MEXICO
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| military macaw at Rancho Primavera. 12.2024 |
I couldn't resist one more pic of a military macaw. I had been wandering around the Rancho Primavera property in El Tuito south of Puerto Vallarta one day and this macaw came over and landed on the dead tree branch. With the absolutely clear sky in the background.
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| Rancho Primavera, El Tuito to San Augustin Etla, Oaxaca 1.2025 |
The drive shown on the map from El Tuito to San Augustin near Oaxaca was roughly 1000 miles and 33 hours. Even though stretches of the coast road Highway 200 were in good shape the majority of it basically sucks and has at least since my first trip on it back in early 2006. I was thinking that maybe 20% of it is in good to excellent condition, 20% is absolutely terrible and the other 60% is varying degrees of shit. I also realized fairly early on that this was probably my last drive down the Pacific coast. Doing this road with the rig I have is, at times, exhausting. Having seen most of the coast 2 or 3 or 4 times is enough for me. The beaches are pretty, etc. but it's not worth the trouble anymore. Here are some of my pictures from that 1000 miles.
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| the bay at Punta Perula 1.2025 |
I've always liked Punta Perula, my first stop south of El Tuito. It sits on this very pretty and tranquil bay which is steps from the RV park I was camped at, which is only so, so. The town is one road along the beach, more or less, and there's next to nothing to do but that suits me fine. Various shrimp dishes at the beach restaurants - plastic chairs and plastic tables and feet in the sand kind of deal - are what I live on when I'm here.
Further south is the triple tourist town San Patricio/Melaque/Barra de Navidad spread along another bay. In my opinion this area is only okay. The RV Park I stayed at is a destination for snowbirds from Canada, mostly. The ocean crashes just beyond the park fence line...you can often feel the ground shake. Nice people, boring town and not the best beach, atv's use it as a road.
I then drove south into the resort city of Manzanillo. I had meant to bypass it but once again I missed the turn. I thought, fine, Manzanillo has big grocery stores and driving the main road along the water is pretty easy. After loading up at the Walmart the confusing part was getting out of the city. Manzanillo has become a major port city for Mexico and there are many, many semis coming in and out on numerous roads and exit ramp options on the south end, only increasing the stress of finding my way out, easily hitting a 6 on the stress scale. I pulled over probably 4 times to try to determine where I was and what was my next move. This took some time but finally I saw daylight. Whew!
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| Rancho B campsite 1.2025 |
The goal was a beach town called La Placita and a campground called Rancho Buganvillias. It's a really pretty spot owned by an American named Sandy. He has decided to start selling plots to other ex-pats since the RV game has really dropped off over the years and I was the only transient camper there. La Placita is located in the state of Michoacan, another cartel playground, although I believe they do most of their killing inland fighting over the avocado trade, etc. 😏
One night around 2am the camper started shaking, enough to wake me, startled. This went on for maybe a minute (?) and then I heard a couple of people outside talking excitedly. Turns out there was a 6.2 earthquake only 40 miles, or so, inland of our location. There were aftershocks for hours afterwards. I'd never felt that intensity before. A 6.2 is considered a strong earthquake and this area had had a very serious one in the 7.5 range only a couple of years earlier. Sandy said that one had caused major damage to his house and there were landslides. This 6.2 created some new cracks in some of the walls of his house, thou he didn't seem too concerned. It's all relative.
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| screenshot of earthquake notice |
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| rough map of earthquake vs. my location |
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| view from Sandy's patio 1.2025 |
This beautiful spot is where Sandy, myself and one of Sandy's new landowners named Mark sat one Sunday and watched football while polishing off a bottle of Maker's Mark and a few beers. I hadn't drunk like that in quite some time but it was a fun afternoon.
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| the empty beach below Sandy's place 1.2025 |
South of Manzanillo for miles and miles the rugged coast of Michoacan is still largely untouched, thou just north of Sandy's spot I was told that a private, gated community of really rich people has been developed. They've done a great job of disguising it, however, because I barely saw the gated entrance let alone any homes when I drove by. At any rate, I was alone on this stretch.
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| along the Michoacan coast 1.2025 |
Leaving La Placita and after several hours of driving the slow, winding up and down Highway 200 along the coast things finally begin to open up a bit. I took this photo from a hilltop restaurant parking lot but I don't remember the name of the town or even if there was a sign for it.
