I am self employed and own a small business. This business operates from April to November which gives me about five months off a year from work.

Here is the truck I took to Panama and back, a 2004 Toyota Tacoma. If you want to read about preparing for the trip and can follow the build on my truck here,

http://expeditionportal.com/forum/showt … hp?t=34087

I have written this like you might keep a journal. With dates and brief details over the entire course of my trip. Some dates/days are long winded but that is because a ton of things happened in one day that were significant to the trip so I spend time detailing these particular days. I think this helps to give you an idea on what to expect on a trip like this. Don’t expect perfect grammar because I intentionally didn’t write it to be with perfect grammar.

A Few Facts:

Starting mileage: 102,750 approx
Finishing mileage: 117,450 approx
Total time from start to finish: 13 weeks
Border crossings ranged from $10-$200
Time to cross borders ranged from 1hr to 5hrs
Longest distance between fuel ups was 485 miles with a ¼ tank left!
Highest price for fuel: Belize, nearly $5/gallon
Lowest price for fuel: Panama, about $2.90 a gallon for 95 octane.

Prolog:

About August last year I started thinking about what kind of trip I wanted to take this off season. Knowing that money was down because of the economy I knew I would have to do a trip on a bit of a “budget”. I decided I wanted to explore Baja in my truck and that this would be a trip that should not cost me a ton of money. In the past I have done no expense spared vacations for over a month. I knew I couldn’t do that this year so planned to do something different that would cost me less money.

I started buying gear for the trip and for the truck build up, the truck was to serve as not only my transportation but also my home! I would live out of the truck for the whole trip.

A friend of mine, Jaime, works in Belize in the winter months and then works in Canada in the summer months. He works as a guide in adventure tourism but is originally from New Zealand. Jaime was traveling from Canada to Arizona in October last year and stopped off in Jackson, Wyoming for a few days. He and myself began discussing my trip as well as his plans that winter. He informed me he was going to have some time off work in February, maybe as much as 3 weeks or more. So we briefly discussed me going to Belize from Baja and then doing some things during his time off like run a river in Belize or perhaps even go to Guatemala to surf. It was about this time I knew my trip was going to be more than just Baja.

I continued with the truck build up for the trip and started posting on some forums to see if anybody wanted to join me for part or all of the trip. A post on Expo drew some interest and a few guys decided to join me for the Baja portion of the trip. Blaine was to ride with me since I have a spare seat in the Taco. I would pick him up in San Diego before we headed into Mexico. John & Jim had their own vehicles and decided to meet Blaine and myself in Baja.

Around late November I was getting pretty far along with the truck build up and just all around getting ready for the trip. Jaime and myself had stayed in contact and it was around this time he informed me he had been working on some plans. Jaime has been wanting to start his own adventure tourism business for some time now. He had gone and rounded up a few clients who committed to doing a trip with him in March/March in Panama. This was to be his first trip with his own business, World Wild Adventures. http://worldwildadventureexp.blogspot.com/ It was at this time he asked me if I wanted to pick him up in Belize, we drive to Panama together and then I join him on the trip he was guiding. Of course I agreed as long as I could swing it cash wise. Jaime has a friend, Mike, who started a company in Santa Catalina, Panama a few years ago. Mikes business, Fluid Adventures http://www.fluidadventurespanama.com/
, mostly does kayaking trips out to Isla Coiba but also does surfing lessons, snorkel trips, wildlife viewing and so forth. Isla Coiba is an island off the coast of Santa Catalina, Panama that is a national park.

So a plan was basically formulated to travel to Baja and then cross Mexico and pick Jaime up in Belize. Then we would go to Panama and do his trip. Once his trip was done he had some more time off work and we talked about exploring the San Blas Islands in Panama or doing some other things.

The first and second weeks in December were spent preparing for the trip. The truck was finished up and other things done to get ready. I had planned all along to take my dog with me but now that I was planning to go to Panama I knew I needed to get some documents for that. So a bunch of last minute things were dealt with and I got ready to leave.

The Road Trip!

A few notes:

When I left Wyoming I knew I was headed to Baja and as far as Belize. I didn’t know if I would make it to Panama or not, it seemed so far away and I was on a budget. My plan was to be self sustainable. I wanted to camp on the entire trip, realistically that wasn’t very possible. I wanted to cook my own meals or eat for cheap, I think I succeeded at that. There was maybe only a few meals over the $25 price tag on this trip, most were $10 or less. I didn’t want to have a set itinerary, I wanted to find my path and route as I went. Where I would stay and sleep was to be determined day to day. I wanted to learn to surf on this trip, do some fishing and get my kayak in the water. I wanted to improve my Spanish and explore Mexico and Central America. I was going without a GPS, only some maps and a bunch of books. There was no set itinerary or plan for my trip other than to go to Baja and then get to Belize by the first week in February. I wanted an adventure, I knew if I just went that is exactly what I would get!

Route traveled on the road trip!

pink = route down
blue = route up

December 17th: I did my last load of laundry and packed up my gear and bags for the trip.

December 18th: I got up at 6am and packed up the truck. I then drove from Jackson through Idaho and to Eugene, Oregon. A distance of about 900miles. I have family and friends in Oregon (grew up in Eugene) and so was going to spend some time with them.

December 19th-24th: Hang out in Eugene with friends and family, went to High Street Café several times for good beers and did some last minute things to get ready for the road trip.

December 24th-26th: Drive from Oregon to Oakland, California and spend Christmas with family.

December 26th: Drive from Oakland to LA and spend a day visiting with my sister.

December 27th: drive from LA to San Diego and go to Blaine’s house. Do some last minute things and repack the truck. Filled my water tank up for the first time.

December 28th: Spent the morning doing a few last minute things. I went to the Panama consulate and had them stamp my dog documents. I also went to a Mexico tourism office and got my Mexico fishing license. About noon we were ready to go and headed out from San Diego. We had decided on crossing the border at Mexicali instead of Tijuana since we wanted a somewhat mellow crossing and also because we were headed for San Felipe. We got to Mexicali at about 4pm but crossed the border at the wrong place, we went through the 24hr crossing. I was not able to get the vehicle permit at this crossing so we had to find our way across Mexicali to the second crossing where I could get the permit. We were a bit lost when a local pulls up to us at a stop light and asks if we need some help. We tell him we need to go to the 2nd Mexicali crossing to get a permit for my truck. He says follow me! So we take a chance and follow him. He leads us straight to the right crossing but also right up to the office I needed for the permit. He was a super nice guy and I offered him a tip but he turned it down and just said “welcome to Mexico, I hope you have a great trip!”. We headed out from the border about 630pm and planned to just get to San Felipe that night. At about 930pm we pulled into San Felipe, we didn’t even go into town we just drove right into Petes to camp. We got our first Mexican meal, put down a few beers and then went on out to the palapas on the beach and made camp. I think Petes ran us about $10/night per person

December 29th: I had changed my cell phone plan before we left the USA so that I had an international calling plan. Yet, I didn’t have any cell reception since about 20 miles south of the border. I realized this was a problem since I had not made arrangements with John & Jim as far as when and where to meet them. After a few hours we got this taken care of and were able to talk to John who was still in the USA. We made arrangements to meet them at Playa Costilla down the coast near Puertecitos the next day in the afternoon. We got some fish tacos in San Felipe, tried to find some fishing tackle, went to the bank and paid for our tourist cards and then went grocery shopping. At about 630pm we headed out of San Felipe and drove down to Puertecitos. The road from Puertecitos is not bad but it has some really large dips in it. I hit a few of these going to fast because it was dark. Funny I had planned on not doing any driving at night on the trip if I could avoid it but here I was my second night in Mexico and I was driving at night! It took us awhile to find Playa Costilla because it was dark and it is not well marked. We finally find it though and are greeted by some gringos who spend winters down there. They tell us where we can camp and tell us where we can find some wood down the road. We make camp, dump gear and then go round up a bunch of firewood. We spend the rest of the night around a large fire drinking beers and BS’ing. We went to bed late.

December 30th: We wake up and I do a vehicle inspection. I find my RHS air bag mount has folded over, definitely a result of hitting the dips with to much speed! I am unable to run without the airbags since my truck is so heavy from all the gear. Without the air bags I am nearly sitting on the bump stops and it bottoms out all the time. So we ask the local gringos where we might be able to get this fixed. They tell us to go talk to more gringos back near Puertecitos and less than an hour later we are at a boat repair yard. The owner speaks good English and has everything needed to repair the air bag mounts. I have him cut both mounts off the frame and buff them up to nearly ½” thick plate. He then welds them back on the frame. It took 3hrs and cost me about $60. We head to Puertecitos to check out the hot springs but opt out when a local tries to get money form us to use them. We head back to Costilla and meet up with John & Jim. The rest of the night is spent drinking beers around a fire and getting to know each other. It was nearly a full moon and a great sunset. Playa Costilla runs us about $10/night per vehicle to camp.

December 31st: We get up and have breakfast burritos on the beach. We then head out, south down the coast. We planned to take the rough east coast road all the way down past Coco’s to the Mex1. For New Years Eve we were just going to find some remote camping and party it up. The first 15 miles of the road south of Puertecitos is paved and then turns to dirt, they are working on paving it all I believe. After 15miles or so it then gets worse and worse, it wouldn’t normally be a problem for my truck but I had a huge load in it. We aired down our tires shortly after hitting the dirt. About mid-day I blow out an airbag. The top cap plate on the air bag is made from plastic and mine has broken forming sharp edges. This has put holes in the airbag when the suspension flexes. It occurs to me that I might be able to patch it using tire plugs from my tire repair kit. So I plug the holes and it appears to be holding up. We continue on and get to Rancho Grande about 4pm. We stop into the store and decide to camp here down on the beach for New Years. We head down to the beach and decide to camp out on the beach for free instead of at the palapas which cost’ money. We set up camp and start drinking beer. It is cold and windy and there is no fire wood around. We make dinner and drink more beers. About 830pm we decide to go back to the store because they are having a party. We all jump in Jim’s truck and head on over to the store leaving 2 dogs and two vehicles on the beach. We get to the store and are greeted by locals and a few local gringos who live in the area. We get a nice big free meal and drink lots of beers. Jim gets his dance on with some of the local girls! We head back to camp around 1230am and when we get to the beach we realize we may have a problem! The tide has come up, it is a full moon and the trucks may be swamped by the tide! We hurry down to the trucks and realize we got lucky, the tide is about 30 minutes and 20 feet from burying them in salt water. We move the trucks to higher ground and call it a night. Free camping on the beach, clean up after yourself and watch the tides!

January 1st: We drive from Rancho Grande to Coco’s Corner. Shortly before Coco’s we come across a couple who has had the generator fall out of there motor home, rough roads and all. A guy in a buggy is already helping them but we stop, grab a snack and BS a bit. We stop for a bit at Coco’s to drink a beer, sign the log book and BS. Coco tells us that later in the day we will go through an agriculture check point and have to give up our fruit. So we turn most of it over to Coco so it doesn’t go to waste. We hit the Mex1 at Chapala and air up our tires. We drive to Guerrero Negro and get some street tacos, excellent by the way. It is now dark and time to find camp. We get lost for an hour or so trying to find camping out on the peninsula but finally find it at Campo de Ballenas. There is tons of sand flies here and salt water up on the road from the super high tides the last few nights. There is no firewood around and we are all tired so all go to bed early. Campo de Ballenas costs us $5/night per vehicle.

January 2nd: Guerrero Negro to Mulege. Early in the day when we stop for gas in Vizcaino and John does a vehicle check he discovers a leak in his oil pan. Turns out a rock hit must have cracked a weld in his oil pan. So we get it fixed at a shop in about 2-3hrs., they remove the pan and weld it again While he got it fixed I washed the salt water off my truck. I also made an error at the gas station and the pump attendant got $10-15 out of me from overpaying! That is the first and only time I did that! We get to Mulege at sunset and drive down along the river to view the hurricane damage. Some locals tell us where to get dinner and it turns out to be great! We head for Playa Santispac and get there about 830pm. It is still nearly a full moon and super beautiful here on the beach. I buy a bunch of firewood and build a fire then unload my kayak. I go for a late night paddle about 11pm which is excellent. I decide to stay here a few days.

