Van Nomads

  We almost didn’t come here because, well it’s expensive.  But we’re so glad we did!  First stop was Belize City. One of the cool things about  Belize, is that you don’t see any chain stores. Just colorful homes and businesses on stilts. We parked right on the water, behind a fancy hotel and were joined by two overlanders from the Czech Republic.     We hung out by the water and just talked…

  We made our way down towards the border crossing, as we get ready to cross into Belize, I started feeling under the weather. So we found a hotel near Lake Bacalar so that  I could rest.  Lake Bacalar is pretty pricey so we had to really shop around for hotels.  We found one for 400 pesos, which is the most we’ve paid so far.       We ended up staying there for three nights while I tried to…

Cenote Hopping and the Gathering of Overlanders

After Palenque we started making our way north into the Yucatan Peninsula for our first views of the Caribbean.   Gas stations usually allow you to sleep there-for free.  Bonus: They have bathrooms!   We drove through Campeche with a few stops before we started cenote hopping in the Yucatan. Our first stop was a little cenote called Chihuan between Merida and Chichen Itza. Cenotes are basically…

  After our magical boat ride through Cañon Del Sumidero, we made our way to Agua Azul. This was easily one of the most beautiful places we have visited yet. We ended up getting there a bit later in the day but that did not stop us from enjoying it until the sun dropped. DCIM119GOPRO We spent the night in the park and got an early start in the morning to make sure we got to enjoy it before the…

    After leaving Zipolite we started making our way back inland and towards the Caribbean.

We would be driving through Chiapas, which we had been told we would fall in love with due to its incredible beauty.

  This little guy is called a Tejon

We looked on our trusty iOverlander app for a place to stay on the way and found a spot where the boats leave for a ride through Sumidero Canyon.

Crocodile with a butterfly on its head

I looked up the place and was immediately reminded of the scene from Jurassic Park where everyone arrives by helicopter and the magnificent John Williams fanfare plays in the background.

  There was also a hydroelectric plant that provides power to parts of Mexico and Guatemala.

  It was perfect, we stayed there overnight and then first thing in the morning got on the first boat out and (as usual) pictures and descriptions of the place just fail to truly provide an image worthy of the place. It was simply incredible.

I’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

I forgot the name of this, but it looks like a headless Jesus

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

  Seahorse stalactite 

  Monkey

After leaving Hierve el Agua we had a change of plans due to all the roadwork from the day before. We decided instead of trying to find our way through the mess of road closures and detours, that we would just head south again and back towards the beach. We’ve been writing the names of our nieces and nephews when we can during our journey because well, we miss them and because they get a kick out…

  Police Station on the way to Hierve el Agua After leaving Overland Oasis we were trying to head towards a lake (don’t remember the name), but because of road work, we ended up at Hierve el Agua. We did about 5 hours of driving trying to find our way and ended up heading back to a destination that was only about a half hour from where we started…not a good driving day but we were rewarded with…

  Our drive from Mexico City to Oaxaca   On our way from Teotihuacan, we came accross pretty bad weather, it was even snowing! We were pretty tired from the previous week so we decided to stay at a Pem Ex gas station.  It was actually pretty perfect.   We were parked right next to a patch of woods, and there was a restaurant with a bar right in the Pem Ex parking lot. We pretty much relaxed,…