unURBAN Adventures - Alaska to Argentina to AFRICA!

[deadly99]

Really enjoying the read, thanks for the effort.

About ten years ago I got violently sick in that mouse ridden hut on Orizaba for two days before stumbling down to a town, Hildalgo?, and sleeping in someones muddy courtyard and paying to use their washroom every half hour...thanks for the memory :ylsmoke:

Safe travels, can't wait to hear about SA

 

[Chris325i]

I climbed Orizaba in February, there was quite a bit of snow then. We had to hike in the last few miles to the hut, from the hut to the summit was crampons all the way. deadly99, the hut is still mouse ridden, I was on the middle shelf and all night long every time I would start to drop off to sleep a mouse would run along the wall behind my head.

 

[unURBAN]

Hi guys, looks like you are still having a ton of fun! great pics. I have spent so much time in Mexico and have yet to get to Guanajuato. Your pics will change that! I am now putting it on the list for the next trip south.

How are you liking the BFG KM2s now that you have some time on them? I think they will be the next tire for my Landcruiser.

Guanajuato is a very nice place to put on the to-go-list. Highly recommended! And if you are not driving a huge RV, stay at the campground close to the city centre (it is in the Church-book (or I can post the coordinates)).

Another town to put on the list is San Cristobal, if you haven't already explored it. Great place!

The KM2s are very good mud terrain tires. More quiet than the old Goodyear MT/Rs, and I burn about 5% less fuel (see earlier post) (and that is 37s (KM2) compared with 35s (MT/R)). But measured when the MT/Rs had about 25-30 000 miles, and the KM2s from 0 to about 5000 miles... I'll keep records and post along the way.

Really enjoying the read, thanks for the effort.

About ten years ago I got violently sick in that mouse ridden hut on Orizaba for two days before stumbling down to a town, Hildalgo?, and sleeping in someones muddy courtyard and paying to use their washroom every half hour...thanks for the memory :ylsmoke:

Safe travels, can't wait to hear about SA

That would be Hidalgo. We drove past the village on our way up the mountain. Not fun to be sick at that altitude! The girl from the couple travelling with us at the time (www.toyotours.com) in their Landcruiser HZ78 also got really sick over the first night, and they left first thing the next morning. We were also kind of slow the first and third(!) day up there. Probably smart to camp a night around Hidalgo (at about 3200 meters (9600 feet)) on the way up to aclimatize.

And we actually had snow at basecamp the day we arrived, but it was mostly gone by the next morning. No need for crampones before we were up at The Labyrinth at about 4800 meters.

E&M

 

[unURBAN]

San Cristobal to Guatemala and Lago de Atitlan

After hanging out for almost a week in San Cristobal, we packed up the roof top tent and drove towards the Guatemalan border. As we’ve mentioned in a previous blog post (or was it only on our web page???), we have adjusted our route to meet up with some family from Norway on Yucatan in the beginning of March. We are therefore making a loop down into Guatemala and Belize before driving back up to Yucatan. And this means multiple entries to Mexico for both us and the vehicle… Which, according to guide books, shouldn’t be a problem as both the vehicle permit and the tourist cards should allow multiple entry to Mexico. But theory is one thing, crossing the border can be a different matter.

We spent a night camping at Lagunas de Montebello (pic on the top). This is an excellent option if you are driving south along the Pan-Am, and want to cross the border at La Mesilla in the morning. It took about an hour and a half to get to the border from the campsite. It would also have been fine to spend a few days at the lakes as it is a really nice and quiet area.

Because of heavy rain in September and October the beach front cabañas are no longer at the beach front, but in the lake…

We had to get exit stamps from Mexico without handing in our tourist cards, and for unknown reasons this turned out to be a problem at La Mesilla. So we actually ended up having a beautiful drive along the valleys in Chiapas along the Guatemalan border. It took us about fours to reach the city of Tapachula, where we ended up spending the night in a “auto hotel”… We weren’t exactly impressed with our overland camping abilities this night.

The next morning we went for the Talisman border crossing, and here we got our stamps and the help we wanted. A detailed description of the border crossing and the paperwork is posted on our web page for those interested.

