Blogs from Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, North America

My son Javan is a great camera assistant, an excellent workout buddy, and an awesome traveler. On this trip, Javan was by my side at every moment. He was operating cameras, helping with lens changes, connecting microphones and such. He was also performing alongside me, talking on camera and doing filmed workouts for the new documentary. He got up early when we had to, and I accommodated his needs by taking meal breaks more often than I normally would on a job like this, and going to bed much earlier at night (no crazy athlete parties for me this year). Javan was essential for this project. If I didn't have Javan with me, who would have been witness to the unmanned border we crossed effortlessly on the way into Mexico and the absolutely insane border nightmare ... read more

Why are we in Mexico? You may be wondering why my son Javan and I went to Mexico in the first place. We were there for the iF3 World Championships. "What's that?" you say? The "iF3" is the International (i) Functional (Fx1) Fitness (Fx2) Federation (Fx3). This is the governing body for Functional Fitness as an international sport, representing the sport on the global sports governance scene with the ultimate goal of getting Functional Fitness into the Olympic Games. Every year they put on a World Championships in a different country. I know, that just brings up a whole list of other questions. "What is Functional Fitness?" "What does the governing body for an international sport do?" "What is the global sports governance scene?" "How do you get a sport into the Olympics?" "Why do you ... read more

Up and out early, we got to the border and got our Visa's. I had done our vehicle permits online, so it was fairly easy. But, everything still took over an hour. But, no problem, we are finally in Mexico.. There are 4 Truck Campers in the group, 2 from California, and 2 from British Colunbia. Everyone else has been to Mexico several times, plus Belize, Guatamala, Costa Rica and all over South America in thier campers. A very interesting group. Plus, 3 dogs including Red.... We got to Hermasillo just before dark. Nice, quiet little park. It was great just to finally be here after all of the prep work.... read more

I slept in. I didn't plan on doing much today so I was not going to miss anything. I had no idea if this hotel had hot water or not but I really didn't care. I turned on the cold water and just got clean and cool at the same time. After that, I stepped outside in search of food. But I started to get flashbacks from the first trip like this I took. On my first day in Chihuahua (the city, not the dog), I had no confidence in my ability to read a menu or translate anything so I just gave up without trying and went to Subway. I do not know if I felt more stupid or just ashamed. All of that travel, much like yesterday, and my first meal in Mexico was ... read more

It was a long day on the bus from Los Mochis to Hermosillo. We were finding more and more Mexicans who spoke English since we were getting closer to the USA so managed to spend some of the time chatting. The scenery got pretty as we passed the coastal town of Guaymas and headed inland again where lots and various cactus grew. We also saw a convoy of perhaps 20 Canadian mobile homes. Most were big monstrous vehicles with more space than the average London flat and the family car was being towed. At Hermosillo we arranged our bus to the USA and had a taxi take us to the Colonial Hotel. We didn't like the look of it really, being on a busy road and very motel-like and overpriced. The taxi man could see our ... read more