Hourless Life: Documenting Our Global Overland Adventure

Hourless Life

Hourless Life

Well-known member
Ok for those adventurous enough to come down to Mexico, this is a place you can camp!

Our son Caspian did the bravest thing he's ever done, and this place we visited is not only magical, they have a heart for people with disabilities. Amazing place and amazing mission. Hope you enjoy.


Any questions let me know. ~ Eric
 
M

Mack M

Active member
Hourless Life said:
You know, it really is a personal preference and goal focused type decision.

For us, we looked at everything from Unimog builds to EarthRomers and other large trucks, to the small platform vehicles. Ultimately what really helped make our decision for us was our travels into Mexico in 2019 and 2020. We learned a lot about ourselves and how we like to travel. We love going deep into the heart of cities and parking next to the main plaza and exploring the area on foot. We saw many larger overlanding vehicles who could never have gone where we did. We even saw some larger passenger style vehicles that struggled through the narrow cobblestone streets lined with cyclists and pedestrians. For us the Jeep is the right platform. It is the right combination of small enough to visit the areas we want to visit, park where we want to park, off road capable enough to get us to places where many in sprinter vans can't go, and small enough to fit inside a container ship for transoceanic shipping. So it works for what we want to do as a family of three.

However, like I said, it is always a trade off. We envy our friends who have more space, larger tanks, and more creature comforts, and we let them know when we run across them. They envy our nimbleness and speed, and the fact that we don't have to carry a deadmans stick to raise up power wires to be able to get underneath.

Ultimately your platform is arguably the most important decision you'll make when it comes to your build. Take your time with it. If you can, make a quick one month trip into interior Mexico. See how you like it, and HOW your family likes to travel internationally. Decide how far you plan to go. Just Mexico? Central America? South America? Overseas? That will help inform your decision on platform. Hope that helps. ~ E
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@Hourless Life and @beanmachine314 I've got a similar trip planned, and would be very curious to know, how you think the tent option will fair in more urban settings. Like you, and seemingly unlike many in this community (at least from what I gather), while we love the outdoors and spending time in the backcountry, visiting the cities is of great interest, both for cultural and food related reasons. I myself have a Tundra and am planning an ATC camper (cheaper, simpler version of an FWC), but am concerned, not from a security point, but more from a 'getting asked not to camp' standpoint of having a pop top in urban environments. I just visited Mexico City last month, and couldn't have imagined popping the tent on my truck and camping on any of those streets, however, in a van or hard sided camper (scout or Total Composites camper) I wouldn't be concerned with getting a knock at 3am asking me to move on. Perhaps it's needless concern, but I'd love to know your take on this. Do you think popping the top in an urban environment will present difficulties, or will you just visit cities in the day and drive out of the city each night to sleep? Thoughts? Super curious, thanks!
 
Hourless Life

Hourless Life

Well-known member
Mack M said:
@Hourless Life and @beanmachine314 I've got a similar trip planned, and would be very curious to know, how you think the tent option will fair in more urban settings. Like you, and seemingly unlike many in this community (at least from what I gather), while we love the outdoors and spending time in the backcountry, visiting the cities is of great interest, both for cultural and food related reasons. I myself have a Tundra and am planning an ATC camper (cheaper, simpler version of an FWC), but am concerned, not from a security point, but more from a 'getting asked not to camp' standpoint of having a pop top in urban environments. I just visited Mexico City last month, and couldn't have imagined popping the tent on my truck and camping on any of those streets, however, in a van or hard sided camper (scout or Total Composites camper) I wouldn't be concerned with getting a knock at 3am asking me to move on. Perhaps it's needless concern, but I'd love to know your take on this. Do you think popping the top in an urban environment will present difficulties, or will you just visit cities in the day and drive out of the city each night to sleep? Thoughts? Super curious, thanks!
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Hi Mack, great question. Glad you have a similar global trip planned. Visiting cities is the best. No trip like this would be complete without spending time in the cities around the world.

As far as camping, we never "stealth camp" but if that is your goal, the definitely do not go with an RTT or something like our Alu-Cab Canopy Camper. A Sprinter van, maybe a Winnebago Revel or something like that if you'd still like off-road capability would be ideal.

