America's cooler brother to the south

We had a leisurely night in our hotel room in Cancun the night before we flew back to Chicago for our friend's wedding. The next morning we picked up the remnants from our mojito-fest the night before and did other glamorous tasks, such as washing dishes in the hotel room sink and gathering all of the complimentary water bottles (Score!). We are the first ones to admit that we are scavengers. [Free suite upgrade, bathroom had a steam room]

Life of luxury right here

We said “Hasta pronto” to Sweetcakes, leaving her at the hotel parking lot, and rolled into the airport a couple of hours before our flight, fall coats in tow. (Eww!) [Able to bid farewell only after a long back and forth with the hotel; apparently "park and fly is it's own special offer, we don't offer it if you book with points." Oh really? Lemme just show you the e-mail where someone said it was ok. We're good? Yeah, that's what I thought.  I only let my elitist bourgey side come out when I'm at Marriott.] The check-in line for United was super long (we are spoiled brats and are used to using the priority line when we fly Delta with Ike's status), and after what seemed like an hour (but was probably only 25 minutes... seriously, so many Cancun tourists) we finally reached the check in desk. Only to be told that because we had entered by land and were leaving by plane, we had to get our tourist visa cards stamped by the immigration office. But thankfully the woman working the check-in desk told us we could skip to the front of the line after we received our stamp. We briskly walked over to the immigration office and were told we had to pay the visa fee again. I mentioned that we had paid when we entered and, after handing over our receipt, the worker stamped our tourist visas and we walked back over to the check-in counter. We spent the flight smugly looking at each other every time we heard “Welp, vacation's over” or “Back to the real world.” Not for us!

on a scale of 'woof' to 'dumps'.....

Ike's mom was gracious enough to pick us up at the airport when we arrived at O'Hare that evening. We were staying with one of her high school friends north of downtown. We enjoyed pizza, wine, and sharing stories from our adventures through Mexico that evening. The following morning we had “business” to take care of while in the states. Number 1 on the list was calling Verizon to try AGAIN to cancel our US phone plan. We had called to cancel the night before we crossed into Mexico, but for some reason we had been billed the next month. Then we called again from the Oaxacan coast and were told our accounts would be canceled and they would remove the amount we owed from the latest month. Great, except it didn't happen. So, needless to say, we weren't happy when we called back in for a third time. Poor Ike spent an hour on the phone and we were told that we would have to call in AGAIN when we received our next bill (which would be the 2^nd one after we canceled). Not acceptable. We immediately complained on Verizon's facebook page and soon after received a message from one of their customer service representatives asking for more information and stating that they would resolve the issue for us. We haven't checked our account yet, but fourth time's a charm, right? [Just checked; still not resolved]

Next up on the to-do list was visiting a hardware store to get a replacement screw for our amazing pressure cooker. Somehow we lost one of the screws in the handle, preventing the lid from sealing while cooking. Thankfully we thought ahead and brought the one remaining screw so we knew exactly what we were looking for in the store. But even with the screw we needed in hand, we couldn't possibly figure out how to find it out of the 100s of screws in the ACE Hardware isle. Lucky for us, we didn't have to. One of the employees was able to help us solve the mystery, finding the right diameter, length, and material type suited to our cooking needs. Thank you ACE Hardware woman for your excellent service, even though our 3 screws (a couple of backups can't hurt) came out to a paltry $1.50!

Mom's requested picture she gets for her donation to us via nomadizens.com!

We took care of a few more “business” items, then met up with Ike's aunt for lunch at a local Greek restaurant. Mmmm, I love all your ethnic food, Chicago! We hopped on the L train and headed downtown to our hotel. Why yes, we will take the complimentary upgrade to a suite. Thanks, Marriott status! As much as Ike traveling for work so often was a pain in the rear and sometimes put a strain on our relationship, it sure is nice to reap the rewards during our trip.

 We like to dress up before we hunt moose. Also, Megan couldn't help but shoot ALL of the Moose, not just the bulls.

We met up with some college friends for pre-ceremony drinks. Ike and Megan unleashed their inner Wisconsinite spirit and hunted a few bucks and bears. Jessica & Chris' wedding was a beautiful ceremony in a spunky venue. We enjoyed catching up with friends, boogey-ing on the dance floor (we need more Karin in our daily lives! And we won't ever forget Rayla singing Lady Gaga), and the delicious food (yes, I did have 2 brownies for dessert!).

