La Tortuga

La Tortuga ("the turtle") was a converted Ford GPA amphibious jeep used by the American travellers Frank and Helen Schreider, with their dog Dinah, for an overland journey through the Americas in 1954-1956. They drove about 20,000 miles from the Arctic Circle in Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, the southern tip of South America.

Why an amphibian

In the early 1950s the Pan-American Highway had three major gaps: southern Mexico, southern Costa Rica, and eastern Panama, where the Darién Gap still has no road. Ordinary travellers had to ship their cars past these sections by rail or sea. The Schreiders chose an amphibious jeep so that they could put to sea and go round the gaps under their own power. This proved very risky in practice.

The journey became a book, and the Schreiders later converted a second GPA, La Tortuga II, for travels in India and Indonesia.