January 3rd-4th: Get up in morning and tell the group I want to stay here a few days. They want to push on so we split up. Blaine rides with John and they head south early. I spent the next few days kayaking , fishing, exploring and sitting on the beach. Clean bathrooms, a store and firewood available here. Playa Santispac runs $8/night per vehicle.

January 4th: Get up early and notice a dolphin pod about 75 meters from shore. Jump in the kayak and paddle out for a nice morning with the dolphins, sorry pics didn‘t turn out. Then pack up and head to Loreto. Beautiful drive down the coast. Get some groceries and beer in town and then decide where to camp for the night. Decide on Juncalito Beach a bit south of Loreto. The beach is free camping but a bit littered with toilet paper and you know what! Although most of it is up in the dunes behind the actual beach. There is no bathroom here, not even a pit toilet. It is to bad because it needs it. I go to the far end of the beach and clean it up with my shovel! Have the whole place to myself and there is a huge pile of fire wood sitting here! It is now much warmer than in Northern Baja. Meet Richard and Tina at sunset on the beach. Richard has a sweet FJ55 and they live near by in a small community of mostly gringos. Camping is free on the beach, leave it cleaner than you find it!

January 5th-8th: Camp at Juncalito Beach. Head back to Loreto on the 5th and hit up internet café. Order up new air bags and have them sent to a Toyota dealership in Cabo San Lucas. I think I am all set with new air bags in a week to ten days. End up having dinner with Richard & Tina at their place on the 5th. Spent 6th-8th kayaking, fishing, hiking and spear fishing around this area. I cut my heel on my foot bad spear fishing on the 7th. Knew I should have worn my boots. Ended up with a deep wound with broken pieces of shell in it. I dug it out with a knife and the high pressure water system in my truck, glad my doc had given me painkillers! Caught some fish, mostly trigger fish trolling around Isla Mestiza and made fish tacos!

January 8th: Drive to just north of La Paz and drive up nearly as far as San Evaristo but don’t find any good camping. So drive back towards La Paz and camp at Los Tules. It is a rocky beach just up the coast from La Paz on the west side of the bay. I had the whole place to myself and gathered up enough wood for a bonfire. Unfortunately though I took a burning ember to the eye socket that nearly blinded me. Wood popped in the fire and I got that 1 in a million coal to the eye! About 10pm some guys come down to the beach, it is obvious they are not camping. They screw around and then drive around my camp casing me out. I have spear gun in hand, dog at the ready and bear spray in the back pocket! Luckily they decide to leave me alone and I end up sleeping in the truck armed and with the back closed up. I may have been paranoid but better safe then sorry. The camping is free here with a fairly clean area, no bathrooms, careful about security in this area if boondocking.

January 9th-13th: Drove on the 9th from La Paz to Todo Santos. Ran out of water in water tank for the first time on morning of the 9th. Before leaving the Los Tules area I go for a 4wd up a really nice canyon along the coast. Blew air bag flexing up suspension on LHS. Good at fixing them now I have it done in 45mins! Both air bags now have tire plugs in them! I get to Todo Santos and on way out of town stop for some street tortas and then to fill up water tank. Meet Cale as I am filling up water tank. He is hitch hiking and asks for a ride. Young guy but not a threat to me so sure I give him a ride, he is looking for camping anyways down the coast a little bit. We roll in together at Cerritos around 6pm. Make camp right on beach and meet the locals at Costa Azul Surf Shop. We spent the rest of the time here camped on the beach, learning to surf, drinking beer and just hanging out. It turns out Cale just graduated recently from the UofO which is where I grew up. It also turns out he is hitch hiking by himself to South America on $2,000! I thought that was super cool….he and I got along pretty well!

Cerritos

January 13th-16th: Went to Todo Santos in morning on 13th and dropped Cale off in town. Hit the internet up and then had some street fish tacos. I drove to Cabo San Lucas and found the Toyota dealership I needed. Turns out air bags not there yet, there seems to be a little bit of confusion. On the 14th I call Fed-Ex and find out the guard at the dealership refused my package. Get this all cleared up (I think) but it takes nearly 3 days and I don’t have the new air bags yet. Camp between Cabo San Lucas and San Jose at Villa Serena RV Park. Pretty expensive but cheap I guess for the Cabo area. Do laundry and take hot shower for first time since I entered Mexico! Get the oil changed in the Taco. Find a used long board at Costa Azul Surf shop in San Jose and buy it. Stocked up on grocery and beers and found some Zacapa rum at a liquor store. Also found a deserted beach right on the HWY and spent some time there, could do boondock camping here for free but I didn‘t feel like it was very safe. It probably is though and I later saw RVs here for days on end. I did a little fishing here but didn’t catch anything. Villa Serena is $21/night per vehicle but has all the stuff you would expect a nice RV park to have, including a noisy HWY next to it and just a big gravel lot with some small trees. It is well kept though and the lady who runs it is nice. There is a restaurant next door.

January 16th-17th: Drive from Cabo to Agua Caliente in the afternoon after calling Fed-Ex and finding out for sure when airbags would show up (I think again). Meet some locals in a wash just before the village of El Chorro which is next to the Agua Caliente hot springs. I think these guys are stuck in the wash and need help, turns out they just want to hang out and drink beer. I make the bad decision to have some beers with them and offer up some rum. They were drunk already but are now wasted pretty bad. Friendly and seem harmless but this doesn’t last to long. One leaves and the old guy wants to help me find the camp at the hot springs so I agree to follow him just up the road. He is not driving well but we make it, I have only had 2 beers and a sip of rum myself and am fine. The old guy then tries to piss on my truck at camp and ends up peeing on himself! He then tries to ram my truck with his truck so I leave after his 4-5 attempt! It was to bad because it looked like a nice place to camp and possibly nice hot springs. I didn’t want any problems though and getting him with the bear spray or knocking him out would have caused me problems. He lived in the village right next to where I wanted to camp! So a good lesson learned today, don’t get drunk with the locals! I drove to La Ribera on the coast from El Chorro in the dark. I checked out the free camping on the beach in La Ribera but it was very windy and wet from the strong breeze. I go to La Trinidad RV Park down the road and find the restaurant still open. Mike the owner offers me camping here for half price which was $10/night. It is a nice place but off the beach. The beach is however only a 10min walk from the place on a nice trail. There is very nice bathrooms here, concrete slabs for vehicles/campers, a bar/bar, a swimming pool and all the other things RV parks have. Mike lets me drink my own rum at the bar after buying dinner. I stayed here till the morning of the 18th. La Trinidad runs $20/night for RVs or negotiate with Mike to camp for half price! Mike is a nice ex-pat with lots of stories who has been living in Baja for over 20yrs.

January 18th-19th: Back to Cabo and Toyota dealership to find out still no airbags! I call Fed-Ex again and find out they went back to the mainland and nobody I was talking to really knew what was going on up to now! They say at 1pm on the 19th they can confirm exactly what day the airbags will be delivered. So I go for a paddle out around the cape in the morning, very beautiful even though it is tourist Ville! Batteries died in camera so no pictures. After this I make the call on the 19th at 1pm and then head back up to Todo Santos for some nice free camping and surfing while I wait. Stayed night of the 18th at Villa Serena again. Make arrangements at a welding shop in San Jose to cut off one air bag mount and move it back since I don’t like how close it is to the shock. They will do this on the morning of the 22nd.

January 19th-22nd: Camped at Cerritos and spent time surfing, laying about, drinking beers and socializing. Finally feeling the surf vibe a bit and getting my feet under me. Not intimidated by the ocean anymore and feeling fairly confident in the water. It was a good few days relaxing here. I played with my camera a bunch trying to get good photos of people surfing, there were some pros here this week. Decided my camera is not really good for action shots from far away!

Here is a short video of the sun setting at Cerritos….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RosIPdSZbDE

January 22nd & 23rd: Get up at 6am and drive from Cerritos to San Jose to the welding shop. Have airbag mount cut off and moved. This costs me about $60, again. Then go to Toyota and find out the new airbags are finally here! I have Toyota change my fuel filter and they are supposed to service my injectors. They do the fuel filter and charge me for both that and the injector service but I learn later they didn’t do the injectors! I left the area in the afternoon and drove up the East Cape Road north of San Jose. This road has some really bad sections but over all isn’t to terrible. I planned to put the airbags in the next morning and test it all on this rough road. I got up the coast to Los Zacatitos (Zacs) and found a bunch of gringos camped on the beach a bit north of town. I pulled in and asked if they mind if I camped here and then I joined them. They ended up feeding me dinner and we drank beers and were merry! Thanks Marc & crew! I got up early on the 23rd and started to change out the air bags. It took me till 1230pm because I took my time and did some painting. I also cleaned my air filter and lubed the chassis. With the new air bags in all seems good! It was servicing the truck when I discovered they hadn’t done my injectors. They had sut on the outside of them, hadn’t been removed and you can’t get to 3 of them without removing the supercharger which they didn’t do! I leave at about 330pm and head up the coast to Los Frailes. Free camping on most all beaches (that you can access) north of San Jose on the East Cape road, leave them cleaner than you find them!

January 23rd-24th: Camp in the wash at Los Frailes. The beach is a bit exposed and windy so I camp up in the wash not far from all the RVers. I had a good sized fire and Mel, my camp neighbor, comes over to pay me a visit. Seems he is from Blue River, Oregon just outside Eugene! We have a good chat and he retires for the night. It is nice to know other people are looking out for each other in Baja, I often tried to camp near other people just for security. Far enough away to give me privacy but close enough to watch each others camp. Camping here is also free, leave it clean! Careful with your fires here if it is dry and windy.

January 24th-25th: Drive from Los Frailes to Los Barriles. Have lunch at Los Barriles and then drive up to La Paz. Very beautiful drive but my throttle body starts acting up for the first time. The air bags seem all good and it rides nicely. Once in La Paz and after 2hrs of looking for RV parks out of an old book I give up and go to one I know exists! It is just outside La Paz on the road to El Centenario, its on the Mex1 and you can’t miss it. It is not a very good park but is close to the city and safe. It has laundry and hot showers and not much else, a playground I guess. I do some laundry and get a hot shower. The RV park runs $18/night.

January 25-26th: I get up at 630am and go to the ferry terminal just north of La Paz. Not knowing exact details I just wanted to get there early to make sure I got my ticket for that day on the ferry. I get there before they open and wait, once open I get my ticket. It runs me about $180 for the truck and myself. I am done by 830am and ferry doesn’t show up until 330pm, back here by 130pm. So I head up the coast to both Pichilingue and Tecolote. I decide to cook breakfast on the beach at Tecolote. I then meet a couple from Canada camped near me on the beach. We have a chat for an hour or so and then I get ready to go to the ferry. I should have camped up here the night before but didn’t know what was up here and it was getting late when I went to the RV park. Oh well next time I know where there is awesome free camping near La Paz! I get to the ferry at 130pm and am getting ready to load when they ask about a ticket for my dog. I didn’t mention him initially so I have to park and go get him a ticket now before I can get on the boat. This costs me another $20. They told me I had to put him in a kennel on the boat but once I paid for him and was loaded they didn’t say anything about it. So I just left him in the truck with the rear slider open. The ferry ride is rough and lots of the truckers are drinking heavily and then throwing up in all the bathrooms! I meet some German guys on the boat and we have a chat. While on the boat I decide to camp on mainland at an RV park near Los Mochis. The boat lands at 930pm and by 10pm I am unloaded and at a gas station in Topolobampo washing ¼” of slat off my windows! I get to Los Mochis and get kind of lost. Then I find the Mex15 which the RV park is supposed to be right off. I fuel up and try to get directions and go looking again. By midnight I am not finding the RV Park so I just hit the Mex15 south for Mazatlan. I use the toll roads and don’t get lost at all. Along the way I learn what an AutoHotel is while looking for possible places to camp or sleep! I make it to Mazatlan at about 4am. I go to the first decent hotel I can find. By 430am I am asleep after a 22hr day on the road! I decide to lay low in Mazatlan for a few days and rest up. Figure out my next route be it inland or coastal. I got the truck washed as it had a nasty layer of salt all over it. The hotel costs me $35/2nights and is clean.

