California to Panama in a T100

redthies

Renaissance Redneck
We had no safety issues, nothing stolen, and payed no bribes during our six months in Mexico. We took it slow, played it safe, and yeah, luck might of had something to do with it too.

This has always been my experience. Luck as well? Maybe. Maybe it's just a matter of not believing that everyone is evil like the mainstream media would have us believe. I've had more than one heated "debate" on the topic of Mexico with less adventurous white bread eaters on another forum I'm very involved with.

Don't worry about boring us with "vacation" pics. That's what life is all about! Happy travels!
 
Yeah Redthies I agree with you, but I also alow that there are some crummy people out there (not just Mexico, everywhere) and we were lucky not to meet any of them during our trip.

Thanks for the suggestion chris325i. I will look into Clarissa falls and maybe we'll run into you down the road.

We are picking up our package today and headed for Guatemala if we have enough daylight. 😊
 
We made it to Guatemala!

We got our package in Belize City at 10:30am and made it to a campsite across the lake from Isla Flores, Guatemala with daylight to spare.

And we are lucky with our timing. It is the first day of a 6 day festival on Isla Flores. Crazy fireworks, parades, and dancing. Lots of cool stuff going on.

[video]https://www.facebook.com/thetravelingtogetherjournal/videos/1325163067544770/[/video]

firework selfy.jpg

If anyone out there is in Northern Guatemala/Tikal area, you may want to stop by Isla Flores to check it out. It's a cute town and everyone is in a good mood right now. Each night for the next 5 nights a different family is in charge of the festivities and they party it up from 5am till midnight.
 

luthj

Engineer In Residence
You might consider making the drive to Semuc Champey. It is a amazingly unique location, and a cool place to visit.
 

volcomsurfer

Adventurer
I was so anxious about bringing my dog into/out of mexico... They didn't even bat an eye. They were more worried about the dirtbike than anything. And like you said, the crossing was so simple. We went SUPER early, like 4am. And we came back at the Tacate gate. We were the only ones there, about 4pm?? My friend has a century pass so they just waved us right in. Crazy how easy it is to go back and forth across the border. After all the horror stories and perception I had from movies I was anticipating a nightmare.
 
Yeah, Volcomsurfer the US/Mexican border is surprisingly easy to cross(at least as a US citizen). Hope you had a fun trip. Now that you've done it I'm sure your addicted. I know I can't get enough of Baja.

Thanks for the recommendation luthj. I am a bit behind on my posts. We actually went to Semuc Champey and really enjoyed it.
 
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redthies

Renaissance Redneck
I was so anxious about bringing my dog into/out of Mexico.

After all the horror stories and perception I had from movies I was anticipating a nightmare.

Dogs are the best thing to avoid trouble in Mexico. Most people there don't have the extra money for "pets", and only keep dogs for security/protection. They assume we do the same.

There is a reason people say "don't believe the hype". 99% of what you hear about travel in Mexico is the same stories relayed over and over. Sure, there is potential for drama, but in my experience you are just as likely if not more likely to find drama in the USA.
 
OK. Update!

We went to Tikal. It was pretty rad. We aren't relly into ruins and after seeing a couple in Mexico, we actually skipped a few that we were considering, but Tikal was definitely beautiful and our favourite part was the large area of protected jungle around the archaeological site. While walking around the area we got to see howler monkeys, spider monkeys, many birds, and a racoon looking critter I can't remember the name of.
tikal.jpg
After Tikal, we drove south on highway CA13 to Lago de Izabal to check out Finca Paraiso. They have an extremely hot spring that feeds into a river just above a waterfall. It makes for a nice warm shower. The waterfall and surrounding area seemed nice, but the camping was a parking lot next to the highway and the children were tenacious beggers. When they stick out their lip and stick out their hand they expected you to give them something. We didn't give them anything, but it still got a little intense with the kids gathering around us because we were the only tourist there in the evening and morning. The next day when a little tour bus showed up they all went looking for greener pastures.

After a night at Finca Paraiso, we set out for Semuc Champey. Our map showed that it was a "highway" the entire way. But the road quickly went to dirt through a strip mine area with giant dump trucks driving however they pleased. Then we turned onto highway 6 and it quickly turned to mud as wound our way over the mountains. It took a couple hours longer than the mapping app expected(standard) but we made it before dark so it was all good fun.

