About

Welcome to GoBigEmma.com! Follow a vintage VW Bus, “Big Emma”, and her companions as we travel across the Americas along the Panamerican Highway.

Emma and Sven and Big EmmaThe plan is to head from central Illinois to Alaska before making an 180-degree turn and heading down the coast towards Central and South America. A road as long as the Panamericana will take some time, so we have freed our schedules to simply set out and see what the road has to offer us.

Driving the Panamerican Highway with Big Emma has been our dream for a number of years. So when Emma was done with school, Sven quit his job and we set out towards Illinois to prepare Big Emma and make our dream into a reality.

To us, living like this goes much deeper than just a hunger for the open road. Traveling is a way to get to know ourselves better as we strive to encounter new scenery and new scenarios that force us to exercise our creativity and wits to not only overcome the challenges we face along the road, but also explore the unfamiliar territory we will wake up to every day – in a car that does not always want to play by our rules.

We want to expand our perspective, step out of our comfort zone, and travel both within and beyond the cultural boundaries that we are familiar with. So come with us as we explore the Panamerican Highway through photography, text, and film.

See you on the road!
Emma and Sven