Monument Valley / Mexican Hat / Valley of the Gods We saw Monument Valley from the main road as Big Bertha was too big for the track that threaded through the buttes (flat topped isolated hills) on reservation land. It was very atmospheric and reminded us of the countless times we have seen it on the TV. Further along the […]
Kwaaymii Point We entered the US at Tecate – a small Mexican Pueblo Magico border town. We chose this border as people had told us it was a lot calmer that Tiajuana. Once in the US we headed to Kwaaymii Point and camped the night on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land. BLM land covers large swathes of the countryside […]
Given it was winter (late December) when we crossed into the USA from Mexico we decided to tour the southwest rather than head north, and into the snow, too quickly. This proved to be a good decision because, although cold, we’ve had mostly sunny weather. We tried to pick a route that would take us through the ‘headline’ national parks […]
We always knew the USA was going to be easy; we just didn’t realise how easy. Getting in was a breeze – no Spanish Inquisition and we quickly has a six month stamp in our passport. We chose a quiet border crossing at Tecate and they clearly weren’t used to expedition trucks coming through. It was quite disorganised – we […]
Headline – we did not get shot, robbed, kidnapped or made to pay any bribes in Mexico, contrary to the popular belief! In fact, we found Mexico to be a very peaceful and friendly country; but we did abide by the UK Government’s travel advice on where to go. We stayed in country for just over four months (128 days) […]
Mainland Mexico is very different to Baja California; the former is ‘Mexican’, whilst Baja feels like the US’s backyard! Our ferry docked north of La Paz and very shortly afterwards we were parked on the beach at Tecolote. From there we circumnavigated the southern tip of the peninsula before heading north to the US border crossing at Tecate. Unless you […]
There are two choices of ferry from Mazatlán to Baja California Sur – a passenger orientated ferry and a commercial ferry (TMC). The latter is slightly cheaper and has the advantage that you are allowed to stay with your vehicle during the 18 hour passage. The downside is that although ideally we would want to be parked on the uncovered […]
Although it falls at the same time of year (end of October, start of November), this Mexican festival is very different to Halloween – it is a two day holiday that reunites the living and dead. Families create “ofrendas” (offerings) to honour their family members that have passed. These altars are decorated with bright yellow marigold flowers, photos of the […]
Next stop? Tequila! But first we visited the Guachimontones ruins (yes, I know) which were quite different to what we had seen before. These ruins comprised three stepped circular pyramids surrounded by raised platforms on which there were once roofed wooden structures. Two had been restored and one left as was – hardly discernible. We camped next door at a […]
The La Carrera Panamericana, or ‘La Pana’, is a multi-stage, multi-day, Mexican road rally with multinational teams competing. Dave wanted to spectate and we arranged our route so that we would camp at the start of Special Stage 9, just north of Guanajuato. That left a few days beforehand and we set off from ‘Pasty Town’ (Mineral del Monte) to […]