Semuc Champey was cool. We hiked the trail up to the lookout for a great view. Then we went for a swim in the refreshing pools. A beautiful place for sure.
semuc champey.jpg
From here we headed to Guatemala City. We were having a vibration in the front end of the truck and I figured the big city was our best bet for getting it figured out. After some Walmart parking lot wrenching, I figured it was the wheel bearing. We got it repacked with grease, tightened down, and we were on our way to the beach.

I had been going kinda crazy with the lack of surf from the past couple months away from waves, so I was pretty excited to get back to the Pacific. We found a couple nice camping spots and some waist high beach break to play in.
guatemala beach.jpg

We were planning on taking some Spanish courses in Monterrico and camping on the beach there next to a restaurant for a few days, but we ran into some trouble. We try to be safe, so before driving out on the beach we stopped by the police station to ask if it was OK to camp. They all said "Si. No problema." But once it got dark some local guys came by and said the beach was private and we had to go. They were hanging out at what looked like an abandoned beach house and one guy went up on the balcony and started ripping pieces of stucco off the house and throwing it at our truck, so we left. No one got hurt and we only sustained some small damage to the camper and awning. A guy drinking at the bar next door saw the whole thing happen and invited us to stay with him that night. Marco was a very nice guy from Guatemala City who has a vacation house in Monterrico and was very upset about what happened to us. He went with us to the police to help file a complaint.
We left the next morning and are now taking Spanish lessons at Lake Atitlan.

Guatemala has been a land of dichotomy from our experience. Comparing the extremely friendly, welcoming people we meet, like Marco to the hostile experience we had the night before, but in many other ways too. The roads seem to be in pretty good shape then completely fall apart around the next turn and the biggest impression was felt driving from the central mountains where communities were living in small wood shacks along muddy roads and farming small plots in the steep mountains to Guatemala City. It's only a day's drive away and they have huge shopping centres and malls with high-end brand name stores and many new BMW and Mercedes in the parking lot. It's been a trip.
pig on beach.jpg
 
We are a few days into our Spanish classes at Maya Corazon in San Pedro de Laguna on the west side of Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. I think things are going well so far. I've got a lot of work to do, but I already knew that. Ha, Ha. Anyone that has read this thread knows my English is ******** so I am starting from scratch for sure.
We plan on traveling for at least one more year, so I'm trying to stay motivated to learn as much as I can. It would be so cool to actually be able to have casual conversations in Spanish with people we meet along the way.

Amie and I are each taking 3 hours of private lessons a day, 5 days a week and staying in a private bungalow at the school and we are staying under budget. I didn't think we would be able to do school and stay on budget at the same time, but it is quite cheap and since we are stationary, we're not poring money into the gas tank. We were going to do lessons either way, but not feeling like we're killing our budget by being here is nice. We might do an extra week.
 
Thanks Jeepercreeper! I love my Toyota too.
Amie and I have been busy this week with our Spanish school. I feel like I've improved. It will be interesting to see how much of it sticks after we leave. We've also been getting some video editing done. Here's a shot for the surfing overlanders out there I pulled out of our video footage.

guatemala surf.jpg
We found this spot at the end of a dirt track in Guatemala. We camped on the beach and surfed the place by ourselves for a few days.
 

BajaSurfRig

Active member
Epic that you guys are getting waves down there by yourselves. Someday I hope to drive down to Panama and back and surf and adventure along the way in my Tacoma. Buenas suerte con su viaje amigos!
 
Gracias Bajasurfrig. I've done lots of baja trips as well. It's a magical place.
If you get a chance to do this trip, go for it. Your rig would be killer for it.
I don't like crowds in the surf so I've chose not to spend much time at any of the big name spots. As a result I haven't scored much epic surf during this trip, but I have surfed solo quite a lot. It's been fun and there is still so much coastline to explore!
 

BajaSurfRig

Active member
If you don't mind me asking what would you say your average cost per month to camp/ drive/ adventure is (in hopes that I can budget correctly for a similar adventure)? Is $1,000/ month unrealistic? Feel free to shoot me a PM if you don't want to post it. Keep adventuring and posting photos!!
 

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