January 27th: Leave the hotel early but end up heading north not south on the Mex15 so have to turn around and the HWY only seems to pass through Mazatlan. So I follow it through the city, don’t get lost but it takes 2hrs to go 50miles! Finally get back on the Mex15 and toll roads. They are really expensive, I count two times and it costs me about $30usd each time to go about 150 miles. This is super expensive but the roads are good, fairly safe and fast. I get to Tepic by about 1pm and get off the Mex15 and onto the Mex200! I had decided the previous night to take the Mex200 all the way down the coast instead of heading inland in route to Belize. I have until about Febuary5-6th to get to Belize. The pace slows by at least half once I get on the Mex200. I am headed for Puerto Vallarta. The drive is slow but gets very beautiful, my throttle body starts acting up again. I am now driving through the jungle! That was pretty cool to be finally driving in the jungle after leaving Wyoming. Just before Puerto Vallarta I stop into a small town called Sayulita since I had read about it in one of my surfing books. I get into town about 330pm and grab some fish tacos down on the beach. It is now super hot and humid! I look around town and find camping at one of the restaurants on the beach. It is just south of the RV park about ¼ mile. The RV Park is usually full. Camping at the restaurant runs about $20/night which is expensive but they have security, water available throughout the yard and nice bathrooms. There is other camping in town on the beach too. Sayulita was a cool little town but had a few things not to my liking. Some of the local (gringo) surfers have an attitude, the waves here are really not all that to warrant any attitudes. Also the drainage ditch in town stinks badly of sewage. The town has a septic system problem and it is polluting the drainage ditch which is then polluting the beach. I didn’t surf here or even swim because of this. I did meet some local surfers who were cool who I drank beers and sipped rum with on the beach as the sun set. I decide to not stay here more than one night so I get up early the next day and head out. It is $20/night per vehicle to camp at the restaurant on the beach, they have secure parking, a bar, food and nice clean bathrooms.

South from Mazatlan

Sayulita



A California Taco

January 28th: Drive through Puerto Vallarta, fuel up in town. No dramas going through Puerto Vallarta. Head south down the coast on the Mex200 for Manzanillo, it is a beautiful drive but very slow going. Drive into Manzanillo a bit and look for a Toyota dealership but don’t find one. I was thinking they might be able to locate a new throttle body. I get lost near Tecoman and end up in the small seedy town of Armeria. Get turned around the right way and pass through Tecoman. I stop for fuel and a local warns me to be safe in this area at night! It is getting late, about 430pm. I was planning to get all the way to Playa Azul today but that the locals say is 4-6hrs out! I continue down the coast and come across a sign for hotels and so forth. I pull in the tiny town of San Juan de Alima and find a nice cabana for the night. It is a hotel and not camping but not knowing the area and locals recently warning me I want a safe place for the night. Plus the throttle body acting up badly and I want a place to work on and trouble shoot the truck. I watch one amazing sunset and moonrise then walk around town to find dinner. Only one or two places for food in town so I settle for the larger of the two. I end up meeting all the non-locals in town which is a total of 6 people counting myself! It was a nice local vibe here and not really concerned for my security one bit. This town mostly serves to Mexicans on vacation but it is well worth a stop if you are headed down the Mex200. I walked around town a fair amount at night and drank beer with a few gringos till late in the evening. I did see one truck full of military on the streets at about midnight. The surfing is supposed to be really good around here but I didn’t really have the time to hang out. My cabana ran me $40/night but lots of options in town.

January 29th: I slept in a bit and then took a good look at my truck. Fuel filter was clean after changing it only in Cabo. I see no probs with the throttle body but I am sure it must be failing or maybe the fuel pump. I head out about noon and drive for Playa Azul. I decide to be near Acapulco by Monday so I can go to a Toyota dealership and see about this throttle body problem. It is a nice drive down the coast but the truck is acting up a lot. I get to Playa Azul in the afternoon and town is packed. Mostly there is Mexican tourists here but the RV park is also full. A local guy leads me to a restaurant where they have camping for $3/night. I take it and squeeze my truck in next to the other 2 vehicles already there. I meet the Swiss couple camping next to me who are driving a decked out TLC camper! The are traveling all through the Americas and have already finished North America. I am pretty sure I saw their truck last fall in Wyoming and took a couple of pictures of it! I decide to lay low in Playa Azul for the weekend and then head down to Acapulco on Sunday. I spend my time relaxing in the shade, go for a surf a few times and browse the internet a lot on my phone. I discover that my problem is for sure the throttle body. I may be able to make it last longer if I keep it cooler. So I decide to dump my 70/30 antifreeze to water mixture and go to nearly straight water.

January 31st: Head down the coast and pass up Pie de La Cuesta. Get turned around in Acapulco and head back to Pie de La Cuesta. Find an RV park in town at about 430pm, it is nearly full but they still have some room! Pie de La Cuesta sits on a peninsula on the edge of Acapulco. One side is the beach and the other is a protected bay. It looked like a very nice place to go for a kayak but once again I didn’t really have time, needing to be in Belize in 5 days. I spent the evening on the beach watching another great sunset and drinking a few beers. The RV Park ran me $18/night, the bathrooms are ok, not great but not to bad.

February 1st: Drive into and then around Acapulco to try and find a Toyota dealership. No luck after 2hrs so I head out of town. There is a bypass but I must of missed it so end up driving right through the heart of town and along the beach. Near the south edge of the city I get pulled over for the first time! The cop says I ran a red light at a huge roundabout but I was going with the flow of traffic and didn’t see any lights, red or green! He gets me anyways for 800pesos and then acts real friendly and tries to give me directions on the map. I leave and am very cautious not to break any traffic laws. I get not 10 minutes down the road and get pulled over again, this time for supposed speeding! I know I wasn’t speeding because I was paying attention. There is two guys this time and they are hassling me badly. I give him my fake license which doesn’t work and he finally gets my real one. He then flashes a bag of white powder while his arm is inside my passenger window. He says he is going to drop it and arrest me if I don’t give him $2,000! I totally was not expecting anything like this, just another 800pesos or so. I only had roughly $1000 on me but he was not convinced, he was sure I had cash stashed in the truck. I ended up convincing him to take the $1000 and let me go. I took about 10-15mins though because he was determined I had more cash. Now this was my first real shake down by the cops. I admit I should not have gave them the $1000 but I got real freaked out when he flashed the white powder and said he was going to arrest me. These two guys had been doing this kind of scam a long time, hell I am not even sure they were real cops! I made the mistake of not separating my cash and keeping it all except a small amount in one place in my wallet. I am fairly sure the first guy who got me for $800 pesos called or radioed his buddies to shake me down because he saw my wad of cash when I paid him. So I learned a big lesson on this day and convinced myself they would never get me for that much cash again! I stopped up the road about 20 minutes to get a picture of the city. The coast is very beautiful here and I had no shots of Acapulco from the south. I also wanted to step out of the truck for a few now that I was free of Acapulco and the shake down by the cops. I pull off the road at a small gravel pull out. As soon as I step out of the truck my foot lands in a huge pile of crap! I was wearing sandals and pants and it gets all over my sandal, my foot and my pants! At first I am like oh great dog doo and then I see toilet paper all over the place! Wait a minute this is human crap!! I almost throw up but manage to compose myself. I decide to climb down the embankment to the ocean and wash this off me! My water tank was empty and all I had was drinking water. I slip and fall down the embankment, just have flip flops on. The coast here is rocky with big round boulders and they are slick. I get to the waters edge and am soaking wet from the waves breaking. Finally get the crap washed off my foot and then slip again. This time on the boulders and end up bruising my rear end good! I make it back to the truck and get out of here as fast as I can without getting pulled over again! I head for Puerto Escondido. I get into Puerto Escondido late and can’t get to the camping down by the beach because of construction. I end up going back into town and find a hotel that kind of has an RV park in the parking lot. I look around and decide to check elsewhere but then I see a couple of gringos camping under a tree. So I decide to join them. They are a couple of hippies/nudists from Illinois who are heading to Zipolite. We end up sharing food and drinks and conversation. It costs me $5/night to camp in the parking lot of the hotel. This was one hell of a day on my trip! I go taken and learned some very good lessons! I also decided I don’t like Acapulco one bit, in fact I dislike it a lot! Puerto Escondido looks nice and I had planned to stay here a few days but was running short on time. Once I left Acapulco I really started moving and took hardly any pictures. Taco was really acting up and it seemed like a lot of ground to cover before I was in Belize. So I just drove a few long days and hoped for the best.

February 2nd: Drive from Puerto Escondido to Salina Cruz. I decided to cross Mexico here and head for the Yucatan, then drop down into Belize. This section of road from Puerto Escondido o Salina Cruz is very windy and also super hot. This was one of the hottest places I was in on my trip. I get off the Mex200 and onto the Mex185 and then head north. It is so windy I have to tie down my kayak several times. I pass a Toyota dealership in Juchitan so decide to stop and see about a throttle body. No such luck so I move on. I get to the Mex180 and head west. It was nice to get off the Mex200 as it is really slow going on that road. The climate also changes from super hot and dry to cooler and very humid. I head west on toll roads for the Yucatan. It is late in the day and now raining pretty hard. I wanted to camp at Agua Dulce but decided against it since it was raining so hard and really wet out. I pushed to Villahermosa and made it in about 730pm. I got a hotel right on the HWY and rested up for the evening, even got one last hot shower in!

February 3rd: Up early and head out of Villahermosa, no dramas. Head across the Yucatan on the Mex186. It is a good road but had some construction going so was fast then slow, fast then slow. I was disappointed to see it was almost all farm land and clear cut. I stop in Escarcega and make some phone calls to the USA. I order up a new throttle body and have it shipped to Jaime in Belize. I get to Chetumal about 430pm and decide to try and cross the border today. I head for the border crossing into Belize at Corozal. Exiting Mexico is easy and I keep my vehicle permit. I should have got my tourist card put on hold but instead have it canceled. Entering Belize is going well. I get across the bridge and get insurance for my truck. I decide to hire a local porter. He will help me through the process with the truck and dog. All goes well until I walk up to the counter to clear customs. I end up getting the one guy I should not have got. He starts giving me a hard time about my passport and no re-entry stamps into the USA since 2004. I really am a bit ignorant about this at this time so play the ignorant part. It gets me nowhere to play dumb which I really am dumb and can’t say why I don’t have re-entry stamps other than they never stamped it! I should have told him they don’t stamp anymore entering the USA if you are a citizen but I didn’t know that at the time. He tells me to get my dog and bring it inside and clear it with agriculture. I think that this is a good thing because if they clear the dog and take my money they will clear me. Get my dog and bring him in and clear him although it costs me over $50! I then see the customs officer again and he continues to give a hard time, he even says to me if you are lying to me you are not getting in the country, he even asks me if I have two passports and then he tells me to go empty my truck he is going to search it. No problem I expected to be searched! So I go empty the truck and he eventually comes out. He kind of looks around and then asks me if I have any diving gear, nothing other than a mask and fins I tell him. He asks me about electronics, if I have a laptop and these items. I tell him no laptop but I have an ipod, a cell phone and my truck stereo. He then wants to see my cell phone, it is a Blackberry Storm. I also show him a business card so he knows I am who I say I am and not lying to him. He then asks me how much cash I have on me, I tell him only about $300 which is true. I say I don’t carry much cash now because that way they can’t rob me of all of it! He pokes around the truck some more than pulls me aside and says, if you don’t give me your cell phone I am not letting you in the country! I am like great, here we go again! He tells the porter to get the cell phone from me or that I should leave. I decide screw it, I have insurance on the phone. So I pull out the memory card and hand over the phone. I had just ordered up a new throttle body. I also needed to get to Belize, my truck needed repairs and Jaime was expecting me, I had made it this far!! Now that I have more experience I would handle the situation differently, may have also left. Although as I later learned once stamped out of one country you typically can’t get back in for 3 days! So I may have been stuck in the free zone for 3 days! The porter takes the cell and goes inside and gives it to the customers officer. I then go inside and he stamps my passport and clears me into the country. He then pulls me aside into a room and closes the doors and tells me to be safe, I then get my passport back! I get in the country and drop off the porter (no he wasn’t in on this scam) off in town. I then find a place to camp in Corozal, it is now late like 930pm. The mosquitoes were out in full force and it was hot and humid. I drink some beers and go to bed, I don’t sleep to well. Camping costs me $8/night at the Caribbean Village which is just a field across from the bay. It has RV hook ups but they look like they have not worked in a long time.

