San Francisco to Ushuaia in an 87 4Runner.

[defrag4]

ha yep, the very same one!

Actually we couldnt get a new CV axle till Friday and the mechanic couldnt just fix the boot till later in the week so we hit the road once more, with the hubs unlocked its not spinning so nothing critical yet. Surprisingly few older toyotas in Mexico, the mechanic said they didst really start to import them till 9 or so years ago. However he said they were much more common in Central/South America, were headed to Belize and then to Guatemala where hopefully we can find some parts and good mechanic. Im actually about to make a post here and a Guatemalan 4x4 board to see if we can find someone.

Also our gas tank issue has gotten worse, with no problems since Texas I had mainly forgotten about it. Yesterday we loaded down with 15 gallons of water which compressed the rear springs low enough to push the perch through the protruding lip of the side of the tank when hitting some potholes. We now have a steady drip leaking out of the side seam of the tank. Figure we will keep it 1/2 full until we can get it fixed up. I am thinking we can JB weld it back together once it gets low enough to stop dripping everywhere, my attempt to JBweld over the dripping gasoline was in vain. Perhaps I should have gotten that damn overload spring after all....

 

[LaOutbackTrail]

Fix your leak, then get under there and determine if you can scootch the gas tank over just enough to clear your suspension. You may need to widen the holes or make new brackets. You shouldn't need much more clearance!

Good luck!

 

[defrag4]

Randomly ran into Team Equipt ( http://www.equipt1.com/ ) while searching for a campsite in Bakalar near the Mexico/Belize border. Had a great night swapping stories, drinking beers, and drooling over their gear. Great guys, lady, and dogs! It was a pleasure hanging out. We couldnt have had a more perfect campspot right on the beauitufl crsytal clear freshwater lagoon. Took a swim in the morning in the lukewarm waters... We crossed over to Belize yesterday with no problems whatsover. No fees for visas or vehicle permit. $5 US for fumigation and $23 for 2 weeks of insurance. Had a lobster dinner and feel asleep on the shores of the Gulf Coast. Loving Belize so far!

JB Weld fixed up the leak, Looks like you can flip the bolt around and get enough clearance. Need to drop the tank to get the bolt in the other way though, for now I just removed the bolt and am babying the truck, so far so good. The bracket is on there good, I beat it with a hammer and prybar trying to remove it so I could slide it back to clear the bolt, didn't budge.

Will look into relocating/modifying the tank a bit when we get some resources.

 

[TerryD]

Great read! Just finished the thread and will be heading to the blog shortly. That bracket is simply for holding the spring pack aligned and it provides no function beyond that and limiting the amount of droop you have in the rear. You can remove the bolt for the time being until you have a chance to put it back in, but I doubt you will ever miss it. I ran my XJ without one in the rear packs for a couple years and I have a friend with a F150 truggy that's been without those bolts for about 6 years now. We even bent the ears of that bracket out a little bit on his to help it re-align after being flexed.

Looking forward to more updates!

Terry

 

[defrag4]

Thanks for the info Terry, I feel better knowing the damn thing is not going to come apart some how!

 

[defrag4]

New update on the blog: http://homeonthehighway.com/accidentes-in-oaxaca/

We waved goodbye to Mexico City as we climbed up and out of the smog-choked valley into the highlands. We were headed towards Oaxaca, we had been communicating with a volunteer organization there and planned to spend a week or two assisting them. There were a few sites along the way to see first.

First stop was a small town named Cholula, just outside of Puebla, MX. Home to the 2nd largest pyramid in the world (by volume). Sounded like something we had to check out. When we arrived in town we expected to see a huge Egyptian style pyramid dominating the landscape, instead what we found was a huge hill with a giant church on top of it. Can this be it?? Looking at the signs, sure enough, that was it. We stowed our King Tut costumes and went to check it out anyway.

The church turned out be about 600 years old and was a magnificent structure. Missionaries had built it on top of the highest point in town, not realizing they were constructing on top of ancient buried ruins. By the time the ruins were discovered the church had so much history and relevance they could not remove it. Excavation of the ruins are still in progress at the bottom of the hill. Walking the excavated perimeter and looking up towards the church you can see this really was a huge pyramid at one point.

We spied some street vendors selling all kinds of fruits and snacks. Getting a closer look I saw some sort of weird bbq bug they had. Turns out they were grasshoppers, yum! Lauren opted for peanuts while I chowed down on some grasshoppers with salt and lime. Crunchy and delicious! If you come across some, eat up.

Leaving the pyramid and grasshopper delights behind we headed further south towards Oaxaca, eventually winding up into a national park whose landscape was half mountains/half desert. A weird but beautiful place with thousands of cactus rolling over the mountains. We camped here for the night.