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| beach/lagoon next to the Ixtapa RV 1.2025 |
Further south is the resort town of Ixtapa. Northwest of the hotel strip is the resort affiliated RV Park that I had always been curious about. Turns out it's not terrible. There are about 80 slots and there were only a dozen or so campers, including me for 4 days. I've also stayed in Zihuatanejo before which is the town next door and a more interesting place but I was only here to kill some time before moving on.
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| Ixtapa RV Park 1.2025 |
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| Acapulco RV Park 1.2025 |
After Ixtapa came Acapulco, or Pie de la Cuesta to be exact, a stretch of beach northwest of the city. Driving the roads around Acapulco was something I was not looking forward to. Again, getting ripped off up in Sinoloa was still in my head and the state of Guerrero is yet another cartel hotspot. This is where I went thru more checkpoints, 5 this time. I was told there were so many because the new president of Mexico had just been in Acapulco delivering a speech. At each checkpoint I was only asked where I was going or waved through right away. No searches!
Back in 2006 I had actually spent a few days at an old RV Park in downtown Acapulco (I don't think the park exists anymore?) and I really liked the city. The bay is beautiful, the old downtown is interesting, the cliff divers were really cool in person and the Spanish fort was well worth a visit. But the city has taken a turn for the worse and getting slammed by a major hurricane in 2022 and another in September 2024 in addition to the cartel stuff has taken off the shine. Both the Ixtapa and Acapulco RV Parks were as empty as they look in the photos above. Lots of folks apparently aren't willing to take the chance of driving down here these days. I like the breathing room but the lack of other travelers seems concerning.
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| Pie de la Cuesta beach 1.2025 |
Just outside the Acapulco RV Park gate is the beach with a view down towards Acapulco, which is beyond the furthest hill in the photo.
A nice stopping point for me between Acapulco and Puerto Escondido further south has been Playa Ventura. For the third time over the years I stopped at La Tortuguita, a sweet little oasis owned by a Swiss couple, Julio and Ester. Actually, since I was last there in 2011 they had split up and there was a German guy in Julio's place. Julio, however, was there doing some sprucing up of the property as one of their daughters was getting married that very weekend on the beach under the new palapa. It's still a beautiful and quiet location.
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| the new palapa by day, Playa Ventura 1.2025 |
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| the new palapa at sunset 1.2025 |
The distance from Playa Ventura down to my next stop of Laguna Manialtepec (just north of Puerto Escondido on the map above) is only 160 miles. It took over 6 hours and this was one of those stretches of really shitty road. The road goes inland somewhat and around a city called Pinotepa Nacional. In addition to the horrendous condition of the road are all of the topes (speedbumps). I've talked about these before as does anyone who drives Mexico but I hit one going around Pinotepa that may have actually lifted the back of my camper off the ground! That might be an exaggeration but not by much. I drove the next few minutes feeling for whether the truck was still in one piece and whether any of my tires had exploded. I won't forget that sucker.
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| morning on the laguna 1.2025 |
The Turistico Alejandria on the Laguna has a small parking area where I was able to sleep for the night right next to the laguna.
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| my laguna shrimp dinner 1.2025 |
They also have a good restaurant and I ordered their garlic shrimp which was served heads on with nice chunks of roasted garlic. Quite tasty. And they brought it to me in my camper since it was kind of buggy out when I got there.
A drive I had been looking forward to was to go from Puerto Escondido on the coast up to Oaxaca. I've been to P.E. three times over the years but I opted to skip it for this trip. I've never camped in any of the RV parks in P.E. - all crappy imo - but have always stayed at the nice and extremely well-located Beach Hotel Inez, owned by an expat German woman named Inez. I didn't want to struggle with parking the rig.
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| waiting in the tunnel...so close 1.2025 |
About one year ago they finally opened a new toll road to cut the driving time from P.E. to Oaxaca by half, at least. I'd been up or down two of the old roads that wind between Oaxaca and the coast and they are a serious 7–8-hour slog. Well...the new road was perfect until almost reaching the top of the mountain. Apparently, there were landslides? Things came to a halt as I was passing thru the last shiny new tunnel. So, maybe an hour got added to the trip with the stop and go of making it thru the construction. At least they aren't charging any tolls, yet.
