Hello again ladies and gents! Yet another month has come and gone south of the border and it is time once more to take a look at the expenses for the month and see what the damage is.

I have to admit that tallying up the expenses at the end of the month is one of my least favorite things to do.  Doing the dishes, no problem.  Packing and repacking the car, you got it. Doing the expenses…No gracias!

When I first sat down with my little notebook and calculator I was undoubtedly filled with dread. However, to my surprise, as I started to scan the countless entries the numbers seemingly jumped off the page and memories began flooding back to me. Each entry retold every detail, from the mundane to the amazing, of the past 30 days.  I realized that this notebook of numbers, tally marks and conversion rates was more then I had ever expected it to be.

It was a journal of sorts. There it all was. Daily accounts of those seemingly unimportant details that now help to weave together every wonderful moment of every wonderful day. Whether it be hiking up the side of a volcano with a machete wielding guide at our heels yelling “VAMOS!” or a lazy day of sitting in a hammock sharing a few cervezas. It was all in there. As nerdy as it may sound, I actually enjoyed putting together this month’s expense sheet.  I hope you all enjoy it too.

GAS-$381.03
We have not been driving much for the past few weeks while at school, however we did drive to Guatemala City twice in the past month to pick up and drop off my sister from the airport.  We are so happy that she could come spend a week with us!
We are currently getting about 18 miles to the gallon

GROCERIES-$221.02
We have been fortunate enough to be staying in San Pedro La Laguna, a town that has an amazing market.  We have been eating like kings for a few dollars a day. Not only do they have ridiculously cheap produce, but also a delicious array of prepared foods to choose from.  Me gusta.

CAMPGROUNDS-$31.37
This includes storing our car for 3 days in Sarteneja,BZ when we visited the island of Caye Caulker

HOTELS/HOSTELS-$154.70
$50 of this is for the 2 weeks we have spent at school. We are paying $25/wk for a private cabin.

DINING OUT-$387.20
Pretty high for the month. While visiting Caye Caulker, we did not have much of a choice of buying groceries since markets were slim to none. Even street food was a tad pricey.

ENTERTAINMENT-$195.35
This includes all of the entrance fees to the ruins, museums, parks etc.
Also included are such things as: a soccer game in Mexico, kayaks and snorkling gear in Belize, a tour of a coffee plantation , tickets to chicken drop (my new favorite game), and much much more. It was worth every cent for all of the fun things that we have done this past month.

LIQUOR AND CERVEZAS-$116.54
We enjoy a nip or two from time to time.

CAR RELATED EXPENSES-$31.82
Includes oil, carwashes, etc.

OTHER TRAVEL EXPENSES-$175.11
This is mainly for ferries, but also includes parking fees, and tolls

BORDER CROSSING INTO BELIZE-$33.00

BORDER CROSSING INTO GUATEMALA-$33.25

SPANISH CLASSES-$300 ($75 a week per person)
We felt this was a necessary expense for us.  I cannot tell you how much my crazy little Mayan professor has taught me in the past two weeks.  I love her.

MISC EXPENSES- $63.29
Includes Maps, bathroom fees, sunscreen, laundry, etc.  Oh yeah, and James’ beer holder aka “the man purse”. (Editors Note: I prefer the term “Party Satchel”)
Take a look and decide for yourself…

GRAND TOTAL- $2123.68
~$70/day

A certain improvement over Mexico, would be nice to get it down a bit lower still…

It seems obligatory for all overlanders to write a “Reflections on Mexico” post after their travels through the country are completed. Not only for collecting their own thoughts but also to share the truth about this “dangerous” country. While Lauren and I were preparing for this trip many people thought we were insane. Oddly, It wasn’t for the fact that we were planning to drive 25,000 miles to the bottom of the world. We were primarily labeled insane for simply wanting to drive into Mexico.

“Cant you just skip Mexico?”

“Have you thought about shipping around Mexico straight to South America?”

“I have heard/read/seen that you are going to be beheaded, raped, robbed, scammed, schemed, murdered, sold into slavery; the instant you step across the border to Mexico.”

Honestly, I cannot really blame them. The media blasts us with reports of daily beheadings, bodies lining the streets, downright bloodbaths. Momentarily while preparing for the trip we would feel a shimmer of trepidation as well. What if our years of research, planning, and reports from people who are actually IN Mexico were wrong and they were all right? Would there be banditos waiting to have their way with our innocent American flesh?

We pushed aside these fears and stood strong, after all… hard facts beat out hearsay everyday.

There is no doubt that there is truly a war going on in Mexico. A bloody drug war, a struggle for power between the all-powerful gangs and the quickly dwindling police and military forces of Mexico. However this war is concentrated primarily to the border areas and rarely involves anyone that is not poking their nose where it shouldn’t belong. I will leave my opinions on America’s drug/immigration policies being a primarily catalyst for this war for another time…

The MAJORITY of Mexico is a beautiful, peaceful, tranquil place. We found plenty of farmers/fisherman/working class people quietly going about their business. We found zero insane banditos hellbent on attacking innocent gringos. We primarily encountered children laughing and playing in the streets, women washing clothes and making fresh tortillas by the roadside, and hombres walking their cows from field to field.

We also found lots of police and military checkpoints searching for drugs and guns along our way. We saw 50-cal machine guns mounted to police truck cabs. It was not rare to be shopping in a supermarket picking up some milk next to a sawed-off shotgun wielding security guard. However after the initial “gun shock” wears off these things start to just be part of the routine.

Never in our entire month journey all throughout the far corners of Mexico did we ever feel remotely in danger. Lost, confused, frustrated, yes. In danger? Never.

Mexico is getting a raw deal. There are tons of RV parks, campgrounds, and other tourist attractions that are drying up and going to waste down here. The media has put a downright HALT to peoples plans to visit this beautiful country. Every single traveler we ran into had the same story to tell, zero problems whatsoever, great people, great food.  We are here to tell you, do not be afraid. It is a wonderful place, full of wonderful people, with a rich and vibrant culture.

Fear is a strangle-hold on life, Do not let the fear of the unknown keep you from exploring outside your comfort zone. We have found that good research, a sharp mind, and a easy smile will keep you out of trouble 99% of the time.

Next time you hear someone talking about how dangerous Mexico is, Ask them the last time they were there? And then… point them to our blog.

I spent 20 minutes trying to come up with a clever title, not much rhymes with Yucatan. I thought maybe YuCAtaN DO IT! but then gave up on that. I considered making up a fictional character named “Yucatan Dan” who lives in the jungle and grants 3 wishes to lost gringos. “I wish for 20 gallons of DEET bugspray…” Perhaps “Doin our thang in the Yucatang”… I don’t know! I have spanish class in 30 minutes and need to get this post done. Focus James!

