South AmericaSouth American Trip
Chile10th October 1993 - 18th February 1994
Introduction
This was my first "trip". I, foolishly, quit my job with the bank and entrusted myself to a
company called Dragoman. They run "adventure" trips
in purpose built trucks 
(nb. a Drago truck is a truck and not a bus. This point is made, quite forcibly by the
crew, as it would turn them into bus drivers!). The trip I took started in Santiago, Chile, and wound its way round South America for 4 ½ months ending in Rio in time for carnival.
Upon hearing what I was going to do and where I was going, my brother told me that it had been nice knowing me. He did not expect me to survive the trip. Silly boy.
The Truck
The truck was based on a Mercedes Benz 14 tonner. Onto this chassis was built the passenger compartment, with coach style seats, tables, and a lot of storage space. On the roof was extra, tie down , storage where we kept the tents, as well as 8 seats. These roof seats, four at the front and four at the back, gave access to us passengers to seating in the fresh air and sun whenever we liked (well, the rear four were whenever we chose, the front four were only for use off public roads). Four new spare tyres were hung on the rear of the coach body.
A fridge for drinks and food, was next to the door, and a drinks cooler was half way down the truck. Our day sacks were kept in the truck, while our backpacks were stored in a locker that took up the whole of the rear 4 feet of the coach body.
Under the floor at the front of the truck was a large capacity (200 litre) drinking water tank, and along each side were lockers for spares, tools, spades and hammers, cooking utensils, crockery, gas cookers, stools, tables, and our food. All loose items (food, crockery etc.) were placed in a grey plastic box. The lockers were built around the dimensions of these grey boxes.
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