1966-Bolivia to USA -> Bill's Journey

[Jdc1]

Mud,

Earlier this month, we showcased our '72 at the Stan Hywet Molto Bella. Stan Hywet is the Seiberling (Goodyear) mansion that is open to the public. Hours, Directions & Guidelines | Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens - https://www.stanhywet.org/hours

In my build thread, I mentioned that we met into a Peace Corp. Physician that was stationed in Bolivia in the 1960's that drove his personal FJ40 home to Cleveland. We bumped into Bill again at the Molto Bella along with a group of his friends from his time in Bolivia. Bill took the time to send pics and details on his Journey to my Dad, @dlzadl .

Jesse

 

[Jdc1]

Dear Mr. Carvill,



As promised, I’m sending you some narratives related to my purchase of a 1966 Toyota Land Cruiser in La Paz, Bolivia in the fall of 1966. I’ll accompany each note with some pictures of the vehicle to illustrate the story. The pictures are from 35 mm color slides that I have recently digitized, so they are not as sharp and clear as the original digital photos we are used to today.



In 1965 Dr. Ronal K. St. John (whom you met and photographed at the Molto Bella Auto Show at Stan Hywet) and I were doing our first postgraduate year after medical school in hospital internships when we were drafted into the military during the Viet Nam war. We were drafted under the Berry Plan that allowed us to finish that academic year (July 1965-June 1966) before reporting for duty. Under the rules we were allowed to request transfer to the United States Public Health Service, a uniformed, but unarmed branch of the US Government. We did not know each other at that point, but we each requested such a transfer and the requests were granted. We then asked to be assigned to the Peace Corps as Peace Corps Physicians tasked with taking care of the health of Peace Corps volunteers and staff. We were also granted that request. When asked what country we would like to serve in, I replied any Spanish-speaking country. The language I studied in college was German (not helpful for the Peace Corps), but my wife was a Spanish teacher who could help me with that language. I was assigned to La Paz, Bolivia and reported to Washington, DC to a hotel for three weeks of “training” before leaving for Bolivia where we had a tow year service commitment. I met Ron St. John for the first time at the hotel sign-in desk in early July 1966. As an aside, we held the rank of Senior Assistant Surgeon in the Public Health Service, a rank equivalent to Captain in the Army, so we went to Bolivia as Peace Corps staff, not volunteers. This distinction allowed us to take our families with us.



Shortly after we arrived, Ron and I realized we would each like to have a personal vehicle to use to explore Bolivia on our free time. As Peace Corps physicians we had access to the Peace Corps motor pool consisting of American jeeps, Chevrolet carryalls, and pickup trucks, but we couldn’t use those for our personal travel. We looked at Land Rovers, American jeeps and the Toyota Land Cruiser. It was clear the Toyota was the best buy for the money, about $3,000 as I recall. We each bought one. I’ve attached three pictures of the brand new vehicle as it appeared in the yard of the small house my wife and I were renting in La Paz. After two years Ron went on to be a Peace Corps Physician in the Philippines for another two years and sold his vehicle before leaving. I stayed in Bolivia for an additional 9 months to complete a project I was working on. My wife and I drove out of La Paz in the Land Cruiser April 1, 1969 to begin our drive home up the Pan American Highway.



As I’m able, I’ll send additional notes with pictures of the Toyota in use in Bolivia, rigged up for the drive home, and in the US.



Best,



Bill

 

[Jdc1]

