Van living

We bought a van. We need somewhere to be and something to do while we're waiting for papers for the USA. So why not a van? We can live in it, travel with it, carry our stuff in it( which is way easier than by bicycle!) and I'm already envisioning a makeshift basket weaving and toy workshop inside too. We call her Jada because that was the company name that used to be plastered to all sides with sticky letters.

She's got a few issues - some scrapes and bruises here and there and well there are a few tricks one needs to know to be able to open or close all of her 4 doors. I like to think of it as an extra anti-theft device; a sort of complicated combination lock with many steps.

One might ask why it is we purchased a vehicle with such particularities. Well, the task of looking for a used van in Spain is not exactly an easy feat. We weren't interested in paying extra to purchase from a dealership, so we were thrown into the realm of private sellers, which I can assure you mostly consists of what is perfectly said in Spanish as "pirates". We looked at a ton of vans. Mostly when we lived in a tent in the North of Spain last August. We called around, asked lots of questions, made lists, with stars and cross-outs and question marks. We took a train South to Madrid to look at what we thought was going to be "our van." When we showed up the guy hadn't even brought the same van that was in the add and in the pictures. He tried to convince us otherwise, but when it's a whole size bigger, miraculously has two more windows it didn't have before and is a different make and model - it's sort of hard to defend such a lie. We looked at it anyway. "Motor is perfect" he said more times than I can remember. When we started it, it made some interesting rattling noises. We took it for a spin and I thought the tire was litterally going to spin off. I know very little about automobiles, but the sounds this motor was making was very far from "perfect." He complained when we wanted to talk with a mechanic first....his reasoning being that we couldn't take it to our mechanic because they might "claim there are more problems with it". Then he got upset, saying we wasted an hour of his time. We let him know his lies wasted 10 hours of travel time and the cost of two train tickets.

After that experience we got smarter. We learned to ask not only how many windows the van has, but also if they all open. And then we also learned to also ask if they all close too. We learned to ask not if it had an AC, but if it actually worked. We learned to ask who fixed the motor. If they responded with "my brother" - we could be sure we weren't interested. We learned to ask the same question at least 3 times.... because sometimes the answer changes, or the story grows.

When we travel and are looking for a place to eat we always end up picking the place based on the people; usually pleasant workers are paid and supported well by their employers and somehow it always works out that the food is great too. For us our experience has been grumpy people make grumpy food. So we learned to look at the owners just as much as the van. If it looks, sounds, feels and tastes like a duck, it probably is one.

Here were the highlights of our search:
1.) the van that wasn't really the van we asked for with the rattling, squeaky, yet "perfect"motor
2.) a van that dropped oil like the gusher-disaster of the BP Gulf accident (yes, the owner also said the engine was in perfect condition....his brother also replaced the engine too) He also started every sentence with "the truth is...." Jota made the point that "the truth doesn't need an introduction."
3.) a Galego trying to sell his van for double the real price
4.) A Renault in Valencia that had all flat tires, all broken seatbelts, doors that can't close and a funny sounding engine...yes that too was a "perfect motor"
5.) The monster van that was huge and had windows, but also leaked oil, couldn't drive in a straight line, was being sold by a guy that wasn't the owner and wore so much gold jewelry that the sparkles could light up the town and supposedly trades horses for vans. It was also soooo suspiciously clean that I had to ask "why is it so clean". He responded that he cleaned it. Even the motor which didn't have a speck of dust on it - although supposedly was a ten year old van. Then we realized the water-pressure cleaner. I think he just blasted the heck out of it - which probably broke a bunch of tubes and is why it's leaking all over the place.
6.) Maybe my favorite - The right sized van, with windows, that yes, also leaked oil. The owner greeted us with about 7 of his buddies. And then took us for a spin. I realized my seatbelt was broken at about the same time he was going mock-80 on a country road to show how "powerful the motor is". All his seatbelts were broken too, but supposedly it had just passed inspection a few weeks earlier. What else did the technician "friendly ignore" so his buddy could pass the inspection, I thought.
7.) Almost forgot - the ambulance guy. He was selling an old ambulance, but didn't tell us till we got there, he also lied about the mileage. Ambulances are insulated, this one had half the insulation taken out, which looked sort of like someone had taken an ax to the inside and just started whacking around. Not sure how I felt about sleeping in a vehicle that may or may not at one time have held a dead body and also not sure how my lungs felt about breathing in the toxic fibers of half-destroyed chemical insulation, we decided to pass on this one.

So after all of that we didn't mind a few bumps and bruises and tricky doors when we found a van that our mechanic said has a good motor, and all the seatbelts and parts worked - well enough.

So then we started designing.

A new base floor. Cutting out space for the wheel wells and holes to access the grommets in the floor.
Then comes the nice flooring.....We did most of this parked on the side of the street, tools spilling a bit into the sidewalk and an electric cable thrown through the fence and hedges and dangling from parent's apartment upstairs. And while the amount of staring we received was not more than usual, surprisingly (people like to stare here, a lot. and it doesn't help that Jota and I don't at all look like respectable Spaniards.) Many neighbors were quite curious and stopped to give suggestions. A few hanging out for hours and sometimes rather aggressively giving their opinions. Very interesting.

With the floor in and the walls done (which I don't have a picture of yet!) We boogied out of Madrid and headed for Barcelona, or really - for the sea. Living by the ocean my whole life has made it impossible to be parted from it. People say, you adjust, and there are lakes, and many other reassuring things. But a year in Madrid, smack-dab in the middle of the Iberian peninsula and hours from the ocean or sea and I can tell you  for me, it's impossible.



So now we're living in our makeshift house, parking the van right next to the sea. Eating breakfast on the beach and falling asleep to that comforting sound of waves lapping the shore. The day is filled with renovating, visiting farms, getting to know the neighbors, and enjoying the local library which has the coolest librarians who are determined to help us find a little corner of the Earth somewhere around here to start some sort of farming adventure. Today's task is to find a place to take a shower, and to deal with some of our van's "perfectness" aka, she has an appointment with the mechanic at 3:30.