I would have bought this blue Volkswagen bus and driven it back to California.

I very nearly did.  My roommates in Guatemala and I talked a lot about buying a VW van (they were for sale everywhere in Central in America and for as little as USD 600) and then driving it up through Mexico and into California.  They needed to get to Los Angeles and I needed to go back to San Francisco and making the journey overland seemed like it’d be a fun adventure.  I’d met quite a few people on the road who’d done it (one of my roommate’s in Antigua had driven there from New York on her motorcycle) and from all accounts, the journey seemed fairly safe and super affordable.

And I would have gone through with it too, if it weren’t for the fact that I wasn’t sure the van would have survived the trip. Neither my roommates nor myself knew enough about cars to know which one to buy or what questions to ask.  We’d have probably made it only half-way to Mexico city before the radiator fell out or something and then we’d be car-less and stranded in the desert somewhere.  And although that could have been interesting, I didn’t have the funds to buy a bus or plane ticket if something like that went wrong (a planet ticket from Mexico is double the price of a plane ticket from Guatemala).

My dreams of owning a Volkeswagon were therefore temporarily put on hold.  But one day when I have the money and have found a mechanic with a lot of time on his hands, I’d love to give it a try.

So.  Who’s up for the idea?

Reannon Muth

Reannon Muth is a full-time writer, social media consultant and owner and manager of the Taken by the Wind travel blog. Born in Hawaii, Reannon has lived in five countries, at Disney World and on a cruise ship. She currently lives in fabulous Las Vegas.