It’s really getting interesting now – this new ferry route from Panama to Colombia. The stakes are high; if we can get onto it, and don’t have to send the truck on a normal freight ship, it might save us nearly $3000 and a whole load of headaches like having to board up the bus to protect it from [...]
Our first conversation in Nicaragua, with an actual Nico, went something like this: “Hi, where are you from?”, “Portugal – my husband [yeah, me] is from England.”, “You need some help with the border?”, “No, we’re good, thanks, we’ve done many borders…”, “OK, you know, you’re very lucky, you come to Nicaragua and all the Nicos want to help you. [...]
This article is about how to build a shower in a camper-van or converted truck or bus. I believe my plan is the cheapest, most environmental, simplest option for anyone who has some serious space limitations on board their home on wheels, for anyone who doesn’t spend much time at RV parks or hotel parking lots, for anyone who wants [...]
It’s not often that we write so specifically about what we are doing – I really wouldn’t want to bore you with our day-to-day. And it’s not often that we’ll go on about a particular restaurant, hotel or bar – basically because we don’t go to any of them that much. But as it was my birthday, we thought we’d [...]
I can’t say I’ve ever met that many Dodge 50s outside of Europe. But that could just be because they were only really for sale in Britain and I hardly meet any British over-landers on anything more than two wheels (this year it’s French and Belgian). But having clocked over 200 000 km in Dodge 50s I still think they’re [...]
The Garifuna peoples live on the Caribbean coast of Belize, Guatemala and Honduras and Roatan, an island that now belongs to Honduras. There are communities in St.Vincent and in the largest of North American cities, notably New York. Theirs is an interesting, intriguing story – and an invaluable part of the American landscape after the turmoil of colonization, slavery and [...]
It’s not every day that you come across an alcoholic beverage that’s (a) said to be beneficial for the health, (b) descends from a mysterious and secret indigenous tradition and (c) hits the spot. Guifiti is such a drink, made by the Garifuna from rum, herbs and roots – a medicinal concoction designed to promote well-being and cure all kinds [...]
Not so much on the internet about this border but it’s an easy, quiet one and if you want to stay on the Costa Garifuna, Corinto is where you want to cross between Guatemala and Honduras. The broken bridge sometimes still mentioned on old blogs and forums is just a bit of road over a ditch – it probably got [...]
OK, most people have heard of the Mayan people, their ancient, lost cities, their complicated calendars about to be reset – maybe even their life and culture as it is today. The Mayan history has become devolved to three different modern nations: Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. If it had all turned out differently, this would be the Mayan Nation. [...]
Tikal is an utterly amazing set of structures deep in a National Park. Many things come together to make this ancient Mayan city so much more of an experience than, for example, Palenque. The lack of people is one thing – no busy, busy car park, no craft sellers, and no massive coachloads of hundreds of kids. This means you [...]
You know when you’re at a big party with loads of people, there’s a cheap bar and a pretty full-on sound system stacking it up over a busy dance floor… But the music just ain’t right – a good DJ, sure, but he keeps mixing in dubstep/goa trance/death metal/jazz (delete as appropriate). Thing is you know there’s another floor somewhere [...]
It just dawned on me that we won’t be going to Chixculub in the Yucatán Peninsula any time soon because we have, like, five minutes before our visa ends and we have to chop chop it over the Guatemala border. Well, there probably isn’t much to see anyway – maybe a plaque or something saying how this town was the centre of [...]
The unofficial story that I was told was that the local name for Zipolite is the Beach of Death, la Playa de los Muertos, because of the deadly rip-tide and current. Local fisherman who had become tired of life came here to die. They stripped off their clothes and walked up and down before finding their moment to rush into [...]
Place and time: Enforced three week stay in Mexico City waiting for a new passport to be sorted out. Cash: Not much at all – our emergency budget allows us 2 dollars each and even that means we arrive in South America pretty skint and dependent on a plan to somehow power the truck and move it using just the [...]
When you make an arch you use framework to keep all the bricks in place until you install the keystone – the piece in the center that keep it all together – then you smash away the framework and, as if by magic, all you see is the self-supporting arch. The metaphor is used to illustrate theories on the beginning [...]
Teotihuacan is 50 klicks northwest of Mexico City – a pleasant couple of days out of town – just remember to have a good charge on your camera battery…. Read on: Nice bunch of pyramids – the interesting thing about them is that their proximity to the capital city (as opposed to the remoteness of some of the much more [...]
Lovely, old city with too many vowels in its name – from now it’s GDL. It’s well-known that GDL is one of the safest cities in Mexico and we were told the only reason for that is that the boss of one of the biggest cartels has the family residence around these parts… A case of not defecating on your [...]
With the sun setting on our first day’s drive inland towards Guadalajara, we arrived in Tequila. Parked up for the night outside one of the many breweries and strolled into town to sample the atmosphere, the tacos and the alcohol. In the end we decided against purchasing anything more than a few postcards – most of the liquor looked like [...]
We were pointed this way weeks ago and we will forever be grateful for that – San Blas is the perfect stop on a round-the-world journey. Especially after many weeks of driving with not more than a few days stopped anywhere since leaving North California – this was the Tropical Paradise we had been waiting for… But beautiful beaches aside, [...]
This is the first RV park that we have ever stayed in so far on this journey. Not the first time that we’ve paid money – that has happened to thingy’s mother for a place in her front garden in Irkutsk and again in Seoul at the World Cup Stadium car park which was pure tarmac heaven but the toilet [...]