We pushed further down the Caribbean coast headed towards a concentration of Mayan ruins called “The Ruta Puuc” The Ruta Puuc is about 25 miles of backroad that connect 6 different Mayan ruins together. In Mayan times there was actually a road of limestone running through the jungle connecting many of the large sites. Unfortunately this road is long gone and were stuck to boring ol’ tarmac.

We drove on and on through the jungle on the paved roads eventually arriving near the Mayan site of Uxmal. The Sun was setting and we needed to find a camping site quick. We pulled our usual maneuver of scoping out the surrounding areas for cutty backroads, eventually finding one that looked good and turned off into the deep jungle.

We followed this trail for miles, passing 2 small bee farms and not much else. Intrigued as to what the hell this random road in the jungle leads to we pushed on further. Slowly the road deteriorates to little more than a single track ATV trail. After 10 miles of slow going through the jungle we stumble upon a very small, very creepy camp.

Hmmm… Skulls, dirty old clothes, random stick structures, 15 miles deep in the jungle. Me thinks we should NOT camp here.

We doubled back up the road and eventually ended up finding a small little motel where we shacked up for the night. We made some friends and were introduced to Yucatan States official beer. Montejo!

Next morning we woke up and headed to Uxmal. Uxmal is a magnificent Mayan site. Estimated to have supported over 15,000 inhabits at its height in 900 A.D. or so. The site is one of the finest examples of Mayan construction, relying on precisely cut stone blocks for the exterior of the buildings rather than plaster which wears away quickly.

Excavation of the site is still in progress, we noted many markings from archeologists on some of the less excavated ruins.

The carvings here were still in great shape and easily recognizable.

The site is surrounded by dense jungle as far as the eye can see, we were driving around somewhere in that mess the day before.

They had a wonderfully intact ancient mayan ball court as well.

The “goal”. I believe the way the game is played is the players are allowed to use any part of there body aside from there hands and feet. The game is over when someone sends the ball through the hoop. Rumor has it that the captain of the losing team is sacrificed. Now that’s some team motivation!

They also had this weird shrine to penises, or is it penii?

Fractals everywhere, endlessly repeating patterns, the Mayans were definitely spacing out on something…

We spent about 1/2 of the day touring Uxmal then headed down the road towards another site named “Kabah”

Kabah is home to the “Codz Poop”…

Surprisingly enough. to me, Codz Poop is in fact not petrified Mayan doo, but in fact a hugely impressive “Palace of Masks”. The entire face of the building is compiled of hundreds of repeating “Chac Mool” (The Rain God) carvings.

A great example of a full Chac Mool, most of the time the nose has fallen off.

A rare 3D Mayan sculpture

Next morning we packed up and headed towards Cancun to meet my friend Doug. Doug had given me his address and some instructions on how to find his house, unfortunately Google Maps and my GPS don’t have his place in their databases. He gave me some good ol fashion “turn left at the sleeping dog, go past 2 taco stands, make your next left…” directions and miraculously we made it to his place. If you have ever navigated any city in Mexico you would be proud of this feat.

Doug, his wife, and his crazy dog Oso warmly accepted us into their home. We had a blast touring around the “real Cancun” and seeing how the locals live.

Oso out for a  cruise in the 4Runner

Hanging out with Doug and Mardelis’ friends in Isla Mujeres, enjoying some freshly made Caracol (Conch) ceviche.

Doug runs a small community center in a Cancun barrio. His organization “Our Hands” provides a much needed respite for the children of the community. His organization helps the local kids with their homework, reading, and math. They also have setup a clean water facility for the neighborhood and hopefully by the end of the year will have a full-blown Reverse Osmosis water purification facility online. We volunteered with him for a few days while in Cancun. Lauren and I were supposed to be helping the kids read and learn math. This was interesting since we can barely speak a lick of Spanish. I think we learned more than the kids did, We kept trying to sneak their flash cards into our backpack. Doug is always looking for more volunteers and supporters so if you are interested head over to his website and send him an email. He is doing truly magnificent things down here.

We also hit up a soccer game, Cruz Azul vs Cancun. It was lots of fun, both sides eager for the win. It ended up a tie due to those cheatin bastards from Cruz Azul!

We ended up staying with Doug for about a week, soaking in the culture and enjoying a break from the highway. However after sticking around for a few days we could feel the pull once more. We said our goodbyes and hit the road.

We headed towards Tulum, another famed Mayan ruin. We had heard horror stories of this place being a zoo crammed to the brim with tourists. As we approached the town we saw tons of tour buses milling about, high prices, and not much in the way of camping. We drove past and found a little spot where we could setup for the night. We were lying in the truck watching a movie when we both smelled the unmistakable scent of raw gasoline.

I jump outta the truck and find this…

Your looking at a rear leafspring that rammed itself through the edge of our gas tank, we were leaking fuel quickly onto the ground below. I grabbed my trusty JBWeld and attempted to stop the leak, however with the amount of fuel that was leaking out the JBWeld wouldn’t set and the leak continued. I put a jug underneath the truck, setup the fan to vent the truck interior and passed out wondering how I was going to fix this problem.

Woke up in the morning to the 7 gallon jug overflowing, leaking gas all over the place. We pushed the truck about 30ft away from the gasoline pool and started it up. No explosions, whew! We figured we would have to drain the tank down to the 1/2 way point at which point it would stop leaking and I could JBWeld the hole. With not many options we decided to head to Tulum and scope it out.

It actually turned out to be a beautiful site, right on the Caribbean. It was easy to see why the Mayans built a city here.

We rushed through the place due to the amount of people, here’s a quick snap of the herds..

Got back to the car, still leaking gas… We were almost to the Mexico/Belize border at this point. We had planned to cross that day but it was growing late. We drove to a small town by the name of Bacalar. Mexico. We headed to Bacalar Lagoon looking for a camp spot. After cruising around the lagoon for 20 minutes or so with no luck finding a campsite we spot some Landcruisers with Rooftop Tents posted up in someone’s lawn. Hmmm… These could be our kinda people. We circled back and drove inside, a nice lady told us the price and we pulled up next to some badass overlanding rigs and said howdy.

Turns out these were no ordinary overlanding rigs, these guys were “Team Equipt”. They are actually an overlanding retailer. They sell all kinds of amazing gear for people who love to do exactly what we are doing. Best of all they really get out there and test the stuff to separate the wheat from the chaff. They were just returning from a 2 month romp through the rugged offroad backroads of Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Belize.

We setup camp next door. We spent most of the night drinking beers, oggling their gear, and swapping road stories. Really great guys, it was a pleasure to meet them.

I woke up early and found a gaggle of puppies roaming around the main house… brought Lauren one for her to play with.

Also took a dip in the crystal clear, azure lagoon.

