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According to G1, a couple from Brodowski, in the interior of São Paulo, has been traveling for almost six months in a modified Kombi with a kitchen, bathroom, refrigerator, bed, and solar panel, heading to Alaska. Nivaldo and Sueli Machado have already crossed 13 countries, traveled over 10,000 kilometers, reached Times Square in New York, and still need to drive another 7,000 kilometers to their final destination.
The couple Nivaldo and Sueli Machado exchanged the routine of a real estate agency in Brodowski, a city of just over 20,000 inhabitants in the interior of São Paulo, for a Kombi trip that aims to cross the American continent from end to end. Nivaldo is 65 years old, Sueli is 64, and they both departed on November 13, 2025, with a fixed destination on the horizon: Alaska. Almost six months later, they have already crossed 13 countries, surpassed 10,000 kilometers traveled, and reached Times Square, New York’s most famous intersection, but the journey is still far from over.
This couple’s story begins in 2018, when the accumulated stress from working at the real estate agency led Nivaldo to propose a break. The original plan was to depart in February 2020, but the Covid-19 pandemic postponed everything. When the health situation calmed down, Nivaldo suffered two accidents that detached his retina and required surgeries. The trip was pushed back year after year until, in 2025, he decided he would wait no longer. He set the date of November 13 and warned: if it were the 14th, he wouldn’t go. On the appointed day, the couple started the Kombi and left Brodowski heading north.
The Kombi that became a home on wheels
To cross an entire continent in a 1970s van, it was necessary to transform the vehicle into a dwelling. Nivaldo adapted the Kombi himself, without prior experience in carpentry or interior mechanics. He built the furniture, installed a kitchen, bathroom, refrigerator, and a collapsible bed. On the roof, a solar panel powers the electrical equipment and ensures autonomy for camping in locations without infrastructure. The result is a compact, functional, and surprisingly complete home on wheels for the size of the vehicle.
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The choice of the Kombi was not just practical. For the couple, the vehicle has a symbolic factor that no modern motorhome would offer. Nivaldo explains that the Kombi attracts attention wherever it goes, opens doors for conversations with strangers, and has become as much a character of the trip as the travelers themselves. The YouTube channel where the couple documents their journey has already surpassed 2 million views, with followers accompanying each stage of the continental crossing. Traveling by car, according to Nivaldo, gives the freedom to go wherever you want and stay as long as you want, something he considers invaluable.
13 countries in six months
The itinerary covered by the couple so far includes crossing South America, passing through Central America, and heading up to the United States. They have crossed 13 countries in just under six months, each with its border, road, and cultural challenges. The Kombi passed through roads in the Andes, beaches in Central America, colonial cities, and North American highways before parking in front of the luminous signs of Times Square.
The diversity of experiences accumulated over these 10,000 kilometers is what gives substance to the couple’s journey. From isolated villages in Peru at almost 5,000 meters of altitude to the skyscrapers of Manhattan, Nivaldo and Sueli faced radically different realities each week. In Pampamarco, Peru, the couple slept in a village of mud and stone houses inhabited only by natives and woke up to alpacas walking alongside the Kombi. Nivaldo says he wants to go back there someday.
The most difficult stretch: from Colombia to Panama
Every overland trip through the Americas encounters the same obstacle: there is no road connecting Colombia to Panama. The Darién Gap, a dense tropical forest separating the two countries, prevents overland passage and forces all motorized travelers to ship their vehicles in Cartagena and retrieve them on the Panamanian side. For the couple, this stretch represented one of the biggest logistical and financial challenges of the trip.
Nivaldo says they were lucky to find another person to share the cost of transporting the Kombi, because making the crossing alone is very expensive. In addition to the cost, there’s the logistics of preparing the vehicle for container shipping, monitoring customs documentation on both sides, and dealing with timeline uncertainties. For independent travelers like the couple from Brodowski, each bureaucratic step requires patience and improvisation, skills that six months on the road teach better than any course.
The Andes: unprotected cliffs
The roads of the Andes Mountains between Peru and Bolivia were another critical point of the couple’s trip. Nivaldo describes stretches with curves so tight that, looking in the rearview mirror, it was possible to see the Kombi’s own rear license plate. There was no signage, no guardrail, and no margin for error. On one side, the rock wall. On the other, cliffs whose depth the driver would prefer not to calculate.
For a vehicle with the power and weight of a Kombi, these roads demand total attention for every meter traveled. The air-cooled engine, the suspension from another era, and the unassisted steering transform every ascent into a test of mechanical resistance and every descent into an exercise in control. But the couple crossed the Andes without serious incidents, proving that the combination of driver caution and vehicle robustness can overcome stretches that would intimidate much more modern vehicles.
Still 7,000 kilometers to Alaska
The arrival at Times Square was a symbolic milestone, but the couple’s final destination is still thousands of kilometers away. From New York to Alaska, it’s approximately 7,000 kilometers of road, crossing the United States from east to northwest and entering Canada before reaching the northernmost territory of the Americas. Nivaldo set August as the maximum deadline to arrive, because after that month, ice begins to take over Alaska’s roads and staying becomes risky.
After Alaska, the couple’s plan is to return to Brazil via a different route than they took on the way there. The return will be along the Pacific coast, passing through the Nazca lines without crossing the Andes Mountains again, continuing to Chile, crossing the Atacama Desert and, if their spirits allow, descending to Ushuaia, at the southern tip of Argentina, before returning to Brodowski. If they complete this itinerary, they will have traveled almost the entire American continent, from end to end and back.
Brodowski waits, but the road teaches
For the couple, the trip in the Kombi is more than tourism. Nivaldo describes the experience as a transformation in the way of living: the brain works 24 hours when you’re on the road, learning, getting to know different cultures, and preparing for the unexpected. At home, he says, routine lulls the mind to sleep. On the road, each day brings something new that keeps them both alert and present.
The longing for Brodowski exists, but it doesn’t compete with the intensity of what the couple experiences with each kilometer. Nivaldo jokes that when they return at the end of the year, there are two possibilities: either they’ll be greeted with straitjackets, or a party will be organized. He bets on the second option. Meanwhile, he continues documenting each stretch on YouTube, proving that age is not a limit and that an adapted Kombi can take two retirees from rural São Paulo to the top of the continent.
Would you have the courage to take a trip like this in a Kombi? Tell us in the comments what impressed you most about this story: the 13 countries, the crossing of the Andes, the Darién Gap, or the fact that the couple is over 60 and still going strong on the road. If you have a travel dream tucked away, what’s stopping you from making it happen?
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