From Talisman – El Carmen we drove the RN-1 highway towards Solola (via Quetzaltenango), and from there to Panajachel at Lago de Atitlan. This was an interesting drive. From almost sea level at the border the road takes you up to about 3000 meters (9000 feet), and then back down to about 1500 meters (4500 feet) above sea level at Lago de Atitlan. Along the road we could also see traces of the above mentioned heavy rain, as the road foundation in jungle areas is obviously not the best…

Five months later they are still working on clearing the landslides.

The road going down to Panajachel IS steep....

1000 meters (3000 feet) lower in Panajachel we camped at Hotel Vision Azul. We found the coordinates and a description on the web page at “dare2go.com”, but we have to say that the new owner (speaks English) has made major upgrades. This shows also on the price (75Q per person), but the facilities are clean, the shower is warm, toilets have seats, there is free WIFI in the hotel lobby, and the location is fantastic!!

Next stop: Antigua!
E&M

 

[cweight]

Hi unURBAN,

From your Pico photos, I see you have the Howling Moon RTT, with the annex.

How often do you use the annex? Do you like it? Recommend it? Do you use it for privacy, for wind, for cold? Do you use it often or only once in a while? Would you get it again? Once the RTT tent is in place, how long does the annex take to set up?

Have fun!

Thanks,
Chris.

 

[unURBAN]

Hi unURBAN,

From your Pico photos, I see you have the Howling Moon RTT, with the annex.
How often do you use the annex? Do you like it? Recommend it? Do you use it for privacy, for wind, for cold? Do you use it often or only once in a while? Would you get it again? Once the RTT tent is in place, how long does the annex take to set up?
Thanks,
Chris.

Hi Chris,

Sorry for the late response. I wrote a few words when offline and forgot about it when we got back online. My appologies! Here are my thoughts on the rtt and the annex:

First, it looks like a Howling Moon, but it is actually the new ARB Simpson III. It is 1400 mm wide (external measurement), and should sleep three people (two comfortably… I wouldn't really call it a three person tent). We have now used it almost every night for 10 months, and it is still doing good!

We normally don't put up the annex if we are only staying for one night or if the weather is nice and warm (and no rain). But we do like our annex, and we normally use it if it is cold and there is wind (but not too much wind!). In the car we have a Eberspacher 2,2 kW diesel heater (air heater), and we can direct the warm air into the annex, and thereby also get some of the warm air up into the tent before going to bed. The annex can also be nice when we are staying at the beach and want some privacy for changing clothes etc., but we don't really use it that often for this purpose. We stay at places that are not so crowded, and we change fast… It can also be convenient for using computers when you need to get out of the sun to be able to see the monitor. Still, the awning is probably better for that. To set up the annex is only a minute or two after the tent is up, so that is really easy. The attachment is one part zipper and one part “threading” the annex onto an aluminum profile. I would say we use it only once in a while, but those times it is good to have. If I should equip another vehicle with a rooftop tent for a long trip, I would also get an annex.

But! Our challenge with the annex (and also the roof top tent) is this: It is not too well designed for bad weather, and when it comes to the annex, it is in bad weather we would really need it the most. In strong wind, it is hard (kind of impossible&#8230 to get it stable, as the walls catch a lot of the wind. Even with big rocks on the valences, it makes quite a bit of noise, and sometimes it just rolls the rocks off. In quite a few campgrounds it is hard or impossible to get pegs properly into the ground (rocks, tarmac, ice..). Many travellers using (trying to use) a roof top tent in southern South America (Patagonia) say that they give up using the tent and sleep inside the vehicle because of the wind. So I'm very curious to how this is going to work, and I will definitely write about our experiences in our trip reports (give us another 6 months.... ).

