day 36, 37 - may 16, 17, 2014

i didn't post before because i didn't have internet access for a couple of days (which sent me friends and family into a frenzy of worry. sorry y'all.), but we made it back to toronto safe and sound at about 4 am sunday. we stayed in memphis, tennesee on friday night, and decided saturday to make it a long day and get home. this meant coffee stops, sleeping in the passenger seat of the truck, and eating fruit and bread and hummus for hours on end. it was a long day, but we made it. 

i'll post some updates soon, re: truck storage thoughts, add pictures to posts, etc. for now, i\m still catching up on sleep! 

day 35 - may 15, 2014

5:30 pm

well, today we have accomplished much! we got up at 7 and left the hotel at 7:30 this morning (lookit us, getting up all early like some kinda grown ups!) we made great time through northern mexico!

in matamoros, we had one final, hilarious mexican moment. there are basically mexican squeegee kids at all stoplights in big cities, and this guy, well, he wouldn't take no for an answer. he skipped up with his bottle of soapy water, and despite our protests, squirted the driver's side of the windshield and went to town. he didn't ask for any money, since we obviously would have preferred he NOT squeegee our fairly clean windshield. however, he left it in a worse state than he found it, all smeary and gross. as such, mike activated the fantastic technology we possess called "windshield washer and wipers". the kid had broken the driver's side windshield wiper! so now aside from being smeary, there was washer fluid all over the windshield, and no functioning wiper to sweep it away. oh, mexico. at this point, we're just hoping it doesn't rain any time soon :/

we reached the border at about 1:30 pm, and went for it. the aduana (mexican customs) office was in a bit of a weird spot (although it was NOTHING compared to nuevo laredo - we'd 100% recommend the matamoros/brownsville border crossing over the laredo/nuevo laredo crossing. people even spoke a bit of english, which was fabulous), but we found it with the help of a friendly... guy? he had a uniform on, but i've got no idea what his job was. "tourist herder", maybe?? anyway, you may recall we were a bit worried about leaving mexico, due to the questionable legality of the defiant. however, there was nothing to worry about. the guy at the immigration desk came out and looked the defiant over, took a picture of the VIN, forced mike to get a copy of his passport made for $3 pesos (i made plenty of copies before we left, however apparently they are anti-environment - they wouldn't accept my copy because it was not full page sized :| ), stamped some stuff, made mike sign a reciept, and gave us the $300 deposit back. bam. done. while this was happening i walked to the other side of the room and had a guy take our tourist visas and stamp our passports out - he didn't even make mike come over. (note: at first he said something about paying to leave, but then when he realized we flew into mexico - this time - he said nevermind. i'm not sure what that was about, but yay, free!)

after finishing our mexico paperwork (this took about 45 minutes, most of which was us failing at finding the office and the nice man helping us), we paid our last mexican toll $67 pesos ($5 CAD) to get across the bridge into the states. there was a lineup of cars on the american side, and i'd say we waited about half an hour. the american customs guy didn't give us any trouble, really, although when i mentioned we had an orange he said we had to pull aside for inspection. we did, and two guys made us relinquish our orange and a stowaway grapefruit (something about diseases - apparently they incinerate them!!), and poked around for a few minutes, but didn't give us trouble. next, we were instructed to go to a "liquor control" booth, because we had about a half 26er of tequila and the bottom of a bottle of rum. again, no real hassle, we just had to pay about $7 USD in duty. i'd guess the american side, after the wait, took half an hour. not bad.

we clearly headed for the nearest starbucks, and drank our frappuccinos in about 3 minutes flat.

about 100 km north of the border, we were stopped at a border patrol checkpoint, there were two guys and a german shepherd there. one guy asked us if we were US citizens, i replied no, we're canadian. then he asked if we were born in canada (??), we said yes, and were waved through. weird.

we are currently heading for houston. when we realized we were on the american side of the border and it was not even 3 pm, we figured we might as well give'r to houston (about 550 km) to stay with leaha and greg, as opposed to getting a hotel room somewhere. we're expecting to arrive around 8 or 8:30.

it's crazy to be back in the states already.

day 34 - may 14, 2014

9 pm

today was almost boring, which is crazy to say, considering.

we drove through a very mountainous area today. it rained most of the day, and at times the mist was so think that we could barely see 10 meters in front of the truck. every time the mist lifted, we were treated to gorgeous views of moist mountain farms, and rich, dense forest. it reminded me a lot of the south coast of BC, or washington. there were a lot of familiar looking trees mixed in with the cacti and banana trees, which is a bizarre thing to see.

later in the day, to road opened onto an almost desert-like area. it reminded me of the okanagan, with lots of low mountains covered in huge cacti (much bigger than you'd see in BC though) and dry grasses.

we've stopped at a little place called the "contry express" (their misspelling, not mine - unless that means something in spanish that's not in my dictionary), just north of tampico. this one also is a hotel that is in the mexican camping book, and looked nice. it's lovely, quite fancy by mexican non-touristy standards. there is no toilet seat, but that's pretty par for the course here.

we had an actually really lovely mexican dinner at the truck-stop-ish restaurant here. we were both stressed/tired after a long day of driving, and went over there just to have a beer, but the lady brought menus and we flipped through them and found some things that actually looked great, so we figured we'd eat there. our two dinners and 6 beers cost a whopping $215 pesos (about $18 CAD), and was just fabulous.