 The lovely Terp ladies reunited!

The next morning we rescheduled our brunch to lunch so we could take advantage of the free hotel breakfast (we're scavengers, remember?), then met up with Ike's mom and cousin in Hyde Park for a brief tour of the U Chicago campus followed by all-you-can-eat sushi. Noms. We killed the afternoon by meeting up with Dan, one of Ike's old coworkers, for a drink then bumming around in the cold Chicago air. That night was a MSU-OSU football party at a bar. We showed up an hour and a half early just to get out of the cold, and spent 2 days' budget on our bar tab that night. But thanks, Mom, for paying for our food all weekend. [I had to get my yearly quota of Old Fashioned's in....]

We've been through the night-shift trenches together

 Bethany and I wore red to an OSU v MSU game. DERP.

"So, what's the story with your shirt?" a woman in the bar asked me. After explaining that it's traditional clothing from Chiapas, Mexico, she responded: "Oh, I thought it was Mexican! My boyfriend thought it was Polish." And as we were rolling out from the bar I heard someone call out "Bye, Mexico!"

And just like that our quick trip to Chicago was over. The next morning we awoke to our 5:45am alarm and hitched a ride with Ike's mom back to O'Hare. The atmosphere on the flight down to Cancun was a bit different. We saw several groups gulping down cocktails before our 8:30am flight. Let the fiesta begin!

Sweetcakes was intact and doing well when we returned to our hotel in Cancun. We rearranged our stuff and sped out of the parking lot, happy to be back on the road! In the hotel shuttle from the airport we spoke with another American family that had just missed their flight back home (they showed up to the airport 50 minutes before their flight, derp!), but they told us some information about the toll road out to the ruins at Chichen Itza, our destination for the day. We had heard that the toll was expensive, but didn't know just how expensive it was. They told us there were 2 toll booths along the road, and the toll was over 500 pesos ($40 USD). Expensive, I would say so! By the time we stocked up on groceries, it was getting late in the afternoon and we wanted to arrive at our campground before dark, so we opted to take the toll road. Looking at the map, I noticed a small gap in the toll road near the turn off for Valladolid. So we decided that if we hadn't paid the 2^nd toll by then, we would turn off and drive the relatively short distance to Chichen Itza on the free highway. Our plan worked! We paid only half of the toll amount, but were able to use the high quality toll road for about ¾ of the distance to the ruins. We're finally getting the hang of this budget traveling thing, eh?  [We also noticed many of the tour buses were taking the libre road near Chichen Itza, so they likely were also avoiding the exorbitant fees.]

 Fields and fields of agave for Mezcal. #blessed

We pulled into the gigantic Piramide Inn hotel complex where we planned to camp for the night, and were greeted by dozens of cats. In addition to the pool and a few lime trees out back, we knew we were going to like it here. The camping rates were a bit bizarre to us. If you slept in your vehicle parked out front, the cost was 150 pesos. But if you tent camped in the back yard it was 50 pesos per person. So we pitched our tent near our friend, the lime tree. We used 4 fresh limes that night for our drinks and Ike packed up another 10 when we left the next day. We've grown accustomed to the overlander's schedule: up with the sun, to bed at 9-10pm. So after setting up our tent and cooking dinner, it was time for bed.  [Things I learned: lime trees are really just big bushes, and they have lots of very sharp thorns that sting for a few minutes after you get pricked.  #noregrets. We also loved having some of the kitties hanging out with us while we cooked. One just sat there silently watching us, never complaining, so naturally he got a couple scraps.  The other would meow like the world was ending every time she got pet.  Clearly there's no middle ground for them.]

The next morning we woke with the sun, feeling refreshed, and set off walking to the Chichen Itza ruins, less than a mile from our campsite. We had heard it was best to arrive when the park opened at 8am, because the Cancun tourists arrived around 10am and between the busloads of tourists and the souvenir vendors lining the sidewalks, the experience just wouldn't be the same. We were happy to have this advice. We were the 2^nd couple through the entrance gate and enjoyed the first half of the grounds in relative solitude. We both got a kick out of seeing all the vendors rush in with their carts full of their wares through the side entrance. It was like a souvenir-peddler super highway, with all of them rushing to their normal spots, setting up their stands, and unpacking all of their trinkets. Thankfully most of them were still setting up for the couple of hours that we were wandering the grounds, but the last 15 minutes or so we started to get berated by them. No thanks, we don't want your mass-produced goods that we've seen all over Mexico already. Tourists, if you don't want all of your experiences to be tainted by souvenir vendors, STOP buying souvenirs as the tourist stops! Buy your souvenirs at town markets, where there is more variety and they are usually cheaper. [To be fair, I think lots of American tourists DO want this though. We saw a large contingent of them browsing and buying stuff.  I just want to know how you put a ceramic Mayan calendar reproduction to use in your home...]