So! What am I saying..? There are definitely some limitations to how comfortable a roof top tent will be when the weather goes bad! You mention Alaska, and that you are bringing your kid, so I feel I should be honest about this. You can of course survive in an rtt in bad and cold weather, but none of the rtt constructions I've seen so far can compare with a mountain tent in design and quality for such conditions. It is just not the same. So at least make sure to bring a really good sleeping bag and hope for not too much rain… (Or just check into hotel if it gets bad!). So, even if we had really good weather up there, it COULD be that a small camper would be more comfortable for travels that far north…

Good luck with the planning and the trip!
And if you have other questions about our setup, experiences,, campgrounds, roads, etc, feel free to ask or send us an email!

E&M

 

[unURBAN]

Camping is not a tradition in Guatemala and it is only a couple of formal campgrounds in the whole country. So most of the time we will have to depend on Hotels, restaurants and people that let us camp at their property. In Mexico we have used “Traveler’s Guide to Mexican Camping” by Church & Church and it has been really good and helpful for us. They have also listed a few camping possibilities in Belize and Guatemala, but the options they listed for Antigua did not sound too tempting to us. After googling and talking to a fellow camper we heard about the possibility to camp in the city center of Antigua at the Tourist Police compound for free.

At our arrival in Antigua we “checked in” with the Tourist Police, and facilities included flush toilets, cold showers and free internet…

Antigua is a really nice city, and it is great to walk around town looking at the marked, all the old colonial buildings, plazas,

many old churches that are still in ruins after being destroyed in earthquakes,

and the mix of tourists and locals.

There are also many nice cafés and restaurants. It is almost embarrassing to admit we had “dinner” at McDonalds in Antigua,

but it is the nicest McDonalds we have ever seen.

After travelling in Mexico for a bit more than two months our Spanish has not improved much and we realized we needed some help. When we took a Spanish course in Norway two years ago, a good friend who speaks six different languages asked me, “Are you paying money to learn Spanish? “. And the answer is YES. Antigua is known for the amount of language schools and we signed up for 20 hours of Spanish over five days one to one with the teacher. It was really good and it is a totally different thing to be one to one with a teacher compared to sit in a class. Some days I felt like my head was ready to explode, it was really intense.

We learned a lot and now it up to us to continue practice what we learned, no more excuses.

While we have been here in Antigua we have also meet up with other travellers who are doing the same as us. Some we have bumped into before, some we have known about and some are new. It is good to be able to discuss traveling routes, get good advice and get to know new people. Fun to see that we are all doing the same, but all in different kind of vehicles and at different speed. It is impressive to see families that travel with two or three kids and do homeschooling for about two hours a day. The family that has impressed us the most is a family with three kids where the oldest is using a wheelchair. Everything is possible if you really want to.

Here are the webpages from our fellow travellers mentioned above:

www.rissfamily.fr
www.advodna.com
www.sprinterlife.com
www.surlesroutesenfamille2.unblog.fr
www.famillerouxautourdumonde.com

After nine days in Antigua it’s time to move on. Hope to drive up to Lanquin area tomorrow.

E&M

 

[Streakerfreak]

Antigua looks like a fascinating place.

 

[unURBAN]

Antigua looks like a fascinating place.

It is!! We planed to stay 2-3 days, and now we have been here for more than a week. Okay, we signed up for 5 days of spanish classes, but still, it IS kind of hard to leave... And did we mention all the nice restaurants???

E&M

 

[Bergum]

Hello Espen og Malin.

How many websites/bblogs are you realy updating??? :Wow1:

Gleder meg til neste Pirate4x4.no oppdatering :victory:

 

[rokbrkr]

Hi guys, Amazing trip! Can't wait to see more updates.:drool:

 

[unURBAN]

Hello Espen og Malin.

How many websites/bblogs are you realy updating??? :Wow1:
Gleder meg til neste Pirate4x4.no oppdatering :victory:

That would be 6 - 3 in english and 3 in norwegian....

E&M

 

[E30RUNNER]

amazing pictures guys and really enjoy reading along

 

[Bergum]

That would be 6 - 3 in english and 3 in norwegian....

E&M

Yes, links please

 

[docclem]

greetings,while enjoying your blog i kinda thought your patrol looked familiar...did you stop in jacksonville beach on your way north? I think this is your truck. it stopped me dead in my tracks...sweet patrol!!