2Guys1Truck: Astro Van through Central and South America March 2012

[Wiley]

Editing posts with the pics I took years ago, why not...most are over sized for the forum so limited to what I can add

Hey, we finally hit the road. You can follow us on 2guys1truck.com (bought domain before vehicle, oops), though it should have been called Central and South American Clusterf@#% as we don't know what we are doing haha.

The firm route south

Baja Camping

I am currently in Cabo San Lucas, it is spring break....which is why I skipped most of Baja, but will hit it up on the return leg, or another time. For those who don't know, my friend and I are driving a Chevy Astro AWD Van through Central and South America. We quit our jobs, and will either drive for the next 6 months and sell the vehicle, or drive for 12 months round trip. Pictures will be uploaded later this week, and hopefully a video, the "Astrocam" worked well.

I was sure our trip south would impress these girls, but they had no idea where South America was....I hate Cabo.

Santa Rosalia Camping

Santa Rosalia Sunrise

Checked out Cerritos Beach on Wednesday, about 15 min south of Todos Santos, or 45 min north of Cabo San Lucas. Cerritos is popular with english speaking locals and tourists, so if you need a break from spanish this place is good. Cerritos is a cresent shaped bay, so there are also many whale sightings here, I was lucky enough to watch one for about 15 minutes, as well as spend some time watching some great surfers. The waves were big, but not huge for here from what I gather. I believe you can sleep here for free, but did not verify that. Again, will add pics.

Not me!

Spent last night doing some beach camping about 15 min north of Cabo San Lucas. The place was nice, though there are horse tours offered so you wont have it to yourself...but it is close to cabo, and the horse guides said it was no problem to sleep there. The horses run around on their own when not in use, so they were hauling @ss down the paths around me as I reorganized the van...pretty cool.

I don't really feel like the trip is starting till we get back up to La Paz to take the ferry, so stay tuned.

Also, there have been some problems here or there with the site at times, so let me know if you can view it. Some can, others cant. I am not good with the internet, so I am not sure what is going on. Thanks, hope you enjoy the trip.

Who invited these guys

2guys1truck

 

[Basement Yeti]

Awesome! I will definitely be following you dudes. Good luck!

 

[Wiley]

Whats up with the thumbs down in the title....did I do that?? If so, can someone remove that. Thanks!


Glad to hear Yeti. Sounds like the problems with people viewing the site have been resolved themselves, so I believe we are good to go.

 

[Bodo]

website no workie.

 

[Christian P.]

Whats up with the thumbs down in the title....did I do that?? If so, can someone remove that. Thanks!


Glad to hear Yeti. Sounds like the problems with people viewing the site have been resolved themselves, so I believe we are good to go.

Thumbs down is now a thumb up!

I hope you have a great trip. I should be back in Costa Rica/Panama in April, perhaps I will meet you on the road.

 

[RockyMtnFamily]

I will be reading this one. Where are the pictures?

Kevin

 

[Wiley]

website no workie.

Man, I really wish I knew what was up...I need to take care of this issue before we continue on with the trip, too many people are expecting a website. I will follow up soon I hope

Thumbs down is now a thumb up!

I hope you have a great trip. I should be back in Costa Rica/Panama in April, perhaps I will meet you on the road.

Gracias amaigo! Small chance I may run back to SD for a short break, but this has just came up so I need a few days to mull it over. How long are you down there?

I will be reading this one. Where are the pictures?

Kevin

Assuming I dont go back to SD to regroup, pictures will be up as soon as I have a power source for my laptop. My van is in disarray at the moment, so I cannot charge anything

 

[Wiley]

Use 2guys1truck new link, this will bring you to the welcome message where you can then signup for email notification, so the problems are resolved as far as I know, thanks.

If you previously subscribed to our email notification those were lost when I redid it, so you will need to sign up one more time, sorry.

Pics have been added to the site. Here is a sample, I only have a point and shoot, but my friend brought his nice one so later in the trip quality should go up. Larger sized pics can be found on the site.

sign on Baja 1

 

[Wiley]

Site should now work for all according to godaddy tech support.

