Francisca´s story

Francisca el día que la compramos.

Many people ask us why we travel in a kombi. It goes only at 85 km/h? Without air conditioning? Dou you all fit there? Does It have 35 years? Will it take you all the way? They look at us astonished. What a good trip but… couldn´t you go in another vehicle? Others, on the other hand, think it´s funny, brings them childhood memories (a friend told me with nostalgia: I learnt to drive in a Kombi), from movies (the Little Miss Sunshine memorable scene with the bizarre family pushing the kombi)… When we decided to embrace this adventure, we made (actually Catire made), a market study… I don´t know why the Kombi has always been the first choice, but we looked the arguments to convince ourselves that in fact it was the best choice. We looked at spectacular motor homes (with spectacular prices), trucks, jeeps… But we always went back to the Kombi. One day at the roadside of the Rower´s Path (Camino de los Remeros), in Tigre, a friend of us who traveled to Alaska with his wife (compartiendoamerica.com) told us about its multiple benefits. Sitting in the back seat of that little rounded, nice box, and surrounded by crochet dolls, I tried to imagine myself with our four children inside. It could be… Summarizing; 1) It is relatively cheap. Much cheaper than any of the other options we were considering. 2) Apparently it has a simple engine. Any mechanic should be able to fix it. The parts are cheap and can be bought easily. 3) It is likeable and doesn´t call the attention. It has a retro aura and for many people it´s an icon (this video talks about that). All this also makes it safer. 4) We don´t mind that it goes slowly. It will make us slow down. We´ll be able to see more details that we would probably miss if we were going at 120 km/h. 5) And about the heat, well we´ll have to take care of it with a lot of ice and water. After all, our generation grew up without air conditioning… With these conclusions in mind, we went out looking. Mercado Libre, De Autos, webs for Kombi lovers, we got inside a community that´s very cool: web pages, gatherings, clubs… We started to find some, but none of them was the one. Until Francisca appeared: a couple of boyfriends that had the intention of traveling through America, making recipes, was selling it. The love had ended and the project was left behind. Our main advisor, Diego, saw it, and said “this is it”. This was a turning point. Buying the Kombi meant to pass from an idea to reality. And the nerves creped in hard (still with me, now a little weaker but still here…). All of a sudden, the night before the purchase, we realized that the trip was a serious thing. We were in bed, with the money ready to do the payment, and I told Catire: wait, this is crazy. When did we got in this madness?… Catire stared at me startled. I think that in the bottom of my heart I always believed it to be impossible. I was full of fear. In a perfect speech I listed every reason not to do the trip. We agreed: we had to call it off. Long night. Everything lost its color. In the darkness the disappointment was oppressive. The alarm clock went off at 6:30. And I turned around and said: let´s buy it either way, if we don´t need it we´ll sell it. The black and white movie changed to color. And the adrenaline that goes with exiting projects filled the environment again. Hours later, Fransisca was parked in the door of our house.

We imagine that we will be honouring Little Miss Sunshine many times…