We are traveling for a year in our pickup campers through South America with our dog and two teenage kids. Most people we meet in South America camp traveling are using converted vans, buses or bike packing with tents. Our set up is a little different and I’d like to share what we are doing. Like most overland travellers we are on a budget but our set up is where we splurged.
Food is what makes or breaks our mood some days. Our daily budget while in Argentina is $33USD for food for 4, fuel and any camp fees. We break the budget often by some dollars but, it’s good to have goals. As we travel, availability of food ingredients varies and our camp environment too so, we have to be flexible.
Currently our favorite meals are: Arepas with dulce de leche and peanut butter, chorizos, tartillas de verduras, oatmeal, asado, eggs, ham sandwiches, salads, beans and rice with leftovers, pan fried Scottish bread, fruit smoothies and alfajores with dulce de leche for desert.
We have outfitted our vehicles with 3 food storage options: cold, cool and room temperature storage.
Cold storage: A small camper fridge with tiny freezer in our Northstar camper can store meat, leftovers and some durable vegetables (inadvertently freezes veggies when weather is hot or fridge is near empty). It can be powered by battery, propane or electric power from a plug in at a camp (not compatible in South America) or our Ecoflow solar charged battery in the other truck.
Cool Storage: A Yeti cooler that we use when we travel through hot days higher than 80°F or just to keep tender foods from getting crushed. It’s stored in the cab of the Dodge pick up. We shade it with a blanket and sun visors to maximize the cool. We exchange freezer packs from the fridge’s freezer daily. This keeps the Yeti cool enough for vegetables and eggs that have been washed.
Room temperature storage: the Northstar has cabinets for food storage. We keep rice, coffee, flour, mate and arepa flour in the deep cabinet. We haven’t needed to buy and store canned goods but as we go south, we may run lower on fresh fruits and veggie. Pots and pans, Vitamix and Instapot, oils and vinegar go under the sink. Lots of bottled spices in a slide out tray in another cabinet. In cooler temperatures we keep our unwashed eggs, fruits and tomatoes in a cardboard box in the camper instead of the Yeti, for convenience.
Cooking Options: we use propane to fuel the two burner stove in the Northstar: hot water, eggs, Arepas, stir fry, warm leftovers. We can also power the Northstar with enough electric from the solar battery to run the Vitamix or Instapot or set either of these appliances outside on the other truck’s tailgate: smoothies, stews, rice, beans etc. Without the solar battery we run the risk of draining the Dodge’s batteries and needing a jump. To cook with fire, we cook on a collapsible grill (parrilla) over wood or carbón or in a cast iron pan over our tiny Solo stove instead of the propane stove any chance we get. When BBQing we use embers from a mature fire in the Solo stove poured into a fire pit to light charcoal briquettes. Most established campgrounds provide grills, but we have been using wild campsites so we bought a foldable parrilla from a Ferriteria near San Martin de Los Andes, Argentina.
Fuels used: propane, solar electric, wood, and carbon. We use propane for cooking and heating. We have two US bought 7.9 kg propane tanks which can be filled at sites we identify through ioverlander app. In Argentina, Buenos Aires Provincia is the only place we have had trouble filling our US bought propane tanks because of not having a tank certification, all fill stations have had adapters to our tank fittings.
Solar electric is used to cook with appliances, charge devices while in camp, and run the digital thermometer and fan of the propane heater in the Chevy Colorado. Wood is used for camp cooking and caveman TV. Carbon for BBQing longer cook meats and veggies.
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