Fixed the tank up with JBWeld, seemed like it was holding fine so we packed up our truck and waved goodbye to “Team Equipt”. Destination: Belize

Sorry it has been so long since we have updated, We have been caught up in a whirlwind of travel lately. (This is a good thing!) We have now settled down in a beautiful place called San Pedro De Laguna, Guatemala. We found a great spanish school that rents out nice little cabanas for $25 a week! We are right on the water and loving it here. I am lounging in the shady hammock outside, typing this up and listening to the birds chirp in the trees. Behind us about 100 yards is gigantic lagoon ringed by 3 massive dormant volcano mountains. Have we found paradise already!? Perhaps… Needless to say we have decided to stay here for a month taking spanish lessons and slowing down the pace.

Now back to our regular scheduled programing!

After our hectic day in Oaxaca we decided to put some miles down. My friend Doug runs a community center for a small barrio in Cancun. We had told him we were going to stop by and help him out so we set our sights for the tip of the Yucatan peninsula. As we descended from the top of the Oaxcan mountain range towards the isthmus of Mexico the change was immediately apparent. The pine trees gave way to jungle  and the the cool dry air was now thick with humidity. Toto…We’re not in Kansas anymore.

On our way up to Cancun we stopped into the city of Villahermosa. A primarily industrial city with not much in the way of scenery. However it did have a nice museum/zoo combo that sounded interesting. The “Parque Mueso La Venta” combined both native Yucatan animals and excavated artifacts from the nearby Olmec ruins of La Venta into one attraction. Plus it was only $3 which the budget surely appreciates.

Yucatan Crocodiles. Vicious little guys. Note the croc is already missing one foot.

Jaguar, king of the Central American Jungles.

Lauren goes to the bathroom and when she gets back she hurriedly tells me “I think something escaped from the zoo!” and drags me to come look. Figuring she has been standing in the sun too long I reluctantly follow, and sure enough… something did escape!

or so we thought… We went and grabbed some employees and drug them over to look. They just took a glance at this obviously escaped zoo convict and started laughing. Ummm… hello? Aren’t you going to put it back in the cage!? Well… it turns out these odd looking foreign creatures are basically a Yucatan raccoon and are more of a pest than a zoo exhibit. As we walked around the rest of the zoo we ended up seeing tons of them digging and climbing all around in the jungle. Man… we are such gringos.

The Olmec artifacts were very interesting, the La Venta ruins site is just up the road from Villahermosa. In the 1950’s they were planning to bulldoze the ruin area for crop land.  An archeologist took charge, relocated most of the ruins to Villahermosa, and started the “Museo Venta” to educate people on the ruins site and Olmec heritage.

Magnificent Olmec heads weighing over 9 tons.

Creepy stone sculptures of a priest with serpent crown carrying a child from the underworld.

More priests being weird with kids…

Saw tons more of our “escaped zoo animal” running all through the jungle. They are called Coatimundi’s.

Growing up in Florida I have seen my fair share of Gators, I’ve seen the “World’s Largest Gator” at least 4 different times in 4 different tourist traps. But I think I may have finally found the actual “Worlds Biggest Gator”. Rumor has it that this thing eats Coatimundi’s by the bakers dozen, as the zoo keepers try to rid the park of the pests they toss them into the gator pit for dinner. He was a BEAST. I would say easily 17ft-20ft long.

Note the turtles in the pic are huge snapping turtles, not any baby sized Red Slider nonsense.

We packed up from Villahermosa and headed deeper into the Peninsula. We have visited a few ruins on the trip so far but we have heard that “Palenque” was one of the larger more magnificent ruins in Mexico. After learning about the Mayan Emperor Pakal, his tomb, and his jade mask in Mexico City, we were excited to see where it was all discovered.

The Palenque ruins were discovered in the 1800’s, explored and excavated over the centuries by a few different archeological groups. It is a beautiful Mayan site set deep in the jungle. They have done a great job with the excavation and restoration. The site and grounds are wonderful to tour around.

Although the site has been worked on for 200 some years, It wasn’t until the 1950’s that Alberto Lluhlier discovered Pakal’s tomb buried deep inside the temple. When he removed the (7 ton!) sarcophagus lid he discovered Pakal’s body dyed a deep maroon red and covered in magnificent jade jewelry. It was one of the largest archeological discoveries ever made on the Yucatan peninsula.

Pakal’s temple

Not Pakal’s Tomb, We weren’t there at the correct time to tour his tomb Still cool nonetheless.

Alberto Lluhlier was so dedicated to the Palenque site he was actually buried there and has his own tomb. A little odd we thought, but the guy did love himself some mayan ruins.

I heard heard rumor that there were Mayan bathrooms at the site. I think this is a ancient Mayan Shitter. Either that or I just desecrated thousands of years of history to make a poop joke.

They say this site supported over 25,000 residents at its peak. Needing a consistent water supply the mayans built underground cisterns and redirect nearby streams, creeks and rivers into manmade underground aqueducts.

Rapey looking bed in the catacombs underneath the palace.

We spent most of the day touring the ruins and then jetted towards the Gulf Coast, It had a while since we have seen the ocean, temperatures were starting to rise inland and we figured a nice seabreeze was in order.

Found a nice camp spot right on the beach, a few miles away a sugarcane farm was burning, creating one of the most spectacular sunsets we have seen.

We waved goodbye to Mexico City as we climbed up and out of the smog-choked valley into the highlands. We were headed towards Oaxaca, we had been communicating with a volunteer organization there and planned to spend a week or two assisting them. There were a few sites along the way to see first.

First stop was a small town named Cholula, just outside of Puebla, MX. Home to the 2nd largest pyramid in the world (by volume). Sounded like something we had to check out. When we arrived in town we expected to see a huge Egyptian style pyramid dominating the landscape, instead what we found was a huge hill with a giant church on top of it. Can this be it?? Looking at the signs, sure enough, that was it. We stowed our King Tut costumes and went to check it out anyway.

The church turned out be about 600 years old and was a magnificent structure. Missionaries had built it on top of the highest point in town, not realizing they were constructing on top of ancient buried ruins. By the time the ruins were discovered the church had so much history and relevance they could not remove it. Excavation of the ruins are still in progress at the bottom of the hill. Walking the excavated perimeter and looking up towards the church you can see this really was a huge pyramid at one point.

We spied some street vendors selling all kinds of fruits and snacks. Getting a closer look I saw some sort of weird bbq bug they had. Turns out they were grasshoppers, yum! Lauren opted for peanuts while I chowed down on some grasshoppers with salt and lime. Crunchy and delicious! If you come across some, eat up.

Leaving the pyramid and grasshopper delights behind we headed further south towards Oaxaca, eventually winding up into a national park whose landscape was half mountains/half desert. A weird but beautiful place with thousands of cactus rolling over the mountains. We camped here for the night.