Bethany and I wondered what would have happened if we stood in line with the vendors. 

 Restored and unrestored side by side

Chichen Itza was the third Mayan ruin site that we have toured in Mexico. Our first was Monte Alban, just outside of Oaxaca City. It was a rather plain ruin site: large, but with hardly any carvings/decorations on the structures. The second was Palenque, just after leaving San Cristobal de las Casas, which had a bit more carving. Chichen Itza blew us away with the pristine grounds (thanks to all the Cancun tourist money flowing in) and the ornate carvings on the buildings. It did, however, severely lack in informative signs. We can't figure out if the signs are poorly translated, or if they were translated to English by an archeologist and they just use uber-technical language that commoners can't understand. Probably a mix of both. [Highly indicative of the Puuc style, built by Kahchu'kuulan in the Early Terminal Period, with influences of the Tlaxican-Zapotec carvings.  Lol wut?]

 Wall of skulls. Intimidation for the captives as they were brought in

 rawr

 Faces put on the corner were made to be seen from the side [below] or head on [hah, puns]

 EARLY GAMES OF TIC-TAC-TOE?! THEIR SECRETS DIED WITH THEM.

 Remains from the 'hall of columns', thought to originally be an administrative hall and then converted to a market. Built with a central drainage in the center as well. 

 Chichen Itza's famous central tomb. Note both the restored right side and unrestored left, as well as the workers halfway up the right side (for scale).

 Decorative snake steps

We returned to Sweetcakes ready to continue our whirlwind tour of the Yucatan peninsula's best sites. First on the list was stopping for street food, our go-to option for days when we are on the road (or, really, anytime we manage to encounter it mid-day). Driving through the nearby town with our windows down we soon caught the smell of pollo asado, or grilled chicken. Noms! We flipped a U-turn and parked in front of 2 side-by-side pollo asado restaurants. Our choice was easy, however, as the second restaurant owner had rubber chicken hanging over the entrance that he was enthusiastically squeaking and waving us down. It's a deal, sir. 100 pesos ($8 USD) got us a delicious whole chicken, with sides of rice, lettuce, and soup. We ate to our hearts content and still had a half chicken left, which the owner happily packed up for us.  [Bethany also translated the word 'try' to the vendor, and verified that 'Try our chicken!' is the right English phrase to use.]

The German couple we had met in Chetumal recommended a boondocking beach campsite where we could see flamingos nearby. That was our destination for the night. We plugged the coordinates into the GPS and set off down the highway. They said we would see the flamingos around a lagoon a few kilometers before the campsite. We drove across the lagoon bridge, but didn't see any flamingos. Hold on, there's another little road across the lagoon, let's go try that. The road soon deteriorated and we found ourselves driving down a one-lane gravel [when it was good] road through the lagoon with locals fishing on either side. Great, but no flamingos. In a last ditch attempt to find them, we drove a bit further down the road following the coast, then cut across the lagoon on yet another road, and BINGO! There were the flamingos. There were hundreds of them scattered around the lagoon on either side. We pulled over and watched for a bit, then set off to find the beach access road where we would camp that night. [Which ended up being it's own adventure, as we initially pulled in along a nice paved [but overgrown] road that seemed to lead back to a resort [sign in English] that was just the concrete shell.  There was a security station with an arm to block the road [but was up], but that seemed wrong.  We doubled back and a little further on the GPS said, "turn here! Here's your road!' in her new Australian accent [because the GPS was on the fritz and was randomly rebooting, at first to Afrikaners, which was just hilarious] but I was like, 'no way that's a road' and whipped on by what actually was a sand trail access of just two tire tracks.  How the hell the GPS had that in there, whatever.]