Currently in Guadalajara, followed the coast down to La Manzanilla/Melenque area mostly relaxing on beaches, though some time was spent in Mazatlan and Puerto Vallerta. Everything is relatively slow since tourist season is winding down, along with the poor economy affecting tourism in general. Overall things are great, Mexico really is an amazing place, its impossible to describe in words. I was looking forward to it, but definitely underestimated how much I would enjoy it. A couple more teaser pics, and a link to the newest post. We will be in Guadalajara for a week, so I hope to fill in some of the gaps on the site, but we are finally on top of our posts.

Barra de Navidad

Dead Fish La Manzanilla

San Blas Sunset

San Blas Camping

The mercado in Mazatlan

Mmmmmmmm

Guitar

Tlaquepaque Church

Traffic

Guadalajara Historico Centro

La Manzanilla

La Manzanilla

La Manzanilla

San Blas

San Blas Mural

Puerto Vallerta

You're in the jungle baby...you're gonna die!

 

[roostercruiser]

Sounds like s good time.

 

[trailsurfer]

Great trip report!

 

[Wiley]

Thanks guys, I am finding its getting easy to stay on top of it now, sort of getting a rhythm going. Still need to figure out how to get video up....baby steps

Now the not so great news. Think my friend and I are going to go separate ways. We are leaving on good terms, but its not working. I told him many times before the trip I was going to go at my own pace, but now he is in a rush so our schedules are not lining up. Combine that with the fact that he did not do a single thing to help me prepare for the trip, or provide anything monetarily for wear and tear on certain items even though I told him many times I expected help (5 Tires alone were about 750 I think) and I have decided that it is time to make this my trip again. I may head back to the US for a short break to fix the things I didn't have time to do right because of his lack of help, or I may continue on, as there is no deal breaker, just a list of things. As far as traveling together I would say 95% of the time has been awesome, but I am not going to drive him around the world on my dime, and am not going to keep skipping places I want to see just because he does not. So he is going to backpack his way south, before heading to Italy.

Guadalagara
Decisions, decisions, decisions...

Senora Alicia, our Hoestess while we attended Spanish School

Atlas Vs Pumas

Atlas Vs Pumas

Lucha Libre

Tlaquepaque

 

[Wiley]

This time we hit up Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende, and Mexico City/Teotihuacan. Great time, once again we got lost, explored some cities, climbed some pyramids, and even hit a person. Still with my friend, and now a Belgium we picked up in Guadalajara. Sitting in Oaxaca now, may head back any day, may go to the beaches in Puerto Escondio area 1st and then separate...playing it day by day, haven't decided how far from the US I want to get before running back.

18-1 Bitches!!!

Guanajuato

Don Quixote

Guanajuato from above

Lots of stairs in this town

This chick would not stop stalking me

Love guitar player pics

See

Mexico City

Mexico City Cathedral from distance

From atop Pyramid of the Sun

I see nothing wrong with this, he was wearing safety googles after all

Guanajuato Cathedral

 

[Wiley]

Ok, not much went on here, as I got very sick in Mexico City and spent a week recovering (Montezumas Revenge). Lots of puking among other things, couldn't keep food or water down so I was weak for awhile. From Mexico City we went to Puebla, but this was the worst of it so I stayed at the van and did nothing. We then went to Oaxaca, but again, I felt awful so I left my friend with the Belgium, and went about an hour away to hierve del agua to recover. Not a bad spot at all, but also not a whole lot going on, so if circumstances were different I would not have stayed there 3 days. You can easily do this with a day trip, though I do recommend going in the afternoon, and then camping there. There is a section (nothing fancy) where you can camp, setup a tent, whatever, for 3 bucks a night.

Sadly, as I alluded, my friend and I have separated, logistically there was no way to make it work. I chose to go back since I was only 3-4 days from Cali, and will take a brief break before restarting. He is continuing on, backpacking his way through at least Central America with the Belgian. I still plan on driving to SA in the near future, and am a bit bummed I wont be doing it with my friend. There are advantages and disadvantages to going alone, and while I am sure we would have had our ups and downs, I think he and I would have had a great time if we had continued on together for the whole trip.

Back to San Diego

Hierve el Agua Lower Pool

Astro at Hierve el Agua "Campground"

Hierve el Agua from Above

Hierve del Agua all to myself

 

[Christian P.]

Setback happens...that's part of the adventure.

let's just hope you can get back on the road quickly and visit us in Panama!