we're hoping to make it to the vicinity of the border tomorrow. likely we won't make it across, we've got over 500 km to drive (which today took us 9 hours), but we're hoping to make it to matamoros tomorrow night, then on to houston friday - we figure it might be better to do the border crossing freshly rested, as opposed to exhausted after a long day on the road.

day 33 - may 13, 2014

8:30 pm

we're all settled in for the night!

we left the OO at about 8 am today, after saying goodbye to calvin and leanne and the other folks there visiting. we headed for pachuca - about 500 km, which is a long day in mexico, however there are good toll roads (which cost us about $75 CAD) between here and there, so we thought it was a reasonable goal.

the first part of the day was pretty standard, lots of driving, beautiful mountain views, etc. we reached pachuca around 2 pm and decided to find a place to get sushi! this was the first really americanized town we'd been in lately, so we figured how hard could it be? it ended up being harder than we'd expected, of course... gina took us to one place, which turned out to be closed, but joy of joys, there was a starbucks across the street!! i figured if sushi wasn't on the table, a nice frappuccino certainly should be. however, they didn't have soymilk :( we've been to a few starbucks in mexico, and this has never been a problem before, but it was today (my life is so hard, eh?). anyway, gina told us there was another sushi place, so we decided to try for it. it was only 2 km away, but we know by now that in a mexican city, that can be quite a distance. on the way, we happened upon a fistfight. i guess two guys had had a fender bender, and they figured that was the best way to deal with it. they went at it for a good few minutes before a bunch of other guys got out of their cars and split them up. they were all over the street and punching each other on the hood of one car and everything. crazy. this is the first actual violence we've seen in mexico, and really it was the kind of thing you could see anywhere.

we finally made it to the sushi place, where, of course, they had nothing vegetarian. i asked the guy to just make us some avocado maki, and he seemed SO confused? sin carne? sin queso? why would we want that? he came back a couple of times just to be sure - he even made me write it down... i was so hungry at that point that i was getting a little annoyed with him, but eventually we got our maki, which then cost a whopping $130 pesos (about $11 CAD for 2 avocado rolls! blasphemy!). anyway, at least we had eaten!

we headed out of town. we read in the church's camping book about a hotel that allows overlanders to camp in the parking lot, and we figure even if we're not in the camper anymore, it's nice to support businesses who support our community! so we drove about 20 km on a super twisty mountain highway to find the place, only to find it closed :( it's sad, it would have been beautiful. it looked like this giant old colonial compound, with big rock walls and beautiful grounds.

we'd seen a sign for cabanas a ways back on the highway, so we figured we'd investigate that possibility. we found the road, and even the place, but nobody was around - it seemed like you needed reservations in advance. the little dirt road that led to it went on past, so we thought we'd do some exploring. it was this crazy little dirt road that wound up into the mountains, and it was exceptionally beautiful. we drove the defiant up up up into the hills, past all sorts of little farms and homesteads, it was really breathtaking. we also found what would have been a totally sweet camping spot if we still had a camper. it was on a bit of a lookout up this dirt road, and it would only be big enough for one truck, but it had an amazing view. anyway, i got the GPS coordinates which i'll include in the camping places post.

we drove back down the mountain, it was starting to get dark... there was a little town right near where we were, so we figured we'd try to find a hotel there. we drove the cobbled main street, but there were no hotels. right near the end, though, there was a sign that advertised a hotel/spa, 2 km! yay! we thought it was a bit weird that it was 2 km down a dirt road, but hey, MEXICO! so off we went. the road wound along a little stream, with old stonework bridges every few hundred meters. the road got worse and worse - washouts, scree, etc. however, at one point, i spotted a cave entrance, so we stopped the truck to explore. it was really neat, though we didn't go very far (the truck was blocking the single lane road, and i thought that if i was a bandito it would totally have been my lair). it went straight back as far as our lights could penetrate - just about doorway sized, back into the mountain! anyway, we got back on the road, and followed and followed it. when we were finally fetting ready to give up and find a place to turn around, the road emptied out onto pavement, and BAM, we were back in town. still no hotel, though!

we decided maybe it would be best to head back to pachuca to find a hotel, as, according to our map, there wasn't much in the opposite direction. just a few kilometers outside town, we came upon an adorable place. it was $850 pesos ($75 CAD) for the night, which is on the expensive side, however it's just DARLING. it looks like it might once have been a little mountain town, that was all bought as a hotel. the rooms are basically half log cabins  - top and bottom, and each one is adorable and unique. there is beautiful landscaping, and a cobbled road with driveways for each place. amazing. weird, though, is that it's FULL of federales. there have got to be 8 federale pickup trucks here, and we've seen maybe 20 cops. they all just seem to be hanging around, but we're assuming they're just resting up for a midnight raid on the bandito cave.

we just had a nice dinner, and mike is trying to light the fireplace in our room. they give you no kindling, but a water bottle full of diesel to start the fire. MEXICO!!

tomorrow, we're headed for tampico, about another 500 km... however i don't see any toll roads on the map, which means it may be a longer, slower day. we shall see.

day 32 - may 12, 2014

1:30 pm

i forgot to blog more last night... haha.

