OverlandSphere
Overland Travel, Expedition & Adventure Information for 4x4, motorcycle and truck overlanders
We reluctantly left Loreto this morning, amazing place to chill out and the 1697 resturant rocks, if you are in the area they have great rooms for rent and do brilliant food, thanks to Kieran, Norma and their son Patricio (Paddy) for a great time and fantastic hospitality. We had a great run up to Santa Rosalia, only around 130…
Not much to report from our week “off” really, had a nice ride up to San Javier (about 25 miles away in the mountains) on Saturday, this is a small misson town (very small) and Saturday was their festival, that basically meant a load of Caballeros rode into town, posed for pictures in front of the very pretty church and…
We left the nice little town of Zamora (although even little towns are big here!) and had a great ride through the mountains to Tepic. On the way we passed Tequila (the town not the drink) and just outside we saw the cacti being cultivated which are used to make the drink (not the town) We rolled into a hotel…
First apologies for the lack of posts but when you are on the road its not always that easy. We left Catemaco and wobbled down the very pretty back road to the main road to Mexico City, now the problem is the Pay roads are expensive but after months of very wobbly back roads we were prepared to spend the…
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Just before we left Palenque I noticed the dreaded topes had broken my pannier rack again in the same place it was welded before so I was quite glad when we hit the main road to Villahermosa, smooth (er) tarmac and no more speed bumps. We made great progress doing the first 230 miles in superquick time thanks to the…
We left yesterday morning and made our way to Palenque, a cracking road with excellent scenery spoiled by the speed bumps, several times they caught me unaware and had me out the seat, they even have them on corners. En route we stopped to speak to fellow travellers Billy & Trish from Australia, some good banter and found out Billy…
Yesterday we left Antiqua, in the process of doing so we bumped into Julio, a well known Austrian who has lived in Guatemala for a long time, it was a fortuitous meeting as he was able to give us loads of advice on Mexico and in doing so saved us a laborious 1000 mile detour to see some Mayan ruins,…
Beautiful Baja beaches We left Suzie three and half weeks ago, it feels like two and half months. Being back in the land of overplenty has been overwhelming. Although life on the road isn’t always easy, its always simple. Wake up, make breakfast, eat breakfast, pack up and hit the road, drive for a couple of hours, park, set up,…
In the 6 months we’ve been on adventure through Mexico and Central America, we’ve been stopped plenty of times by police and federals. Here we go… prepare to do some bullshitting and strategize how not to get suckered into paying a bribe. In Honduras, on two separate occasions we were motioned to the side of the road by Federal police. …
After seven months, I figured we’d be in the process of shipping the van across the Darien Gap into Colombia, but we are several countries short of that. Other than the much-slower-than-anticipated pace, the trip seems to be progressing more or less as expected. One of the weirdest moments of the trip: Lucha Libre Smurfs (pitufos). We left San Cristóbal…
From Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday April 8 -10, 2013 As long term travelers we are very good at being “on the move.” Indeed, it is normal for us now. Yet, it is the quiet moments, the still moments that I often appreciate the most. Like right now. I am sitting in the center of San Jose del Pacifico – a…
After finishing two days of volunteering workshops at Centro de Espranza Oaxaca Grassroots Infantil that we were leading on geography and global citizenship with 8 – 16 year olds (Thank you Muskoka Foundation) I was ready to get some lead out today. And that is exactly what I did – even though the original plan got slightly modified in route.…
We decided to have Easter dinner in Cancun Mexico. the weather was beautiful, the temperature was right, and we were feeling especially thankful for the true meaning of Easter. The plan was to purchase ADO bus tickets for a straight through drive from Cancun to Belize city, where we would meet up with Mckinley Pritchard, a new found friend who…
We decided to have Easter dinner in Cancun Mexico. the weather was beautiful, the temperature was right, and we were feeling especially thankful for the true meaning of Easter. The plan was to purchase ADO bus tickets for a straight through drive from Cancun to Belize city, where we would meet up with Mckinley Pritchard, a new found friend who…
