17 minute read
Mexico Exploring an overland paradise rarely visited by British travellers
SOUTH OF THE BORDER
Pictures: Jen Bright and Gav Lowrie
For overland travellers from the USA, Mexico is one of the fi rst destinations they’re likely to head for.
That’s in part due to geography (it’s either Mexico, Canada or a shipping container, after all) but also because the nation south of the border is a fabulously vibrant land with bountiful opportunities to explore.
If you’re a Brit seeing the world, on the other hand, Mexico is less likely to feature on your itinerary.
You might explore South America, or the USA and Canada, but if you try to travel between one and the other you’ll run into the Darien Gap. Thus Mexico is unreachable from one popular overland destination and a dead-end from another.
It’s worth visiting in its own right, though. That’s what Jen and Gav Lowrie found when they did just that as part of their world tour aboard Ruby, a Defender 110 from the 300Tdi era.
Having crossed the border at Tecate, Jen and Gav set off at a slow pace down the Baja Peninsula. Their route meandered from the west to the east of the cape, taking in both the Pacifi c coast and the Sea of Cortez as they crossed spectacular mountains and deserts dense with cactus, all the while enjoying lush beachfront campsites with view of dolphins swimming in the ocean.
Further on, in the town of Mulegé on the shores of the Sea of Cortez, another wonderful campsite shaded by palm and banana trees saw an unexpected reunion. ‘Sylvia and Martin, a German couple we befriended in San Quentin, arrived at the same campsite,’ says Jen. And with them and some long-term residents, we had a great few days.’ This is something that happens on the road – you say your farewells when your routes part but then days, weeks, even months later, it turns out you were all going the same way after all.
The team arrived in La Paz, the capital of the Baja Sur region, in
time for Christmas. It was animated, to say the least. But then on Boxing Day things got even better when they took a boat trip out from the shore to swim with whale sharks.
This kind of excursion can turn out to be an anti-climax, but there was no fear of that on this occasion. Fully togged up with wetsuits and snorkels, they jumped off the boat – and came face to face with a huge whale shark.
‘Our guide estimated that it was about twenty feet long,’ says Gav. ‘We swam alongside it, watched it feed and got to hang out with it for a while. It was incredible – defi nitely one of the highlights of the trip!’
Further idyllic beachfront camping spots followed, including Punta Arena De La Ventana. ‘We had the beach to ourselves for two nights,’ says Gav. ‘In the mornings, we watched the rays swimming close to the shore.’
Having seen in the new year at Los Barilles, it was on to Cabo Pulmo – a national marine park whose coral reef is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s a perfect place for snorkelling, with a magnifi cent variety of fi sh and seals – which you’d think would make it a bit of a honey pot, but in fact the town of Los Cabos was by far the most touristy place Jen and Gav visited in Baja.
And in among all the glorious beachfront camp sites and wildlife encounters, here’s a telling little comment about overlanding. ‘We went to the cinema in Los Cabos to watch The Greatest Showman,’ admits Gav. ‘It was really enjoyable! The longer we have been travelling, the more we like doing normal things like that.’
Overland fatigue, can that possibly be a thing?
From Cabo, Jen and Gav pointed Ruby towards the coastal town of Todo Santos. Sitting at the foothills of the Sierra de la Laguna Mountains on the Pacifi c Coast, this is an artistic hub full of craft shops, restaurants, boutique hotels, restored colonial buildings and galleries hung with local paintings.
If that all sounds touristy again, there’s more to the story. It was here that the globetrotters heard about the works of a voluntary organisation near to their base camp on Las Playitas beach.
‘They release baby turtles back into the sea on a daily basis,’ says Jen. ‘After incubating the eggs on the beach during winter, the volunteers then let them go when they’re ready!’ Always ready to volunteer, the couple just had to get involved.
Using the sand for incubation, three types of turtle nest on the shores of Todos Santos: Black, Leatherback and Olive Ridley. However, if sand temperatures drop below 26 degrees, the turtles struggle to survive – so volunteers relocate the nesting eggs into a beach-based greenhouse.
‘The turtles are released at sundown,’ says Gav. ‘We all got a bowl containing half a dozen of them – each about 3cm wide. A line was drawn in the sand, near the sea, and this was where we released the turtles that had hatched that day.’
‘It was amazing,’ Jen continues. ‘Gently shaking them out of the bowl and watching them instinctively head towards the sea. The waves would come in and help some of them out to sea, while some others needed a few attempts!’
We’re not sure whether this sign in the town of Tequila is a welcome or a warning. Either way, it’s bright enough to give you a headache even before you’ve started sampling the potent spirit for which it’s famous…
Camping on the beach must have felt extra special after an experience like this. There was a brief reality check courtesy of some local youths who parked up nearby with music thundering out of their car stereo, but they got bored mercifully quickly and the calm beauty of nature was soon restored.