Next morning we reached Oaxaca state.

Average hillside ranch in outer Oaxaca state

*CAUTION: LONG STORY WITH NO PICS*

We finally arrived in Oaxaca City, but without our phone or internet we had no way to contact our host. Downtown Oaxaca is a tight maze of one-way streets, tons of foot traffic, and lots of cabs, trucks, and motorcycles all jockeying for pole position. We drove around for about an hour in an attempt to find a hostel in our guidebook. Eventually we gave up and decided to just park and look around. Easier said than done… after 30 minutes of driving in circles (Reminds me of living in San Francisco…) I finally spot a parking spot and my instincts kick in. THIS IS MY SPOT!!! I throw it in reverse to start parallel parking, crazy Mexicans are wiggling their way behind my truck as I’m backing into the spot, I finally assert my position and the coast is clear to reverse.

BAM!

Maybe not so clear after all… turns out another guy didn’t agree with my “asserted position” and tried to wiggle behind. I clipped his taillight which shattered all over the street. Grand… This should be interesting. I jump out to survey the damage, busted taillight and some scuff marks on his fender. OK, not to bad I think. We start to converse (AKA He speaks to me in Spanish and I stand there with a dumb look on my face saying “si, si, si” over and over) eventually he says something about the policia, (I know that word!) not wanting to get the cops involved I told him that I would rather just pay him cash right now. He says he’s not sure how much it would cost to get fixed and says we should go to a bodyshop for an estimate. Not exactly in the power position here I say OK, we jump back in our trucks and I follow him on a 45-minute joyride to the outskirts of town wondering just how much these guys are going to take me for…

We get to the bodyshop,  where an old man with gold rimmed teeth comes out and starts running his hands all over the rear of the truck. Pointing at every ding and dent on the thing with dollar signs in his eyes. Oh man… I am screwed. They converse back and forth for a while about where to get parts, paint, etc etc. Finally they come to an agreement, the guy turns to me and says it will cost 2 Mil pesos. 2 MILLION PESOS!?!?

Turns out 2 Mil is actually 2000 pesos, around $175 US. I am sure this same minimal damage would have ended up costing me upwards of 1K in the states so I quickly agree to the price. We drive up to the ATM, the guy gets out of his car and starts talking to us again in Spanish. Great, here comes the rub, I think to myself… I am not sure exactly what he wants but we eventually figure out he is saying that he could probably save us some money if we went somewhere else to get another quote. Wow, I had this guy pegged all wrong, he was actually trying to save us money not extort it from us. Feeling guilty and not really wanting to go on another tour of Oaxaca, I told him I am happy to give him 2000 pesos, he thought we were dumb but agreed. 2000 pesos exchanged and we were back on the road. Escaping our first (and hopefully last) accident on this trip only $175 lighter in the pocket. Everything went better than expected.

Frustrated, overheated, and our budget burned up for the week. We said screw it and left Oaxaca in the rearview. We hope to return someday as we heard this was a wonderful city, maybe I will just find a parking spot on the outskirts of town next time…

Sadly this was the only pic I snapped of Oaxaca, thought it was a pretty great wiring job.

We headed west up and over a mountain range from Oaxaca towards the Isthmus of Mexico and the Yucatan peninsula.

As we climbed higher the scrub gave way to tall pines, though these pines had something we had never seen on them before.

Beautiful air plants were hanging everywhere.

We wound up near the top of the mountain and found an amazing campsite down a small dirtpath. Secluded, beautiful, and quiet, just what we needed after a hectic day in Oaxaca.

We watched the clouds roll in over the mountainous valley below and the sun set on another day in paradise. Sometimes we have to stop and remind ourselves what really matters, Will we remember that $175 and this frustrating day in 3 months? Or will we remember this beautiful spot on our amazing adventure together?

Its easy to let your “problems” melt away with scenes like this.

After experiencing the majesty of the butterfly kingdom we pointed our truck towards another sort of mystical place. Mexico City. Originally we had planned to skip Mexico City due to reports of violence, crime, high traffic, smog etc etc etc. However, during our few weeks traveling the country we have come to realize that 99% of things we had heard about Mexico were bullshit, so we changed our minds and we are glad we did! We ended up spending 5 days in this diverse place and barely began to touch the surface. We also partied our faces off and put a sizable dent in our Mexico budget, well worth it…

We left the highlands of Michoacán and headed towards the mountain-ringed metropolis of Mexico City. Greater Mexico City with its population of 22+ MILLION is the largest metropolitan area in the western hemisphere and the 2nd largest in the world. This place is DENSE. As we broke through the mountain tree line we saw an endless sea of concrete and buildings. Wow

We had made a friend off the internet (Shoutout to OT!) who graciously offered to let us stay at his place, arrange us a safe spot for the truck, and be our tourguide for the duration of our visit. Note: I made these arrangements at 9PM the night before our arrival, We were lucky to find such a grand host!

We punched his address into the GPS and drove into the jungle. We tirelessly fought across the city streets making headway towards his barrio (neighborhood). The GPS said it should take 20 minutes to arrive, it ended up taking us around 3 hours. The GPS did not account for 1-way streets, curbs, and the constant reconstruction that takes place on the mean streets of Distrito Federal. Luckily we had mentally prepared ourselves for this and took it in stride, rather enjoying the wild west style of driving in the city. It’s a no-holds barred grudge match, kill or be killed, not for the feint of heart. I loved it.

We eventually arrived at Adrian’s place where he introduced us to his grandma and aunt, showed us our room, and took us to his uncles parking lot where we were able to stash the truck for a few days.

Our Mexico City adventure HQ

Wasting no time, Adrian said lets hit the city! We threw down our stuff and headed out, grabbed a cab, to a bus, bus to a train, and popped out in the middle of downtown Mexico City about 20 minutes later. The public transportation in Mexico City is cheap and reliable, bus ride was 5 pesos and I believe the train was a similar price.

Our first spot to check out was the Monumento a la Revolucion. A gigantic monument in the middle of downtown dedicated to the Mexican Revolution and the heroes who were involved in the movement. There is an elevator to the top and we headed up for a view of the city.

We strolled around the streets of Mexico taking more sights, public art, architecture and monuments. Mexico City is full of wonderful treasures around every turn.

Stumbled upon the #OccupyDF movement

Consuming. Consumes You.

They have a great public bicycle program, for 200pesos (~US $17) a year you have access to use these bikes whenever you would like. There are stations all over the city. Slide your card, get your bike. They also have separated bike lanes from the main roads and the sidewalk. Impressive progressive thinking.