Dear Mr. Carvill,



La Paz rests on the Altiplano (high plain) between the east and west mountain ranges of the Andes mountains. It is located at about 9,000 and 13,000 feet of altitude near the eastern range. The Altiplano is home to many towns and villages where many Peace Corps volunteers worked. Driving east from La Paz there is a road that climbs to over 15,000 feet among the snow and glaciers and then descends along the eastern slopes of the Andes into the Yungas region down to an eventual altitude of about 3,000 feet. The road is very dramatic and one Ron and I drove many times because of a large Peace Corps volunteer presence in that area. At the time, it was an unpaved road carved into the side of mountains with 2-way truck and other vehicle traffic. Called “The Road of Death” (the road of death in bolivia south america - - Video Search Results - https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-reb-ext_onelaunch&ei=UTF-8&hsimp=yhs-ext_onelaunch&hspart=reb&p=the+road+of+death+in+bolivia+south+america&type=0_1001_101_2462_102_230205#id=1&vid=87a60ec02753ad711753cdfb7471b99d&action=click). It took about 4 hours to cover 60 miles with simple rules of the road – vehicles coming up hill had the right of way and if 2 vehicles met when the road was not wide enough to pass, the vehicle coming down hill had to back up to the outside until there was room to pass. Ron and I equipped our vehicles with truck air horns that we sounded at every blind curve to both sound larger than we were and to let anyone coming up hill know they were there so we could arrange to pass. We took friends and guests on excursions across the Altiplano and into the Yungas, drove my sister and brother-in-law to Cochabamba and Santa Cruz in southern Bolivia, and took friends to Cuzco in Peru. We gave the Toyota a real workout and somehow survived all of it. The pictures attached to this note show some of the territory we drove in. I’ll send more in a separate note. Picture 007 illustrates the only way to gas up a vehicle in the Yungas – you had to find a house that stored gasoline in 50 gallon drums where they would siphon gas by sticking a tube in the drum and sucking on it into a five gallon can and pour it into your tank. Gas was sold only in 5 gallon units (no way to measure more or less), so you had to get pretty good at estimating just how much gas the tank would hold.



Best,



Bill

 

[Jdc1]

Dear Mr. Carvill,



This note and the next one should give you some ideal of the Land Cruiser on the way home via the Pan American Highway.



#013 – This is a picture of Ardith (my wife) one morning after camping for the night on the altiplano as we left Bolivia for Peru. You can see the rack with spare tire and two gas cans (not visible), the curtains that could be closed to cover all the windows, and the foam mattress on plywood – two pieces that were hinged to open over the 2/3 front seat when it was lowered. Our luggage, food, camping equipment, etc. were stored under the plywood in the back. We camped about every 2 of 3 nights, looking for places where we could pull off the road and be hidden, if possible.

#014 – Ardith cooking dinner on a foggy evening somewhere in Peru.

#015 – Pan American highway, heading north on the Altiplano.

#016 – Ardith and the jeep in the Atacama Desert on the Pacific Ocean coast of Ecuador.

Best,



Bill

 

[Jdc1]

Dear Mr. Carvill,



Some more pictures:



#008 – We were on our way to Cochabamba from La Paz on the only paved road between cities and towns in the country. Being on a paved road allowed me to concentrate a bit more on the scenery.

#009 – This is a picture from “The Road of Death” in the dry season – no paving and no guard rails anywhere with sheer drop offs.

#010 – A volunteer worksite in the Yungas.

#011 – An adobe house and outhouse built by a volunteer couple in the Yungas.

#012 – A picnic on the Altiplano with a Bolivian mother and daughter, my wife, and our dachshund.

These should give you some idea of the varied terrain we were operating in.



Best,



Bill

 

[Jdc1]

Dear Mr. Carvill,



#022 - After 2 1/2 months and 10,000 miles on the Pan American Highway and numerous side trips to see archeological sites along the way we crossed the US/Mexico border and traveled to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to see our parents. My father threw a family reunion party to welcome us home and I included a picture of me, my sister (far left) and various cousins with the jeep in the background as proof the vehicle made it – no problems along the way. We did switch out high altitude carburetor jets for standard ones at a large Toyota dealership in Costa Rica, but no other mechanical issues.



#023 – From Bethlehem we moved to Cleveland for me to complete two years of residency in medicine at University Hospitals. After that we spent a year in Boston for me to get a Master in Public Health Degree. Then we moved to Hazard, Kentucky in 1972 where I took a job as a Field Professor of Community Medicine with the University of Kentucky. We kept the Land Cruiser and used it as a second car to our 1970 Dodge Dart. I’ve included this picture of our house in Hazard as proof that we made it! I wanted, but could not afford a sports car, so I bought a wrecked and rolled 1968 VW Beetle and built a Bradley GT (see next picture) on its chassis. This picture shows the VW body after I took it off the chassis.