Searched at the Mexico- Belize border

February 4th: I get up early and talk to the only other campers at the Caribbean Village. They are Americans so I ask if I can see their passports, sure enough no re-entry stamps in years! I decide to go to Belmopan and go to the US Embassy. I wanted to report the theft, possibly anyways and also see if I had a problem with my passport. I had a long ways to go yet and didn’t want anymore problems like this due to my passport or me no being informed. On the way to Belmopan I pass through the only toll road in Belize, it costs me $.75! That is a HUGE change from Mexican toll roads. I also go through a number of police/military check points. My throttle body is acting up bad today. Around Sand Hill it nearly fails on me and I have to pull the truck over. I turn the truck off and check it out and it resets so I just keep going. The throttle body got stuck and basically the pedal was very stiff, I had no power and couldn’t go over 50mph. I get to Belmopan around noon and find the embassy. While looking for the embassy I go over a huge speed bump and end up breaking the top plate on my LHS air bag! I get in the embassy and speak to a consulate. Come to find out I am fine with my passport and I decide not to file an official report on the customs officer until I am at least out of the country. I leave Belmopan a bit more relaxed and head down the Hummingbird HWY for Dangriga. I get to Dangriga at about 3pm and go by Jaime’s work. He is supposed to be out on the Cayes for a few more days but I can stay at his house. So I am looking for a way to find his house! Turns out he is in town because he got sick and had to come in from a trip to see the doctor! I meet up with him and head on over to his place.

February 4th-10th: Hang out in Dangriga at Jaime’s house. Wait for the throttle body to show up and discuss our plan for heading to Panama. It is decided we will be going (I was unsure with truck problems, money and so forth) and hope the throttle body shows up soon. Jaime has to be in Panama by about the 16th so he can prepare for guiding the trip out to Isla Coiba. Jaime lives with the other guides and we spend time getting to know each other, hanging out and drinking! We have a BBQ one night and end up inviting some random German girls we met on the street over. One of the guides ends up with her and they are still dating! I meet a local named Devon who invites me to join his team for the Ruta Maya Challenge. http://www.larutamayabelize.com/main/Th … fault.aspx I can’t do it though because we are headed for Panama! I end up hanging out with Devon a few times and having dinner at his house one night. He is an inspiring musician so it was cool to get to spend time with a local in Belize and learn a bit about the culture. We went up to the Blue Hole National Park one day for s short hike and a swim in the Blue Hole. I am just keeping my fingers crossed the throttle body will show up on time and there will be no issues with it. I am watching the tracking on it via the internet so I see when it shows up in Belize. It gets stuck at customs in Belize City, in Belize there is a 50% importation tax on goods. We head up to Belize City via the Coastal HWY (actually just a dirt track) and get the throttle body. I was able to talk to a supervisor and convince him I didn’t need to pay tax on the part as it was for a USA truck and was leaving the country the next day. So I had to only pay a $15usd customs fee which saved me hundreds of dollars! We get the part and haul arse back to Dangriga, on the way we stop and go for a swim in a nice creek on the Costal HWY. I needed to change the throttle body and do other work to the truck that night before we left the next morning, plus pack and all that jazz! So I drove the Costal HWY rather fast! It was fun but I did damage blow the airbag that the cap broke on in Belmopan. So now I only had one new good airbag and I had three with holes in them! We get to town late but I had made arrangements with a local mechanic to do the work at his place. I did an oil change at his place the day before and also flushed my coolant plus filled it with distilled water and antifreeze to about a 30/70 mix, antifreeze to water. He lets me use his place again and some tools I lacked to do the throttle body and the last few repairs. We get started just before dark on the throttle body and by 730pm are done with the work to the truck. We repair the airbag and change out the throttle body. We take it for a test drive and it seems fixed! We head back to the house and pack so we can leave the next morning for Panama! It was nice to have some time to relax after 2-3 bad days in a row in Mexico/Belize. I would have liked to do some more things in Belize but Jaime was sick and recovering, I was low on cash, the truck was running really bad and I wanted some time out of the truck before heading to Panama. I was in Belize last year so no worries really that I didn’t do much there this time.

Partying in Dangria with friends

On the Coastal HWY from Dangriga to Belize City

Making repairs to airbag & truck before leaving Belize

Ok well…to get this going again.

All pictures and video from here on are owned by and courtesy of the following people;

Ian Westmoreland (me)

Jaime Sharp @ http://http://worldwildadventureexp.blogspot.com/

Alyssa Englund

Shannon Gullett

Denise Ouellette

Warning: some video contains foul language!

The majority of the video from here on out was shot by my friend and travel companion Jaime Sharp. Jaime is a guide in adventure tourism and a great guy, take a look at his website I linked above. If you are looking for a guide in adventure tourism to take you just about where ever you want to go Jaime is your man! That is my plug for Jaime who is trying to get his guiding business off the ground! As far as the video goes I have left most of it in it’s raw form so you can hear and see the sites and sounds of Central America. Of course when the camera is placed outside a moving vehicle there is a very loud wind sound! I have tried to mute this or remove it where I could. Some of the video is time lapse. Jaime narrorates most of it and does a great job of that! There is the occasional swear word and some loud music that we were playing in the truck. Volume levels might change between clips. So be warned!

It is a lot of work to put this together not only for me but also for the people mentioned so I hope you enjoy it! Pictures and video not watermarked are still owned so please be respectful of other peoples property.

Now on to the adventure…..

February 10th: Get up early and pack the truck. Leave Dangriga, Belize and head for the Guatemala border. We stop along the way for some lunch and get some boiled chicken, beans & rice. We cross the border at Melchor de Mencos/Benque Viejo. Leaving Belize I get hassled a bit about my permits, gear and dog. Entering Guatemala is very smooth, easy and painless! We grab some Gallo bomber beers at the border and stock up the Engel. Lot’s of road construction near the border on the Guatemala side but the roads improve rapidly and get really nice 30k out from the border. We drive to Lago Peten Itza area near San Benito. We fuel up and buy a bottle of Zacapa rum. We meet a local who recommends Poptun for the night. We check the books and decide on Finca Ixobel, it is late in the afternoon so we need to push on to get there before dark. Once we get there it is a great place to stay. It is very cheap, only $5 more to stay in a cabana instead of camp. It is raining so we take the cabana. This place has excellent food and very nice peaceful grounds to roam about. We have a great dinner and then drink Gallo bombers while we play chess in the bar. Safe place to stay, very nice staff, excellent food, peaceful, cheap and there is an armed guard or two who roam the property 24/7. Less than $10/night.

video of us traveling through Guatemala….

At the border….

And into Guatemala….

We find an old Nissan Patrol along the HWY…

At Finca Ixobel near Poptun, Guatemala

Gallo bombers…

Playing chess…

Tree house cabana at Finca Ixobel

Zacapa…again!

Guatemala’s best beer!

February 11th: We leave Poptun and head for the El Salvador border at Anguiatu on the CA12. It is a nice drive through Eastern Guatemala and then south along the Honduras border towards El Salvador. We pass the town of Zacapa where our favorite rum is made but don’t have time to stop. The landscape changes from jungle to a much more arid climate near the Honduras border as we head south. It is a rather long drive though and we get to the border crossing at about 3-4pm. The Guatemala exit goes well and I just suspend my vehicle permit for the trip home. After getting some copies made at the border I am all set and we head to the El Salvador side. Entering El Salvador becomes a major chore. Not many problems, no bribes but it takes more than 4hrs to enter the country! It ends up being fairly cheap though. A guard tells us we can only transit through the country since we have a truck and a dog. He says we only have like 6hrs to do this! This doesn’t seem right so once we get all cleared into the country we ask some customs officers if we have 24hrs or 6hrs in the country. They tell us it is 24hrs. They are very nice and helpful and it is now late and dark. So they recommend a hotel to us in Metapan not far from the border. It takes us a while to get to Metapan and find the hotel. Once there we meet a nice guy at the hotel who ensures us he will watch the truck all night. He speaks good English and is really nice. We shower up, Jaime falls asleep and so I take Buddy for a walk around the town. Jaime meets up with me, guess he woke up, and we head across the street from the hotel for some street tacos. We sit here drinking beers and meeting a bunch of locals. Generally very nice people but after meeting 4-5 groups of them we realize there is a lot of “gangsters” around. In fact we meet a few who have been deported from the USA. A couple of these rough groups of guys invite us to go out to a strip club with them. We consider it but realize it is a bad idea and we have had enough beers. By now it is 1230am so we just head to our rooms in the hotel and call it a night. The Hotel is called Hotel San Jose and you can’t miss it, it is right on the main street through town. They have indoor locked parking if your vehicle is not very large. I think it ran us about $35 for the night for both of us and my dog.

Video from crossing the border from Guatemala to El Salvador at Anguiatu on the CA12

pictures…

February 12th: We take a walk around Metapan, get breakfast and then head out of town. We head south and get on the CA1 then head towards San Salvador. As we come into the city we miss the Auto-piste/toll road/bypass and get dumped right into downtown. We quickly get lost with all the one-way streets and no good map of the city plus our bad Spanish doesn‘t help. As we are getting even more lost I decide to make an illegal turn across a double yellow line and enter into a gas station where we can get directions and try to get back on the right roads. I saw a number of people do u-turns on this road and also a few cross the yellow lines and enter the gas station. As we are sitting in the street with blinker on ready to turn all of the sudden be get nailed from behind! A car rear ends us at a decent speed, I guess around 20-25mph, we don’t here any skidding so it seems she just plowed into the back of us. I yell out some cuss words and pull into the gas station. I get out to look at my truck, expecting to see some really bad damage. As I walk around the back of my truck I am like HOLY SH*T! No damage at all to my truck can be seen!! We look over into the street and there is a small sedan just sitting there smashed up badly. A big traffic jam is forming but we don’t see the driver of the car. Worried the person may be hurt we head towards the car, just then she steps out of the car. A big sigh of relief to see she is not badly injured. We get her sat down in some grass at the gas station and make sure she is ok. She is very nice, hot and speaks good English. She wasn’t wearing her seat belt so she did impact the steering wheel but it doesn’t seem to be to serious. By now there is a huge traffic jam because her car is still sitting in the street and a small crowd has gathered. Some lady who I think owns the gas station comes over and in broken English tells me I screwed up real bad. Some nice locals who saw the accident come over and tell us the girl was talking on her cell phone and not paying attention. By now the girl has called her boyfriend, her mechanic and the police. Some federal police show up but only hang around for about 10mins until the traffic cops show up. We get her car pushed out of the road and I inspect my truck very closely, I still can’t find any damage to the Taco besides some scratches in the powder coating on my bumper. Her car looks really bad and I think this is it for me, trip is likely over. Jaime has to be in Panama in just a few days and can’t be delayed with problems that I expect are coming for me. We do not have insurance because few countries in Central America require it, El Salvador is not one of them. We end up chatting with the cops a lot, they are very very cool and one speaks pretty good English. Honestly they really made me feel better, calmed me just being friendly and talking to me and saying things like your truck is very strong! The cop who speaks English tells us his cousin married a pro surfer so he wants to talk about surfing for awhile. Eventually the girls mechanic shows up and he says it will cost over $1,000 to fix her car. She is being really cool about all this and just asks us to give her $500 to help fix her car. Even though it was not my fault and I had not yet broken the law by making the turn we don’t want to argue this. I could get stuck in El Salvador for a long time if I do protest and all things considered $500 seems pretty reasonable, especially looking at her car! Jaime says he will split the cost with me, very cool of him. The cops tell us if we settle this with the girl there will be no ticket, no record and no problems for us in El Salvador. So we hand over the $500 and then ask the cops how to get back on the CA1. One cop pulls out his iPhone and brings up a map, not so third world eh!? It helps but we are still confused so the cop says hey no worries….I will escort you to the right road! We are like…uhhh awesome! He pulls out in traffic, stops cars and lets us go. Once at the right road he tells us to do an illegal u-turn across a double yellow line while he stops traffic! It was pretty amazing to go from thinking my trip was over and I am screwed to having a police escort to the right road!

