We made it! After heading through the Mexican States Veracruz and Tamaulipas, we finally crossed the US border entering Texas. From here we’re continuing our road trip across the United States towards Ridgecrest in Southern California.

Brownsville, Texas, is the well-known border town, we entered after hurrying through probably the most dangerous province in Mexico – Tamaulipas. Today we’ll reach Van Horn, where we’re going to stay for the night. Tomorrow we’ll get to New Mexico.

Francisco Ibarra from the Classic VW Club Paraguay informed us that the magazine “ABC Color” just published the story on Herbie’s World Tour, we got interviewed about.

Here’s the link to the article, of course written in Spanish (by Julio Noguera).

Unfortunately we don’t have a printed version. Maybe we’ll receive one later.

The pictures you see here are those which were taken back then in Paraguay.

At this point we also want to say “thank you” again to Osvaldo, Natalia and Jorge from Asunción for their very warm welcome and the great time we had in Paraguay!

Our Travel Bug arrived at the harbor of Veracruz on time. Yesterday Domi got the permission to pick him up. Everything worked out great and Herbie is doing very well. We are so happy about that! Now we’re looking forward heading north again.

Herbie’s vessel, the “Green Lake”, sailed exactly for four days across the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico – from South to North America. We can highly recommend this route for people who aren’t interested in driving through Central America (in order to ship the car from Panama) or who visited those countries before, like we did.

We enjoyed being in Veracruz in the meantime. It is a very nice city with a long history – part of it is kind of Austrian by the way. And our hotel (“Hotel Reforma”) is a real insider’s choice. Tomorrow we’ll leave this place, heading north on the coast towards Texas. It will take us days to get there and we’ll have to drive through the State of Tamaulipas again – certainly one of the most dangerous states of Mexico.

One of the persons we’re always looking forward meeting again, when coming to the United States, is our dear friend Michael Lee Phillips from Ridgecrest, California.

He actually encouraged us to create Herbie’s blog and share our story with the rest of the world, because he has always believed in us as well as in our extraordinary journey. Today it is Michael’s birthday, on which we send him all the best wishes!

As you know, we are back in Veracruz, on the Gulf of Mexico. There is no other country in the world in which so many Volkswagen Beetles were produced like here.

Therefore you can still find a lot of spare part shops for air-cooled Volkswagen – just like “La Casa del Vocho” (“The House of the Beetle”) right here in Veracruz.

The streets are lined with all different kinds of air-cooled “Vee Dubs”, just as Bugs and Kombis. And most of them were made in Puebla, very close to Mexico City.

People still love using these reliable automobiles as company cars. Unfortunately Volkswagen decided to stop the Mexican air-cooled VW production in 2003.

Here you can see one of the later VW Beetle versions with its proud owner, wearing just a tiger print speedo, asking Domi “Why the heck are you taking a picture?”.

Domi bought all brake wheel cylinders as well as the master cylinder and its brake light switch for just about 60 Greenbacks (or 50 Euro) as spares for our Herbie.

Furthermore Domi got a whole bunch of different spares for our friend and mechanic Friedrich from Vienna. It is a huge box which we’ll send through the post to Austria.

After touring across South America for the last three months, we flew back to Mexico today. But before taking off, the tires had to be changed – but not the ones of Herbie!

Our day started very early at four o’clock in the morning. Zainab even stayed awake the whole night, waiting for the taxi which brought us to the airport of Cartagena. Our first flight went from there to Panama City; the second one to Mexico City – by the way the biggest airport in Latin America. Before we could take off from there, our captain decided to change the two front tires – right in front of all passengers.

We arrived safely in Veracruz, Mexico. Herbie is still on his cruise across the sea. We love being back here, but there’ll be also a lot to do before getting Herbie out of the port.

The biggest magazine about air-cooled Volkswagen in France called “Super VW Mag” just published a story about Herbie’s World Tour and us globetrotters.

The article includes an interview with us, done and written by Julien-David Collombet. For a readable version (in French) just follow Herbie’s page “Press“!

Our plan was to explore the Andes of South America in our beloved Volkswagen Bug from 1963. Herbie accomplished his mission by driving 13,080 miles (21,050 kilometers) – all thanks to his very same engine with just 1,200 cc and 34 horsepower.

We’ve experienced so much by following the “Panamericana” and visiting Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil and Venezuela. So far we’ve been on the road in Herbie for more than 91,000 miles (147,000 kilometers).

Due the rain season and certain road conditions, we had to cancel our plan driving across Brazil and the Amazonas towards Venezuela. So we went all the way back by climbing the Andes again couple times, which was for sure even more challenging.