yesterday was a really good day. we both had siestas in the afternoon, and rode bikes into town to buy wine. we then drank a bottle and a half of wine, and had a dance party, ate dinner outside and hung around chatting for hours.

this morning, mike and calvin went and took the camper to the dump (for free! because calvin and leanne live here and apparently oaxaca has awesome garbage services - they even take compost here - which i know they do in toronto, but in calgary we didn't even have recycling pickup until about 3 years ago!)

mike got the back of the truck washed out, but it sounds like we might not have much luck finding a tailgate. i'm not sure what we're going to do if we can't find a tailgate and topper for the truck (because the plan was to sleep in the back...), but i'm sure everything will come together. i guess we can always get a tent if we need to!

today i walked to the zocalo here in santa maria del tule. i sat for a long time under el tule, the huge tree there. it's got the largest truck circumference of any tree in the world, and it's absoloutly stunning. it totally dwarfs the big cathedral next to it, and it's canopy covers a huge area. last night when we rode bikes to get wine we went past it, and i know it sounds like weird hippy crap, but i was totally shocked by the energy of the tree. i had heard about it and knew it was in tule, but i didn't expect to just ride a bike right past it. honestly i almost fell off.

i also wandered around the little crafty market. they had some nice stuff, and i bought my dad a present. i also had a creepy shopkeeper leer at me. it was weird, i went in to look at some shirts, and he came over. i told him thanks, i'm just browsing, i'll let you know if i have any questions. he proceeded to stand less than 2 feet from me, blocking my access to some of the things i was trying to see, and leering at me while sweating profusely. :\ i told him that i'd appreciate if he'd back off a little, and that, again, i'd let him know if i needed help. he took a step backwards, so now he was all of 4 feet away, and continued to leer. that's when i left. i know that people can be pushy sometimes here, but it wasn't that. he wasn't saying anything, or trying to help me, just LEERING. *shudder*

anyway, i made it home safe and sound with my present for dad and some veggies.

3:30 pm

so, i have some news. we are leaving tomorrow. we haven't been able to find a tailgate/truck topper for a reasonable price (and considering that mike doesn't really need one on the defiant when we get back, we don't want to spend much on one)... so we're just going to hotel it back north. it's kinda too bad, however the other option would be buying a tent (and i have a couple at home already) and camping, but it seems like the rainy season is hitting early this year, so that might be a huge pain in the butt.

day 31 - may 11, 2014

noon

well, this has been a productive day so far! mike and calvin spent the morning tearing apart the camper, and setting aside anything that calvin thinks will be useful to other people. the dump isn't open today, so we're taking the afternoon off, and we'll go dump it and look into a tailgate/topper tomorrow.

there is another traveler here right now too, he's from the states, and has been travelling for 2 years! we chatted in the sun this morning, and i gave him copies of all the travel guide files we have, and he's borrowing the church's camping book to take down any information he wants.

day 30 - may 10, 2014

7:30 pm

yeah that's right, there's no day 29. "why?" you ask? because i was too tired and frustrated and demoralized to even want to blog.

however, today i feel much better.

we spent the day yesterday trying to find a scrapyard in selina cruz, with zero luck. we couldn't even find a dump to ditch the camper at. we were trying to find a topper for the pickup, and a tailgate, so that we can make a little indoor bed and storage area.

however, last night, after much wine and commiseration, we decided to head for oaxaca, to the overlander oasis. if you recall, this is the place we stayed in oaxaca previously, run by a spectacular canadian couple, calvin and leanne. calvin used to build baja racers, and does lots of fix-jobs on people's rigs that pass through. so we ended up bringing the camper here - he's going to help us find a tailgate and a box for the truck, and he's also going to cannibalize the camper before we dump it. there are lots of usable parts to it, and the fridge, stove, etc. he will pull out what he wants, and what he thinks will help other people, then we'll take what's left to the dump. i feel really good about our little tragedy having the capacity to help other people who need it. when you live in a truck, finding somebody like calvin who has not only the knowledge and resources, but also the spare parts just laying around to fix your problem, it's a HUGE load off your mind! 

even last night, when we made the decision to come to oaxaca, we felt much better right away. it feels like home here (and when we arrived, leanne hugged us and said "welcome home"! what could be better than feeling safe and cozy when half of your home has just flown off on the highway?), and with calvin and leanne's help, i'm sure we'll have a brand new defiant in no time.

that being said, our plans have changed a little... we are going to head back north. we're not giving up on this trip, but we were planning to park the truck in belize and fly home for the summer, and we've just decided to drive it home instead, since there is obviously some regrouping that needs to be done. in fact, we're excited about the prospect of driving back to canada. when we left in january the weather was so bad that we didn't spend much time in northern mexico, so we can take a bit of time to explore it on our way back! we've also learned SO much from this experience, that we have some great ideas for the future.

day 28 - may 8 - today is in tehuantepec in a ditch

11 pm

well, you guys, we don't even know what to say about today.

today... today was a day that i will tell my grandpuppies about. today is a day neither of us will ever forget. today was not for the faint of heart.

