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LIVING & TRAVEL On the Road to Tierra Del Fuego by jennifer and greg coleman Related sites: Browse the beauty of Latin America to plan your own trip. Head to Tierra Del Fuego with a different couple -- on a slightly heftier budget. Now make the trip yourself (on a significantly heftier budget). Check with the Interactive Gear Guy from Outside Online to see that you've got the best camping equipment for your journey. Ride in style in a recreational vehicle.	Six months ago, I quit my job as a social worker -- not a prestigious job, I admit, but one with security and benefits -- and went to work full-time with my husband, Greg, who's self-employed. He's in the handyman business, mostly small carpentry jobs and painting. We became a self-employed couple, paying for our own health insurance, taking paychecks from job to job, and praying for sunshine. Working long days and cutting out the extras in our life, we saved money three times as fast as when I'd had my old job. You see, Greg and I figure you get no more than you're willing to risk in life. We've been preparing several months now for a trip over land from North Carolina through Central and South America. We chose this route because we know that no matter the destination, we're going to be on a tight budget. You don't have to fly to South America, and you don't have to ship your car, which leaves us with a little more money to travel a little longer and further. It helps that South America is home to some of the most pristine and least visited beaches in the world, and the Mayan and Incan ruins. And then there's the challenge of arriving at Tierra Del Fuego -- the southernmost tip of the continent. You know, the allure of the road less-traveled. The length of our trip depends on our money -- how many times the car breaks down and how far our budget stretches. We're starting out with $6,500. Be warned, if you're planning such a trip for yourself, this is less than any guidebook recommends. Most sources suggest budgeting $20 per person per day. Our budget allows only half this: $10 per person/$20 as a couple per day for ten months. There are reasons we have the gall to do this. We believe that two can live, and therefore travel, more cheaply than one. And the two of us in particular travel more cheaply than anyone we know. We plan to free-camp on beaches and in rural locations as much as possible, and to cook for ourselves at all times except when buying meals off the street is cheaper. (Greg's experience traveling for less than $10 a day in Africa adds to our confidence.) We hope to work along the way if we find any place we like enough. And while we would like to travel forever, we realize that our eight- to 10-month trip might last only six if our budget runs out, or stretch to 12 if we get lucky. As Greg once said, "We'd love to achieve a state of perpetual motion, but money is the friction in our wheels." We intend to access our funds in the bank along the way using a check card that works like Visa. This should eliminate some of the fees associated with exchanging money, like trying to cash traveler's checks, or paying interest on cash advances.
	Of all our preparations, kitting out the car has been the number one time consumer, although we kept the costs as low as possible. Our vehicle is a 1978 International Scout II four-wheel drive. One of our pre-trip additions was a custom-built roof rack, which holds large boxes for food and tools, our roof-tip tent, and several jerry cans for water and fuel. Our tent is a Car Top Tent, and we like it. Which is important since we'll be living in it for the next six to 12 months. It's 4' by 4' square on our roof rack, but it folds out to a queen size mattress in about 30 seconds. We leave the bed made up top and the tent has a self-fly which makes for quick dashes in from inclement weather. Being up top frees us from worry about rocky, wet, or sandy ground, although you still need a somewhat level spot to camp. When we fold the tent down, the ladder bolts onto the front of the "bull bar" (Greg calls it a "roo-bar") -- also a pre-trip addition. Greg made it using scraps of steel from a salvage yard and a friend's welder. The roof rack was made in the same manner for about $30. We also added a roll-bar and shoulder harness seatbelts, in an attempt to avoid harassment from officials upholding local fines for seatbelts.
	A strange thing has happened as we pack our car: we seem to have two of everything: two large boxes, two medium boxes, two small boxes, two spare tires, two fuel tanks, and two batteries. The dual tank allows us to carry 50 gallons of fuel plus jerry cans. We plan to fill up in places where gas is cheaper, since fuel will be our largest cost. (Gas ranges from 50 cents to $2.75 a gallon.) Greg installed the extra tank under a false floor he mounted in the back of the Scout. He also installed a battery isolator with the extra battery, so that our lights, stereo, etc will only run off the auxiliary and keep the "crank" battery charged. In our tool box up top are spare parts and accessories, including belts, filters, oil, transmission fluid, and even a spare fuel pump, water pump, and distributor for a Scout. Down below are our clothes, cooking utensils, gas stove, and toiletries. This last month of preparations has been full of delays: waiting on car parts, questions about Greg's status as both an Australian citizen and US resident "alien," packing and re-packing, and taking on odd jobs to lengthen our budget by a few hundred dollars. We read that seasonally the best time to leave North America is September. We had hoped for October 31. I guess the best time to leave is when you're ready. After submitting this column, Greg and Jennifer both caught the flu. They finally left North Carolina November 26, just in time for Thanksgiving on the road. The next installment will appear as soon as they find a fax machine. © 1996 Tripod, Inc. All Rights Reserved.