I saw this writeup on a Guatemala Expats FB group. Seems like good info:

Also the whole police escort for the southern part of the lake thing has me a little spooked.

Yea I don’t know too much about it, it was just discussed here:

http://advrider.com/index.php?thread...1240036/page-9

Page 9, pretty good thread of a guy doing the same trip also.

Antigua for Guatemala is expensive, but it’s massively cheaper than US, and cheaper than most of Mexico.

New touchy-feely blog post is up: http://ushuaiaorbust.com/2017/12/16/...time-equalize/

Current plan:

• Leave Wednesday (the 20th)
• Chill out with 2p2er Gramps in Tijuana for a night
• Maybe camp at La Jolla campground south of Ensenada - or maybe barrel further into Baja
• Camp and hike for a few days in Sierra de San Pedro Martín national park in central Baja
• Make my way to La Paz, take the ferry over to Mazatlan on the mainland
• Maybe head down toward Puerto Vallarta and chill on the beach for a bit
• Go north a bit to San Miguel de Allende for a few days
• Make my way to Puebla for a week-long intensive Spanish school a this place: https://www.livitspanish.com/ which comes highly recommended
• Hang out in Oaxaca for a few days at a couple campground which are hubs for "overlanders" - who are people doing what I am doing, except most of them have some sort of camper van or RV, and eat lots of mole. Food in Oaxaca is a highlight of the trip
• Make my way over to Tulum by Feb 1 - to meet up with some friends who are doing a similar trip (except the whole world) on their motorcycles: http://endofallroads.com/ (they're all pilots with a lot of seniority, so they're taking a month on/month off to ride - 3 year trip around the world)
• Hang out in Tulum for a couple weeks
• Then all signs point to a very pretty girl I work with coming to hang out with me for 3 weeks, drive from Tulum, check out Belize for a week, then Guatemala
• After that it's pretty wide open, but I will probably try to find another week-long intensive spanish class in Antigua, Guatemala
• Then my motorcycle buddies will be driving the rest of the way through Central America starting March 15th
• Then I still have to be in Patagonia on 4/16 but I will probably fly because I have determined it's ridiculous to try to drive down there that fast

So that's the latest - keep up with the blog for more!

The current sunny/scorching forecast for Baja Alta.

https://www.facebook.com/SanPedroMar...type=3&theater

let us go go go!

My car rocks in the snow dude. It's like a dog, it gets all excited.

La jolla campground in punta banda is not a bad spot to post up for a night. Its safe, clean, and right on a little beach area. Theres a calimax grocery store just up the road, la bufadora is just a little ways down the road, and make sure you stop at "tacos puebla" on la avenida pedro loyola in ensenada on your way through. Amazing tacos.

You mean in La Bufadora right? That's where I plan to head after hanging out with Gramps.

punta banda is a tiny little stretch of coastline residences (adjacent to la jolla) just south/southwest of maneadero, which is the little town/district that borders up on the south side of ensenada. from "el centro" (downtown ensenada), la jolla/punta banda is about a 20 minute drive. la bufadora is the name of the blowhole down at the end of the road (about 5 miles or so) if you keep going straight past la jolla.

but yea we're talking about the same place. hopefully you're not glossing over my recommendation for tacos puebla, that was the important part of my post . i ate asada and al pastor tacos there at least 2-3 times a week, easily (they also have cabeza and tripe). be sure to request pina (pineapple) if you go the al pastor route. tried a lot of other taco places (including the one that uses skirt steak in rosa that everybody up there loved- spoiler alert: it wasn't great) but none compared, although tacos los chavallos across the street on the next block down from tacos puebla had tortas that were at least as good, somehow, if you prefer bread over tortillas.

there's just something about the way tacos puebla seasons/marinates their steak that sets it apart, and i really like the way it's laid out with the parilla in the center of the place, the fixings lined up on the counter, and the guy who mans the parilla and chops up the meat at turbo speed with a machete. always smoky as **** in there during rush hours with the meat grilling too, it's awesome.

And we are on the road. The longest journey starts with the first beer. Or something like that.