From San Salvador we drive to the worst border in Central America, El Amatillo. The reputation of this border crossing as we find out is well deserved! It is nasty, dirty, hot, scams everywhere, corrupt offices everywhere and just not a fun experience. As we come up to the border we get mobbed by like 6 porters. I don’t stop but have to slow down and some of them jump on my truck holding onto the sides and yelling $1 senior, pick me pick me! I dump all but one guy by swerving and hitting the brakes. We are still 5k or so from the actual border crossing so I do 50mph down the HWY with some crazy guy hanging off the side of the truck! It costs us $200 to get across and takes over 4hrs! This was the most expensive border crossing I had on the trip. Nearly half of the $200 went to a bribe in the end to a cop who said I couldn’t pass since I didn’t have my trucks title. This was the only time in CA I had a problem for not having the title. I didn’t bring my title on the trip only my registration. When we had to bribe the cop was the last check point at the border, we had all docs in hand and were clear to go but he would not let us pass. It seems to me they are just looking for some reason to bribe people. I learned that my documents, my paperwork and all that was my suit of armor. If there was a flaw in my armor these guys would find it and I would have to pay a bribe. I am pretty sure the porter who helped us across the border got his fair share of the bribe too. He claimed not to though and was making a big fuss so I ended up giving him a super cheap little 24” spear gun. He said he was a fisherman so was very happy with the $15 spear gun!

Here is a video of our border crossing experience…

We get into Honduras late, it is dark now. Unsure of where we can sleep for the night we go to the first place we find about 30k from the border. It is really seedy looking and is an “auto-hotel”. It is pretty sketchy and they have a big gate with a chain. A teen about 14yrs old lets us in and we drive back to the main complex. We are greeted by some more teenagers. The owner comes out and he must not be over 17yrs old! Then we notice 4-5 of these teenagers have pistols on their hips! We look at a room and it is safe but not really a place we want to stay. We are beat tired though and it is only $12 a night. We don’t have change and neither does anyone there. By the way nobody was staying there, it was empty. The owner will only take exact change so he tells us we can go to a gas station down the road and get change. Once out of there we decide screw that place we are not staying there! Luckily we find a nice place a few Ks down the road on the outskirts of the town of Nacaome which is right on the CA1. It is run by a family, very secure with a big fence and gate and has really nice rooms with A/C. The hotel is called The Sunset Hotel, you can’t miss it. A room is $25 for the night for the two of us, it is now like 930pm so we take it. They let us make our own dinner in the parking lot on our stove. We cook dinner, drink some beers, Jaime plays guitar which brings over a local staying in the hotel who wants to play too! We sit around outside the room till after mid-night drinking beers and chatting with the locals. The owners son fries up some banana chips and shares them with us, they are very good! It is super hot here even late at night, we get a good night sleep after a super long day, A/C cranking all night!

A video from around Metapan and on the road in El Salvador….

breakfast….

A video of the accident in San Salvador….

and pictures….

A bigger image so you can see the look on the girls face….it says it all!

El Salvador beer…

Jaime entertaining…

Me cooking dinner at the hotel…

February 13th: We get up early and head into the town of Nacaome to hit an ATM machine and the internet. It is an interesting Colonial town. We head out on the Pan-Am HWY about mid-morning. By the time we get to San Lorenzo we have gone through 3-4 police/military check points. They stop me every time even with my front license plate removed, must be the huge red kayak on the roof, it is like a flashing neon sign saying “tourists”! Every check point they want to see all our documents but mostly they ask about an orange safety tri-angle and a fire extinguisher. I researched the trip so I have both and they are ready to show the cops! Every cop has a big grin full of gold teeth and is friendly until they see the tri-angle and extinguisher, then they frown! Hahaha, I really enjoyed that because it was very obvious they bribed everyone, especially tourists over the tri-angle and extinguisher. It was great to see their facial expression change when I busted out the two items they were sure I didn’t have. At one military check point they ask for water so I give them a big quaff off my water bottle. From San Lorenzo to Choluteca we go through at least 2 more check points, both police. The last one the guy starts asking me for “tipo, $20 bucks, gasolina?”. We are like…uhh ok, I play dumb and act like they need gas in their cop truck. So I get out of my Taco and say yeah I can give you some gas, do you have a hose so we can siphon some? The cop is like “$20 bucks, tipo!?”. We act more dumb and get out our dictionary pretending to look up “tipo”. He gets frustrated and just says “Vamos!”. It was all pretty funny. From here we climb up into the mountains towards the Nicaragua border. We see more cops but none stop s, surprisingly! We have lunch high up in the Honduran mountains at what is basically a dude ranch not far from the border. The border crossing is very mellow and goes smooth. A nice change! We meet a guy at the border who is from England. He has shipped his BMW bike over to Canada and then rode it across N. America and is doing CA before heading to South America. He tells us about getting robbed by heavily armed bandits in Guatemala who had set up a sand trap in a rural road! We leave the border and get our first Nicaraguan beer at Somoto. It is now about 3pm and we decide to push long & hard to reach Leon that night. Our plan is to camp out on the beach that night at Poneloya. The drive is hard and long but roads are pretty good and we don’t get lost. The drive from central Nicaragua to the coast and Leon is pretty nice. Not hardly any traffic and people are friendly waving at us everywhere. Honduras felt really seedy and it feels nicer here which is a welcome change. We get into Leon about 730pm, it is very busy in town. We don’t get lost but do stop to ask directions to the town of Poneloya. Leon looks like a cool place to hang out but we want the beach and surfing in the morning. We make it to Poneloya at about 830pm and go to a place called Playa Roca which is run by ex-pats. They let us camp on a back deck for $5/night! We get a big dinner, drink beers and meet some other tourists both foreign and local. We end up sharing some Zacapa with a Swedish guy who simply love it! We take a walk down the beach fairly late and end up in a few bars. Another fairly long day and late night. Playa Roca is a great place. I don’t know what rooms cost because we camped but it is safe and secure with parking for small to mid-sized vehicles. They have ok food and a full bar. It is right on the beach.

Video from around Nacaome and our drive across Honduras on the CA1…

and video crossing the border from Honduras to Nicaragua on the CA1 at El Espino…

Video of our drive across Nicaragua to Poneloya…

And pictures…..

Honduran beer….

LOL?

February 14th: We get up early, like 6am and go for a surf out in front of the hotel. It is ok, not great or bad just ok. We find out later the surfing is best down the beach a bit in the morning and here in the afternoon. Jaime and myself caught some good waves though and it was really nice to get up early and surf, nobody else was in the water. My dog, Buddy, ends up biting some guy in the morning while I am taking a shower. The owners of the place are then upset with me so I want to move on soon. We have breakfast and then hit the internet but leave the truck and dog at Playa Roca. I then take Buddy for a long walk down the beach and make him swim in the ocean. He hates it! I then notice what looks like mange setting in on his back between his shoulders! Bummer! I treat it with what dog medicine I have. The owners are upset Buddy bit somebody but as we are getting ready to leave they ask us to help them move a pool table. It turns out to be super heavy and takes like 6 guys to move. They give us free beers for helping so we sit around nearly another hour drinking free cold beers! We leave happy and head into Leon to hit an ATM machine. A nice little walk around Leon, like I say it looks like a great city to check out but we need to move on. We head for Masayo or Granada for the night. It is now late, like 2pm. We decide on the CA3 to Managua and then on to Masaya or Granada. Little did we know the CA3 is pretty much abandon and the new road runs along Lago de Managua. The CA3 turns into the worst stretch of road I drove on the whole trip! It is only 60k to Managua but we are averaging 5mph! Huge potholes some 2ft deep! Sometimes the road just turns to full dirt and it is very rough. It ends up taking us 3 1/2hrs to get to Managua!! We get a little lost in Managua but stop at a Contra memorial and get directions. Back on track before dark and headed for Masaya or Granada. We end up passing Masaya and head for Granada. Upon entering Granada we realize there is some kind of festival going on for Valentines Day! We park and set out on foot to find a place to stay for the night. Town is packed full and very busy, everywhere we come across is booked up for the night. We head to a hostel using one of our books and outside the place we meet a local guy named Orlando. He is a surfer from San Juan del Sur on vacation in Granada. He seems like a nice guy so we have some pizza with him plus his friends and drink some beers. He offers us a room in his house for $3/night. His friends house actually, he was house sitting. We go and check it out and it is ok for just sleeping, kind of a skid house for travelers. No good place to park my truck though even though Orlando is telling us to park on the sidewalk in front of the house. It was a kind of seedy neighborhood with lots of drug users and dealers around. We drink a beer with Orlando at his house but it turns out he likes to smoke cocaine so we tell him we are going to go get the truck and come back. We actually planned to find someplace else to sleep that night! We take off and luckily find a good hostel with semi-secure parking for $9/night. It is called the Oasis Hostel and is pretty nice really. We bring in the surf boards but leave the kayak on the truck and Buddy has to sleep in the truck. By now it is like 1030pm so we take Buddy out for a walk and drink a few more beers then call it a night. I didn’t sleep to well, it was loud out the window of our room.

Video of Poneloya and then on south to Granada…

The CA3 seen in that video is the worst road I saw on the entire trip!

Video of around Granada on Valentines Day….

And pictures…..

Poneloya

Managua

Nissan Patrol in this vintage photo at the Contra memorial…

On the CA3…

In Granada….

February 15th: We get up early and get some breakfast at the hostel, not very good and expensive. Then we head out of Granada and head for the Costa Rican border. We drive down the CA1 along Lago de Nicaragua towards the Penas Blancas border crossing. We get there only to find out it is crazy busy, bus loads of tourists are crossing the border. We get in a super long line to get our passports stamped and realize it is a 2-3hr wait! We find a guy who can do it in 10mins for $10/each so we take him up on this to skip the line and wait. Then the truck and dog take another 3hrs to get across the border! We leave the border at about 2pm. We drive down the CA1 into Costa Rica and stop at the first comedor we see to get something to eat. It was a family run place and the family was big! The owner/old man comes out as we sit down and he is just wasted out of his mind off rum! Nobody else is there when we arrive besides the family. The owners is friendly enough and speaks some English but he is trashed and carrying on a lot. He offers us some rum, he drank most of a half gallon himself! We refuse the rum, I am driving so none for me. He ends up pouring a shot of rum in Jaime’s beer while Jaime protests. We learn though that wow this tastes great, a shot of rum in our beer becomes a favorite on the trip! About the time we see our huge plates of food the old man passes out cold! We enjoy our beers in peace and eat our huge $3/plate of food. We then go for a swim in the river right next to the comedor. We decide to push for Jaco that night so thank our hosts and head out. It is really slow going and we don’t get to Jaco till like 830pm. We find what may be the only campground in town at Camping El Hicaco, it is cheap but bathrooms are super nasty! We clean up and go out for some cheap dinner, settling on pizza. We are offered cocaine and other drugs plus prostitutes at least 12x walking to the pizza place and back! Jaco appears to be very lame to me with McDs, Dominos Pizza (no we didn’t eat there), drug dealers, and all this kind of stuff. I didn’t like the place one bit other than the beach was beautiful. Camping runs us $7/night.

Video of our drive south from Granada….

