South American Combi Van heaven.

Seven thousand miles into a sail yacht circumnavigation of the world running on the wind and a trusty blue Perkins sail yacht Hollinsclough reports beyond Gloria Marina in Rio.

Returning from a month in Blighty all so close to the dates for the Peaks & Dales Clasic Car run, the most shocking thing I had notice was the waste of food, hotel breakfast leftovers would feed a village south of the Amazon for most a week. On wheels the staggering view of an English road is the diversity of vehicles, it has long been my belief the best car showroom to choose your next transport is the supermarket car park. It may well be the case that no two vehicles the same could be found, colour model, engine, let alone make, style and type.

Over here in South America it is VeeDub land, I have heard mention that VW holds in excess of sixty five per cent of the entire market. There are VW trucks, coaches & buses. I dare say even the fork lift trucks are VW. The trusty Transit is replaced by the Combi, remember that name and you are too old. As far as I can tell the VW Combi van comes in one colour and its not cheap going 20k of UK money in a land where wealth is rare and literacy low.   

City roads such as Recife, Salvador and Rio are packed to busting with the trusty combi from spanking new water cooled ones to the small side window old folk wheezing on air. Whatever the age it’s still running somewhere. Then there are the home made ones, builders pick up to sound platforms with enormous speakers for loud advertising. Literacy here such a problem voting is done by numbers, vote 99 for a picture of Gordon? Advertising hoardings take second place to voice, sound and music.

Between the white combis are custard yellow cabs with a blue side stripe, mostly Fiats. A big shop at the Saidia supermarket, no it’s not Sainsbury’s is not a good idea, the boot space of the yellow beasts is limited by the gas bottle. Each and every taxi seems to be fitted out with what is best described a hot water tank in the boot where the trusty dual fuel goes. These things must be ordered from factory for taxis because how ever deep the scratch is its yellow all the way to the metal.

The rest of the roads are laden with VW cars old to new. Beetles with split screens sit comfortably with modern lookalikes, tires for the beasts, batteries and oil are mostly to be found in the supermarkets. Four Michelins in the trolley is quiet a sight. VeeDubs and more VeeDubs bring old fashioned fixing, small garage heaven and parts not a problem.

Dropping our hire car at Heathrow back in Blighty amongst a myriad of models with colour coded everything its hard to imagine the cost of the smallest dent to anything and then there’s changing the sensors, perish the thought the actual wotsit is broken. Back here in Brazil some old chap with a metal shop is ever ready to fix it all. And fix it all he has because with this one make life, motoring costs are a breeze to back home in Blighty and fuel relates to about ninety pence UK.

Two wheels? Kawinskis, yes a very close copy dare I mention and made just south of the Amazon. Honda CG125s as prevalent as the VeeDubs, at least these are made under license. City traffic a big problem so its land of the motorcycle courier like seventies London but you can book a bike taxi too, they carry a spare helmet and it always fits!

We live a life by the coast so yet to find a VW tractor inland but never seen a caravan so where does all that traffic get tied up?

Wealth and poverty in this country are the most extreme ends of the scale I have ever seen, getting rural in the north to find villages with sand tracks, donkeys and carts that roll on VW wheels there is always a trusty combi van. Turn a corner and parked up at a tourist villa you can count on a Porsche 4x4 van car wotsit, crazy world r us. That said it’s a happy place and top end cars are a very rare sight, sun roofs and soft tops absent in the heat but air con in the oldest runners you ever could believe.