In December 2012, I left my old home in Holland behind, to not only start an adventure but a life experiment on other lifestyles and ethics of living. This amazing journey led me and my partner from living a simple life on the countryside of Uruguay, exploring a true life off the grid, to the highlands of Bolivia and Peru, investigating the Andean Cosmology of ‘Buen Vivir’ (Living Well), to an extended journey on the ‘Ruta del Sol’ (the Road of the Sun) along the Ecuadorian coast, exploring a life as simple surfers in ‘El Verde,’ a 1971 VW Campervan. 

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Life with El Verde stole our hearts, and after converting the caravanette with an almost non-existing budget into a beautiful tiny home, we decided to push our experiment even further, and brave the rough South American terrain and drive the ’71 vehicle from the Ecuadorian Pacific coast to the Atlantic seaside of Uruguay. An almost 8,000-km journey, crossing the highlands of the Andean mountains of Peru and Bolivia over passes of 4,500 meters in altitude, to green jungles, the immensely hot and almost impassable Paraguayan ‘Chaco,’ to the lush coast of Brazil, before arriving at the green hills of the Uruguayan coast.