Video of our border crossing into Costa Rica….

Video of our drive south into Costa Rica….

And pictures…..

Where we went for a swim next to the Comedor….

Camp in Jaco….

Beach in Jaco….

February 16th: We get up early and go for a walk on the beach. There is no surf so we get breakfast and pack up. We have breakfast right next to Camping El Hicaco at a little comedor. It was all you can eat for like $3 and it was excellent! We leave Jaco with the plan to get to Santa Catalina, Panama that day. The drive down the coast is beautiful….this was the only section on the trip that I didn’t drive! I just really needed a break and so Jaime drove and I navigated and took a nap! I lost my good hat out the window while I napped, it was on my head, window open and when I woke up it was gone! We hit the border about 1pm. All seems to be going well until we go to clear my dog on the Panama side. It seems the 16th is a holiday, the last day of carnival! So the bank is closed and I can’t make a deposit for my dog documents. The lady in charge in the Agriculture department is very stern and won’t budge about the payment to the bank. The bank is not open until the next day at 1pm! We decide no way to get through the border today so we head back to the Costa Rican side. Nope! We had stamped out of Costa Rica and can not enter back into the country for 3 days! It would seem we are stuck in the free zone….no mans land! Right about this time a guy walks by and overhears us and asks what is the problem. We explain in broken Spanish and he says…no problem I can help you get across right now, today! He says the lady is off duty in about 5mins and then the next guy comes on. The next guy will take a bribe of about $100 and stamp the docs and then we can enter Panama! The porter wants $30 for himself too. So for $130 we can get across. Neither of us like this but neither of us want to spend the night here. We decide to pay the bribe and get to Santa Catalina.

With correct documents in hand we leave the border at about 5pm. We find Guinness at the border in a store for $.65 a can so we stock up! We push on to David and get there not long before dark. We hit an ATM machine, and stock up on food and more beer knowing we can’t get much in Santa Catalina. By the time we are leaving David it is dark. The drive from David to Santa Catalina is long, real long. It is dark and being the last day of carnival there is lots of people in the road on foot….I drive real slow. We finally make it to Santa Catalina at about 12am! The town is partying big time…we find some people who show us where we can camp for $7 a night. We have a beer and set up camp and just crash out for the night.

February 17th- 20th: We hang out in Santa Catalina…surfing, eating, drinking and relaxing. We camp at a lady named Rosie’s property for $7/night for both of us. She is a nice lady, has an outdoor shower you can use and is willing to cook for extra cash, we never tried her cooking though! It was really really hot these few days. Upper 90’s with a strong hot offshore wind all day. We get to know town, a few people and start to really like not only Panama but Santa Catalina too!

video of heading south from Jaco down the coast….

video of our border crossing into Panama….including the handing off of the bribe!

&

video of our first few days in Santa Catalina….

Pictures……

at the border…..

Santa Catalina….

camp at Rosie’s

Our first walk on the beach!

Slaughtered Rays….

It was soooo nice to finally be in Santa Catalina. I had logged nearly 10,000 miles by this point, I was road weary and sick of borders. The made dash from Belize while fun was a bit rough. It was super awesome to go surfing mutiple times a day and just lay low, recharge and relax.

February 20th: We head out from Santa Catalina early in the morning for Panama City. We dumped a bunch of gear, the Engel and more in our friends shop in Catalina. We are heading to Panama City to pick up Jaime’s guests for the trip he is guiding out to Isla Coiba. It takes us near 6hrs to get to the Tocumen airport. All confused on time of day and flights we think one of the guest has left the airport and is missing! It turns out ok in the end because we were off on the time of day and she shows up. We head back to Panama City to get a hotel. It takes us an hour of driving and a half hour walk to find the place. So many one way streets! It is about 6pm now, we get cleaned up and head out for dinner. About 9pm Jaime heads back to the airport to pick up the other two guests. I go to bed early! The hotel runs us about $65/night for two people. They do have a shuttle to and from the airport though that is free!

February 21st: We all cram into the Taco and drive back to Santa Catalina. Five people and a dog plus all our gear! On the way out of Panama City we want to check out the old town/historic district. After a while we are lost but find some cops in a golf cart who give us an escort through old town. It doesn’t help much though because we get lost again in old town! We ask a guy on the street for directions and he jumps on the side of the truck and says lets go! He is an off duty taxi driver. When we get near some cops he jumps in the truck, now it is 6 people, 4 in the back seat (seats actually not in the back) with the dog! I drive real careful because most of the manhole sin the streets in old town are missing! The taxi driver gets us to the right road and asks for a tip for his coffee, we give him a dollar or two. We get back to Santa Catalina mid to late afternoon. Jaime and myself camp at Oasis Surf Camp and we put the guests up in a cabana. Camping at Oasis runs $5/night per tent. It has decent bathrooms and outdoor shower for campers. Wear shoes around the place, I cut my foot on a sharp piece of PVC pipe sticking out of the ground! The have a kitchen that serves breakfast. It is an ok place expect for two things, noisy cows wandering the property at night, which really isn’t that bad. Except there is a really nasty German Sheppard dog on the property that barks all night long at the cows! The dog is muzzled because it is viscous and a known biter. I hate that dog, it tried to bite me!

video from Panama City including old town and the taxi driver who helped us find our way!

and pictures….

packing the Taco for the drive back to Santa Catalina…

February 22nd: We hang out in Santa Catalina, go surfing, show the guests around and Jaime organizes for the trip out to Isla Coiba. I should mention Santa Catalina has a bunch of pretty good place to eat. Most serve just dinner but you can find lunch and B-fast around town too. Most the food is pretty good and is really cheap in my book. Average meal runs $5-10 for good sized portions. A lot of fresh sea food is available. The pizza joint is pretty good too!

Pictures from around Santa Catalina…..

main street…my kind of town!

my home…..

More pictures…..

We saw a lot of cars get stuck on the beach when it was low tide….we try to push this guy out but no such luck.

dinner!

The best B-fast in town….

February 23rd: Jaime and myself in the afternoon go to Santiago to buy food for the Coiba trip. We give a girl named Angel a ride to Santiago. She is from Florida and drove her 4-runner down here a few years back. She wants to try and pick it up in Santiago. On the way to Santiago we come across a rather large boa in the road that was just hit by a car. It was a bummer and a bit sad, a very beautiful 8ft or bigger boa. It is suffering so Jaime cuts its head off with the machete! Angel’s 4-runner turns out to be a no go because her starter is toasted. We worked on the truck for 45mins or so. She goes shopping with us and helps with the groceries. We get what I think is way way to much food but Jaime is the guide so I follow his lead. We bet it will cost $400-500 bucks but it turns out being much less! Food is cheap in Panama!! After shopping we drop Angel off at a hotel and head back to Santa Catalina. We get back pretty late at night, nearly 10pm. Luckily we can get some dinner at the pizza place. We call it a night fairly early.

When Jaime and myself go to Santiago I spot a ton of Nissan Patrols….turns out they are very popular not only in Panama but very much so around Santiago!

brand new Patrol Ute at the dealership! :drool:

This one was sweet!!

factory Nissan PTO winch…

February 24th- March 1st: In the morning of the 24th we are on a boat out to Isla Coiba by 10am. Isla Coiba is an island (obviously) off the Pacific Coast of Panama, it is about a 2-3hr boat ride from Santa Catalina depending on the boat. The island was used as Panama’s prison for 100yrs or so, it was only closed in 2004. Isla Coiba is known as the Galapagos Islands of Central America. The island(s) is rather large. Since it only recently opened up to the public the place is an undisturbed paradise! Jaime has a friend, Mike, who started an adventure tourism business in Santa Catalina a few years ago. Mike’s business is Fluid Advetures Panama, [url]http://www.fluidadventurespanama.com/[/url] Mike was willing to help Jaime out so this place was perfect for a trip that he could guide, his first solo guided trip with his company World Wild Adventures. I feel very privileged to have had the chance to go along! Mikes company is the only business that operates kayak trips out to the island. We went to the ANAM (ranger) station on the island and picked up our kayaks. We then paddled a short distance to a remote beach that we had all to ourselves! Words really can not describe this place or my experience there! The video and pictures does do it some justice….

Out of all the videos I have posted I really reccomend you watch these!

video of Isla Coiba….

wildlife of Isla Coiba….

underwater at Isla Coiba!

Pictures….

my dog hates water and it was a wade to get in the boat….

Isla Coiba….

Storming on the way out…but it didn’t matter!

The adveture dog…more than likely the only Shiba Inu to ever camp on Isla Coiba for a week!

camp….

my spot for a week!

The beach we camped at is called Machete Beach and is on the north end of the island. We spend our days camping, exploring, kayaking, hiking, and snorkeling. We spend our nights sitting around campfires, telling stories, conversations and one of the guests reads a book to us each night. I drink a lot of warm Guinness with shots of Zacapa rum in them! Why not I feel like a pirate!

We paddled to an island so small and so unreal I will just let the pictures do the talking….

another shot of camp from the water…

We paddled to a hiking trail on the island….

Troops of these guys were everywhere…including visits to our camp! My dog didn’t know what to think of them and they felt the same about him!

Machete Beach….

If this is not PARADISE I don’t know what is!!

and yet more…I think this place is worthy of picture spam!

The amount of wildlife here both on the island and in the water around it is simply unreal, like I say words can’t describe it. Being a certified diver and having dove in Australia and the Caribbean I was very pleased to see the reefs here at Isla Coiba to be in good shape.

360 degree view at Machete Beach…

The 27th is my 37th birthday, Jaime makes me a chocolate cream cheese filled cake! He really does have some great skills to do this on a camping stove! The cake is excellent too! We have a big fire on my B-day and I drink a bit much! On the 28th we are treated to a full moon rise as the sun is setting. It was incredible! The last night the group heads back to the ANAM station to stay but I remain at Machete Beach with my dog and camp alone. I have a huge bonfire on the beach!

I don’t hold back on the warm Guinness and rum on my birthday!

The cake Jaime made me!

The full moon rise on the 28th….epic, truely epic!

On the 1st (our last day at Isla Coiba) we visit the old prison which I found pretty interesting. Police still live there in 4 week shifts and act as tour guides when people show up! The prisoners were kept here at this large complex but also at small camps all over the island. There was something like 35 camps ont he island, some are still manned and some have been left to rot. There was also buffalo, horses and cows on the island. Hundreds of them now roam free here but this is a problem. Gettng them off the island is not proving to be easy! Mostly the police in the area are looking out for drug smugglers, our guide had the hots for one of the guests! Once we arrive back in Santa Catalina we stay at Rancho Estero which runs us $15/night for a cabana for two people.

my tribute video and a farwell to Coiba….

pictures from our walk at the prison….

Back in Santa Catalina on the 1st of March…..the last night here for the guests before taking them back to Panama City where they fly home.

Jaime and me joking around…..

packing the Taco….

Mike’s business…

At Rancho Estero….

March 2nd: We drive the guests back to Panama City from Santa Catalina. Along the way we stop off at a roadside comedor for lunch and some local has the hots for one of the guest! I feel sorry for the women but really they don’t seem to mind one bit! The guy speaks good English but has had a bunch of beers. He is friendly enough and ends up telling us about how he worked on the Panama Canal which got him social security from the USA for life. He is also in his 80s!! We stop off at the Panama Canal on the way into Panama City for some pictures. We go back to the same hotel we stayed at last time since it has free shuttle service to the airport. We go out that night for a last hoorah with the guests. We eat at a really good Indian restaurant and then go to the Relic Bar. The Relic bar is under Lunas Castle Hostel in old town Panama City. This is the coolest hostel I have ever seen….art everywhere, guitars sitting out for guests to play and much more! Wish we had of stayed there! The Relic is pretty cool too. About 1 or 2am we call it a night and head back to the hotel. Two of the guests had flights at 5am, ouch!

My Taco at the Panama Canal….