we had a pleasant morning, eating fresh mangoes and oranges for breakfast at our lovely campsite just outside puerto escondito. we drove the familiar, curvy roads along the coast, and, in fact, stopped just outside tehuantapec at an old sugar hacienda where there is camping. the ground was littered in fallen mangoes, there were banana trees. however, it was only 1:30 pm, there were no bathrooms (the security guy's familly lives in one, the other wasn't functioning), and so we decided to push on, to head further down the coast to other, more promising campsites.

we stopped at a walmart on the edge of tehuantapec, it was like being in vernon in the summer - hot, windy, full of big box stores and fancy malls.

just outside tehuantapec there is a stretch of road described in our camping guide. it says that it has the potential to be dangerous, that you should secure the awnings on your camper, as they may flap around, or even fly off. well, we are assuming the wind might be worse because of the tropical storm, because nothing could have prepared us for what was coming.

we were driving down the highway, we hadn't even hit 90 km/h. we didn't feel a thing, no movement, no sounds. we checked the sideview mirrors and, holy crap, there was the top of our pop up camper, on the side of the road. it blew right off. i don't know what made us look back at that time, but we literally could have driven for an hour and not noticed. we pulled over, me yelling "NO NO NO THAT DID NOT JUST HAPPEN". we backed up. we jumped out of the truck to survey the damage. thankfully, almost everything survived - our passports, our money, my precious teddy bear (honey bear).

looking back on it, we're still not sure how this happened. the camper was properly secured. the little latches were in place, everything was as it should have been. we know that campers are not always built to the highest standards, but seriously?

after gathering the stuff that we wanted (and drinking lukewarm hinekens and waving at the federales, who drove by laughing at us by the pickup load), we turned around and headed back into town. we found a hotel. we pulled everything out of the truck. then we went for a swim and drank like 15 beers.

more to come...

day 27 - may 7, 2014

6:30 pm

somehow i got a sunburn just on my wrist today.

we drove from acapulco to puerto escondito today. the hurricane is supposed to hit acapulco in the next 24 hours, and they are expecting to feel some fallout here in about 24 hours as well, but we should be long gone by then!

we're at a beautiful little campground on the outskirts of escondito, and just had a fabulous mexican dinner and 3 beers apiece for $180 pesos ($15 CAD). i am drinking to forget my sorrow...

i found out my hero died today. if you're not canadian, you may not know who farley mowat was, but he was a testament to everything it means to me to be canadian. he was 92, would have been 93 on monday, but i honestly thought he'd live forever. he was born in 1921, and spent his youth in the canadian prairies,raising owls and snakes and dogs, and being a wild canadian child. he was a soldier. he was an explorer - he was one of the first white people to explore the north of canada, to befriend the native populations there, and to promote their cause with the canadian government. he was a writer of epic proportions - at home i have an entire book shelf dedicated to his work. he wrote children's stories, such as 'owls in the family', 'lost in the barrens' and 'the dog who wouldn't be' about his youth, and about the experiences of young people in the north. he wrote poignantly about his time overseas in the war. and, most important to me, he wrote such amazing works as 'people of the deer', 'never cry wolf', and (my favourite) 'no man's river', about his experiences living in the far north of canada with the natives there in the 1940s and 50s. i lived in northern ontario for a spell, and found that his works are no less brilliant and valid 60 years on then they were when he wrote them. i read his books as a child (i even remember him coming to my school to read to us in the library), and i feel that his strong, adventurous characters contributed significantly to my own desire for adventure. i am a reader, and as such, i feel that what you read contributes so much to the person you are. i remember reading 'the dharma bums' by jack kerouac as a 15 year old, which was a huge part of what made me want to hitchhike around british columbia as a teenager, and experience life with all it's rough edges and ragged beauty. farley mowat was like that for me - his writing made me want to get out and really see the world - meet people that nobody from my world would ever meet, see places that nobody had ever seen before. learn about cultures, and appreciate the strength they have in their differences from the culture in which i grew up.

he was also an activist - the sea shepherd conservation society has a boat named 'the farley mowat', and when the crew was arrested for interfering with whaling operations, he paid their bail in sacks full of loonies and toonies (canadian $1 and $2 coins), calling it 'pirate booty'. he wrote many books about his activist views and experiences, bringing those experiences to the armchair activists among us.

he was a truly remarkable man, and the world is a worse place for having lost him.

i lost my dog in november, he was hit by a car while chasing a rabbit - one of his favourite pasttimes - he was only 3 1/2, and it was one of the most devastating days of my life. he was my best friend, and his name was farley. if you know me, you know that i don't want children, dogs are my children. the first time i was given the solo honour of naming a dog, his name was farley, because what else would it be?

today, i am honouring and missing both of the farlies in my life. they were both such remarkable people (you do know that dogs are people, right?), and contributed so much to both my life personally, and the lives of many others.

r.i.p. farley mowat. may the world learn from your truly shining example.   

day 26 - may 6, 2014

7 pm

today was an interesting day. it started off kind of terrible, but just got better and better!

we got up early, all gung-ho to get the truck stuff figured out. we had our smoothies, coffee, and popped the camper down without incident - heck yes, what a start to the day!

but then... the defiant wouldn't start.

mike's 99% sure we have dead batteries (it uses 2), so we replaced one with our backup battery, and it is starting okay now. however it took about 3 hours of dicking around and charging batteries with the auxiliary charger this morning to figure this out. so while we'd planned to be at the SAT aduana (customs) office at 9 am, we didn't even leave here until noon.

