you can reach us just as you always have.

Friends and Family

We ended up spending two weeks in Phoenix to get all of these things done, spend time with friends and family and enjoy a little bit of beautiful Arizona. We have such a massive support system and without our loved ones, this trip would not be possible. 

Mandatory Postino's sister date.

Via and I at Fossil Springs; Strawberry, AZ

Zach and I.

Fossil Springs; Strawberry, AZ

Some cave swimming in Fossil Springs!

Fossil Springs, Strawberry, CA

Fossil Springs, Strawberry, CA

The girls came over to meet Fran!

No idea what's going on here. 

The girls.

Zach loving on all the pups.

This woman used to watch us when we were babies! She came over to meet Fran, so good to see her :)

My uncle Glen & cousin Greyson

Game night selfie :)

Our hosts for the 2 weeks we were in Phoenix :)

WOW. That was lot. And if you've made it this far, I'm sorry if I've totally bored you!! So much goes into this trip that it's hard to grasp in photos so I'm hopeful that you've got a better understanding of what we've been up to and all that we've done so we feel prepared for the next leg of our trip!