A couple of days later, after fi ve weeks in Baja, Jen and Gav loaded Ruby on to the ferry to the Pacifi c resort of Mazatlan. They couldn’t have timed it better: this a town with a 15-mile seafront boardwalk, so it’s geared up for fun, and they arrived as preparations were in full swing for the local carnival.
‘The old town was beautiful,’ says Jen. ‘Its historic square, cathedral and buildings were beautifully lit at night. We wandered down to the seafront and saw these crazy cliff divers, who jump 45 feet into shallow water surrounded by jagged rocks!’
Retiring to the comparative safety of their campsite, Gav pulled out his tools to give Ruby a check-over – a crucial part of the routine on any overland expedition. He found that the UJ was worn on the front propshaft – so, having removed it and hopped into a taxi, he went off to fi nd a local mechanic who was able to replace it using Jen and Gav’s own supply of spare parts.
With the Land Rover now ready for more action, the route followed the coastline south to the fi shing village of San Blas. This was only ever going to be a stopover en route to Guadalajara – but there was still an agenda.
‘At the edge of town was a viewing point where crocodiles were taking a break and basking in the sunshine,’ says Jen. ‘We wanted to do a boat tour through the mangrove marshes to see the wildlife and arranged one for seven o’clock the next morning, but when we got there nobody showed up!’
Deciding to move on rather than try again the next day, they headed further south to their next stopover: the town of Tequila. Origin of the world famous spirit, near the foot of the dormant Tequila volcano, the town is surrounded by fi elds of blue agave – the main ingredient of the drink. During their short stay in the town, Gav and Jen spent the day exploring its cobbled streets and stone architecture, before taking a tour of the oldest tequila distillery in the world.
‘The tour showed us how the agave is prepared and becomes tequila,’ recalls Gav. ‘After the process is complete, the liquor is aged between anything from one year up to eight, depending on the fi nal product.’
Of course, no distillery tour would be complete without a sample. ‘You’re supposed to taste tequila in a certain way,’ explains Jen. ‘First, swill it around the bottom of the glass to see the colour and body. Then sniff it – both at the top and bottom of the glass before sipping it. Hold it in your mouth for three seconds, inhale, swallow, then exhale quickly for maximum taste.’
In a bid to appear cultured, Jen decided not to fi nish every glass in the tasting. That’s what she says, anyway. Gav has a rather different version: ‘I had to remind Jen later on that by glass three, her chin was in the glass whilst her nose was sniffi ng thin air! By glass four, she had decided not to leave a drop and knocked the whole thing straight back, before fi nishing mine and going back to the other glasses and fi nishing them off too!’
You may well be able to relate to this. In which case, when we described tequila as ‘world famous’ above, you might well have been thinking ‘infamous, more like,’ or words to that end…
Next up was Guadalajara, Mexico’s second oldest city. This is home to a twin-towered cathedral, Latin America’s biggest indoor market (Mercado San Juan de Dios) and Hospicio Cabanas – a UNESCOlisted former orphanage with fi ery murals by Jose Clemente Orozco.
‘In the parks,’ says Gav, ‘people were hula-hooping, skipping, doing yoga, cycling, running – you name it! The roads are closed for a period to cars, and people relax on the streets. They call it Recreational Sunday – it was brilliant to wander among the local families enjoying themselves.’
The local speciality here is torta ahogada, a sandwich fi lled with deep-fried pork and fresh onions and bathed in spicy sauce. Jen’s verdict: ‘It’s absolutely delicious!’ We’re not sure if she had the munchies by this point, though…
Another 180 miles, composed mainly of extortionately expensive toll roads, took the team to Morelia in central Mexico. Sitting at the foot of the Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range, this is another UNESCO World Heritage Site.
‘Morelia is one of the most beautiful cities in Mexico,’ says Jen. ‘And it’s not really on the well-trodden path, so you can walk around without bumping into the fl ip-fl op crowds!’
The Mexicans love a festival, and the light show at the church in Morelia pulled in big crowds. As for Christmas, it’s a big deal here too – though we bet you’ve never seen festive decorations like these before…
In its centre, Morelia has more than 200 buildings made from the pink stone that’s synonymous with the region. ‘Our favourite was the stunning pink cathedral in the centre of town,’ says Gav. ‘It was beautifully lit at night and was just as beautiful on the inside. There’s a monumental organ, imported from Germany in 1905, which was the largest organ in the western hemisphere at the time. It consists of 4600 flutes and pipes!’