well, we slogged through acapulco traffic, and made it to the SAT office at about quarter after 1. i expected there to be a lineup, etc, but it was just an empty, cool office. i google translated our situation to the guy at the desk, and he brought over another guy. new guy spoke very good english, and asked us some questions, before declaring that there was nothing to be worried about. he said that it didn't matter that the truck permit and the tourist visa don't have the same information on them, they are both valid anyway, and nobody will give us any trouble at the border. well, we were a bit skeptical, and pressed him a bit, but he insisted that the seguro retourno permit we thought we needed is only if your vehicle permit has EXPIRED (which ours has not). he swore up and down that it was not a problem, and we were free to travel in mexico until the truck permit expires (end of july). so that's that.

next, we had a quick celebratory sushi lunch. it was acceptable but unremarkable.

then, off to the dentist. i told her that i could feel sensation (heat, cold, etc) in my tooth, but that none of it was PAIN, just... like an awareness? like you'd have with any other tooth? so she said i didn't need a root canal right now (sweet baby jesus), and that the likely reason i was in pain before is that my filling was cracked. she refilled that sucker, charged me $500 pesos (about $40 CAD) and sent me on my way.

all of this leads me to: WE'RE LEAVING TOMORROW! WE'RE HEADING BACK ON THE ROAD! i feel like our trip is really REALLY starting now. huzzah.

in celebration i'm making home made trailer park pizza, complete with from-scratch pizza dough!

10 pm

there is thunder rumbling. lightning flashing. no rain yet.

we had a lovely visit for an hour or two with a guy who is staying next door. his name is hamish, and he's from london. he's backpacking around mexico right now, but has been on a whirlwind world tour! we swapped travel stories and had a grand time.

now, we have packed up almost everything and are heading to bed, we're getting up at 6:30 tomorrow to head to zipolite for a night, then onward to chiapas!

day 25 - cinco de mayo, 2014

7 pm

after the craziness of the last couple of days, and today being the actual holiday, we expected cinco de mayo to be nuts. nuts, i tell you!

well, we got up, surprised to see that the garbage and bottles and etc left by all the revelers yesterday was still scattered about. it was ten am. when would it be cleaned up?

we decided yesterday that we'd go into town today and check things out. we were hoping that there would be some cinco de mayo fun happening... however it would seem that it's not much of an actual holiday here (just an excuse for government workers to not work). the market was open, and big stores, but not much in the way of places to sit and have a beer. (i know right, our life is so hard)

anyway, we took the $6 peso (50 cent) bus into town (about a 50 minute ride), and wandered around for a few hours. i bought some nice earrings in the zocalo (town square), and also some sweet purple jersey knit fabric for $39.99 pesos/m (about $3.50 CAD/meter, 1/10 of the price in canada!) we also had a smoothie, and checked out the central mercado (market), where we bought some veggies and fruit.

when we were ready to leave, we tried to find the busses that come out this way, but all of the traffic was being diverted because of an accident. we walked up the road trying to find a bus, which we didn't, but we did see the accident. there was a woman's body in the road, covered by a blanket. she must have been hit by a car or something. there really seems to be no rhyme or reason to driving in mexico (and accordingly, it suits mike just perfectly), but for the most part we've found that people are very patient. there have been moments where we were certain people would be honking and yelling (at each other, if not at us - and driving a beast like the defiant, there are times when we deserve it), but everyone just waits it out, understanding that this is just how it is. that being said, horns seem to be used more as a greeting/form of encouragement than a warning, and a left hand signal in mexico means "pass me" (i bet you love that, dad)... what i'm going on about, really, is that there seem to be very few rules, and while most of the time it seems to work, in a crazy way, there are moments like today that remind me of how dangerous even crossing the street can be. that being said, everything can change in a heartbeat, so there's no point in not following your dreams, every moment of every day!

we ended up taking a cab back here ($160 pesos including tip, about $12 CAD for a 30 minute ride) instead of the bus. this place was open today, though there was barely anyone here and it's mercifully quiet. we were so happy to come home to a clear blue pool.

it's supposed to rain a little tonight - this will be the first actual rain on our trip so far, and we're a bit nervous. mike replaced the little roof vent on the defiant today in preparation. hopefully she's waterproof!

day 24 - may the 4th be with you, 2014

10:30 pm

well, last night was insane. the mexican wedding was basically a super loud, obnoxious version of a canadian wedding. there were slow, romantic songs punctuated by fireworks (which were set off about 20 feet from the defiant). there were spanish singers singing english songs, clearly not understanding the words and just sort of making appropriate sounds. there was the YMCA. there was drunken yelling, singing, tripping, dancing.

and yet (and if you know me, you know i sleep very lightly), i slept through almost all of it. i went to bed at 9:30 last night!! i'm not going to say i slept WELL, but i did sleep! until 9 this morning! at which point i felt like shit, but still!

we went into town today. however, as we were popping the camper down, BANG! same problem - stupid cable system. broken again. however mike seems to have fixed the alternator issue with WD40... the salt air is really kicking the defiant's ass! anyway, after a mostly uneventful trip to town, mike again fixed the camper, hopefully it'll be good to go for a while now...

