Overland Expo can’t wait to welcome the Bishop family: Diana Kinyua, Jeremy Bishop, and their twins Cedar and Sage to Overland Expo Pacific Northwest later this month in Redmond, Oregon! They are a family of adventurers who swapped the comforts of home for a life on the road. Diana is a storyteller and a dentist who likes to trade her drill for a life on the road every so often. Born and raised in Kenya and having lived in Canada and the U.S., she has a deep fascination with different cultures and the connections formed through travel. Jeremy is an adventurer at heart. Born and raised in Minnesota, he set out to explore the world at a young age through guiding. From leading bear-viewing and heli-hiking tours in Alaska to kayaking in the fjords of Norway and multi-day canoe trips in Florida, Jeremy has built a life around adventure, teaching, and the great outdoors. Along the way, he developed a passion for capturing the beauty of the world through his award-winning photography.
Together, they share their love for exploration with their young children — turning every road, river, forest and mountain pass into a hands-on classroom for them. Cedar and Sage were just four years old when their Pan-American journey began. Along the way, they adopted a Mexican street dog Palapa who now joins them on their grand adventures. From spotting flamingos on frozen Bolivian lakes to snacking on street food in Colombia, they’ve embraced a life rich in play, curiosity, and constant change. Through slow travel, they seek not just to see the world, but to live in it deeply, fully, and with open eyes and hope to inspire others to reimagine what life on the road can look like with kids, courage, and a sense of adventure.
The Bishop family will be presenting “Overlanding Unfiltered: From Canada to Patagonia with 1 Family, 1 Van, and a 1000 Surprises” in the Storytelling Pavilion at 1pm on Friday afternoon. In the meantime, to learn more about the Diana, Jeremy, Cedar and Sage, you can check out their travels on Instagram @dkinyua and @jeremy_bishop.
Tell us about your rig(s):
We traveled in a 2016 Ram Promaster that we self-converted, twice. The first time was in 2017, before we had kids, when we built it out for road trips across Canada. When we found out we were expecting twins, we completely tore out the original interior and redesigned it with our growing family in mind.
Our pre-kids build included a charming wood-burning stove that kept the van cozy during Canadian winters. Sadly, it became an obvious safety hazard with toddlers, so we had to remove it. The redesigned layout prioritized space and movement. We built a full-length walkway so the kids and our dog could move freely from front to back, instead of having a static bed.
Our setup includes many home comforts: a small fridge, composting toilet (Nature’s Head), an induction cooktop, a propane burner and a grill. Diana insisted on a large sink, originally intended for kid baths, but they outgrew it quicker than expected! For sleeping, our daughter used a mattress over the swivel front seats, our son slept on the bench seat, and Jeremy and Diana slept on a Murphy bed at the back, which folds away to open up the living space.
Jeremy built the interior using aluminum extrusion and wood, while I (Diana) handled our electrical system after spending six months studying at the school of YouTube. We installed 360W of solar panels and a 200Ah lithium-ion battery system. It was a very simple system but it worked the entire time.
One of the best things about our van was how inconspicuous it looked throughout Latin America. it blended in so well that people often mistook it for public transport. We even gave a few locals rides in remote areas. Its size also meant we could fit it into a shipping container, making it ideal for crossing the Darien Gap and later shipping it back from Uruguay to North America.
All-time favorite campsite?
It’s hard to pick just one, so many stunning places come to mind. Overlanding feels like spending the time hopping from one incredible campsite to the next, and we found so many of them. The one thing they have in common though is that they tended to be in remote and grand landscapes.
One favorite was camping at the base of Popocatépetl in Mexico, near the town of Cholula. We spent a few days parked in a field full of wildflowers watching the volcano smoke throughout the day.
In the Bolivian altiplano, we stayed beside Laguna Colorada at over 4,000m altitude. The nights were cold and very windy. The lake froze overnight, and in the morning, we watched flamingos stuck with their legs frozen into the ice. As the sun slowly warmed the lake and the ice started to melt, the flamingoes began to free themselves. We sat there watching them and listening to the tapping sounds their feet made on the brittle ice.
The next night, we camped at Sol de Mañana, a geothermal field at 4,900m. This area is incredible with fumaroles, geysers and bubbling mud pools. During the night, we could feel the ground vibrating and hear the geysers erupting. It was quite an intense and surreal experience to be around such a force of nature.
