Blogs from Chetumal, Quintana Roo, Mexico, North America

Left early this morning heading to Tulum for an over night stay in the parking lot as well as visiting the ruins. Well been there many years before and one more time the tourism has taken over, instead of a hike up a long hot trail for miles to see what they had uncovered and a tour guide to explain everything to you for a small fee , it is now Gringo city, thousands of people, do not get me wrong if you have not seen it its a must. We were gone down the road , took our time took the libre roads , went through the small towns and her we are on the gulf in front row spots, not many people, not much in the way of RV services......... but that is why ... read more

Monday 8/10/2012 – On the way out of Palenque this morning we got stopped at a military checkpoint. It’s usually no big deal as they normally ask a few questions and wave us on – but not today. They made us open all our panniers and they made me totally empty one of them. One of the soldiers got all excited when he spotted a thick packet of satchels in the bottom of my food bag, machine guns were spasmodically jerking around in excitement until they realised it was just satchels of hot-chocolate powder. One of the soldiers starting going through Kenz’s panniers and even rifled through the tool kit! Eventually they realised we were just ordinary travellers obeying the law, and not drugs/weapons/illegal-goods pushers, so they waved us on. After seeing two tarantulas crossing the ... read more

We say goodbye to our longtime traveler Jacob Metcalf. He has been with us from Guadalajara to Chetumal which spanned over a month and couple of thousand miles. He would tell you that he is sometimes a teacher and always a student. To that I would add musician, explorer, climber (of semi-illegal areas), one who is tight with a penny but generous with a song or story, and the inventor of the notorious "merrier". Godspeed my friend on the rest of your journey south and here are a few pics of your time in the missionvango (a.k.a. Iguanas 5).... read more

April 27, Monday I got some last minute signatures and stamps on my dive credentials, and we packed up Bear. I had scoped out an escape route that was much better than the way I had ridden in to Julia's, remember we are not along a normal road. Two corners had to have wood placed along it so I could push the bike around the bend without dropping the rear wheel off the walkway and into the deep sand, but we were successful in getting to the hard packed road. I did notice our first equipment casualty. The stock rear mud guard had lost a bolt, and the plastic was broken at another fitting, so it was hanging by a single attachment point. I broke out the tools, removed the whole thing and strapped it on ... read more

March 5th, We are now at Yax Ha camp ground just north of Chetumal, the capital of the state of Quintana Roo. Chetumal is just a few miles north of the Belize border. This city is unique in Mexico in that it has very wide boulevards due to the fact that it has had many opportunities to rebuild itself after hurricanes devastate the place. Because this is not a tourist town, shopping is as laid back as in the U.S. or anywhere, i.e. no pushy hawkers. The 18 rig Fantasy caravan was in here when we arrived. We had shared Freedom Shores RV Park at Isla Aguada with these folks and I had made fun of them in my blog. This time they were much friendlier and we had a good time visiting with the wagon ... read more