Did a bearded gringo brewery/gastrobpub-crawl with 2p2er Gramps in TJ - who was a very gracious host with tons of good inside info. on how to be an American in Mexico - mucho appreciated. My back is killing me after 3 days of nonstop packing, and I felt sick today. I decided to get a cheap hotel room in Ensenada and am resting - hoping i feel good enough to do a hard hike or two soon in this National Park: https://moon.com/2017/06/parque-naci...r-baja-mexico/






That's the good stuff.


These burned their way out today.


Friendship Park, where the border meets the sea.

Parque Nacional Sierra de San Pedro Mortir. Here's how it was looking less than a week ago.

https://www.facebook.com/SanPedroMar...type=3&theater

Looking forward to the snow pics!

and hes actually doing it

Go, suzzer, go! Looking forward to updates, hope your illness is not serious.

Stomach feels fine today. But my back is still sore and I have a bruised heel that doesn't want to heal. I was working out and hiking really hard before the trip, and then the last week was just all hectic packing and moving stuff down to my storage unit. Not the smartest plan in retrospect.

I need to just chill for a few days, but it's hard because driving bothers the back some and even walking seems to be bothering the back and heel right now. So I've been laying in a hotel bed for 12 hours hoping that does some good.

Excellent reporting. Great start!

Merry Christmas, Suzzer.

good luck

will be following

Heh - there were a few little patches of snow left in the crevices. They said it's been in the 70s this week. Yesterday (Christmas) was packed with people. Today the park was almost empty. Very nice camping and I got an ok hike in. I'd like to climb Picacho del Diablo - but it's a 3 day backpacking trip and you need a guide (or pretty much guaranteed to get lost).

I was spooked on my hike today even though I had an old road to follow because there was no one within miles and the forest was pretty much featureless rolling hills with cypress trees. Sometimes one road can join up and you don't notice it - and then on the way back you have a fork in the road to decide. I have a GPS but I didn't load up the right topo map.

The blog post on the parque will be in a few days. I'm catching up with the rest of the trip now. I had a really cool random Christmas Eve with a local family, and then some 4x4 adventures where I eventually wussed out and went the long way around. I'm still trying to upload the pictures onto wordpress. Apparently I've hit my upload cap on the local wifi and on LTE. I guess texting video is not a good idea.

First actual travel blog post is up! http://ushuaiaorbust.com/2017/12/26/and-were-off/ Man this is time consuming. I wrote the content in like an hour the other night when I had no internet. But just getting all the images uploaded, captions and stuff took 4 hours.

Subbed.

This is so awesome, can't wait to follow along on this dream trip.

How is your Spanish coming along? You can say more than "I like Belgian beers" by now, right?

Good start to the blog. Looking forward to many more posts. Gogogo!

Thanks!

A little, but still pretty lost. I have a week-long intensive class in Puebla on Jan 15th that hopefully will help.

Good start, suzzer. Glad to hear you're doing o.k., looking forward to future posts.

I got admonished by the Border Patrol at the beach there. As can be seen from on of suzzer's pics, there's actually two walls. The inner one (form the US side) ends pretty much when the beach begins.

I walked all the way to the outer wall and started chatting with some Mexicans through the fence, just hanging out. When I went back toward the car, the patrol officer waved me over and told me I wasn't supposed to go all the way to the second fence.

I guess I'm supposed to magically know that the line of the fence which stops is not to be crossed. Not really clear why they didn't just continue it, if they don't want you going that far.

</derail>

Btw, the hotels with the blinking signs advertising a ~240 rate are for the ~4 hour rate or something like that. Overnight rate quite a bit more expensive as you found out. Hope you got the clean sheets!!

Also, when guys wave you in to a street parking spot or lot, the standard play is to tip them a coin (like a ~5 peso) on your way out. They're generally "looking after" your car while you're gone and helping direct traffic a touch, etc. (Obviously if there's little effort or they're just "there" hoping for a handout, you can pass on the tip)

Oh **** - good to know!

New blog post is up. This one hits the feels. http://ushuaiaorbust.com/2017/12/29/...as-eve-posole/