A Couple Who Drove the VW Campervan Around the World

Rich Ligato lived the first 22 years of his life as an east-coast city dweller. After graduating from Temple University he drove across the country, stopping for a rest in mild mannered San Diego On a lark he found a job with the City of Coronado, a small island community just across the bay from downtown San Diego, and lived on an old wooden "Dutch Shoe" sailboat in Glorietta Bay. He became friends with a group of rugged individuals and old salty livaboards, and learned from their simple, honest ways.

Crossing borders has been a way of life for Amanda Bejarano-Ligato for many years. She was born in El Paso, Texas and briefly lived in Cuidad Juarez, Mexico. It wasn't long before her family moved to Tijuana, in Baja California Norte where Amanda braved the largest border crossing in the world, Tijuana - San Diego, to attend private grade school and high school. After graduation she insisted on moving to New York to become a hippie, but her family convinced her to attend university first. Sometimes waiting as long as two hours in the border line she held down two jobs and earned her bachelors and masters degrees in Public Administration from San Diego State University. She possesses dual Mexican and US citizenship. While Spanish is her first language she never seems to stop chattering away in English.

Rich and Amanda met while working for the City of Coronado, Recreation Department and decided to marry almost two years later. Their wedding ceremony had a unique combination of Mexican culture and the laid back San Diego attitude with a dash of drunken, rowdy boaters thrown in for fun. The newlyweds promptly tendered their resignations, caught a one-way flight to London and spent their first 13 months of marriage putting around Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Somehow they managed to keep from driving each other crazy and discovered that they were meant to travel together.

In preparation for this trip they worked hard and lived simply for almost six years. Rich worked as the Office Manager for the San Diego KOA campground and Amanda was V.P. of Human Resources for the University and State Employees Credit Union. They purchased a nearly new 23 year old VW van named Jova and made some interesting modifications for extended travel.