While Herbie will be sailing across the sea towards the Gulf Coast of Mexico, we’ll leave South America on Sunday, getting to Veracruz by three flights via Panama and Mexico City. If Herbie’s vessel arrives on time, he’ll reach North America on May 17.

Today we delivered Herbie to one of Cartagena’s ports where he’ll go aboard on his vessel “Green Lake” heading across the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico to Veracruz.

Unfortunately too many things went wrong again at the “Contecar” port and we had to spend the entire day getting almost all necessary shipping documents done.

Thanks to Pablo Uribe Antía from the Cartagena port administration we got through this chaotic organized harbor which already caused several problems at our arrival.

When shipping a vehicle via “RoRo” (Roll-On/Roll-Off) it is very important to remove things like the car radio, ashtray or cigarette lighter, because they can get stolen.

Tomorrow our Love Bug No. 53 will have his final inspection by the Colombian anti-narcotic police, before he’ll get on his boat leaving South America for good.

As you know we are back in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, waiting for the ship, which will take Herbie back to Veracruz, Mexico. Hopefully it will depart on May 12.

We initially booked a boat called “Green Lake”, which got canceled but they called the cancelation off again, so Herbie will be on his favored vessel anyway.

There is a lot of bureaucratic stuff  to do, before getting a car shipped overseas. But tomorrow we’ll finally deliver Herbie to one of the ports named “Contecar”.

Since we left Austria in September 2009 on Herbie’s World Tour for the first time, we’ve visited 58 countries (including all 48 lower United States of America) so far.

Herbie has driven more than 91,000 miles (147,000 kilometers) across five continents, crossed 87 borders on this earth and got shipped by a vessel six times.

We’ve had all together five passports while we traveled around the globe. After our first set got fully stamped, we had to go back to Europe in order to obtain new ones.

Our ocean carrier Wallenius Wilhelmsen decided to cancel the sail of the vessel “Green Lake”. Therefore the Love Bug will go aboard of another ship called “Tagus”.

According to its latest schedules, “Tagus” should depart from Cartagena of the West Indies on May 13 and arrive in Veracruz, on the Gulf of Mexico, by May 18.

After we crossed our last border in South America, we ran into a protest of the Colombian teacher’s union, who blocked an important highway intersection right after the border, one of just two roads connecting Colombia and Venezuela with each other.

They demonstrated for higher wages and even blocked the train tracks above the street. Nobody was able to pass. Police men told us to that there is no way through.

The protest should last for 24 hours, as all teachers would remain on the road for the night too. Cars were making u-turns and trucks pulled over to wait for the next day.

But Domi begged for passage and pointed out that Herbie has nothing to do with Colombian politicians and we eventually got permission to pass. We were the only ones who got this privilege! What was it: Sympathy for Herbie or Domi’s charm?

While having lunch in the shade of a tree on Highway No. 6, heading towards Colombia, we got to know true Love Bug fans from Venezuela who invited us to their home.

They even filled up Herbie with a couple gallons of gas. Getting closer to the border, it is not possible to buy gas as a tourist, in order to avoid cross-national gasoline trade.

So we were heading straight towards the border, getting back to Colombia and our final destination within South America – Cartagena, where Herbie will leave by ship.

You probably won’t believe it, but a complete fill up for Herbie just costs 30 US-Cents in Venezuela. This is not a joke! Venezuela has the cheapest gas prices in the world.

Herbie feels like he is in paradise. Gas for just three US-Cents per Gallon (or less than one Euro Cent per liter). Gasoline is subsidized by the government of Hugo Chávez.

Today I got two fill ups actually for free, because the guys at the gas station had no change, so they decided not to charge for it. It was a total amount of 20 US-Cents.

However it was really hard to get here: Initially the custom office at the border was closed for two days. Yesterday it took us hours to get the necessary paperwork done.

Venezuela had the toughest border in South America respective entering a country with a car. But we rejoice to be able to visit our ninth and final South American country.

From what we know today, Herbie will go aboard a vessel called “Green Lake”.

The “Green Lake”, originally from the US, already set sail, left Paranaguá in Brazil and just arrived in Santos, the port of São Paulo. So, there is only one harbor left (Manzanillo in Panama) before the ship should reach Cartagena, Colombia, on May 11.

According to schedules it will take four days to cross the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico before Herbie arrives in Veracruz, where we’ll pick him up. From there we’re going to drive from the East to the West Coast of America, across Mexico and the USA.