The couple also met up here with Ken and Fi, two other travellers who they’d met in Mazatlan, and together they headed out of town to the El Rosario butterfly reserve. ‘Monarch butterflies arguably take the title of the world’s greatest travellers,’ explains Jen. ‘As winter arrives in the USA and Canada, millions upon millions of these beautiful orange and black butterflies begin a remarkable migration that sees them fluttering 2000 kilometres south to central Mexico.’
The migrating butterflies begin their journey in early October and arrive in the central Mexican mountains in mid to late November. They travel at around 12mph on average and cover 80 miles a day. They can fly up to two miles high and their average journey south covers 1800 miles. At peak times, the number of butterflies can reach into the tens of millions.
The journey out to the reserve took three hours, and then it was a 45-minute uphill walk to reach the area where the butterflies congregated. But it was worth it.
‘It was truly remarkable to see millions of these butterflies weighing down the branches of trees as they huddled together,’ says Jen. ‘When they flew off, the sky almost went black! When everyone was quiet, you could hear the gentle flapping of their tiny wings.’
‘It gets cold in the mountains in the mornings and evenings, and that’s why they huddle together on the trees,’ continues Gav. ‘Then they fly off when the sun comes out, which warms them up. We watched
Wildlife and overland travel go hand in hand, though the classic safari image doesn’t necessarily look like this. The annual migration of Monarch butterflies is a wonder of the animal world, however – and releasing baby sea turtles into the ocean is a classic case of humanity giving nature a helping hand
Puerto Escondido (above) looks like any other chilled-out beach resort, but it was here that Jen and Gav had to rent a cabana as it was too hot for camping. In Mazatlan (right), jumping in the Pacific is popular – which sounds pretty sensible, except here the preferred way to do it is with a side order of instant death if you miss your target
them for about an hour before we all agreed it was time to leave.’
Ken and Fi hit the road a couple of days later, leaving Jen and Gav to enjoy a final night in Morelia watching a firework display over the cathedral – complete with attendant carnival atmosphere. The next morning, it was time to say goodbye to the town, where they had spent a thoroughly memorable week, and head on south towards Patzcuaro.
This is much smaller than Morelia. It’s still a great place to visit, though, with magnificent buildings surrounding huge plazas and a beautiful natural location on the shore of the lake with which it shares its name. Jen and Gav camped at a ranch overlooking the town – which they shared with all manner of guests. ‘There was a variety of animals parading around the campsite,’ says Gav. ‘Horses, turkeys, dogs, hens and donkeys were all hanging around!’
They were sharing with humans, too – including Fi and Ken again, as well as a couple called Roque and Sharon who they had met back in Death Valley. ‘They’re retired and heading to Panama, where Roque is from, to see if they want to resettle there,’ explains Jen. Now, that’s what we call an expedition…
All three vehicles headed on from here towards Zihuatanejo, back on the Pacific Coast. Back down at sea level, the temperatures were much more intense than they had been up in the mountains. ‘The day was spent lying on hammocks under a huge palapa,’ says Gav. ‘We spotted whales out to sea, although it was almost too hot to fetch our binoculars to take a proper look!’
That night, the group had a farewell dinner in the local restaurant prior to going their separate ways. It cost a princely £14 for the whole lot of them. If only the toll roads had been such good value…
In Puerto Escondido, Jen and Gav stayed in a cabana as it was simply too hot to camp. Then in Santa Cruz, in the region of Huatulco, the lure of snorkelling took the party to Playa Entrega.
‘It was mid-week, so we expected there to only be a few people there,’ says Gav. ‘But as we drove up, there were hundreds of cars and people, bands, police, everything! We presumed it was a festival that we weren’t aware of, but a smiley restaurant owner gladly told us: “It’s the beach’s birthday!”’
Having duly been snorkelling, Gav and Jen chilled out among all the music, beach sports and competition as they soaked up the celebrations prior to sitting down for dinner in an outdoor restaurant. Here they had one of those travel experiences you can’t plan for – which the region was struck by an earthquake.
‘It measured 7.2!’ says Jan. ‘Everything in the restaurant shook and everything started moving around. However it still didn’t put us off our food!’
Thus Mother Nature provided a dramatic end to the Mexican leg of Ruby’s world tour. Fitting, really, because it had been a spectacular part of their journey – certainly, the nation on the far side of the US border had proved time and time again why America’s overlanders don’t need to travel far from home to enjoy some real adventures.
Ruby’s next stop, however, was another border crossing. Mexico had been generous in the experiences Jen and Gave had had there, but now things were about to get a little less familiar. As they crossed in to Guatemala, the couple were about to experience a part of Central America that’s even less well known to British travellers…