#069 – This is the Bradley GT.

#024 and #026 – A lot of strip mining has been done in SE Kentucky around Hazard, and it is possible to drive around many abandoned strip mines there, as these pictures show. It was a good opportunity to do a bit of “off roading.” We left Hazard in January 1976 for Akron, and I sold the vehicle then to someone who wanted a four wheel drive jeep.



Best,



Bill

 

[Jdc1]

Dear Mr. Carvill,



#017 – The roads were sometimes a bit harsh.

#019 – A morning cup of tea after camping on the Nicaraguan coast in Central America.



#020 – A flowering tree in Central America where the roads were mostly paved.

#021 – Breakfast on the Pacific coast of Mexico.

Best,



Bill

 

[Jdc1]

Dear Mr. Carvill,



You asked me to share some stories and pictures related to my 1966 Toyota Land Cruiser, so I hope I’ve given you a glimpse of our experience with that vehicle. It meant a lot to my wife and me, of course, because of the special experiences it helped us have in South America and on the Pan American Highway in what was one of the great adventures of our lives. If you have any questions for me, please feel free to ask.



Meeting you and your son along with the vehicle you’ve restored brought all those experience back in living color, and I thank you for helping to open that particular box of memories. Perhaps we will see you again at next year’s Father’s Day car show. If all goes well, I hope to be there displaying my 1984 Mazda RX-7.



Best,



Bill

 

[Green Bean]

Thanks for sharing. What an adventure. What strikes me is that with all of the criticism one hears nowadays about the anemic 1F and 3 speed transmission, that was plenty good to handle everything that they wanted to do on their amazing journey.

 

[Jdc1]

Thanks for sharing. What an adventure. What strikes me is that with all of the criticism one hears nowadays about the anemic 1F and 3 speed transmission, that was plenty good to handle everything that they wanted to do on their amazing journey.

Right, notice the lack of lockers, traction boards, lift and lightbars. I am hoping he can find the pic of where it was loaded on a ship in Columbia to bypass the Darien Gap.

 

[Green Bean]

Have you seen the video of the group of guys that bought I believe 7 brand new jeep’s back when and drove them from the tip of South America to northern Alaska? Pretty amazing.

 

[Jdc1]

Have you seen the video of the group of guys that bought I believe 7 brand new jeep’s back when and drove them from the tip of South America to northern Alaska? Pretty amazing.

Haven't seen that one, but there is a group of Vets that did Arctic Ocean to S. America on KLRs. Had to start the trip during snow season w/ sidecars in AK to make sure they hit the Darien at the right time. Not many people have been able to do the whole trip without using a ship at the Gap due to Politics and Climate.

 

[red66toy]

Incredible photos and story to go with it!! Thank you @Jdc1 for sharing here.

 

[Green Bean]

Documentary: The 1978 Jeep Expedition of the Americas

Editor's Note: Some of you may have noticed that this is the third "expedition across the Americas" type documentary that we've featured in recent weeks.

silodrome.com

 

[cruiserkev]

What an amazing journey! The photos and documentation in Bills own words are priceless. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Chungas Revenge]

Incredible story, remarkable individual and the perfect vehicle for the journey…

 

[70fj40]

A good reminder just how soft we have become in the last 50 years. I live the trips like this through other peoples stories. Modern life, as good as it is doesn’t always allow these kinds of adventures. I have plans to make a cross country adventure in my FJ40 in the near future. I look forward to my own story living up to the ones I read about. Kudos to those that continue to share their adventures.

 

[sterling]

Thanks for sharing the adventure.
Gives me "Who needs a road vibes ".

 

[TCEd]

Wow, what a cool history that vehicle and the author.

 

[Jdc1]

Bump for anyone that hasn’t seen this.