when we got back to the campsite, some mexican family had poached our spot. this was fine, they moved when asked, except that after a hot sticky morning, all we wanted was a swim. well, our pool was BROWN with dirt. we emptied it and refilled it, and had our swims... we just wish we'd had them 3 hours earlier. also, there was some fairly unspeakable garbage in there that i won't even get into.

the kampground was packed with daytime partiers today, most of whom have just now left, and it was loud all afternoon. i'm all for a party, but after last night's craziness, and also given that they were line-dancing to a spanish rendition of achey breaky heart, i feel like i could have done without.

tomorrow, we're planning to take the bus into the city and explore a bit. it's cinco de mayo, and when we drove through town today, things were certainly in long-weekend swing, so i'm sure there will be fun to be had. we'd like to go explore some little markets, maybe check out the old town square, etc.

day 23 - may 3, 2014

5 pm

this has been a very chill day so far - i failed at having a siesta, mike discovered a possible issue with the alternator of the defiant (however there is a good mechanic right across the street, and juan grande has the same truck, so we feel pretty confident about getting it fixed asap), we fed mama perro and visited the puppies, and refilled our pool (they tried to do it for us, but i feel awkward about watching some guy who gets paid $2/hour do a job that i am totally fine with doing myself).

there have been wedding preparations going on all afternoon - apparently the fiesta starts at 6. there have got to be 30 workers here who have been putting up chairs, tables, a bar, flowers, some weird looking canoe-type thing (that looks totally run down and out of place, wonder what that's about), and a gigantic cross. the most recent development has been the delivery of a generator the size of my car. eep. it's going to be THAT kind of night... not that we're surprised... but i'm starting to be seriously jealous of mike's 3 hour siesta this afternoon!

day 22 - may 2, 2014

9 pm

whew!

we had quite the day today. this morning was pretty low-key. i went and fed the mama perro, and went for a swim.

at the direction of the lady who runs the place, carolina (her parents own it), we headed into acapulco at 1:30 to be at the dentist for 3. it's a damn good thing we left so early, because despite the fabulous map carolina drew, we still got totally lost and did a bit of a back-alley tour of acapulco. we eventually found the place after driving around for an hour, and carolina's mom and neice were waiting there for us!! how unbelievably sweet! they showed us the dentist office (not marked in any way as such, no address even. MEXICO!!), and ensured i was in good hands before leaving. while we were waiting in the waiting room, we talked to carolina's mom about her life. they seem quite well off - she has traveled to canada, alaska, italy... and more. apparently they started the campgrond as the only mexican branch of the KOA (which explains why the sign boasts "kamping"), but KOA made them create 113 huge camping spaces with full hookups, the pools, showers, etc, promising they'd be 90% full all the time. of course this wasn't the case. mexicans seem into camping, but very few people have the sort of rigs that would require hookups, etc. as well, most of the americans we've met down here are pretty adventurous folk - not so much the normal KOA crowd in my experience. anyway, the business does fairly well now, but they ditched KOA and diversified a bit (like the wedding they're hosting this weekend, the group of kids that was here earlier this week). we talked also about people's perceptions of mexico, and how so many people are too scared to travel like this, even though we've found mexico to be very safe and friendly thus far.

anyway, i got in to see the dentist, and she spoke okay english, but had a dental student there with her named edward who spoke perfect english. she cleaned out my tooth and put in a temporary filling and asked me to see how it is this weekend - if i feel pain in it, i'm going to have to get a root canal :( however, the root canal is only $2000 pesos (about $170 CAD), so... it could be worse. i talked with edward a bit, and it turns out he's from chicago, and is studying dentistry in mexico. he said he pays $4000 pesos a month for school/living here, which is crazy. he also informed me that monday is cinco de mayo, and so nothing will be open!! sooo, that means that we can't go look into the paperwork for the defiant until tuesday (we really should've gotten off our asses on wednesday it seems, but we were exhausted and had no idea a 5 day weekend was looming). however, i got both the dentist's number and edward's, with promises that if i'm in terrible pain they will make time for me on the weekend or monday to get to work. i didn't even have to pay anything for my visit today - it's all included in the $2000 pesos, or whatever it ends up being depending on what needs to be done. my face was numb for a bit, but it's been 6 hours since i was frozen and no pain so far, so i'm hopeful!

after the dentist, we came home to the campground (sorry, kampground ;), and attempted to pop the camper up. but... something was wrong. the front corner over the passenger side of the truck was simply not popping (mike's tope-sense failed him at one point on the drive home, and i theorize that's where the damage came from). after some investigation, it was determined that the popping works on a series of cables/pullies, and one of them was loose. how this happened is not clear - it wasn't broken anywhere, and none of the connectors were loose - but it happened nonetheless. mike needed access to the pully system, which meant lifting the camper off the truck. well, good lord did they have some weird ideas about these things in the 80's, because the camper has three (3) legs!! WTF?!? he propped it all up (which was even sketchier because the camper wasn't made for a duelly, so there were little extenders made of rocks as part of the deal). it wobbled like a newborn giraffe. we propped up one corner with the crazy table that came in the camper, and also tied one side off to a tree. it was all very... mexico (and very mike). in the end mike just drove the truck about a foot forward (having to push the camper along as it was still resting on the bed in places) to give about a foot of access to the pullies. i honestly believed we were going to lose the camper. after an hour of being stabbed and swearing, mike had the pully fixed (at one point up and down got mixed up on the crank, and at another when the front went up the back would go down. it was quite a thing to see). after that, i inched the truck backwards while mike maneuvered the camper into place. we let it down off it's sketchy legs and ratcheted it back onto the truck. this whole operation took about 2 1/2 hours. i helped when i could, but i also spent some time taking tons of pictures of the process (which i will upload whenever we have actual wifi, i'm using my phone as a hotspot right now), and making us a delicious feast!