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| getting thru the construction 1.2025 |
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| the view outside the tunnel 1.2025 |
After stopping for groceries in Oaxaca I made it out to a campground called Oaxaca View. This is just above the town of El Tule, somewhat famous for a somewhat big tree. OV, owned by a German couple, is well cared for and very peaceful at night. You can, in fact, see the lights of the city or at least some part of the city. Tule was less than 15 minutes away on my bike.
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| Oaxaca View campground 1.2025 |
OV is located in the small village of Santa Catarina de Sena, so small I couldn't even locate a single restaurant. The photo is the entire campground, room for only 5 rigs. The owner's house is behind me. They also rent two small apartments on site, one for $350/month, the other bigger unit, and the best one, for $450/month. Basically, a steal of a deal and if I ever drive down to Oaxaca again is a place I would strongly consider staying for a month.
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| Sta. Catalina de Sena church 1.2025 |
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| the main square in El Tule 1.2025 |
I had not been to Mexico since April of 2017 and one of my reasons for coming down again was to see if I even wanted to come down anymore (yes, I do). The other reason was to get back to Oaxaca, which has been my favorite city since my first trip here in 2006. This time I rented a house north of the city in a town called San Augustin Etla. After endless searching online over the course of a couple of years looking for a spot to rent that would also fit my rig this was about the closest I could get to downtown and still afford.
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| house rental, San Augustin Etla 2.2025 |
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| backyard "selfie" 2.2025 |
This is the view of the house looking west. The house is about halfway up the big street and to the right. Kind of semi-rural and very hilly. I liked the house and the town but 6 weeks was too many, 4 would have been enough. I could only walk the streets so many times and riding my bike turned out to not be a great idea as the roads are narrow, uneven and busy. Not very relaxing.
Below is a 26 second video taken from the roof of the house (the entire roof is a flat patio with stairs down to the second floor) starting from the main church looking north and scanning across the hills on the east side of the little valley.
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| Dulce Peligro, good local bakery 2.2025 |
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| misc. mural in San Augustin 2.2025 |
The corn field immediately in front of my rental I believe was ejido land (which basically means it is land owned and used by the community as a whole?). Most every day a goatherder came by with his small herd of maybe 12 goats and occasionally another guy would come by to stake his burro in the field or one day two bulls. The bulls were seriously pissed off at each other, snorting, trying to break free of their tethers, pawing at the ground. Somehow, the farmer got control but for a short time I thought it was going to get ugly. I forgot to take video, naturally.
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| the burro guy 2.2025 |
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| the goatherder 2.2025 |
A number of towns in the area have the word "Etla" in them. It's from the native Nahuatl language meaning "land of beans". The main town in this valley is called Villa de Etla, or just Etla. It's about a 20 minute taxi ride from the rental and Etla has one of the older and more famous markets. Wednesday is the biggest market day. I went down there on 3 different Wednesdays to buy fruits and vegetables, but mostly to buy tamales. The area where the tamales were sold consisted of, usually, four women each with several large pots of steaming tamales. They had tamales with mole negro, mole amarillo, salsa verde, mole Colorado (reddish), sweet (dulce) tamales, and ones with frijoles. I tried almost every one and I had to buy 6 or 8 each time. So good.
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| my favorite tamal lady 2.2025 |
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| typical fruit stand 2.2025 |
One day I arranged a mezcal tour with a local driver that contracted thru the house rental owner. The driver took me south of Oaxaca to a town called Santa Catarina Minas. This is a town I've read about before that is known for small mezcal producers often called palenques. The one we went to was Mezcal Ancestral. This was a small operation overseen by Rolando, the mezcalero and owner. There is a pit in the front yard where they cover and roast the agave pinas. Next, they crush the pinas with a wooden mallet (by hand!), then it ferments in large wooden vats then gets distilled over a fire in clay pots. Extremely tedious work, and smoky, too, as they were firing up the distillation pits when we arrived. Here are some pics.
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a pic off the internet showing larger pinas
in the same pit. Roasting can take days.