Headed to the bars to cap off our first night in D.F., lots of cool spots and plenty of hip young people out enjoying a night on the town.

and BACON WRAPPED HOTDOGS!!11 (Hotdog guy was not amused with my antics)

Woke up the next morning and headed to the Zocolo, Mexico City’s main historic square. This is where the capital building, cathedral, and Tenochtitlan ruins are located. Fun Facts, Mexico City is built ontop of the capital of the Aztec nation originally constructed in the 12th century. The whole region was once a marshy area with scattered lakes. These lakes were slowly drained and built upon over the centuries. The city is seeing the effects of building on this soft lakebed soil. The entire place is slowly sinking into the ground.

Caught the Flag ceremony at sundown

Strolled the streets, eyeing the shops, museums, street performers, and more architecture.

Night falls on the city and it takes on a new face… as do we!

Delicious street tacos, my favorite and some of the best we have had so far this trip..

A drunken confusing Taxi ride home begins, We were way out on the opposite side of town and it ended up taking us 2 Taxis to get home but we made it!

Adrian, 5 seconds before he passed out in the Taxi!

Woke up the next day a bit groggy, somewhere along the way I managed to lose my cellphone, so much for having reliable communication while in Mexico! It was fun for a week while it lasted. We hit the taco stand to reload on grease to cure the hangover then hit the city again!

Mexican TV antennas?

Burger King delivery

Adrian wanted to introduce us to his buddy, Josh, who is involved in what seems to be Mexico’s favorite television programming. Soccer? No… Telenovelas! (Spanish soap operas) We met up and our hangover hunger hit us hard.  We found this great seafood restaurant and tore it up. The food was amazing and we all became fast friends and the beer started flowing once again…

We were originally planning to leave MX City that day but we were having a great time, Adrian said no problemo to us staying longer, so let the partying continue! Time for some hardcore D.F barhopping.

Found a bar that was serving some Mexican craft beer, Mexico is dominated by only 2 breweries. Grupo Modelo and FEMSA, who focus primarily on lager-style beers. I haven’t tasted hops in over a month. This beer was made by the Cucapa Brewing Company, hoppy, delicious, and a great change from the usual mexico beer scene. If you see some around try it out! Plus it has a sweet ass bottle.

As we were enjoying our Chupacabras it started pouring outside, then it started thundering and lightning, THEN it started to hail. What the hell, Our friends from Mexico City say they haven’t seen it hail in years.

Soaked but we found another bar!

and another…

and another!

Grabbing a piece between bars

Sufficiently lubricated we all decided it was time to DANCE. Searching around on a Sunday night all the danceclubs were dead except one…. the gay bar! Works for us!

Perfect nightcap photo. We had a blast!

Eventually woke up the next morning back at Adrian’s place. We had heard great things about the Anthropology museum of Mexico and headed out.

First stop, Tacos and Chicharrones (Pork rinds). Nothing like a fresh from the fryer chicharron to soak up last nights debauchery.

Take gross looking sheet of pig skin

Add the magic of deep frying! Tada! Tasty treats

Hopped the public transportation back to Mexico City and walked to the museum. This museum is massive with 4000+ years of history and a country that is 3 times the state of Texas there is a lot to cover. We spent all day here and could have used another one. Unfortunately our main cameras battery was dead so we had to drop to sidearm (AKA Laurens old digicam that doesn’t shoot so well in low-light)

Art from various regions made out of all types of material, corn husks, vanilla beans, leather, bones, etc.

Yucatan map

Piedra del Sol. Stone of the Sun. Aztec Sun Calendar. This gigantic artifact was uncovered in 1790 in the Zocolo of Mexico City while making repairs to the sinking cathedral. Its true purpose is unknown, some believe it is a calendar, some an elaborate compass, or a sacrificial altar. Either way it is an epic piece of history and an honor to see it in person.

This headdress is believed to have once belonged to Moctezuma II, the Aztec emperor during the Spanish conquest. It is rumored that Moctezuma gifted this headdress to Hernan Cortez in an effort to quell his attacks on the Aztec cities. Needless to say it didn’t work… Still an incredible piece, Lauren looks damn good in it, I must say.

Olmec heads, The original Mesoamerican civilization which dates all the way back to 2500 B.C.. I find the Olmec’s to be one of the most interesting cultures, primarily because we know so little about them. The broad noses and mouths of the statues look nothing like other MesoAmerican artifacts. It is rumored that the Olmec’s had trade routes with Africa which would explain these facial features.

Reproduction of Pakal’s tomb, Pakal was the ruler of the grand Mayan city, Palenque. When his tomb was discovered in the 1950’s his face was covered with an elaborate mask of jade, made of over 250 individual pieces.

A fabulous museum and an educational experience, We learned a lot about Mexico and it fueled our desires to learn more. We are really stoked to see the Mayan ruins now.

Sure there was smog, horrible traffic, and sketchy looking alleys. But L.A. has the same thing and people flock like hoards to Hollywood. Mexico City is an amazing place and is not to be missed. We in no way felt like we were in any danger at anytime whatsoever. We hope to return soon! Huge thanks to Adrian for accepting us into his home and showing us his family, friends, and great city!

Howdy, folks! I know many of you have been asking for a break down of how much we have been spending on our trip so far, so here it goes. Amazingly, it has been 30 days and 3,500 miles since we crossed into Mexico and over 85 days total on the road. Seems like just last night we were lying in our beds in San Francisco dreaming of this trip…

Gas- $591.11 (Currently ~2.80 gal in Mexico)
We had a good tally of our MPG and gas expenses but it was lost on our phone somewhere in Mexico City.

Food- $661.81
Includes groceries, restaurants, bars, beer, and tequila.

Motels, Campgrounds, etc- $221.67
This is very high for the month. We love to just sleep in the truck, and try to do so whenever possible.  Unfortunately, we drove through a lot of jungle areas where camping was almost impossible or just downright undesirable.  I also got pretty sick for 4 or 5 days, so we spent two of the worst days at a nice little motel in Morelia.  We are hoping that when we get to Guatamala we will get to camp pretty much every night.

Car Expenses & Accidentes– $272.33
We had to get our hitchpin mount and jerrycan mount fixed after accidentally backing into a pole and busting it up a bit. Oopsy. That cost $122.33, but now it is built twice as beefy and looks good as new!  We also had a little fender bender in Oaxaca.  The guy we backed into was really nice about the whole thing and we gave him $150 for his troubles. (Editors note: It seems I have a bit of trouble backing up this truck…)

Travel Expenses-  $372.30
This includes our Mexico FMM visas for 180 days, vehicle import permit, and a $200 refundable deposit)

Trip Expenses For Organizing the Truck- $40.00
I needed some extra supplies to keep the truck organized.

Personal Expenses- $40.00
Toiletries, laundry detergent, etc.

Entrance fees– $182.77
Includes all tickets for museums, zoos, visiting the ruins, soccer games, etc.

