Cruising the Mexican Pacific Coastline…

Howdy again friends, Its been a while since our last post. Been busy criss-crossing Mexico. When we last left off we were in a beautiful port town on the Pacific Ocean called Mazatlan. Now I am posting from the opposite side of Mexico, sitting on the Gulf of Mexico down near the isthmus of Mexico. We have traveled over 2000 miles and had many great adventures along the way.

Leaving Mazatlan we cruised down the Pacific Coast for a while, we were enjoying the beach views and fresh mariscos (seafood). We saw a small beach town on the map by the name of San Blas. Drove on down the road to check it out.

The highway cut inland for a while and then curved back to the coast, when we approached the coastline this time the landscape had started to turn into marshland.

We reached San Blas, Mexico and drove right out to the beach, We got there about an hour before sunset, busted out some beers and enjoyed the view.

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Another beautiful sunset… We found a little restaurant on the beach and sat down for dinner. The beachside palapa started to fill with acrid smoke, we looked around and noticed all the palapas were belching out this smoke. It smelled a lot like citronella, and within a few seconds we realized why. We were getting eaten ALIVE by no-seeums (tiny biting insects) The restaurants did all they could to quell the flood of fly’s but there was no hope. We inhaled our food and made a beeline to the truck. We discussed our options for camping that night and figured if we got out onto the beach into the breeze and setup our bug net we would be OK…

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Everything You Need and Nothing You Don’t

Hola Amigos! Its been about two weeks since we made our way across the border into Mexico and I figured it was about time to post some pictures of the living quarters inside our “Supermini Rv”(as I like to call it).  Since we have started this trip I have organized and reorganized about a hundred different times in a hundred different ways.  No matter how it is done, it is still a matter of fitting all of the things that you will need for everyday living into the back of a truck.  Things can get a little tight to say the least.

This is the day that we left and we had the car packed to the gills.  I don’t recommend this organizational style…

 

The one thing I have realized through trial and error is that organization is key. Once things get even a little out of order you may find yourself searching for that headlight you could have sworn you just had for the next 45 minutes.

Although I am sure we will be rearranging again and again while on the road, I am finally happy with the set up.  It seems that everything fits well in its tiny little spot, and it is all pretty easily accessible.

Sleep mode activate!

The sleeping platform:

When we built the sleeping platform the idea was that it would just clear the wheel wells in order to give us as much head room as possible and also extra room while sleeping. Lets face it, not being able to sit up straight can make you feel a little claustrophobic.  While I enjoy the extra room to sit up, it has made it a bit challenging to fit things undeneath.  We have about 5 1/2 inches of clearance to fit all of the things that we do not want crowding out the back seat.  At first it seemed nearly impossible to cram everything under there, but with the help of the piano hinge on the front of the platform and some To Go Space Bags I finally got it all situated.

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MEXICO! Exploring Copper Canyon and beyond.

My friends, It was getting to the point that we thought we would never actually make it into Mexico. Our journey across the U.S. of A was only supposed to last a month then we were supposed to cross the border to be in Mexico by early December. Well…Christmas came and went and we found ourselves in Big Bend National Park , South Texas. We could actually SEE Mexico across the Rio Grande but we were not yet in it! Oh well, you know how plans go.  No regrets! The gods may have wanted us to stay state-side with a seemingly never ending “TO-DO LIST” but our will is strong, we preserved and now we are sitting at a bar looking out over the Sea of Cortez in lovely Mazaltan, MX.

When we last left each other we had just arrived to our good friends and fellow PanAm travelers house “Ruined Adventures” in Ausin, TX. Brenton and I spent most of the week tearing into the truck in what seemed like a never ending battle of fixes while Lauren and Shannon ran all over town tracking down bits and bobs and widdling down our TO-DO list.

Swapping out the CV axle, luckily Brenton had a spare on hand. We almost dropped the truck on our heads a few times but managed to get it swapped out. Quite a pain in the arse!

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Ruined Adventures have the best setup for overland preparation, Brenton and Shannon  live in a badass warehouse/loft with every tool imaginable to tackle any problems that you can throw at them. Brenton had an extra Hi-Lift too (Think a huge car-jack on crack, used for all kinds of things on the trail) here he is rigging up a mount on our rear swingout to place the unwieldy jack. Thanks to Ruined Adventures for really helping us out on our final prep for the trip.

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They are hitting the road on January 29th and will be cruising Baja before shipping over to the mainland, You will definitely be seeing them in future blog posts. You can follow their adventures on their own blog at http://ruinedadventures.com

Thanks a lot guys! See you soon!

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Our plan from Austin was to head south to Big Bend National Park, scope it out for a few days and then cross into Mexico at a border called Ojinaga. We hit the road, fixed up and ready for action!

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