 Yes, they really are that pink

Driving down the coastal road lined with abandoned hotels, we suddenly came upon a small sand lane leading out to the beach. This must be it! Ike backed out to the beach, which had enough clear space for 2-3 vehicles to park. No one was around. It was just us, the sea breeze, a beautiful sunset, and a beach full of seaweed and garbage. Despite the garbage, it really was peaceful and relaxing. We got to work making camp for the night: step 1 = make the adult beverages, step 2 = set up our bed in the back of the car, step 3 = watch the sunset, step 4 = cook dinner. Quite the to-do list, but we manage somehow. The next morning we woke with the sunrise and then I was inspired to pick up some of the garbage on the beach, even though it would just be a drop in the bucket. In 45 minutes I was able to clean up the 50 meters on either side of the beach access. Perhaps if people don't see the garbage they will be less likely to litter themselves. That's the behavioral economist in me coming out.

 There are worse places to be. :)

 A blue sky, a setting sun, and trash along the beach. 

Don't mind me guys! Just grabbing some dinner too!

 Bethany - steward of the Earth

That morning we briefly visited the flamingos again, then set off for the 3 Cenotes de Cuzama, which involves a ride in a horse-drawn cart to 3 cenotes. For those of you that haven't had the pleasure of visiting the Yucatan, cenotes (pronounced say-NO-tay) are underground water holes that form beneath the limestone surface layer. They are a geological formation unique to this region. These particular cenotes were a decent distance off the main highway, but we faithfully followed our GPS to the coordinates, only having to detour a handful of times to skirt around the road construction. We came upon the parking lot late morning and were surprised to see no other cars there. OK, that's a bit sketchy. No less than 5 men were standing on the side of the road, adamantly flagging us into the parking lot. We got it, guys!

We were immediately approached by a young man telling us the price and that he was the one to collect the money. We told him we wanted to eat some lunch before setting off on the 3 hour tour. An adorable little boy helped direct us into a parking spot and carried a basket the size of his body full of snacks. Felipe, as we later found out was his name, was “11 years old” (but was probably more like 7 or 8) and didn't go to school because he didn't like it. Instead he spends his days selling snacks for 50 cents a pop to visitors. He was a very sweet boy, and after our tour we spent the afternoon chatting with him about our e-readers and telling him how much we liked to read. [Bethany also had a convo with him about where we were from.  She asked him to guess; his first guess: "Merida?"  hahah.  He was astounded when we told him the United States.  We also spent some time chatting with a Dutch couple about travel in the Yucatan.]

Giddy-up!

After a quick lunch we paid up and hopped in a horse-drawn cart with our guide, Julio, who was a young man of around 16 who was also finished with school and had worked for the cooperative for nearly a year. We found out that the cooperative currently consists of 53 men, each owns their own horse and rail-cart. In addition to maintaining their horse and cart, they each are assigned a 150 meter section of rail to maintain. Our horse trotted along the rail, slowing every time the earth slanted up and picking up to a gallop every time it slanted down. After about a half hour of traveling along the track through thick jungle growth, we arrived at the first cenote. Julio asked if we wanted him to accompany us to the cenote, we said sure, and he guided us down a walking path and then pointed to the base of a tree with a small hole by the roots and said, “There's the entrance.” The hole wasn't much bigger than 2x2 feet and had a ladder descending into a dark abyss below. Julio led the way down the ladder, Ike bravely followed, and I brought up the rear. We couldn't see much when we got to the bottom, but Julio was prepared with a couple of flashlights. He lead us up and over some rocks then showed us where the water was. We climbed down into the cool, yet refreshing pool and went for a swim. This first cenote was completely dark, since the entrance hole was very small and was not located directly over the water pool. Several drivers were down there with their groups and they all shone the light into the water for us. It was enjoyable but still a bit creepy, and after 10 minutes or so we were climbing back out of the tiny hole in the tree root system. [The rocks were really quite slippery, so I also left with my butt completely muddied as I had opted to slide down some of the steep rocks instead of doing it the right way like Bethany: going down backwards and holding on to the rope.]

Yeah, lemme just crawl on in there. No nightmares waiting or anything!