Misc- $36.84

MONTH #1 GRAND TOTAL=

$2,418.83 ($200 deposit for entrance into mexico is not subtracted)

This is a tad higher than what I projected for the first month, but unexpected expenses always seem to come up while traveling. Gotta tighten the belt for month number two!

After we got our share of the beach scene we cut inland, Destination: Butterfly Kingdom.

If you haven’t guessed by now we are kind of nerds. Back home we had seen a few nature documentaries on the mass migration of the Monarch butterflies. Each year the Monarch butterflies begin a huge southward migration from as far north as Canada all the way south to Mexico. This incredible journey is over 4000 miles and spans generations of Monarchs to reach its completion every year. Millions of butterflies arrive in the Michoacán highland forests of  Mexico every year for the winter before turning around and heading back north for the summer. It just so happened we were here during the right months. We had to see it!

As we cut in from the coastline through the states of Jalisco we started encountering some wonderful mountain scenery and idealic farmland. Jalisco is known as the homeland of Tequila and agave farms abound. We also saw a few huge volcanoes.

Sugarcane farms

A nice “safe” load of sugarcane, Don’t get too close or you’ll get a sugarcane spear through the windshield, they were falling off left and right as the trucks bounced down the road.

One of our facebook fans informed me this is Sesame drying in the fields.

We cut across the state and make camp for the night up on a mountain. We picked up some delicious fresh fruit along the way. We loaded down the cooler for about 30 pesos with watermelon, papaya, coconut, you name it.

Woke up to 85F on the beach, going to sleep in 40F temps in the mountains. Love the varying terrain of Mexico.

Next morning we woke up and headed towards Morelia. The primary jumping off point for the Monarch butterfly reserves of Michoacán.

Morelia is a beautiful Spanish colonial city. They have retained a lot of the architecture from the cities founding back in the 1500’s. We found it to be a wonderful town and spent a few days exploring the city alongside other Mexican tourists. I think we were the only gringos in town.

Aqueduct

2 pesos (like .10 cents)  Al Pastor tacos, Delicious! I ate a million of them

There are about 5 different Monarch reserves in Michoacán. The main one is El Rosario but my research showed that this was usually crowded with people, The reserve at Sierra Chinchua seemed bit more lowkey and more our style. We set off from Moreila towards the small town of Angangueo. This town is in the middle of the sanctuaries and you can catch taxis, buses, whatever to the various reserves. We have our own transpo so we pushed on through and made camp near the entrance to the Sierra Chincua reserve.

Dinner time

Sunset from the back of the truck

Pretty cold up at 10K FT

Woke up in the morning to our water bottles frozen over, hopefully the butterflies didn’t mind! We headed out to the reserve.

They had a nice visitor center with shops and information

It was about a 2 mile uphill hike at 12K feet to get to the butterflies, or we could pay $2 and take horses…

Yeehaw!

Lauren is a future horse trainer, she just doesn’t know it yet.

After a 30 minute ride we reached the edge of the reserve.

First butterfly sighting, We were close!

Our guide took us down a few dirt paths to an opening in the trees, We saw a few butterflies and then… a sea of orange fluttering around

Our guide to the butterfly kingdom, Diego. He was an awesome fellow and spoke pretty good english. It was a pleasure getting to know him and hearing his passion for the monarchs.

We spent a few hours among the butterflies, a truly amazing experience. Just us and millions of butterflies. Diego says we picked a great day as usually it is overcast and the butterflys are not as active as they were the day we went.

There were so many butterflies you could literally hear them flying around bumping into each other above our heads.

Here you can see huge clusters of butterflies hanging from the trees. They bunch up so much that they actually end up breaking limbs from the trees. Imagine! A butterfly breaking a branch. Crazy.

BAM! Smacked in the face by a butterfly, FOX news did warn me Mexico was dangerous!

After spending a few hours with the butterflies we started hiking back down the mountain. This was truly an amazing life experience, something that we will never forget.

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.

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…

Wrong! We drove out onto the beach, bugs didn’t seem to bad. We setup our bug net around our sleeping area and passed out. Woke up in the middle of the night getting attacked by thousands of no-seeums, turns out they took a meal break and were back for seconds. They were so small they just waltzed right through our net, gave a laugh at our weak protection, and started chomping on our bodies. With not many options we buried our heads under the covers and roughed it out for the night.

When I finally poked my head out from under the covers there were thousands of dead bugs around me and tons more alive flying around my head. I jumped out of the truck and found Lauren on the beach who gave me the “Lets get the HELL outta here look!”

I jumped out of the truck and we started speed-packing. Well turns out our little beach home for the night was not only Grand Central Bug Station but also a semi-commercial fishing spot. While we were running around like chickens with our heads cut off, these guys rolled up and started netting up some fish.

This method has long been outlawed in the states but it sure is effective. Take a long net, run it off the shore about 100yards and down the beach another 50 yards, then pull in. Anything caught in between the shore and net is fair game.

We got some funny looks running around packing up the truck.

Adios San Blas! Beautiful town if you can avoid the bugs. I suggest sleeping indoors or getting a bulletproof bugnet, were going back to the drawing board on ours.

We really dig sleeping on the beach and we weren’t going to let some stupid bugs completely defeat us. We decided to cruise down the highway some more and find a new beach, hopefully with less bugs!

We pushed south past a popular tourist town called Puerto Vallarta, seemed like a nice place albeit crowded with tour buses. Not our scene, we pressed on.

The coastline started to get a bit more “jungley” the further south we got.

Eventually we saw a little sign on the side of the road, this place wasn’t on our map or books but it was certainly a beach. Maybe we can camp down here?

Dirt roads=Good sign!

We followed the road for a while as it degraded further, eventually we find ourselves at a Palm Tree farm.

We did not see any people nor any signs indicating how to get to the beach. We knew it was down there somewhere, following a bunch of random farm/ATV roads eventually we ended up in the right spot. I found a surprised looking kid on an ATV and asked him if it was OK to camp on the beach. No Problemo he said. ITS ON!

Cruised down the soft sand a ways in 4WD, aside from the kid we saw no one else around. About 1/2 mile down the beach we setup camp.

Perfect night on the beach, no bugs, no people, no sounds but the waves crashing the shore. We spent the entire next day at this spot just lounging and enjoying ourselves.

Eventually packed up and headed out once again. Cruised down the highway and found a lunchspot in a nice little town called Melaque. Lunch of fresh ceviche and cold modelos made for nice break from the road.

Headed south from there, We had read in our guidebook that we could beachcamp in a town called Cuyutlan so we decided to check it out.

We drove through valleys FULL of coconut palm farms, the pictures do not do it justice. Imagine coconut palms as far as the eye can see. In true “companion planting” style they plant banana trees underneath the palms. The palms provide the perfect amount of shade for the bananas.