It is totally weird and we never experienced such differing currency exchange rates. Yesterday we withdrew Venezuelan money at a local ATM and were shocked how expensive everything seems to be, until we found out more on the internet.

At the cash machine you get the official exchange rate of 4.30 “Strong Bolívar” for one US-Dollar. If you get your money exchanged at a money changer you get about 8.90 Bolívar, in fact the double amount of money. So never do the same mistake we did!

As fruitarians we enjoyed being on Herbie’s World Tour trying new kinds of fruits and vegetables all around the globe. South America is again a whole new experience for us.

We found lucuma, aka eggfruit (top left), and pacay, widely called ice-cream bean (top right and below), very delicious. Lucuma is also popular for flavoring ice cream.

The ice-cream bean is a legume native to Central and South America. They have been depicted in ancient ceramics of the Incas and other Andean peoples.

We literally stuck in the border town San Antonio in Venezuela, because the custom office is closed on weekends. We reached the border on a Saturday morning.

After we got our immigration stamps we wanted to apply for the vehicle permit.

But the Venezuelan custom office was closed – like every Saturday and Sunday.

“Simón Bolívar” (that’s the official name of the border) is giving us a really hard time.

So we’ll have to wait until Monday morning before we are able to obtain the temporary vehicle permit, which allows us to enter the country in our Number 53.

A lot of slow trucks, countless construction sites and extremely steep roads Herbie had to manage the last days, while we were heading northeast towards Venezuela.

It was very exhausting driving an average speed of 12 mph (or 20 km/h) for hours.

We passed Barbosa, Bucaramanga, Pamplona and Cúcuta – right next to Venezuela.

Meanwhile we crossed the border, but we stuck in Venzuela’s border town San Antonio.

After we eventually traveled through Venezuela, we’ll be heading towards Cartagena in order to put the Love Bug on a boat going back to Mexico and North America.

Since we started our world tour in September 2009, Herbie has driven more than 90,000 miles (or 145,000 kilometers) across five continents. While the road conditions varied from excellent to terrible, Herbie still got the same engine.

Herbie brought us back to Colombia. We left the Pan-American Highway heading east towards Venezuela after we passed cities like Pasto, Popayán and Cali.

We were driving right through the heart of Colombia’s capital, Bogotá. Our plan is to visit Venezuela before we’ll put Herbie on a vessel going back to North America.

Colombia is pretty expensive regarding its toll roads. Just today we passed about ten toll booths and spent at least a couple bucks for each one of them.

Even though the landscapes are beautiful, it is sometimes really hard to watch the big gap between the rich and the poor – especially within big cities just as Bogotá.

Tomorrow we’ll get very close to the border. On the day after we’re hoping to reach Venezuela – our last country we’ll visit before heading back to Cartagena.

After spending the night in Latacunga, we followed our “Evacuation Route” out of Ecuador, passing Quito, Cayambe, Otavalo and Ibarra, crossing the border in Tulcán.

We left the country with carrying more than 25 gallons (or 100 liters) of gasoline and we’re still running on it, as gas prices in Colombia are more than three times higher.

Meanwhile we are back in Colombia leaving the “Pan-Am” heading east towards Venezuela, our last country to visit, before going back to North America.

Domi loves drinking fresh coconut juice. Herbie prefers gas without ethanol instead.

One coconut ($ 1.00)  is more expensive than one quart of gasoline ($ 0.38).

Ecuador has the cheapest gas prices we’ve experienced in America so far.

A complete full tank for our Love Bug costs just 15 US-Dollars (or 12 Euro).

Ecuador is the only country in South America having the US-Dollar and Cent.

All other South American countries we visited are selling way more expensive gas.

We just entered Ecuador on our way back north. Although this country is not a “Banana Republic” within the political discussion, it has definitely the biggest banana production in the world. Below you can see “Herbie goes bananas” while the sun was setting.

The Love Bug reached the border between Peru and Ecuador late afternoon. After we crossed it, we went shopping some food in Machala and drove on to El Guabo.

We already knew the border patrol men quite well, because we crossed this particular border already by following the “Pan-American Highway” on our way south.

In Peru we went across the Desert of Sechura and passed the Pacific a last time. The landscape changed dramatically – from a very dry to a pretty humid area.

Tomorrow we’ll drive along the western section of the “Pan-Am” towards cities like Riobamba, Ambato, Latacunga and eventually Quito, before entering Colombia.

We left the Pacific coast for good. The Caribbean is waiting for us in Colombia, where Herbie will have to go across by ship, the same way he came to South America.