Once roasted the pina is very sweet, we
were given some to taste. |
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the pit when I was there 2.2025. Some variety
of pina is roasting under the covering. |
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| the distillation pots over fire pits |
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they crush the pinas with the conical mallets
which then goes in the vats along the wall and
ferments for weeks sometimes |
Me and Rolando. There are 14 different mezcal bottles on the table and I tasted them all. After the pic Rolando went inside and brought out a 15th bottle! Hey, why not. I was a bit lit by this time but somehow managed to choose several different flavors to buy, including a couple of the hand painted bottles you can see on the right side of the table. Mezcal, unlike tequila, is made with almost any kind of agave or mix of agaves. They even will use various plants or even animal carcasses to impart different flavors. Rolando had a cannabis mezcal that definitely tasted like cannabis.
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| the final haul (too many!), $250 worth. 2.2025 |
Mezcal Ancestral is one of many small makers of mezcal. It's all done by hand, the ancestral way, I'm told. You can't buy their product online or even at a local liquor store. You have to go to the source. So, the price reflects both the work and scarcity. The most expensive bottle I bought was $70. Some other palenques in the same town charge in the low hundreds for their best stuff.
My main reason for renting the house was to revisit the city. I found an apartment on Airbnb and took a taxi into town for two nights. In hindsight I wish I had spent a week, or more, in the Centro. I suppose that would be my next trip. Since my last time in Oaxaca it did seem more crowded, busier. I'm assuming it's largely due to digital nomads and all the Instagram stuff out there? What I found out, too, is that these days you need make reservations to any of the better restaurants since I was told "sorry, no seating" at whichever spot I walked up to, including the one on top of my list: Levadura de Olla. Next time. Still, I was able to score some good food at a couple of the more "regular" restaurants.
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| tacos de cochinita ($5), Ocote 2.2025 |
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| enchiladas mole, Taniperla 2.2025 |
A few blocks from my rental was Boulenc, if not the best bakery in the city certainly near the top. French pastries and breads are not something you find every day in Mexico. And right outside my apartment door was the Plaza de las Nieves. Nieves are a Oaxacan version of sorbet. Most are made with fruit and water, some with milk. They don't use eggs or cream so it's different and lighter than ice cream. I had nieves for dessert both nights.
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| Boulenc...they have baguettes! 2.2025 |
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| tuna (cactus) and limon nieves 2.2025 |
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| my rental on the Plaza de Nieves 2.2025 |
My rental unit was in the red brick building in the photo. I was practically surrounded by nieves. Behind me in this photo is the Basilica. The only complaint I had about this rental was that it's facing the Avenida de Independencia, a main thoroughfare into the centro. Even my earplugs had trouble tuning out the buses and motorcycles.
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the Oaxaca Cathedral 2.2025
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My final haul from the city. Two bags of coffee from Muss Cafe, pastries from Boulenc, a bottle of mezcal from the Centro Cultural del Mezcal ($91!), salsa macha (good) and guayaba marmalade (meh) from Boulenc's specialty shop next door to it, and a tee shirt from the crafts co-op called Huizache. You have to go up to the second floor in one of the corner shops to find the shirts. The mezcal place I think is pretty new and very fancy. Each bottle is individually displayed - it doubles as a museum - and you can do tastings and eat in the two restaurants. It's across the street from Muss Cafe.
My rental was due to end on March 9th. A few days prior I was able to get 10-20 liter bottles of water delivered and pumped into the camper. I then headed north, stopping first at the Jardin Botanico, then the Volcan La Malinche east of Puebla, and finally on to Patzcuaro. You'd have to zoom in on the map to see these spots but here are some photos.
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| the route from Etla to Patzcuaro 3.2025 |
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| water delivery day in San Augustin 3.2025 |
This is my campsite in the town of Zapotitlan Salinas at the Jardin Botanico Helia Bravo Hollis (HBH was a Mexican botanist. She did most of her work from the 1930's to the 80's. She died in 2001 at 100!) I had no idea this sprawling area of cactus even existed. Thanks to the iOverlander app for the tip. Zapotitlan is also known for its salt and I wanted to buy some but nothing was open when I was there. This is a beautiful area and I'd come back.
