Mazatlan was our original intended ferry destination from La Paz, and although it’s taken us another day we’ve made it here via a night in Los Mochis and a 7 hour bus trip (which was comfortable enough). Acapulco may be famous for cliff divers but Mazatlan has them too. Around lunch time when enough of a crowd has built up we see one guy do his dive. It’s not from a very high point but there’s no way you would catch me doing this – even if he makes a 1000 pesos in tips per dive. Mazatlan is really not too bad a place. The prom is brash and noisy – it reminds me a lot of places in Spain. It caters for a Mexican, rather than foreign, crowd, but the beach is pretty good and ... read more

Loreto is the site of the first Californian Mission (founded in 1697 by Salvatierre) and is the start of the Camino Real – the old road up the Californian coast that originally linked the missions. Today Loreto is a very pleasant place to spend a couple of days. It has plenty of amenities, a small harbour, good seafront and an attractive central district, which though catering for tourists (there is an airport here and plenty of condos) doesn’t feel too developed. There is a marine park offshore and a few dive operators offering diving in the park. We are tempted until I find out that the visibility is currently only 10 feet and the water temperature a chilly 55F. It’s also 170 usd for a 2 tank dive which is pricey. Instead we take a boat ... read more

We’ve crossed over the US Mexico border at Tijuana. Going this way was surprisingly easy – no exit formalities from the US just a one way turnstile to walk through and no queues for Mexican immigration. We end up with a 6 month Mexican visa, but only expect to spend 2-3 weeks here on our way through to Central America. From the Mexican highway we have a good view of the border fence and it is fairly substantial. It’s not a wall, but it looks like it would keep most people out, so I’m not exactly sure why Donald wants to build a “wall” here. We’ve chosen Ensenada as our first stop in Mexico. This isn’t because it’s a great place but it is a convenient distance south in Baja and we had no great desire ... read more

After leaving our rural camp (in the morning we woken by wild turkeys) near San Francisco we’ve taken a couple of days to reach what is known as slo country - the main city here is St Luiz Obispo. It’s a low key city near a range of volcanic hills that run down to the coast at Morro Bay. We are in need of some exercise so walk up the highest of the hills, though only 1500ft high it’s a steepish walk and feels like a proper hike. We’ve driven the highway 1 south down the coast from San Fran. This is THE famous Californian coast drive but a landslide last year has closed the coast road south of Big Sur so we are forced to detour inland to the Highway 101 and find ourselves driving ... read more

Possibly the only place that we knew we would definitely visit whilst in California was Yosemite National Park. I tracked down one of my old college friends who lives about an hour and a half from Yosemite so we arrange to meet him on the weekend and as he’s keen for some walking, do a day hiking together in the Park. The benefit of meeting my friend is that he drives us into the park, which is quicker and easier than taking the RV, the down side is that at the weekend the park is (as expected) pretty busy, but I’m actually surprised at how well the traffic flows and we find a parking space at the end of the valley without too much hassle. There aren’t that many shortish hikes you can do in the ... read more