after the camper fiasco, i cleaned it again (which seems to happen 2 or 3 times a day, lol), and we had a much needed swim. while in the pool i noticed that i somehow got a sunburn today! i only spent about 15 minutes outside without sunscreen, but there it is, watch tan and all.

later, there was probably the most beautiful sunset we've seen here yet (which is saying something), so we took a bunch of pictures and walked down the beach a bit. there were some locals who looked like they were setting up for a big bonfire, which would be cool.

we're going to go to bed nice and early tonight, if that one-year-old's birthday party in oaxaca was any indication of mexican partying, tomorrow's wedding is going to be a rager. and hey, i missed my siesta today!

storing the truck in acapulco - part 2

so, we've returned and collected the truck with no issues. i was in email contact with the storage facility and let them know we were coming, and they had everything ready for us - mike signed a form and we drove away!

the hardest part of the storage ordeal turned out to be paying them, and this was as much canadian banks as anything. apparently it's super hard to transfer money from one bank to another, which ended up with mike stuck in banks for a few days, but in the end it did get sorted (and i stick by our storage choice, as a smaller business may not even have been able to accept a bank transfer/have a business bank account) by his persistence and a spanish-speaking agent at a td in toronto.

we've yet to get to town to deal with the permit paperwork, but i'll do a post on that once we find out what's involved. overall the storage process was pretty painless, and totally worth dealing with : )

day 21 - may 1, 2014

5 pm

we had great intentions for today, we really did.

we got up, went for a dip in our little private pool, had smoothies (made with coconut water from the coconut mike hacked open yesterday!!) and coffee and popped the camper down, all ready to head to town to the government offices to get the ball rolling on the paperwork we need for the defiant. we stopped by to talk to the owner of the campground, to see if she could recommend any english-speaking dentists. she said she'd look into it, but that because today is labour day not many businesses would be open. sigh. further, because it's a thursday, apparently most people just say screw it, and don't work friday either. double sigh. so, it seems, we can't even go get the process started until monday! hopefully it doesn't actually take 2 weeks to get our paperwork!!

we still went to town. we invested in a little fan for the camper, and i bought the mama perro some dog food.

i just went and saw the puppies. mama was not around but i left her a bowl of food. the puppies are crazy adorable. 9 plump, sleepy little balls of sweetness. they are only about a month old. they are living in an old bathroom stall in a little building here. it's gross and covered in puppy poo and makes me sad, and worried about their futures. triple sigh.

11 pm

both papa perro (i think) and mama perro stopped by today. i fed them both and gave them water, mostly to the mama.

we had a pretty chill afternoon. drank some cervezas, hung out in the pool, chopped open another coconut for smoothies, then cut it in half and ate a bunch of the coconut meat. the owner of this place came by and gave me a little map she drew with directions for the dentist she knows who speaks english, so we're going to go there tomorrow to talk to her.

the owner also told us that there is going to be a wedding here at the campground this weekend!! we are super excited - a mexican wedding!! we had gotten a little nervous when we saw chairs and stuff arriving, because john (or juan grande, as everyone calls him) told us about a crazy night not too long ago when a bunch of local police had a party here complete with crazy amounts of blow and mexican hookers :|

also, i keep forgetting to tell you that mike wants to rig up a pair of coconuts and hang them from the trailer hitch a la truck nuts. bahahaha. what a guy.

day 20 - april 30, 2014

1:30 pm

well, i definitely woke up in a pool of my own sweat this morning... it's so beautiful out!

i cleaned and organized the camper this morning, then was looking into car insurance for the defiant when a friendly gentleman pulled up. he's from vancouver and his name is john, and he lives at the park here. he gave us tons of good advice about insurance and the defiant not being properly registered. the power is currently out, but when it comes back on we're going to head to his trailer to investigate the company he recommended for insurance - he says we should just be able to do it online, which would be ideal.

we went on a little adventure with john, to find a working bank machine. this was harder than it seems, as a bunch of affiliated banks seem to have some sort of technical issue happening right now... anyway we did finally find one, and bought beer and bread.

then we went on a little tour around with john. we stopped by the place of "el commandante" (or, andreas, as it were), the night security guard here. then john drove us down to the end of the road - we're right between the ocean and a river here, and at the end of the road, they (previously) almost met, separated by only a thin sandbar. well, i guess there have been some crazy storms here recently, and the ocean has broken through the sandbar and into the river! also, according to john, that is where one of the rocky movies was shot!

we're back at the campground now, and i'm having a pre-siesta cerveza. it's very hot, but there is a breeze, and the waves are crashing hard (apparently this is not a good place to swim, it's kind of terrifying, and apparently there is a very bad undertow), but the pool  is full of local children.

also, apparently there are puppies. here. at the campground. i haven't seen them yet, but i'm slightly afraid i may own a puppy or two, shortly. eep.