*CAUTION: LONG STORY WITH NO PICS*

We finally arrived in Oaxaca City, but without our phone or internet we had no way to contact our host. Downtown Oaxaca is a tight maze of one-way streets, tons of foot traffic, and lots of cabs, trucks, and motorcycles all jockeying for pole position. We drove around for about an hour in an attempt to find a hostel in our guidebook. Eventually we gave up and decided to just park and look around. Easier said than done… after 30 minutes of driving in circles (Reminds me of living in San Francisco&#8230 I finally spot a parking spot and my instincts kick in. THIS IS MY SPOT!!! I throw it in reverse to start parallel parking, crazy Mexicans are wiggling their way behind my truck as I'm backing into the spot, I finally assert my position and the coast is clear to reverse.

BAM!

Maybe not so clear after all… turns out another guy didn't agree with my “asserted position” and tried to wiggle behind. I clipped his taillight which shattered all over the street. Grand… This should be interesting. I jump out to survey the damage, busted taillight and some scuff marks on his fender. OK, not to bad I think. We start to converse (AKA He speaks to me in Spanish and I stand there with a dumb look on my face saying “si, si, si” over and over) eventually he says something about the policia, (I know that word!) not wanting to get the cops involved I told him that I would rather just pay him cash right now. He says he's not sure how much it would cost to get fixed and says we should go to a bodyshop for an estimate. Not exactly in the power position here I say OK, we jump back in our trucks and I follow him on a 45-minute joyride to the outskirts of town wondering just how much these guys are going to take me for…

We get to the bodyshop, where an old man with gold rimmed teeth comes out and starts running his hands all over the rear of the truck. Pointing at every ding and dent on the thing with dollar signs in his eyes. Oh man… I am screwed. They converse back and forth for a while about where to get parts, paint, etc etc. Finally they come to an agreement, the guy turns to me and says it will cost 2 Mil pesos. 2 MILLION PESOS!?!?

Turns out 2 Mil is actually 2000 pesos, around $175 US. I am sure this same minimal damage would have ended up costing me upwards of 1K in the states so I quickly agree to the price. We drive up to the ATM, the guy gets out of his car and starts talking to us again in Spanish. Great, here comes the rub, I think to myself… I am not sure exactly what he wants but we eventually figure out he is saying that he could probably save us some money if we went somewhere else to get another quote. Wow, I had this guy pegged all wrong, he was actually trying to save us money not extort it from us. Feeling guilty and not really wanting to go on another tour of Oaxaca, I told him I am happy to give him 2000 pesos, he thought we were dumb but agreed. 2000 pesos exchanged and we were back on the road. Escaping our first (and hopefully last) accident on this trip only $175 lighter in the pocket. Everything went better than expected.

Frustrated, overheated, and our budget burned up for the week. We said screw it and left Oaxaca in the rearview. We hope to return someday as we heard this was a wonderful city, maybe I will just find a parking spot on the outskirts of town next time…

We headed west up and over a mountain range from Oaxaca towards the Isthmus of Mexico and the Yucatan peninsula.

We wound up near the top of the mountain and found an amazing campsite down a small dirtpath. Secluded, beautiful, and quiet, just what we needed after a hectic day in Oaxaca.

We watched the clouds roll in over the mountainous valley below and the sun set on another day in paradise. Sometimes we have to stop and remind ourselves what really matters, Will we remember that $175 and this frustrating day in 3 months? Or will we remember this beautiful spot on our amazing adventure together?

Its easy to let your “problems” melt away with scenes like this.

http://homeonthehighway.com/accidentes-in-oaxaca/

 

[Ruined Adventures]

Glad to hear you guys made the best out of your chaotic day. Still sounds like it was a positive experience, minus the $175...think of it as paying $175 for this beautiful picture of your view, and the most-expensive campsite ever. :sombrero:

 

[benedmonson]

Great thread, subscribed! It was awesome meeting you guys at Bacalar. I'll post the photos of you two when I can.

 

[fatrat]

I love reading your updates & talk about your travels / show your pics to my friends all the time. Never stop exploring, be safe, & keep blogging your travels!

 

[defrag4]

Sorry it has been so long since we have updated, We have been caught up in a whirlwind of travel lately. (This is a good thing!) We have now settled down in a beautiful place called San Pedro De Laguna, Guatemala. We found a great spanish school that rents out nice little cabanas for $25 a week! We are right on the water and loving it here. I am lounging in the shady hammock outside, typing this up and listening to the birds chirp in the trees. Behind us about 100 yards is gigantic lagoon ringed by 3 massive dormant volcano mountains. Have we found paradise already!? Perhaps… Needless to say we have decided to stay here for a month taking spanish lessons and slowing down the pace.