March 3rd: We get breakfast with the last guest in the morning and then go for a walk around the area. I need to hit up the internet since I only have 4 or so pages left in my passport. This will not be enough for the trip home and I don’t want to give them any reasons to get a bribe out of me on the way home. I am thinking that hitting the USA embassy in Panama City will be easy to get some new pages in my passport. After checking on the internet it looks like getting to the embassy will be a pain and I can find no contact info for it. I decide to skip it here and try in Costa Rica. We say good bye to the last guest about 11am and then head back to Santa Catalina.

At the internet cafe’ in Panama City….

March 4th-8th: We stay at Mike’s house in Santa Catalina, thanks a bunch Mike! We spend our days relaxing, surfing, eating and our nights partying. I get up the balls one morning to surf the point, i.e. La Punte. It is a world class wave over a shallow reef break, usually only surfed at high tide. The entry and exit is tricky due to tons of sharp rocks. I never caught a wave on La Punte but it was good to paddle out there, try for a few and paddle back in…with no dramas! Self esteem booster to say the least! We get invited to a birthday party at Hibiscus Gardens just outside Santa Catalina. A nice place owned by some very cool Germans, thanks Ollie for the invite! We also go to a party at Oasis one night, some people go all night but I turn in about 1230am.

Last bit of pictures from Santa Catalina….

March 8th: We say goodbye to Santa Catalina on the morning of the 8th. I hated to do that!! I was really short on cash and didn’t have enough to get home. So I sold a bunch of gear in Santa Catalina…my kayak, spear gun, long board and more! I hated to do that but hey it was just gear I can replace and it was going to get me home! I also sold the Engel out of my truck, really hated to do that but I got $750 for it so lost very little cash. It was a last minute sale at 7am on the morning that we left. All the gear I got good prices for, thanks guys a bunch! We hit up Santiago after leaving Santa Catalina so I can get the Taco serviced. Do a full service on it including tranny fluid change. It doesn’t cost me much but takes nearly 4hrs! Great bunch of guys though that run the 4wd shop in Santiago. It was at this time I really discovered how popular off-roading is in Panama. The owner of the 4wd shops son had a big Jeep with a v8! I spent a bunch of time chatting with him about 4wds, off-roading and all that jazz.

We head out for David and then head up to Boquete. We had planned to get to Costa Rica that day but it was late so we just decided on a small detour up to Boquete. Wow I really liked it here! Being from Jackson Hole it was like the Jackson of Panama! We got in at dark and it took an hour or so to find a good hostel. We settle for Hostel Verde, nice clean big rooms and bathroom just on the east edge of town. I think it ran us about $8/each per night. We grab a hot shower and head out for dinner and beers. I don’t recall the name of the place we ate at but it was good, yet expensive. We go to a bar, also don’t recall the name but it is the African themed place. Service kind of sucks and it is dead. We have a few drinks and a few beers and try to pay our tab. Standing at the counter for 20mins with money in hand and being ignored we finally just walk out. Thanks for the free beers and drinks! Back at the hostel it seems deserted. In the living area is a TV and DVD player with a pirated copy of Sherlock Holmes so we get about halfway through it before falling asleep. Hostel Verde is about $8/night per person and has secure parking.

Video of leaving Santa Catalina and from around Boquete….including waterfall jumping!

A Jeep in Santiago…

On the road up to Boquete from David….

March 9th: I spotted an old Nissan Patrol walking my dog so we stop on our way through town and I take a few pictures. I sooo love seeing these old Patrols when I travel! We stop into a rafting business so Jaime can inquire about local conditions and such. We then hit up a bakery and stock up on baked goods and get a smoothie. We drive back towards David stopping along the way at a waterfall. Jaime goes for a jump and swim but I opt out, to lazy to put on the board shorts! We hit the border fairly early and it is painless, easy and cheap. A porter who helped us on the way down (not the guy in the video taking the bribe) greets us and helps for a small tip, less than $5. Didn’t really need his help but he is just trying to make a living and is a nice guy. Seeing the same porters on my way north turned into being a regular thing!

We decide to head out near Rincon along the Gulfo Dulee. We decide to find a place to stay out here for the night. Not 20ks off the main HWY towards Rincon we stop at a comedor to get a few cold beers. We had one beer down and had been there maybe 30mins when all of the sudden a white unmarked Hilux pulls up. Out steps three official looking people with guns on their hips and badges around their necks! These were not your typical Costa Rican police! They check out my truck and then come over to the comedor and ask if that is my Taco. Yes I say, what’s the problem. They ask to see my vehicle docs. I show them that and my passport. They are polite and say thanks and then leave, giving no reason for the check. It was odd because they drove in from the HWY and then checked me out and then turned around and drove back out to the HWY. Somebody must have reported me for who knows what at the border or coming into Costa Rica. That or a green Taco was stolen in the area recently!

We spend the afternoon driving out on the Peninsula de Osa. I have heard there is some of the best surfing in Costa Rica out here but we don’t really have time to explore. It is a remote region, the road is bad and it would be at the least a 3 day trip out here to surf. All we have is one night! We make it out past Rincon a ways, stop and stock up on Bavaria beers! We check several different places to stay for the night and settle on a restaurant along the road that has some cabanas. We can get dinner here and it is nice set back off the road in the jungle. It also has a nice view of the bay. We drink lot’s of beer and have a few shots of vodka. We get deep into some heated discussion that night, it was cool to do that since Jaime and I were to part ways very soon, no idea when I would see him again.

At Hostel Verde in Boquete…

The old Nissan Patrol I spotted in Boquete…

The waterfall near Boquete….

Video from Costa Rica near Rincon and on the way to San Jose….

Pictures from Costa Rica….

Costa Rica’s best beer!

One thing is for sure….Costa Rica is beautiful!

March 10th: We get up and have breakfast at the restaurant and then we drive from Rincon to San Jose on the CA1. This was the most beautiful stretch of road I saw in Costa Rica, up over the mountains through the cloud forests and down in the valley where San Jose is located. We hit San Jose right about rush hour but now are experienced travelers and navigators so we don’t get very lost. We stop in at an internet café for a couple hours. Figure out a place to stay and find it on the internet. I check my email and see I have a reply for the embassy here in San Jose, sweet looks painless to get new pages in my passport tomorrow! Directions in hand we head out and go to Gaudy’s Hostel. It is a nice hostel with secure parking for one small or medium sized vehicle out back. They let my dog stay there if he stays outside. It has a locked gate out back! A bunk bed runs us $9/night. I do a huge load of laundry, it was long overdue! Jaime and myself hit up a casino not far from the hostel for dinner. We have sushi and it was excellent. Not cheap, most expensive meal on the trip but hey we deserved it at this point! Jaime’s flight is at like 5am back to Belize. We say our goodbyes that night, I am sad to see him go. I got to say and give credit to the man and my friend, Jaime…without him I would have never been able to do all of this trip. He truly helped make my trip one I will never forget, thanks bro! He leaves at like 330am and I hear him go. This is it…just me and Buddy now and a long ways from home. San Jose to Wyoming….I had been not looking forward to it but now I feel different. I am ready to go home, mostly because I am not even sure if I have enough cash to make it!

Video from San Jose….

Ok so from here on there is a big lack of pictures as I traveld north through Central America. My friend Mike in Santa Catalina said it best….Ian you are doing a cannon ball run back home to the USA! That is exactly what I did, drive all day and not sight see, just head for home. It was not without some adventure though but no more pictures or video until I am in Mexico…..

March 11th: I wake up at about 6am and organize all my docs since it is a mess from the trip down. At 730am I get a taxi to the embassy and get new pages sewn in my passport. I am back at the hostel and all set by 1130am. Out of there not 15mins later! Lucky for me the CA1 is just a few blocks away. I follow the CA1 and head back for the Nicaragua border at Penas Blancas. Not far from the border I get stopped by cops for doing 80k in a 60k zone. The ticket is $400! I don’t have that to spare man, at all…I end up talking my way out of it, the cops were not bad, just stern with me. After this I break zero speeding laws all the way home to the USA! I can’t afford it!! I am across fairly easily and painlessly…it turns out to be that way going north and is much easier than coming south! I head for Granada, it is late afternoon. As I drive north the sun sets over Lago de Nicaragua. Since I know a good place to stay for the night that is cheap with secure parking in Granada that is what I head for. I get in about 830pm and head to the Oasis Hostel. On my way to the hostel driving through Granada I guess some guy jumps on the back of my truck and hitches a ride. I don’t see him but when I stop at the hostel a cop on a bike comes up to me and is talking about it in Spanish. It turns out the cop is ok and just wanted to make sure the guy didn’t steal anything from me or make any problems for me…I didn’t even know he was there! I walk around town by myself and get some dinner and drink a few beers. Buddy gets a walk before bed and has to sleep in the truck. I spend a couple of hours before bed at the hostel talking to an English chap who has been staying there for several months. I recognize him from my trip down. Turns out he has been traveling for nearly a year, free lodging for him at the hostel because he has been painting murals on the walls and helping out around there. Very nice guy, great chatting with him!

March 12th: Get up really early and grab a shower at the hostel before leaving. I get lost for an hour near Granada trying to get on the CA1 north. A bunch of locals are very helpful getting me back on track! I always had good luck with this. Even if I asked the most dirty seedy looking guy on the street. No body ever steered me wrong or sent me the wrong way on the whole trip! Before I get to Masaya I go on a detour through Tisma so that I can avoid Masaya as I head for Tipitapa. I drive all day to get to the Honduras border. It is a fairly easy and painless crossing with no bribes paid. I am greeted by a porter who helped me on the way down, he is a nice guy and you can see him in the video when we headed south. He takes care of me at both sides of the border for less than a $10 tip. He also gives me the name & phone number of his buddy at the El Amatillo border crossing on the other side of Honduras. It is mid afternoon when I get across and am on my way, it takes maybe 1 ½ hours which is great time! I make good time though through Honduras, I only get stopped by a few cops heading north and they don’t hassle me to much but the do ask to see my fire extinguisher and triangle! No bribes paid and no hassles! I head for Nacaome since I know a good place to stay and it is close to the border. My plan is to hit the border first thing in the morning. I get to Nacaome fairly early, about 430pm. I get a room at the Sunset Hotel which runs me $25/night. I get some food in their comedor and drink some beers. Mess around a bit, take a shower and then end up falling asleep very early.

March 13th: I sleep all night (about 12hrs!) and get up early, about 630am. I am packed and at the border before 8am. At the first police check point coming into the border is the friend of my guy at the last border and this guy waiting for me! I tell him no big tip, if he helps me, it goes quick and it is painless his tip will be bigger. If it is a hassle his tip will be small! He agrees. I see a bunch of the guys who hassled me coming down but they don’t hassle me so much. It does cost me $50 to leave Honduras and that is supposedly with no bribes! Oh wait I paid a $10 bribe to the cops at the end to not search my truck, geez if I was a drug smuggler this would be easy! Kind of funny to me in a way. It is painless to exit Honduras and fairly fast. It takes a bit longer to get into El Salvador but less than 2hrs which is much less than when we came down! I see a 4-Runner on the El Salvador side with Montana plates so I introduce myself. Ben & Megan are heading north so I suggest we caravan. They are up for it but clear customs quicker than me and then wait for me. We meet up and then head north. They had gone to Costa Rica to live, taking their 6 month old daughter and 3yrs old daughter plus two huge dogs with them. Bens dad moved down there a while back, bought some property and opened a bakery. After a month in Costa Rica though they didn’t like it so were headed home! El Salvador is very strict when it comes to vehicles. I didn’t get the same border crossing on my docs as Ben & Megan but had no idea if this would be a problem.