Back into the horse-drawn cart, we bypassed the 2^nd cenote and went to the last one. This one also had a ladder to climb down, but the hole opening was bigger... maybe 4x4 feet. This time Julio didn't offer to accompany us, so we didn't know what to think, but once we got to the bottom of the ladder we were surprised with how beautiful and light it was down there. Julio had informed us that this cenote was called the 9 rat holes (I confirmed that there weren't actually rats). The name made sense because there were several other holes in the ceiling, all natural, and beautiful light was shining down through the holes into the water, reflecting off the floor of the cenote, and shining on the underside of the ceiling. It was unlike anything either of us had seen before, absolutely beautiful. The water was crystal clear and bright blue. We treaded water and paddled around for a bit. A Dutch couple let us borrow their snorkel gear and we could see some fish underwater and enjoy the water reflecting off the bottom of the cenote. [We also noticed how there was a pile of rocks on the bottom of the pool, under the large hole at the top.  Wild to think of the centuries it would take for all of those rocks to accumulate on the bottom.]

 The flash makes this look totally cool and easy, as opposed to the black pit of despair it really looked like

Back into the horse-drawn cart again, we headed towards the 2^nd cenote. This one had the largest opening, big enough for a metal staircase to lead down into the cenote. Although it didn't have such concentrated sunbeams, the large opening allowed a lot of light to shine through. We both jumped off the entrance platform and into the deep, blue pool of crystal clear water. Eventually we were both floating around on our backs enjoying the large tree roots hanging down into the cenote and the stalactites that had formed on the ceiling. Very peaceful. Then it was back into the clanky horse cart for a 30 minute ride back to the parking lot. [Also enjoyed the enthusiastic Mexican tourist who climbed to the top of the ridge under the staircase and did the 20ft dive on into the water.  Also, the carts had a single track they all rode on, so whenever you met someone going the other direction, one of them would have to have their passengers hop off, unload their cart off the tracks [Julio told us they only weighed 50kg's] and let the other group pass.]

 Vines hanging down into the water, about 60 feet down

Obviously not our picture, but helps demonstrate the coloring!

We had heard that you could camp in the parking lot for free with your entrance fee, so we intended to do just that. We changed out of our swimsuits, set up our camp chairs, and settled in for an afternoon chatting with Felipe, reading, and watching the other tourist groups. Around 5:30 we started to prep dinner before the sunset, and soon after a European tourist rolled in all by himself. Much to our surprise, he asked in broken Spanish if it was too late to visit the cenotes, and was told that no, it was not too late. [He also tried to negotiate the purchase in Euros.  He was told Peso's and Dollars were ok, and that there was an ATM in town.  I think they eventually caved in [HAH! cenote jokes] and let him pay in Euros]  At this point there was only 15 minutes of daylight left, and the tour itself was a good 3 hours. Not to mention that it would be terrifying in the dark all by yourself, clanking along the horse cart track, climbing down into the cenotes, and not getting to enjoy the beautiful sunlight streaming through the entrances. We shrugged and continued on with our dinner prep, eventually eating dinner and watching an entire movie (Caddyshack!) before we heard the clanking of his horse cart returning. Within 30 seconds of his horse arriving back at the parking lot, the man was back in his car and speeding out of the parking lot. What terrors did he uncover while swimming alone in the dark cenotes? We'll never know.

As we were watching the movie, we heard some of the numerous dogs that hung out in the parking lot go zipping by and making noise.  For whatever reason, I decided to flash my headlamp over at them, and saw why they were making noise: they were chasing after a random guy walking around.  This was a bit surprising to us, as everyone had cleared out as soon as the sun set, and we had initially thought we were alone.  This was prior to the European getting back though, so I figured maybe he was just waiting around for the last group to get back before he closed up or something.

Prior to hitting the sack, I decided to head over to the bathroom, and do a quick scan around to make sure that we were indeed the only people hanging out.  All of the electricity was turned off, and the moon wouldn't rise for another couple of hours, so it was really quite dark.  The light from the headlamp threw weird shadows as I had it zip all over the grounds.  Didn't see anything as I made it to the bathroom, including the small concrete shack nearest our vehicle. [hint: Checkov's gun]  Returning back, I kept looking around, and was satisfied that the guy had taken off.  Passing the little concrete shack, I let the light slide on by it just to make sure.  It shined through the interior as I walked by, but it was empty: a couple of stacks of plastic chairs, two tables set up, but no people.  I paused for a second though, as my brain seemed to see something my eyes didn't.  For shits and giggles, I stepped back and shone the light back in because something seemed a bit off.  I shone it in for another second and looked closer just to satiate the nagging, and saw what had thrown me for a loop: no, there wasn't someone standing around or laying on the tables or anything.  Instead, I saw a body crouched down in a low squat, behind one of the legs of the table, facing me with his hands held up covering his face. As soon as my brain took it in I continued back to the car, the entire episode lasting a few seconds.  'Everything all right?' Bethany said when I got back to the car [all of 15 feet later].  'Oh...yeah...all good.' 'You don't sound convincing...' 'Um...so there's a guy in the shack.' I said.  On one hand, I could see the guy trying to be surreptitious. If he was homeless and spending the night there, he wouldn't want other people to know he was there.  If he was there when he wasn't supposed to be, I could also see him wanting to stay out of the way and maybe not scare the tourists by clomping around at night.  On the other hand, he did it in a way that played out like a scene from every horror movie ever. Frankly, if he had decided to hop up and his eyes and mouth were black pits of nothingness, I probably would have felt better because at least I knew that we were still on script.

