Two Latvians overlanding south

[izaicinajums]

Baja California was our first introduction to Mexico. We didn’t know what to expect and in what ways world around us is going to change. Well, you can call it a fear as well. Fear from unknown, we shall say. Only thing that really changed around us, was language. It was Spanish all over the place and we didn’t understand much… But still managed to do what we wanted – get camping, eat, buy gas etc. Security concerns went away soon after – it’s safe and people are friendly, just use common sense (i.e. don’t drive at night). We met up with our friends – Flightless Kiwis and hit the road, or in some cases road was actual Baja 500 track. We had a blast and Dace caught her first fish… puffer fish. Did we mention that Baja night sky is super dark?!











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[izaicinajums]

Baja California Sur was all about meeting new and interesting people, enjoying local food and camping on remote beaches. We are truly not a city people, but we did enjoy our fair share of the laidback Baja cities, as well as some awesome dirt roads. Dace also caught her first real fish (dinner) and showed off her creativity when I managed to get stuck in soft sand. What’s next? In next few days we hope its ferry to mainland Mexico.











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[coax]

Looks like your trip is going really well! Great photos.

 

[izaicinajums]

What do you do when you spend too much time on beach? Head for mountains, and that’s what we did. Met our first Mexican hairless dogs and kind of liked them. Had camp with nice campfire going, that allowed us to cook some snacks in coal and just enjoyed mountains and waterfall. We do like mountains a lot, there is no doubt about that! Oh, yes – we also saw our first wild rattlesnake. It was a big one and it was really cool experience







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[mapper]

Great updates. EXCELLENT PHOTOS!!! Glad someone is showing off places the Astro can go. I don't take enough pictures of mine in compromising positions. You are showing me it can handle even more!

 

[izaicinajums]

Today is very special for us! It marks 5 great years since we tied our lives together. We have been very fortunate to have each other through tough times and fun times. To treat us, today we also decided to take a cruise and relax. No. Just kidding. We are finally leaving Baja and taking truckers ferry to mainland. We are really looking forward to the next step in our travels and new adventures –mainland Mexico it is!

 

[izaicinajums]

Did somebody said not to eat street food in Mexico? Well, we have been doing just that, and it has been delicious!!! After arriving late on mainland, we spent night in hotel near port and headed out towards El Fuerte first thing in the morning. So far we have enjoyed nice little town and met up with our friends – Flightless Kiwis, who have just finished their Cooper Canyon adventure. As we are about to head that way, hearing about their experiences was great!







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[izaicinajums]

Alamos is interesting and dynamic town and you can certainly feel it, when you get into heart of town. Not sure if we liked it or not, but it was nice town to visit. Now it’s time to move on.







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[izaicinajums]

We have made it to the Copper Canyon (which actually consists of 6 distinct canyons…) and have found near perfect camp spot in Urique Canyon. It’s located in beautiful and quiet place. As a bonus you get all the fruits and veggies from garden they currently have. There is variety of fresh stuff we have gotten in last few days. Oh, I forgot to mention, the coolest part – wood heated shower.







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[izaicinajums]

After thinking about this for a while, we have decided that we want to get our blog up to date ASAP, and to accomplish that we will have to cut some corners. Namely we have decided to publish one post per each state that we visited and not to go into too much of details. Let the Facebook tell stories about US part of adventure. We have already published couple posts, about Nevada (http://bit.ly/1xOiSiF) and Colorado (http://bit.ly/1ugT9oo). Head to our blog and check them out.

 

[pmatusov]

"I prefer to draw a curtain over my visit to Eaglebrook school. It can be imagined what effect Rocinante had on two hundred teen-age prisoners of education just settling down to serve their winter sentence. They visited my truck in droves, as many as fifteen at a time in the little cabin. And they looked courteous curses at me because I could go and they could not."
(from Travels with Charlie by John Steinbeck).

You guys make me feel one of these teen-age prisoners of education!

Please ping me if you should come back to San Diego or thereabouts!

 

[izaicinajums]

"I prefer to draw a curtain over my visit to Eaglebrook school. It can be imagined what effect Rocinante had on two hundred teen-age prisoners of education just settling down to serve their winter sentence. They visited my truck in droves, as many as fifteen at a time in the little cabin. And they looked courteous curses at me because I could go and they could not."
(from Travels with Charlie by John Steinbeck).

You guys make me feel one of these teen-age prisoners of education!

Please ping me if you should come back to San Diego or thereabouts!

But you can actually go

As it stands right now (and it changes quite often) we might be driving back in June. The sad news however is, we will be taking more direct route back from Southern Mexico/Belize and probably heading to NW Overland Rally 2015 in WA.

We have to be back in Latvia (taking a break from trip south) in August 2015. It wasn't planned when we started out, but lots of things are that way.

 

[izaicinajums]

Utah was not only the place where we had some great adventures, camped in million star hotels and soaked up the beauty that surrounded us. It was as much about that, and more importantly about building new friendships, that hopefully will last a lifetime. Its kind a funny, that half way around the globe we still manage to meet some Latvians (there is around 2 million of us total – not a lot…) that have very similar mindset to ours, and when we interact, it seems that we have known each other for a long, long time. Beauty of traveling - you never know who and when you are going to meet.

Check out new blog entry a.k.a. lots of pictures, about Utah on our blog: http://bit.ly/1yIu2ec

 

[izaicinajums]

Check out new blog entry about our Arizona visit: http://bit.ly/1CpuMpC

P.S. No we haven't stopped posting pictures here, they will come (not all of course) as we get our blog up-to date on what we are doing.

 

[izaicinajums]

This goes out to my "friends" at Cooper Tire... As posted on our Instagram account: http://instagram.com/p/yTfLiQm17g/

Dear @CooperTire today I finally came to conclusion, after being left with yet another hole and leaking tire at the roadside in Mexico, that your Discoverer AT3 tires are piece of ****. I am not even talking about other tire which structure fell apart after suffering second puncture and left us with no spare in Copper Canyon… Yes, I will vote with my valet and not buy your product anymore, as well as NOT recommend it to anyone. I didn’t buy these tires 6 months ago to constantly deal with punctures… I would love to have my money back, so I can buy tires that I have never liked, but that have way better reviews in terms of punctures… Yes, I am talking about @BFGoodrichTires