Now back to our regular scheduled programing!

After our hectic day in Oaxaca we decided to put some miles down. My friend Doug runs a community center for a small barrio in Cancun. We had told him we were going to stop by and help him out so we set our sights for the tip of the Yucatan peninsula. As we descended from the top of the Oaxcan mountain range towards the isthmus of Mexico the change was immediately apparent. The pine trees gave way to jungle and the the cool dry air was now thick with humidity. Toto…We’re not in Kansas anymore.

On our way up to Cancun we stopped into the city of Villahermosa. A primarily industrial city with not much in the way of scenery. However it did have a nice museum/zoo combo that sounded interesting. The “Parque Mueso La Venta” combined both native Yucatan animals and excavated artifacts from the nearby Olmec ruins of La Venta into one attraction. Plus it was only $3 which the budget surely appreciates.

Yucatan Crocodiles. Vicious little guys. Note the croc is already missing one foot.

Lauren goes to the bathroom and when she gets back she hurriedly tells me “I think something escaped from the zoo!” and drags me to come look. Figuring she has been standing in the sun too long I reluctantly follow, and sure enough… something did escape!

or so we thought… We went and grabbed some employees and drug them over to look. They just took a glance at this obviously escaped zoo convict and started laughing. Ummm… hello? Aren't you going to put it back in the cage!? Well… it turns out these odd looking foreign creatures are basically a Yucatan raccoon and are more of a pest than a zoo exhibit. As we walked around the rest of the zoo we ended up seeing tons of them digging and climbing all around in the jungle. Man… we are such gringos.

The Olmec artifacts were very interesting, the La Venta ruins site is just up the road from Villahermosa. In the 1950’s they were planning to bulldoze the ruin area for crop land. An archeologist took charge, relocated most of the ruins to Villahermosa, and started the “Museo Venta” to educate people on the ruins site and Olmec heritage.

Magnificent Olmec heads weighing over 9 tons.

Growing up in Florida I have seen my fair share of Gators, I've seen the “World’s Largest Gator” at least 4 different times in 4 different tourist traps. But I think I may have finally found the actual “Worlds Biggest Gator”. Rumor has it that this thing eats Coatimundi’s by the bakers dozen, as the zoo keepers try to rid the park of the pests they toss them into the gator pit for dinner. He was a BEAST. I would say easily 17ft-20ft long.

Note the turtles in the pic are huge snapping turtles, not any baby sized Red Slider nonsense.

We packed up from Villahermosa and headed deeper into the Peninsula. We have visited a few ruins on the trip so far but we have heard that “Palenque” was one of the larger more magnificent ruins in Mexico. After learning about the Mayan Emperor Pakal, his tomb, and his jade mask in Mexico City, we were excited to see where it was all discovered.

The Palenque ruins were discovered in the 1800’s, explored and excavated over the centuries by a few different archeological groups. It is a beautiful Mayan site set deep in the jungle. They have done a great job with the excavation and restoration. The site and grounds are wonderful to tour around.

Although the site has been worked on for 200 some years, It wasn’t until the 1950’s that Alberto Lluhlier discovered Pakal’s tomb buried deep inside the temple. When he removed the (7 ton!) sarcophagus lid he discovered Pakal’s body dyed a deep maroon red and covered in magnificent jade jewelry. It was one of the largest archeological discoveries ever made on the Yucatan peninsula.

Pakal’s temple

I heard heard rumor that there were Mayan bathrooms at the site. I think this is a ancient Mayan ****tter. Either that or I just desecrated thousands of years of history to make a poop joke.

Read more on the blog... http://homeonthehighway.com/getting-mighty-jungley-out-here/

 

[haven]

Thanks for the many updates. So much to see, and you're still in Mexico!

This guy is a Coatimundi, a relative of the north american Raccoon, as you said. You'll see them regularly on your journey. They live in tropical woodlands from southern Arizona all the way down to northern Argentina. Like the Raccoon, the Coati is a scavenger, willing to eat just about anything. They often hang around campgrounds and parks looking for a handout. They're wild animals, and capable of inflicting a serious bite if they decide they want your sandwich. So it's best to be cautious with them nearby.

 

[southfarms]

I am LOVING this! Please keep it coming .

Stephen

 

[mervifwdc]

Great trip! Love that big gator they throw all the pests to

Merv.

 

[dorton]

This is awesome! I just liked it on Facebook.
Keep the updates and photos coming.

 

[Power Wagon Okie]

Awesome adventure. Have fun and be safe!!!!