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| a view from a hiking trail 3.2025 |
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| part of a mural in visitor's center 3.2025 |
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| sotolin cactus 3.2025 |
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| some of the salt works in Zapotitlan 3.2025 |
To the west of the city of Puebla is the famous volcano Popocatepetl (Popo) which seems to always be smoking or threatening in some way. To the east is Volcan Malinche, which is considered active but it's been about 3000 years. There is a national park around it and inside the park is Centro Vacacional Malintzi, which is like a large family gathering and picnic spot with many cabins and camping. Being mid-March I was the only one there but I've read that it gets crazy in the summer. Thanks again to iOverlander for the tip. I camped at about 10,200' at the foot of Malinche which is 14,636'. It was like being in Colorado, dropping into the 30's at night.
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| view of Malinche from north side 3.2025 |
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| Malinche campsite 3.2025 |
You can avoid Puebla and the gigantic Mexico City by taking the toll roads to the north. I only made one wrong turn all day and luckily I was able to quickly correct myself. I've driven thru - by mistake - and along the outskirts of MC before and it can be...stressful 😱.
About 310 miles and $61 in tolls later (you definitely pay for the privilege in Mexico) I made it to the town of Patzcuaro, staying at the Villa Patzcuaro campground. I last stayed here almost exactly 19 years ago and it hasn't really changed a bit. That's a good thing. The woman who ran things then is still here but her son takes care of it now. It's about a 30-minute walk, mostly uphill, from the campground to the central plaza and about 20 minutes back down.
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| a shot of Patzcuaro's main Plaza Grande 3.2025 |
The Patzcuaro plaza must be one of Mexico's prettiest, with lots of green grass where many others would have concrete. I've read that this is the only main plaza in Mexico without a church. If only I could get them to block off the four surrounding streets to traffic!
Another great thing about Patzcuaro is that it's only about a one-hour drive from Morelia, one of my favorite cities. Any future road trips would certainly include this whole area.
Along one of the side streets that connects the Plaza Grande to the Plaza Chica (the trees on the right of the photo) is this carnitas shop. I waited in line one day for about 40 minutes with about 15 others for the shop to open. I bought a 1/2 kilo and it was very good. The best I've had, however, is in a town south of Patzcuaro called Tacambaro. That was superb. The color scheme you see of white and burgundy is carried throughout the town. As well as the black and red lettering above the businesses. Very pleasing.
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| art for sale, Plaza Grande 3.2025 |
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| Villa Patzcuaro camp 3.2025 |
My five days in Patzcuaro was like the end of the trip for me. After this, I pretty much just drove north to the border. My first stop was the city of Zacatecas, 310 more miles and $59 more in tolls. I've visited here before and it's got a great colonial centro with an amazing Churrigueresque cathedral. I really need to make another stop here for a few days on that future road trip I mentioned. This time I only stopped for the night at the Hotel Baruk, a grand old place that once must have hosted great events. You can see the care that still goes into the landscaping in the photo below. It has RV spots in one of the parking areas but it hardly gets used anymore. The hotel now finds itself squeezed between a busy railroad track and a busy highway. My earplugs (Mighty Plugs) did the job and I slept well.
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| Zacatecas to Mapimi 3.2025 |
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| Hotel Baruk "campsite" 3.2025 |
A further 280 miles north of Zacatecas but only $20 in tolls is a Pueblo Magico called Mapimi. Like a gazillion other towns in Mexico this was once a mining town. The main mine is located up a hill along a narrow one-way-at-a-time cobblestone road. Up at the mine was a separate town with a church, school, businesses and homes. It's completely deserted now except for daytime sellers of various gemstones and local guides to the mine itself. I was the only visitor on this day and I was allowed to camp - the only person up there - at the ghost town for the night. I then toured the town the next morning in complete solitude. I was very happy to have made the detour to Mapimi.
Here's a short video starting from the north end and the school building and ending to the south and the famous Ojuela Bridge which leads to the main gold mine. The suspension bridge was built by the Roebling Company (Brooklyn Bridge) and is 891' long. Walking across wasn't too bad.
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| Mapimi ghost town 3.2025 |
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| my campsite, Mapimi 3.2025 |
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| bridge from the mine side 3.2025 |
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| bridge from the town side 3.2025 |
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| view of mine entrance 3.2025 |
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| view towards the town side 3.2025 |
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| the narrow road down 3.2025 |
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| another town view 3.2025 |
The next day was 280 miles (again) north to the city of Chihuahua and $40 in tolls. It was getting late in the day and I stopped for gas at a truck stop north of the city. I had never spent a night at one of the Mexican gas stations named Pemex, thou this is a pretty common thing for travelers to do. I guess I still haven't because several years ago Mexico opened the system up to competition (Pemex is the nationalized company that owns all gas stations in Mexico; until they opened it up, that is) and so I technically stayed at a Circle K, of all places.
