We left Oaxaca and headed towards Tehuacán. All started out well, but Big Bertha steadily lost power and progressively exhausted more and more thick black smoke. By the time we reached Tehuacán we were having trouble exceeding 40kph and climbing hills. All was definitely not well. We found a wild camp and the next day Dave started diagnosis with the […]
Ok, so hands up – who amongst you knew (or had even heard of) the Olmecs, Zapotecs and Mixtecs? For us as school kids, much as the Incas hogged the limelight in South America, so did the Aztecs in Mesoamerica and these other civilisations didn’t get a mention. So it was interesting to discover more about their culture and visit […]
We drove the roughly 500km to Oaxaca from Tuxtla Gutiérrez over two days, stopping at a hotel en route because the temperatures were very hot at sea level and it would have been uncomfortable sleeping in Big Bertha. Oaxaca is at around 1500m and much cooler. Our first stop was at Mitla, just outside Oaxaca – yes, another ancient ruin […]
We last treated Big Bertha to new tyres in Johannesburg, South Africa, in September 2022. We have covered 62,587km since then and we were running almost on F1 racing slicks. Our wheels have 20 inch rims, which are almost unheard of in the Americas and we use military tyres – so it’s not a case of pulling into the nearest […]
Leaving the heat behind us at the El Chiflon waterfalls, we climbed up above 2,000m to visit San Cristobal, a very nice town and similar to Antigua in Guatemala. It was a bit of a fight to get into the campsite, so we camped here for 5 nights, chilled (literally) and took an excellent walking tour around the town. Daniel, […]
Mexico! What a fantastic introduction you have given us! Crossing from Guatemala at La Mesilla, a very quiet border, we were slightly apprehensive. Mexico has a reputation, but everyone at the border was very friendly and the ensuing police checkpoints have been a breeze. But it was a bit of a squeeze to get through the markets either side of […]
We get asked all the time about the statistics behind our journey. When we started, we made a budgetary estimate as to how much our adventure would cost us and this has been pretty much on target. Budding adventurers may find this very useful in formulating their own plans. These stats do not include our ‘background’ costs such as purchasing […]
We skipped Guatemala City, the capital of Guatemala. I say ‘skipped’ but it still took a couple of hours to drive through it on the main roads on the way to Antigua. But after a long days drive we finally arrived at the VagaMundo Camp in Antigua and found Ursula waiting for us (we met at Tikal). The camp was […]
The small town of Cubulco in Guatamala has an annual festival held each year in late July. Francine discovered this on the day before the penultimate day of the festival whilst on our way to Semuc Champey. Many towns have festivals. But this one features an aerial dance that we really wanted to see and so we made a rather […]
Tikal was an important Mayan city in the north of Guatemala, near the Belize border. We passed without visiting in our hurry to get to Belize, but on our way back we could not miss this world renowned monument. What’s more, there is a lovely campsite there with plenty of wildlife. After the rain, the Coatis appeared en masse to […]