We camp at established campgrounds, or by invite onto private land usually. We did a lot of dispersed camping in Baja. But in cities we typically will get an airbnb to enjoy the city and find a secure parking area for the Jeep. Campgrounds tend to be more secure and offer showers and what not. So that is our personal preference. They are also very affordable by US standards in Latin America. I think we paid $5 USD at our last one. Hope that helps and please don't hesitate to ask any follow up questions. We definitely want to be a resource for anyone coming this way. ~ Eric
 
Hourless Life

Hourless Life

Well-known member
Overlanding around the world is pretty amazing. If you'd really like to get a taste of interior Mexico, this video shows what it is like.

Santa Maria del Rio is one of the 132 "Magic Towns" or Pueblo Magico of Mexico. We spent two days in the city. The first getting to know the city, and the second celebrating Dia de los Muertos. Both are captured in this short video.
Hope you enjoy and feel free to ask any questions. ~ Eric

 
Hourless Life

Hourless Life

Well-known member
Overland Expo is doing a series called "Why We Roam" and they asked us to be part of it. This is just a teaser of a longer video that will be available on November 12. But it in we talk about why we chose to travel full-time and a little bit about our story.



Hope you enjoy the teaser and let me know if you have any questions. ~ Eric
 
Hourless Life

Hourless Life

Well-known member
Just a heads up to our Hourless Life community:

While we normally answer every comment fairly quickly, we may be radio silent between November 10-14 as we'll be heading deep into the interior of Mexico to an otherworldly oasis looking place called La Huasteca. Google it and be amazed. From what we understand there is extremely limited connectivity out there. So didn't want you to think we fell off the map, though we're trying.

For those who might be on our Patreon, I just posted tonight all of the details about our trip, so check that out.

Anyway, we're ready to head out to the next adventure on this global journey, and we're glad you are all here with us.

If you follow us on IG or FB and you don't hear from us by the 15th...send the cavalry. The road out to La Huasteca from SLP is supposed to be fairly dangerous because of all the twists and turns through the mountains to get there.

But if all goes well, we'll have quite the experience in La Huasteca and end up in Guanajuato, Mexico on the 15th. Which, by the way, is a UNESCO World Heritage city.

We're all ready to go and start the next part of our global journey and if you are reading this, we're so glad that you are with us for the ride!

~ Eric + Brittany + Caspian Highland | Hourless Life
Love. Explore. Study. Share.
 
Hourless Life

Hourless Life

Well-known member
Well, we did it! We made it to La Huasteca Potosina, essentially a tropical paradise deep in the interior of Mexico. We got 5 hours of footage so we are breaking up the video into several parts as we feel it is worth showing. This little video shows an area called Aldea Huasteca. Wait until you see where we camped and how much we paid.

Hit me up with any questions if you have any. ~ Eric

 
Hourless Life

Hourless Life

Well-known member
VA-CMac said:
Good God, I love this adventure.
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The deeper we get into Mexico's interior the more fascinating it becomes. I just posted on our patreon today about a walk that Caspian and I took through Guanajuato that I would never repeat. But we made it safe. Still Guanajuato is incredible and we haven't even shown Part 2 of the La Huasteca video which features our favorite paid campground we've ever stayed at, a journey through a surrealist garden in the middle of a thunderstorm and much more. Thanks for being interested in the journey and if you ever have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. I'm on this forum all the time. ~ E
 
Hourless Life

Hourless Life

Well-known member
I don't normally make public posts on our Patreon but I think this is something worth showing publicly as it is often overlooked in the full-time overlanding life. Feel free to read or just look at the photos, but if you are really curious about the drawbacks of overlanding full-time here is one major one.

 
Hourless Life

Hourless Life

Well-known member
We are currently overlanding through Mexico during our global overlanding adventure.

Last week, we introduced you to the La Huasteca Potosina region of Mexico. In this week's episode, we take you deeper into La Huasteca to show you some of the most amazing things we've ever seen in Mexico, including:

-A wild animal sanctuary
-Our favorite paid campground we've ever stayed at
-An insane drive through a mountaintop city
-A journey through the surrealist gardens of Sir Edward James
-Much more!

We hope you enjoy watching this video about La Huasteca. It is an amazing place and we can't encourage you highly enough to visit. If you have any questions, please ask! Happy to be a resource for anyone coming into Mexico. ~ Eric

 
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