We made it to Cuyutlan and scoped out the town. Looks like it has been built up a bit since our guide book was written. Most of the beachfront camping was now nice condos and houses. They did have some cool murals though.

We kept driving and driving down the road in Cuyaltan hoping to find a good spot where we could sneak past the houses out onto the beach. We eventually found a spot near the end of the road where there was an ATV trail out onto the beach. Jackpot!

Put it in 4WD, locked the hubs, and headed out onto the sand. Now normally before we do any serious 4×4’ng I get out and air down the tires to improve traction, however we have had good luck with our BFG A/Ts driving on sand even at road tire pressure (I am running 30 psi on the street) so I figured we would be fine.

WRONG!

Got stuck within 20ft of coming off the road, the sand was super sugary and we sunk in deep. Rocking back and forth (typical escape maneuver) did nothing but get us dug in deeper. Time to get to work.

Digging a trench for the tires, Lauren helped document the process (she did a bit of digging too!)

Building a sand ladder out of driftwood for the tires to grip for traction

Airing down the tires to 10 PSI as the sun is setting.

Alright, all prep work complete. Lets hope this works!

SUCCESS!

I’m outta here! Didn’t slow down till I was almost to Arkansas.

Dirty and happy to be unstuck

With the tires aired down to 10Psi we floated on the sand with no problems, we were able to cruise the beach and find a nice spot for the night.

Just in time to see the sun drop behind the ocean.

We were making dinner at camp when Lauren noticed some bugs crawling around our food bag, We shined the light down at the sand and saw THOUSANDS of what I think (hope) were baby cockroaches running around in and out of our food bags.

We pulled everything out of the bags and cleaned them out, shook out all the bugs and played a game of “the floor is lava” for the rest of the night….

….And you guys thought our trip was all sugarplums and cervezas!

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!

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.

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!

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!

Made it to Big Bend in the middle of the night, not exactly sure where to camp we just drove about 15 miles down some dirt road and pulled off to the side, setup camp and went to sleep… Awoke in the morning to some pissed off park rangers who slapped me with a $175 ticket for “driving off-road”… Our first ticket in almost 2 months, that’s a record for me! Not to be discouraged we went up the rangers office, figured out the deal and secured a permit for a few days of “legal backcountry camping”

Hit the backroads of Big Bend. (I forgot to mention I managed to back into a lightpole somewhere in between Austin and Big Bend, completey fubaring one of our jerry can holders and throwing off the alignment of the bumper and hitchpin, I rigged it up with some bungee cords and kept on trucking, hoping it would hold.)

The Park guide warned us of the “dangerous black gap 4×4 road” the park ranger highly advised we go around the long way around… I pointed to our truck outside and he said “oh.” and that was the end of that. The road wasn’t too treacherous, I didn’t actually need 4×4 at all but high clearance and a truck that can take a good beating was a necessity. I would imagine if it rained and this whole dirt road turned to mud it would be a different story altogether.

After cruising the desert for a few hours we made it to our backcountry campsite. Tally #2 (great campsite, We recommend it if you head out this way.)

Setup shop just as the sun went down, beautiful sunset from our home for the next few days.

Lauren busted out the park map and found a nice 10-mile day-hike for us from our campsite up to the top of a canyon overlooking the Rio Grande river and the elusive country called Mexico. We woke up to constant howling 20-30mph winds but an otherwise clear day. We suited up and hit the trail.

Lauren made a new tree-friend, she has lots of tree-friends

Made it to the top, with the winds gusting at 20-30 it was a little sketchy getting too close to the edge but a photo-op was necessary!

Long way down, you can see the Rio Grande here, and our first glimpse of Mexico since our baja trip. So close! Yet so far…

Got back to camp, exhausted and windburned but we heard tell of a natural hotspring a little further up the road. We hauled ass through the desert hoping to make it to the hotspring before nightfall. We got there just as the sun went down, everyone was gone and we realxed our bones in the 105F water, we had all to ourselves. Gazing at the stars, listening to the spring run into the river alongside. Perfecto.

Woke up the next morning to overcast skies and cold cold weather. Looks like all those winds were blowing in a storm. We headed out of the backcountry, Lauren’s dad had promised her a Christmas gift of a hotel room, we figured now was the time to take him up on it since it was Christmas eve and started snowing outside!

Lauren hanging out in front of the Big Bend lodge, our warm home for the night.

Little different scene than when we last saw this photo!

The snow covered park was gorgeous, a completely different experience than when we were first here a few days ago.

Cactus + Snow? This does not compute!

As the sun set over the mountains I realized it was a white Christmas! The first one either of us has had in a long long time. Merry Christmas!

Rested up for the night, woke up on Christmas day and headed out. I had done some serious damage to our already damaged hitchmount bouncing along the backroads of Big Bend. I completely sheered off the actual mount and had secured the swingout with zipties. Needed to get this fixed before we attempted the rough roads of Mexico. Unfortunately for us, Big Bend is in the middle of nowhere, closet town was 100 miles away with no real services to speak of, plus it was Christmas day. Everything was closed.

Beautiful but desolate drive along Texas Highway 90

Aliens!?

Weird stuff out here…

Like a designer Prada store in the middle of friggin nowhere???

We decided to head to El Paso, TX, a 300-mile detour, but a necessary one. We arrived in the middle of the night and guerrilla camped in a parking lot somewhere waiting for the morning light. I had found a “4 Wheel Parts” and hoped they would have the parts and services that I needed.

4 Wheel Parts turned out to be useless (Surprise, surprise…) but I got the internet and found a real 4×4 shop up the street a ways. A “Little” 4×4 Shop just outside of El Paso, TX had everything we needed and got us fixed up with a beefier mount and new jerry can holder. Big thanks to Roger and the guys for getting us in and out quickly! If any of you West Texas guys need 4×4 work done or any parts for Jeeps this is your man. His place was a mecca of everything Jeep.

We got fixed up and were ready to hit the border but it was already 3PM, figuring it would be wise to wait to cross until the next morning we spent another night in a random parking lot working on our Spanish and getting amped to finally be in Mexico!

Note: There are no pictures for a while, We were a bit stressed out with the crossing and taking pictures of the whole ordeal was far from our mind.

Next morning, We punched “border crossing” into the GPS and took a drive towards Ave of Americas which led us to a little border crossing. There was literally no one there but a little lady. I asked her in my craptastic spanish if there was an aduana (customs office) there and a banjercito (Mexican govt bank) where we needed to get our vehicle permit. We think she said No but unsure we just drove in anyway. No inspection, no dogs, no questions, no nothing. It was like going through a stop sign in the middle of an intersection.. and we were now in Mexico. That was easy enough.