'Probably should keep the windows most of the way up then, yeah?'  Bethany agreed. 

We survived the night, both waking every couple of hours to make sure we were still alive, and woke up just as the sun was peaking out over the horizon. We quickly packed up and got on the road for what we knew would be a long day. After 2 hours of driving we arrived at the Uxmal ruin site, happy to see it was not super crowded yet. These ruins had even more intricate carvings. By this time we were able to appreciate the similarities and differences we had seen at the various ruins sites. [Ahh yes, here again you can see the pinnacle of the Puuc style!]

 Restored, sure, but still a millennium old.

Moon's out... right, Matt?

 Uxmal from the top of one of the palaces. 

 Getting his tan on

Then it was time for a 5 hour blitz drive back to Chetumal, our final stop in Mexico, just north of the Belize border crossing.  [Small highlight: approaching a tope and right as I'm going up to it, a pedestrian pops out from behind a vehicle that was going over the tope on the other side of the road. I see him, but since he just popped out, I would have had to slam on the brakes to stop in time for him, throwing all of our stuff around.  I continue rolling over the tope, the guy stops to let me pass, and I immediately get loud tweets from the whistle of the traffic cop standing there.  They wave us over, and we pull over, roll down the window for him. We are sure they are going to ask us for a bribe. An older officer comes over and tells us we need to yield to pedestrians.  Bethany drops a quick, 'Como?', and the younger traffic cop who pulled us over laughs.  The older man repeats it, saying as well that there are more topes coming up, so we need to be cautious.  Realizing he wasn't trying to ticket us [I wasn't having that; the guy hopped out from behind the other car jaywalking!] or get a bribe [also no], we apologized and continued on our way.]

We pulled into the campground in late afternoon exhausted and were surprised (and elated) to see Nikki from Sprinter Van Diaries playing in the yard with their dog Laika. Small world! That night we caught up with them and worked away at their tequila before they crossed the border the next morning. We decided to stick around for an extra day to take care of some more business and enjoy the nice campground.

The next day was errands day. First on the docket was having our laundry washed at the campground. This took a couple of hours, so we waited around and started on the rest of our errands for the day. Ike had discovered at the beach a few days prior that our 4 wheel drive didn't seem to be working. The indicator light didn't come on, and as far as he could tell the front wheels didn't kick-in. Knowing that rough roads laid ahead of us through Central America, we wanted to get this fixed. Ike started checking out threads on a 4runner forum, which lead to him checking for vacuum suction on some hoses. Neither hose had suction, which was odd because one hose was supposed to have suction even in 2WD. Someone advised that he should check that the fuse was working. He found a 15A fuse installed, when our owner's manual called for a 20A fuse. He swapped out the 20A fuse from the windshield wipers and boom, we have 4WD again. Easy fix!

Next was a trip to Auto Zone to buy a new light bulb for one of our parking lights, some windshield wiper fluid, and a new 12v outlet. Next up was a stop at Radio Shack to buy a USB – VGA adapter to use with the meterbus we purchased to change some of the factory settings on our solar charge controller. At 400 ($30 USD) pesos, this hurt our budget a bit, but we figured it was worth it since we will be able to program the charge controller to disconnect our fridge when the battery drains to half full, whereas now we have to guess and do it manually.