I love to cook. Living out of a van, though, means that cooking is limited by a few things— 1—what we can buy and store (meat only if we’re going to consume it that day) 2—what we can fit in our two little pots or on top of our griddle (usually either or, since the griddle takes up both burners)…
Semana Santa was a relatively quiet affair for us, since we are now entering our fifth week in San Cristóbal, absorbing as much solitude (and curry) as possible. For such a big deal, there was surprisingly little fanfare. Usually we see a lot of carnival action wherever we go. But possibly nobody wanted to upstage Jesus. Both of the Jesuses,…
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Undoubetedly our favorite evening on our recent family trip to Mexico was the night we took a cooking class at Robert & Dolores Brittingham’s house. Formerly from Seattle, Robert & Dolores have called Puerto Vallarta home since 2002, starting Essence of Cuisine, Dolores’ cooking school, in 2006. We girls in the family had taken several cooking classes in the past…
After nearly a month in one place (San Cristobal) we were back on the move again. We zipped over to the Palenque ruins and then all the way over to the east coast of the Yucatan. We both really liked Palenque, but mostly because we saw and heard howler monkeys over our camp spot. If you haven’t heard howler monkeys…
One of the coolest parts about being stationed in San Cristóbal are being a short drive from a lot of different small towns. The indigenous people are more highly visible here than in other parts of Mexico, and when you travel from village to village, you can see distinct styles of dress, mostly among the women. Pink pom-poms and braids…
Puerto Vallarta is a magical place for us and over the last twenty years we’ve eaten our way all over the city, from food carts and street stands to five star restaurants like Cafe des Amis. Having just returned from yet another vacation in paradise I thought I’d give a rundown of the good, the bad, and the ugly. …
Today is our six-month mark of entering Mexico. I wanted to write something significant on this day, something that would say something more than a typical post about a town we visited, a festival we happened upon, or some challenge we’ve met on the road. But now that I look back on things, it seems silly to try and hunk…
MOTEL AMERICA, ENSENADA, BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO 13th March 2013 N31° 51.590′ W116° 37.073’ It was a long haul out of La Paz northwards on MEX1 more or less up the centre of the long peninsula that is the Baja California Sur or South, the whole peninsula being divided into two states – just plain Baja California and Baja California Sur…
After almost six months on the road, I thought it would be a good time to look back at the banners that we’ve been using on the blog. This was in the Grand Canyon, on our way back to San Francisco to Chicago in July. Technically, before the trip started. This was also from that trip. Somewhere in Minnesota…
We finally shake the dust off and get underway. Two more days working on the engine and seeking advice online and we finally give up. The mechanics here offer no more ideas or skills toward the problem and the online community seems to have run out of them as well. We decide we might as well load up the bus…
This month we’ve taken ourself off the road and into the trees, renting the top floor of a cabin in San Cristóbal de las Casas. It is at one of our favorite campgrounds, Rancho San Nicolás, where we have stayed several times in the past few months. One of several Volkswagens back in December …upgrading to new digs on the…
The last few days have been spent mostly under the bus…but getting closer. It took a day of trying everything but i was eventually able to get the bus up and running again. As is probably clear to everyone now, we are still learning to diagnose and solve bus problems, so while the fix might have been immediately apparent to…
The Oaxaca Children Grassroots is a non profit in the US, that funds the Centro de Esperanza infantil, in Oaxaca. This is where we did the little photo workshop last month. The center sponsors the education of kids from poor families in Oaxaca, trying to make sure that they go to school instead of selling trinkets in the street. Hear…
We are finally reunited with the bus. The last few days have been quite comfortable. Karma’s meds are over and she seems to be in good health and spirits. We spent our time starting to make a small group of friends in town and we are fully hitting a rhythm that makes us think that we could live here quite…