We head across El Salvador and make decent time. Luckily we get the bypass around San Salvador. We stop and compare docs and decide one of us has to go to a different border than it says on the docs if we want to stick together. After checking routes and asking locals we decide it will be me who goes to the wrong crossing. None of us could imagine it would be a problem since we were just leaving the country heading home. We head for La Chinamas even though my docs say San Cristobal. On the way we go through a police check point and I ask the cops if it is cool if I cross at a border other than my docs say. They are super nice guys and there is about 10 of them, one calls the border to check for me. Ben & Megan’s girls get a ton of attention from all the police! After 15mins or so they tell me at the worst I will have to pay a $50 fine, perhaps it is a bribe. We head out and get to the border maybe an hour before dark. Turns out I can not cross here unless I want to pay well over a $1,000 fine! Making no progress with the official who speaks no English I just decide I have to go back. Since it is late I split in a hurry and head for San Cristobal alone. We say our goodbyes and wish each other well. I haul arse back to the other crossing, it takes me over an hour and a half. By the time I get there it is pretty much dark. The crossing is painless though and takes just over an hour. I ask around at the border where I can stay for the night that is safe. I don’t want to push on to Guatemala City, it is just to far and now dark. It is suggested to me several times to stay at the border but I don’t really want to. Not far is Jutiapa so I head for that. I misunderstand and think it is just a few Ks to the town. So I stop along the way at a roadside bar/hut type thing. Super friendly but fairly drunk young Guatemalans greet me. I drink a few beers with them and try to talk to them in Spanish, I find out the town is only a little ways down the road. I head out and stop at a gas station in town. I go in to buy a few beers and some kind of food, out the back door I smell and see they are cooking street tacos and tortas. So I head on out and fill my belly for $4!! Right next door is a soccer field with a game going on, I think it was a Friday or Saturday night. I am asking locals where is a good safe place to stay. One guy says wait a minute and comes back with a guy who speaks fluent English. Super nice people who told me a really safe and cheap place down the road to stay the night. I grab some beers and head out. I stay at the Sand Mill Hotel which runs me $9/night and has secure locked gate parking for my truck! It is 10pm by now so I drink a few more beers and fall asleep.

March 14th: I get up early and drive across Guatemala. I expect Guatemala City to be really bad, I heard rumors it was. I stop outside the city in a gas station and ask some cops which is the best way to go pointing to my fairly bad maps of the city. It seems like the CA1 is not hard to stay on and leads right through the city. I cross the city super easy and never get off the CA1…it was nothing like I expected! I follow the CA1 across Guatemala and it was a super long drive. Yet, it was a super awesome drive, very beautiful. Over the mountains and through the clouds, the road was excellent and was all new over the mountains. After coming down the mountains I drop into a valley and the town of Huchuetenange. From here the road follows a river through a canyon towards the Mexico border. It was so beautiful, some of the best country I saw on the entire trip! I head for La Mesilla and Chipas in Mexico. I get to the border about 5pm, it is a super easy and painless crossing. Only takes me about 1hr! I just use my Mexico vehicle permit again since I had it from my trip south. From the border I head for Comitan in Chiapas. In a way it feels good to be out of Central America and in Mexico. All I have to do now is cross Mexico and I am back in the USA! I get into Comitan and get a hotel outside town. It is super nice and I get rock star parking inside the build with a locked gate. It costs me $15/night! I get dinner across the street and grab some beers from the local beer shop. I get a nice hot shower and crash out fairly early.

Right after I crossed the border from Guatemala into Chiapas, Mexico.

My rock star parking at the hotel in Comitan…

March 15th: I get up early and fuel up. I take a wrong turn in Comitan, (hate them Mexican road signs!) It costs me 1-2hrs extra drive time and 175k plus the 2nd worst road I saw on the trip. The road meanders through the farms lands and crosses a large, heavily guarded dam before coming into Tuxtla. I get lost in Tuxtla for a good hour but get on the right road and drive for the Gulf Coast! It is a nice and beautiful drive across Chiapas. I use the toll roads and make great time. I spot a super nice decked out late 1980’s 4-Runner with SFA on the HWY with California plates headed north and he is hauling some serious tail! We exchange waves. I head for Veracruz, get there and drive through town. I end up driving through the city and take the long way (nothing new!) There are cops everywhere and I can see they are nailing people. I drive super slow and break no laws and don’t get pulled over. No idea how I made it through the city without getting pulled over, there was at least 8 speed traps and other random police check points. It even says in my books Veracruz is horrible for cop shake downs. I drive through a super ugly industrial area north of the city that is very polluted, Simex plant I believe. Funny that there was upscale gated resort type communities right next to it along the dunes. It is now late afternoon and I head up the coast. About 730pm I call it quits and get off the road near La Litera. I get a room at one of the only hotels in town. It is rather expensive but I don’t care I am shooting for the USA tomorrow! There was super cheap and great food right next door. About $4 for 4 servings of multiple types of dishes! There is a vet a few doors down who is open late. So I stop in and talk about Buddy and his mange or skin issues. By now Buddy has lost some fur on his back and has nasty welts all over his belly. The vets looks at him and doesn’t think it is to serious. He gives me some pills plus a shot to help with Buddies itching. All up with meds and late night vet visit it ran me about $12! The vet says it could be mange or just skin infections or he is irritated since he has changed food in the last couple months. Very nice and helpful guy…

Leaving Chiapas and heading for the Gulf Coast…

March 16th: I wake up a little late, 8am and get going asap. I drive through Poza Rica and then Tuxpan. I see a lot of cops but none hassle me, at this point they can kiss my rear if they think I am paying any bribes. I am to close to the USA and way to short on cash! Really though I hadn’t paid a bribe to a cop since Acapulco and not to a border official since entering Panama, errr I mean Honduras. So I felt like that was not going to be happening to me any more! I obeyed all traffic laws! I want in the USA today but it is super slow going up the coast. I make it to Tampico and driving through the city a traffic cop stops me. He didn’t even have a car he was just standing in the road. He steps out in front of my truck and says pulls over! I am like What The F%$K FOR!? He checks every bit of my docs including my dog papers, this was a first for Mexico. I can tell he is looking for some reason to give me a ticket. He says no front plates, one ticket amigo! I had my front license plate removed and it was between the seats. I say yeah I got them check the front, while he goes to look at the ARB bumper I toss up my plate in the window! He comes back, no plates one ticket amigo! I say look in the window man, plates right there! HAHAHA, it was sooooo good to see the look on his face. He gets mad and frustrated, hands me my docs and says Vamos! I push north hard as it gets to be mid day and after clearing my last big city before the border. As I am driving up the last stretch of coastal road I come to what I think is a traffic jam due to an accident or construction. It takes an hour or more to move up through it. As I get farther up I see a bunch of guys with sharpened sticks and machetes and it seems like they are getting money from people but I can’t tell for sure. There is heavily armed cops and military everywhere, at least 20 are in riot gear. I was kind of like what could be going on here but the cops were not doing anything and nobody bothered me so I just pushed on without much thought. I found out later a bunch of farmers had held up the road and were taking $5-20 from people to pass through. The cops were not doing anything because it would obviously spur violence and the farmers were dispersing after a few hours. I didn’t see much though at the time or think about it and moved fast before they hit me up for anything, I was coming through at the tail end of whatever this was. I am driving through Los Lavaderos about 9pm and who do I see!? Ben & Megan parked in a hotel! I stop thinking they are in bed and I will just leave a note on their 4-Runner. Turns out they just pulled into the place! We hang out in the parking lot for 30mins or so BS’ing about our trips north. They tell me about passing through the farmers road block just a few hours before I did and that they had to pay them 20 pesos or something because four guys with sticks were demanding money! They are going to get a room but I tell them I am not sleeping until I am in the USA again! I know it is only 2-3hrs tops to the border. They decide to join me and we head out caravanning again on our way north! The road gets better the further north we go, we go through one last military check point heading north maybe 100 miles south of the border. We enter Matamoros at about 11pm. By the time we get across town it is pushing 1130pm. We were litterally 1 block from the border crossing when we see another traffic cop. I say to myself he is going to flip a U turn and pull us over. Sure enough he does it! Ben is following me so he gets nailed. I stop and get out and the cops has a super filthy truck! It had been raining and man the whole town had super nasty sewage smelling slop everywhere in the streets. This cop had it all over his truck, could hardly tell it was a cop truck! He has no gun, not even a night stick or radio. I tell Ben screw this guy don’t give him a dime! He tries to give Ben a ticket for his rear luggage rack that rides on his receiver. Ben is not having it though, he tells the cop I been all through Mexico twice and all through Central America and you are the first guy to give me a hard time about my luggage box! Ben is a fairly good sized guy and has a deep booming very commanding voice. They cop is just shrinking in front of Ben! He starts shaking while he holds Bens license! It was hilarious and I laughed out loud! The cop hands Ben back his license and we are on our way. We pull into the border and it is now 12am. It was a super long day for all of us and we were beat. The gate is closed, I was bummed out not wanting to sleep in Mexico that night. A guy is in front of us waiting at the gate. He is an American. It turns out there is a 24hr crossing not far way but after sharing some booz with the guy waiting there (his booz!) we opt to just crash out and cross at 6am or whenever they open. I sleep in the truck and it was the first night I felt cold since northern Baja!

Somewhere on the Gulf Coast, south of Veracruz I think…

At the Mexico – USA border where we spent the night….

March 17th: I wake up at 530am to some border guards banging on my truck! It takes us until 1030am to get out of Mexico. Turns out my tourist visa was no good and I had not gotten a new one when I came in from Guatemala, or so they say. So I had to pay for that to leave Mexico. My tourist visa should have been put on hold when I left mexico and went into Belize. Then I could use it again when I came back, or I should have gotten a new one when I came into Mexico the second time. I am really susprised no cops discovered this and got me on it on my way north….just goes to show how clueless the traffic cops are! Into Brownsville I get two visible searches, a K9 search and x-rayed! I didn’t care though because I was back in the USA and of course didn’t have anything to worry about! I am happy to be back in the USA…Ben, Megan and myself hit up Ihop in Brownsville, I go overboard and buy 3 breakfasts and eat all of it! We drive from Brownsville to Beeville in Texas where Megan has family. We stay at Megan’s cousins house and I sleep out under the stars in the back yard. It was cold but I had my good warm gear out by now.

Ben & Megan in Brownsville after breakfast.

and driving north from Brownsville in Texas….spring flowers along the HWY!

March 18th: I sleep in, up at 9am! It had been a long week and I needed a good nights sleep. I grab a shower in the morning and we leave Beeville fairly late. We hit up DQ on the way out of town and I get a very greasy burger and a huge Blizzard! I am really concerned about cash because I am down to like my last $400!! We drive from Beeville, Texas to Carlsbad, New Mexico. Just outside Carlsbad at about 1130pm we just pull off the road and go to sleep. It was nice to be back in the USA where we knew we could just pull over anywhere and crash out with no worries!

March 19th: We get up fairly early and go to breakfast in Carlsbad. After breakfast I say my goodbyes to Ben & Megan and head out on my own. After calculating mileage I realize I am not much over 1,000 miles from home. I want to try and do it in one shot, I am sick of seat time in my truck and ready for my own bed! I hit a nasty spring snow storm 125 miles south of the Colorado border in northern New Mexico. It lasts all the way till just north of Denver. I make it all the way to Sinclair, Wyoming but can’t go any farther by about 12am. I am beat tired so I pull over in a rest stop and crash out. It was cold but I had a bunch of gear, I think it hit single digits this night.

March 20th: I wake up at 6am and head out for home. I get maybe 5 miles and see my temp gauges is nearly pegged out to hot! I pull over and check it out. Turns out my coolant is freezing in my radiator since I have a very light mixture of anti-freeze. Remember I dumped most of the anti-freeze in Mexico when I was having throttle body problems. I barely make it to a gas station about 5 miles down the road. I buy a bunch of anti-freeze and dump the water. I then add the anti-freeze and hope for the best. The problem is gone, I was right! I hit some more snow on the way home but nothing to serious. I run out of windshield washer fluid outside Pinedale and can barely drive without it due to slush on the road. I stop in Pinedale and pick up some winter washer fluid. I make it home at about 1pm! Mission accomplished!!

BTW, I pulled into my driveway with less than $100 in my pocket!! How is that for budgeting cash for the trip home!?

Last video of crossing the border into the USA, the snow storm and of me very weary of so many days in a row on the road!

Picture of my Taco at home in the driveway, I pulled in stepped out of the truck and took this picture!

THE END!!!