7 pm

we had a really nice, and much-needed siesta this afternoon. i dreamed of walking endless miles in the baking sun.

a lady came by earlier and drained the gross water from our little personal swimming pool (which is a freaking awesome thing to have, let's be honest. especially after all of the kids being in the big pool today, not to mention the babymaking in there last night...) and said she'd refill it for us, but has yet to do so. when she does mike is going to give the defiant a spray down as well.

we went to see john earlier, but he wasn't home... however, we took a little stroll around the campground, and saw some crazy cool old trees. i also dropped a full nalgene on my toe (ow.) and found a tamarind tree! i broke some of the little shells open and showed mike the fruit. maybe i'll have to make some pad thai while we're here!! on our stroll i also almost walked headfirst into a bee nest. there is this old half-built building and i was going to climb the stairs and check out the top floor, but there was a nest right in the stairs. honestly i came within 3 feet of it, i'm so surprised i didn't get stung.

we've had a pretty lazy afternoon, and have just eaten a big 'ole plate of harmony-made avocado, mango and cucumber sushi - perfect food for this hot weather! i'm so glad i packed wasabi and pickled ginger. ; )

also, the puppy-mama came by after our pool was drained, looking for a drink of water and was sad to find that there was none. of course i ran and grabbed a nalgene and a bowl and poured her a drink. she drank all of it, and some of the second bowl as well. i have left the bowl out for her : )

on the agenda for tonight? a dip in our private pool (which is now being tended to), maybe a visit to john's, and an early bedtime as we're both totally pooped still.

10:30 pm:

well, we went to john's and got our insurance looked after. holy shit that was so easy and cheap! and we printed out the paperwork online. it took about 15 minutes. lewis and lewis is the name of the company, and i'd advise you to check them out. john said he's had a few issues, busted rad - they towed him for free, etc. so that's amazing.

i also forgot to mention earlier that there are coconut palms all over the place, and mike hacked open a coconut with a saw earlier. we poured out the coconut water and are going to use it for our smoothies in the morning. : )

we sat in our own personal pool (about the size of a hot tub, the water is perfect - warm but not too warm) and had a cerveza this evening. life is so good. now: bed time.

day 19 - april 29, 2014

holy crapoley, we're back in mexico!

what a day... i got about 4 hours of sleep last night, and mike got 2. we were at the toronto airport at about 5:45 am... our flight back to mexico city was uneventful, but mexico was a bit trying. we had a 2 hour stopover, which turned out to not actually be enough to get through customs, collect our bags, take the monorail to the next terminal, check in, only to be told that our flight is boarding NOW so we have to RUN RUN RUN, then to have security try to force me to drink an entire nalgene of water  because i didn't have time to empty it, and then to have them finally relent and let me throw it out (why can't they just dump it? i'm really curious, if anyone knows...) which pissed me off because it was my favourite nalgene... then once we finally made it to the gate, it said our flight had been delayed by about 45 minutes. there was no boarding counter with our flight number, so we waited. only to have our names announced with threats that if we didn't get to the plane right away we'd be left behind!! then, getting to the plane involved being put into a giant bus (???) with a bunch of other folks and driven out to the plane on the tarmac! anyway, we didn't miss our flight, and there were only like 7 screaming babies :| when we got to acapulco we had half an hour until the storage place where we left the defiant closed, so we got a taxi - it was $270 pesos ($23 CAD) which is outrageous, but they were all done through a little booth at the airport and we didn't have time to argue. it was literally like 5 km to the storage place, and i was pissed. anyway, we made it in time and the defiant roared to life (despite being COVERED in dust and what appear to be cat paw prints. and i mean covered. it's like they had a cat convention on our truck!)

we made the decision to pick up the defiant and camp despite not having insurance (we think we can renew our old insurance online - to be determined tomorrow), and found a place in the mexican camping book we bought (i think it's called "a traveler's guide to mexican camping' by mike and terri church, or something similar. it's amazing. carpe viam told us about it.) and attempted to find it. after driving in circles for like an hour and getting directions from no less than 3 friendly locals, we determined it was closed for the season (we found the place, we're like 99% sure, but the sign was gone and nobody was around). after a stop at walmart for food, and home depot for ratchet straps (to replace the one we broke going over that giant tope on day 18), we drove waaay to the other side of acapulco (32 km, which sounds like nothing, but dude... mexico!!) and finally found a camping spot at playa luces. it's really beautiful - we're very close to the ocean, and there are adorable giant toads and wee geckos and perros all over the place. each campsite has it's own little mini pool, and there are 2 larger swimming pools, a patio, etc. it's really lovely.

mike went straight to bed, but i was gross and sweaty (did i mention it's 33, feels like 40 here, or was in the afternoon? i'd say it's at least 25 still), so i went for a dip in the pool, which was warmer than my body temperature (and where i'm fairly certain, in hindsight, that i interrupted a couple having do-its. gross.) i wandered around and let the breeze evaporate the water and i felt much nicer after that.

we're so happy to be back home in mexico, and can't wait to get on the road again. i'll write more about that tomorrow, but there are some things that need to be done first! but hopefully tomorrow we'll be happy and well-rested and ready to deal with those challenges. :D

buenos noches, amigos!