Except we still needed to get our visa and vehicle permit, attempting to navigate our way around Ciudad Juarez proved to be a fruitless effort. We decided to cross BACK into the USA and go to a larger border crossing which hopefully would have the offices we needed.

Crossing back into the US we waited in line for about an hour, got to the guard, who berated us with a bunch of questions and accusations then threatened to search our truck, and then eventually let us back in. We flipped a U-Turn and drove right back to the border crossing to get BACK into Mexico. Again hassled a bunch more by US border patrol, more threats, more questions, and eventually let through.

We found the customs office easily this time and the Mexican customs official was very helpful and spoke english. We received our 180-day permit for our actual persons and he gave us directions to the Banjecrito which turned out was 30 miles down the road towards Chihuahua. We drove through Juarez, which looked a lot like a crappy version of any U.S suburban city. Applebees, Chilis, Burger King etc. just the signs were in spanish. Eventually making our way onto the highway and cruised 30 miles toward the Banjercito which was clearly marked in english and spanish. Pulled over, parked the car, and headed inside where we found more helpful people who spoke at least a little english to help us make some copies and get our Mexican vehicle permit. We paid a fee for the permit and placed a $200 deposit down which will be refunded when we leave Mexico.

BAM! We and the truck were perfectly legal now to be in Mexico for the next 180-days. Game on.

We hit the highway again, our destination was a place called “Copper Canyon” which is up in the mountain range called “Sierra Del Occidental”  of North West Mexico

Better get used to life in the slowlane and converting MPH to KMH.

Happy to be in Mexico! FINNALY!

Headed to the mountains.

We drove higher and higher up into the mountain range, Desert scrub was replaced by tall pines and the weather cooled off dramatically. We found a little side road that we followed for a bit and tucked up among the pines to camp. Our first night in Mexico, reminded us a lot of our many nights spent up in the California Sierra mountains.

Delicious dinner of 99c Lipton Mexican rice and bagged tuna fish. Only the finest for Home on the Highway. It was awesome washed down with a few Tecates.

Packed up and hit the road in the morning, we were going to a town called Creel, MX which is considered “The Gateway to Copper Canyon”

Passed many small logging towns along the way.

Lunch time!

We wound further and further up into the mountain range, it was a long but beautiful drive.

Burro friends

Eventually we made it to Creel!

Not much going on here but a train station, a few shops, and a great little spot called “The 3 Amigos” which organizes all kinds of excursions into Copper Canyon. We spoke with the shop owner, Salvador, for a while and he provided us with maps and recommendations of things to see and do while in Copper Canyon. He told us there was a rough dirt road that ran from the top of the canyon all the way down to the bottom to a little town called Batopillas. This sounded right up our alley, we thanked him for the info and hit the road.

Driving a bit more, We found another side road and posted  up for the night again among the tall pines.

Packed up the truck the next morning and hit the road, soon the highway ran out and we found ourselves on a rough dirt road, this was the road to Batopillas. It wound from the top of the canyon at ~9000FT all the way to the bottom of the canyon at ~1000FT. A beautiful yet treacherous drive. Not for those scared of heights or those with weak suspensions.

Baby burro!

Goat family, Lauren wanted a baby goat, figured it could eat all our trash on the way.

After about 3 hours we made it down the canyon to Batopillas. Established a longtime ago as a boom Silver mining town, the silver has all gone but the town remains. Kind of an odd place, down at the bottom of canyon far from everything. Oddly it was one of the first places in all of Mexico to have electricity, only second to Mexico City.

We navigated our way through Batopillas, Salvador had roughly pencil sketched another backroad on our map from Batopillas that would take us to another mining town called Urique which would eventually connect us up to the highway and take us towards the coast.

Following the road we came to a small town called Suvato, established in the 1500’s by Jesuit missionary’s who built a church here to attempt to convert the indigenous Tarahumara people.

We pushed on through the town in an attempt to navigate the canyon roads from Suvato to Urique following the rough sketch on our map. Everything seemed to be going pretty well until we started hitting fork after fork in the dirt road. After driving around deep in the desolate canyon unsure of where we were headed exactly and looking at the fuel gauge teetering below 1/2 a tank and our water supply dwindling we decided it would be wise to throw in the towel and head back the way we came. Like Kenny Rogers says, “you gotta know when to hold em… know when to fold em’” and it was time to fold my friends.

The canyon was just as beautiful in reverse and we made back to the same campsite from the night before just as the sun was setting. That night we examined our maps and found another highway around the area that looked as if it would take us 1/2 way across the canyon, turn to a dirtroad for a bit, and then turn back into a paved highway. We wanted to get to the Sea of Cortez coastline and it was either take this highway or make a 900-mile detour to get around the mountains. We of course… choose the backroad.

Highway 24 started off easy enough, winding through more pines, nicely paved.

As expected the highway ran out and turned to a dirtroad, still not a bad one, nicely graded and easy to navigate.

However after about 20 miles it degraded into a very rough, very sketchy, dirt path rather than a “highway”

We wound all up and down this road all throughout the canyon in the middle of balls ass nowhere for most of the day, eventually coming to a small logging village. Not knowing where exactly to go we attempted to ask for directions, the locals looked at us like we were insane probably the first gringos they had seen out here in a long long time.

After following the wrong directions, asking another person, and another person we found a man and his family who took pity on us and drove us up to the correct road, which we followed for another 50 or so treacherous but gorgeous miles.

It took us 3 or so days to inch our way across the backbone of the Sierra Del Occidental mountain range but eventually we started seeing more and more towns. We were close! It was New years eve and we made a small camp off in the woods in between some of these small mountain towns. We passed out around 10PM exhausted from the road. Woke up at midnight to the sounds of the mountains filled with firecrackers, gunshots, and hollers from all directions. Happy New Years!!!

Next day we finally made it off the dirt road onto sweet sweet pavement. Jesus, thank you for the pavement! We had successfully navigated “Highway 24” from Creel, MX to Badriguato, MX. A feat we were proud of even if we did not know exactly what we were getting ourselves into.

We cruised the highway to the coastline, got a hotel room, and took a glorious hot hot shower,  ate a fine meal at the restaurant and passed out.

Next day we woke up and headed further down the coast to Mazatlan. A nice port town on the Sea of Cortez, We headed directly to the beach, happy to feel the sand on our toes and the sun on our faces. We love the mountains but the coast is where we feel most at home.

I am writing this post from a bar overlooking the beautiful Sea of Cortez, drinking an ice cold Modelo and stuffing my face with delicious shrimps. We contacted some folks from Couchsurfing who live in town who we will hopefully be meeting up from soon and get a tour of the place.

Plan to hang out by the coast a bit before we head inland to see some Aztec/Mayan ruins and pyramids. Stay tuned!