Mercedes Vario 616D – a big home on wheels

We spent 6 months looking for our new house on wheels, we sold the van that we had, a small Mercedes Benz Vito, and finally we found La Lata. Although it cost more money than expected and required a new driving license, it had the enough space to feel home and also comfortable for our dog. Even though it has its limitations such as fuel consumption and size, it is the perfect home.

We bought it ready by its previous owner who works doing camper conversions. We love its unique design that we have adapted and completed.

We would like to improve the shower space to avoid some water leaks. We would also like to communicate the cabin with the living space.

3 months.

Everyone is very happy for us, some of them are planning to visit us during the trip and others are waiting for us to come back to buy the truck. As usual, they care about us but they support us in all the decisions.

It’s only been a month since we’ve been on the road, although we’ve seen very nice places in Spain, for sure the best is yet to come. We want to travel around Europe and we are especially excited about Scandinavia and the Balkans. Our next stop is Portugal.

You need a truck license (more than 3.5 T). It’s not difficult to drive it but we have to bear in mind the restrictions for trucks and the speed limitation. That’s why we have a special GPS for trucks and motorhomes. On mountain roads we have to slow down but we have no problems in general,we have always reached the location! Another challenge is driving on windy days but we just have to do it with caution.

We like both. The campsites offer services that we need, and the freecamping the tranquility and the pleasure of being in beautiful places. There is time for everything. But of course we prefer not to pay ;)

We have a shower with hot water. Although we have to shower quickly in order to spend as little as possible.

We have a fairly large fridge, and a good gas stove. We don’t have many utensils, but we haveeverything we need to make delicious meals. We love cooking with the pressure cooker so we cansave gas at the same time that the truck is getting heated.

We can discover new places and wake up facing the most beautiful views. But also it makes you realise what we really need for living, saving resources (water, gas, electricity) and then value the comforts we have. The most valuable thing is to get to enjoy time.

At the moment we are living from saved money from years of work. Cris is a graphic designer and can do design and illustration work with the computer as a freelance. Also, if we would need, we could look for temporary jobs somewhere

We do everything we would do at home (sleep, clean, cook …). We also visit the places where we are and take long walks with the dog. During the spare time (especially at night) everyone has their hobbies: reading, playing the guitar, drawing, dancing, playing cards.. We are also preparing a blog  with stories inspired by our trip.

At the moment we have a year for our first trip. Then we will probably go back to work in Barcelona and start planning our next trip.

Do you have a special story, a funny or romantic moment or something you want us to put in the interview too?

In our first month of travel we have experienced some critical situations that we have overcome with laughter and good humor. We left the keys inside the house and we could not enter, we put more fuel than was possible in the tank and we made a big puddle in the gas station, burst a wheel in the road and the metal fender flew out, we had to drive in reverse of some villages because the truck didn’t fit in the narrow streets. Great experiences that are part of the adventure. 

Website: www.viajarenlata.com (we’re working on it so is not ready yet)

Instagram: @viajarenlata