In Argentina, near the remote village of Antofalla, we camped by Laguna Verde, a salt flat filled with pools in shades of turquoise, green, and red due to cyanobacteria. The kids loved catching tiny fish in this seemingly inhospitable place.
Lastly, one of our most scenic campsites was beside the Río Serrano in Chile, just outside Torres del Paine. From our spot on the riverbank, we had a postcard view of the Los Cuernos peaks.
I could go on and on about the incredible places we camped, but these were very special.
What’s your go-to overlanding meal?
With our kitchen set up, we were able to make any meals in the van just like we would at home. We loved food shopping in Latin America. Being able to go to a butcher only for meat and then the verduleria/ fruteria (vegetable and fruit) market was an experience we absolutely miss. We also made sure we immersed ourselves in the culture to where we would eat the foods like they do, for example, in Mexico, we would buy tortillas from the tortilleria and use that to make tacos. In Argentina, we indulged in the beef and grilled meat for a lot of our meals, buying from the butchers also allowed us to learn about the different cuts of meat and the best way to prepare them. In Chile, we enjoyed the grilling lamb meat and one of our highlights was making ceviche in Peru. Visiting the pescaderia (fish markets) and finding out from the local vendors what the best fish for ceviche was and then learning how to make it was a fun adventure.
Best silver-lining story?
Early in our trip, just outside Pinal de Amoles in Mexico’s Querétaro state, we experienced our first major breakdown. While heading to the Mirador Cuatro Palos, a loud thump from under the van forced us to stop. Our passenger-side CV joint had completely failed.
We reversed down the gravel road to the main highway, unsure what to do. Locals soon gathered around to help. A kind couple, Felix and Teresa, who lived nearby, offered us a place to park in their compound.
It took three weeks to get the replacement part shipped from the U.S., but in that time, they treated us like family. The kids helped harvest apples from their trees, and we pitched in however we could—cooking, running errands, and helping with housework. Their generosity was humbling and we formed a lifelong bond and still keep in touch.
What is an area of overland travel that you think you’ve nailed?
Through our travels, Jeremy and I became incredibly efficient in how we communicate and make decisions — especially in challenging situations. We faced several major breakdowns, some in extremely remote areas, like the southern edge of the Cordillera Blanca in Peru at 5,000 meters, where a transmission bolt sheared off, or in the Argentine Puna, again above 5,000 meters, where we lost all our transmission fluid and couldn’t drive the van. Over time, we learned how to stay calm and focused on how to get out of the predicaments and we saw the same resilience in our kids. They seemed to sense the seriousness of the moments and would quietly keep themselves busy while we figured things out. Through it all, we developed a deep trust in each other. On the road, with everything constantly changing, we were each other’s anchor. That unwavering trust in one another’s abilities was essential to the success of our journey.
What’s an area of overland travel where you could improve?
We’d love to get better at budgeting. While we weren’t big spenders and generally avoided tourist traps or souvenirs, the cost of unplanned breakdowns stretched our finances thin. Major repairs—like a transmission rebuild in Peru and a full engine swap in Bolivia—quickly ate into our funds.
Next time, we’d set up a dedicated emergency fund separate from our daily travel budget.
What does your division of labor look like while traveling?
Jeremy did most of the driving, while I handled route planning and navigation. As a result, I have a mental map of Latin America, while Jeremy sometimes can’t quite remember where we’ve been!
Jeremy typically handled the groceries and most of the cooking. I managed van tidiness and did the dishes. Parenting was shared equally — though the kids made most of the mess, they also helped clean it up.
I ran the website and shared family-focused updates on Instagram. Jeremy, a professional photographer, captured the stunning landscapes and shared those on his own account.
We have so many stories to tell and we also want to inspire others especially with children to go out and travel like we did. We have a book sharing our incredible journey, called Between the Extremes, coming out this fall. We are incredibly proud of sharing our stories as well as Jeremy’s incredible photography through the book.
Story written in collaboration with Diana Kinyua & Jeremy Bishop. To learn more about their incredible adventures and how they manage to travel as a family, be sure to buy your tickets now to Overland Expo PNW and catch the Bishop family presentation, “Overlanding Unfiltered: From Canada to Patagonia with 1 Family, 1 Van, and a 1000 Surprises” in the Storytelling Pavilion at 1pm on Friday afternoon. Click the button below to secure your spot today!