Next up was a stop at a tire shop to have our tires rotated. Having learned the hard way what happens when you don't do this at regular intervals during our Canada adventures, we wanted to keep it on schedule. The guys agreed to do it right away and quoted us a cheap price (80 pesos), but once they got the wheels off it was bad news. The warned us about the hole in our frame, saying that the piece was starting to bow outwards and that eventually it would snap off, hurting our rear axle and our rear differential. Yikes, OK. And then they told us our rear o-rings were broken and so we had to have our brake fluid flushed and replaced, rear brakes cleaned, and new o-rings installed. Hooray, gotta love car maintenance! Now I know how home owners feel: always something on the to-do list. Thankfully the man running the shop was very patient with my broken Spanish, but by this point my brain was pretty exhausted from all the translating of technical automotive stuff.

But we still had one more errand yet to go. We asked the guys at Auto Zone for directions to an electrician (they have separate shops here for mechanical car issues and electrical car issues), and after driving past it the first time, we found the little shop. The guys there said he could fix it no problem. At one point he touched two of the hot wires together and got a nice little pop (and probably a shock), so when we tested the new outlet it didn't work. Our hearts sank a little. Then the guy tested the fuses again, and now one was blown. Doh, we had checked them all before buying the new 12v outlet. This probably meant that the problem was that our fridge was drawing too much for the outlet. Eventually we figured out that the blown fuse was likely a result of the “pop,” so we should be good. With a new fuse installed, the 12v outlet was back up and running again.

After an exhausting morning/afternoon of running errands, and with only a few Mexican pesos left, we searched for a street food vendor where we could grab some cheap yet delicious food. We found a woman selling empanadas on the road leading back to the campground, at a whopping 5 pesos (less than 50 cents) each. Bingo! We'll take 15. We enjoyed them right away for lunch, that evening for dinner, and again the next morning for breakfast before our border crossing. [Included with the food were 5 baggies of different salsas: a creamy/spicy avocado, a chipotle, a barbecue, an onion/cilantro, and a pickled cabbage. Noms.]

After lunch it was time for more “business.” Using our new cable from Radio Shack we intended to re-program our solar charge controller's load disconnect voltage. Except when we plugged everything in to our computer, the program wasn't able to establish a connection with the device. After digging around on the Internet, Ike found that it was likely due to the driver for the adapter cable not calling for high enough voltage. Something about using personal computers with a commercial solar system. Not a huge deal, we can just return the 400 peso cord to Radio Shack, right? Wrong. We drive back into town and the store employee asks me to explain why the cable is wrong. Great, more Spanish conversations about complicated, technical systems. [she did great though!] We eventually get the point across and he suggests that we try another cable in case that one had something wrong with it, and that we try using each of the USB ports on our computer. We walked back out to the car and tried everything he suggested, but no change. We found out we couldn't get our money back, only in-store credit. We looked around, but there really wasn't anything we needed so we settled on a new pair of headphones and a USB – 12v charger. We had a few pesos left in our credit and the guy kept trying to talk us in to buying one more thing to use up our credit, but then we would have had to fork over more money. No thanks, you can keep the extra 10 pesos.

We made a quick stop at Auto Zone and spent our last 25 pesos on some 20A fuses, then headed back to the campground, exhausted after our day of errands. And by this time the sun had set and we hadn't had a chance to go for a dip in the pool. Oh well, we're heading to Belize tomorrow!

The next day started off on the wrong foot. The campground has water issues and neither of us had good water pressure during our shower. I ran out of water mid-shower so was left with soap in my hair which made it feel like straw all day. I walked over to shower first thing in the morning and there was NO water in the shower building. Ike suggested that I go try the other bathroom building, which didn't have showers, but they did have water in their sink, so I tried to rinse some of the soap out of my hair in the sink. I felt a little fresher afterward, which is good because we always try to look our best on border crossing days.

A few days ago our laptop screen started having some dead pixels. We noticed the dead pixels were expanding a bit, so we got in touch with HP to see if it was covered under warranty. Poor Ike kept getting disconnected on Skype and spent an hour and a half on the phone with them. Turns out it's covered, but will be hard to get the repair done since we're out of the country. The first guy we spoke to suggested that we get in contact with HP once we return to the states. Haha, real funny.

Late morning we set off toward the border, which was only 15 minutes away from the campground. The immigration officer informed us that we had to pay for our tourist visas, since they weren't included in the price of our plane ticket (I had read somewhere that sometimes they are included in the price). We were able to get our $200 USD vehicle deposit back without any problems, despite several people telling us that leaving our car in Mexico while we returned to the US was illegal and could possibly result in us not getting our deposit back. With our visas and vehicle permit canceled, we drove across the bridge and into Belize.

Immediately we could feel the culture change. The border area roads were under construction, so it was even more confusing to find our way to the right buildings than we had heard. We drove right past the tiny fumigation shack and up to the immigration building, and were told to turn around and get our car fumigated. This was a simple 2-minute spray around our tires and under the hood of the car. A porter “helped” us through the process, even though it was very straightforward and we would have been happy to do it ourselves. First step, have our passports stamped. Then go to another counter and import our car. Neither of these had associated fees. We had to bring our luggage in to be inspected, but they only made us bring in our clothing duffel bags. The rest of the stuff received a quick look-over, including a peak inside our fridge. Then Ike drove through the border with the car, while I waited on the other side with our porter and our duffel bags. Easy peasy. We bought insurance right across the border, then headed into town to buy groceries and find an ATM. We remembered from our previous trips to Belize that many of the grocery stores were run by Taiwanese families, so we ducked into a couple of them to buy some staples, but they didn't sell much produce. Luckily we had passed a roadside produce stand on the way into Corozal, so we backtracked to stock up there. We grabbed everything we wanted: potato, limes, oranges, onion, carrots, cabbage, peppers, plantain. It took everything I had to keep my jaw from dropping when he said the total would be $10 BZE, or $5 USD. Yesssss.... I love cheap, fresh produce! We will save the rest of our Belize adventures for the next blog post. Stay tuned! [Also: sweet delicious Belikin Stout beer! And fruit squash! [concentrate] and cheap rum! WOOOO]


Mexico budget recap:
Mexico was definitely gentler on our wallets than Canada. Here are some highlights from our expenditures.

Daily budget: $73 USD
Actual expenses: $73 USD
Difference: $0, which is great, especially considering our budget did not include things like visas, cell phone, car repairs, gifts, etc. This means that our daily expenses (food, lodging, gas, entertainment) were all way lower than we budgeted. [booyah!]

Average price for gas: $3.93/gallon (13.5 pesos per liter), including a small tip for the gas station attendant. This average is slightly higher due to us getting scammed at our first Mexican fill-up, in which we were charged nearly an extra dollar per gallon. Gas stations are nationalized in Mexico, so prices are constant throughout the country.  [also way better than Canada!]

Expected miles driven: 3,000
Actual miles driven: 3,239
Difference: +8%
After our +58% driving mileage in Canada, we feel like this was pretty good.

Average gas mileage: 20.04 mpg, which is impressive given the number of times we slammed on the brakes because of topes

Average miles driven per day: 98
This is nearly half of the miles we drove in Canada (185 per day), so was a nice change of pace. We still had several long driving days, but these were offset with staying at several places for nearly a week.

Biggest daily expenses ($/day):
#1: Gas - $19
#2: Other (visas, gifts, cell phone, car repairs, etc) - $15
#3: Food - $14
[haha look at those prices!! And Mexico is the expensive Central American country! [well, and Belize]

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Our thoughts on Mexico:  We've been trying to hammer this point home in our previous posts and want to outline it again:  Mexico is an incredible country that millions of Americans are missing out on because of exaggerated and misplaced fears fueled by incendiary news reports in the States that make it sound like a despotic wasteland of violence and terror. This couldn't be further from the truth.  Yes, Mexico is rife with political corruption, is very dangerous to journalists who try and expose the truth, and the recent events surrounding the murdered students serves as another highlight to the very real struggles Mexico continues to go through as it modernizes and copes with the legacy of the war on drugs.  However, the threat is vastly mitigated by being a smart traveler [and simply by being a tourist]: avoid driving at night [as much for the topes as other threats] , check with locals for up-to-date information, be aware of your surroundings, don't flash valuables, and trust your instincts. There is huge variety in Mexico's climates, altitudes, environments, people, cuisine, architecture, and culture. One month was only an appetizer.

The overwhelming majority of Mexican citizens are kind people who are happy to chat and love to show you the positives of their country.  Already we're thinking about our future trips where we drag family to Baja, Oaxaca, and other locales to show them the fantastic country that exists beneath the surface of sensationalist headlines and away from the resorts. Our request to you: go see what Mexico has to offer. You'll be amazed you waited so long to see it.