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| snug as a bug, Circle K, Chihuahua 3.2025 |
The gas station attendant, an older gent, said I could park overnight, no charge, no problem. He even moved his vehicle so I could have a more level spot. I heated up some dinner, did some reading, put in the Mighty Plugs and slept soundly until about 5:30 the next morning. Very acceptable.
My final day in Mexico, March 20, took me northwest through the pretty countryside that leads to Nuevo Casas Grande and then to a crossroads called Janos. Janos was surprisingly tidy and attractive for a town so close to the border. I had read about the checkpoint just north of town so I was ready for it, expecting the worst, of course. This is a fairly permanent setup run by the army. They even have the sign, meaning checkpoint. And the tope sign. They asked me to pull over and to open the camper. They only stepped inside briefly and then sent me on my way. Army checkpoints in my experience have always been courteous and professional. I went thru one other as I got closer to the border but was only waved thru that one.
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| Mapimi to Naco, AZ 3.2025 |
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| line for checkpoint at Janos 3.2025 |
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| the Naco, Sonora side of crossing 3.2025 |
My first trip into Mexico was in 2005-06 and Naco was where I crossed back into the US. I thought I'd try it again. My first time there I was the only one going north; this time there were two vehicles in front of me. It remains the easiest crossing ever.
Even the US side took only about 10 minutes. I felt certain from what I had been reading that the US side would do a thorough search but, nope, only a glance inside the camper ("hey, it's nice in here" "thanks"), a scan of my passport and "have a good day". Naco, Sonora is a clean, quiet town that you can easily visit by walking across the border from even tinier Naco, AZ.
So, that was my latest trip into Mexico, 129 days and about 4000 miles. For comparison my first trip, when I zigged and zagged inland and to the coast and inland again, plus Belize and the Baja, went for 164 days and 12500 miles. That kind of driving is no longer something I want to do. I like the option of buying a 3-month Mexico insurance policy to cover me as I take 10-12 weeks to either cruise down the Baja or to explore more of the interior mainland. The interesting parts for me would be from about Zacatecas in the north to Oaxaca in the south. Maybe include a bit of the Pacific around Puerto Vallarta without driving down the coast ever again. Maybe El Tuito, Perula, Tequila and over to Patzcuaro and the mountains east of Puebla. From sometime in December to early March. That would fill my need for Mexico, and probably not every year. We shall see.
Or maybe fly down. Gasoline, regular unleaded 87 octane, cost me an average of $4.70/gallon on this trip. I was not expecting such a high price.
About the people: everyone, except for the checkpoint assholes in Sinoloa, was kind and respectful. There were no comments from anyone about anything going on with the border or any other issues. And that includes the Canadians, even the French Canadians.
Here's the bottom line, though: I've now spent 853 days in Mexico and Central America over 5 different trips driving 42,000 miles...
...and I still can't speak the language! 😞
U.S.A.
A few minutes north of Naco is the nice little town of Bisbee. I keep intending to spend a few days here by getting a room in the historic downtown but on this day I only wanted to find a place to camp for the night after a long 300+ miles from Chihuahua. The hills around Bisbee are dotted with some public BLM land and people camp up a road called Juniper Flats. I found an okay spot but it's an overused area that I probably won't revisit. The room in town sounds better to me.
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| Juniper Flats campsite, Bisbee, AZ 3.2025 |
Bisbee is quite close to the border and if you zoom into the distant valley in the photo you'll see the faint brown line of the border wall.
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| Sonoran campsite 4.2025 |
Following the weather I traveled northwest from Bisbee and spent some days up Gardner Canyon in the forest near Sonoita. Very pretty area. From there I went back to my usual campsite in the Sonoran National Monument west of Casa Grande. I left that spot, however, in the first week of April as the temperatures were expected to touch 100. The first week of April! I've heard that Casa Grande is one of the fastest growing cities in the country. I don't get it.
Another area I really like is north of Phoenix in the higher elevation and pine forests of Payson. Northeast of Payson is the Mogollon Rim which is the southern edge of the enormous Colorado Plateau.
There is a forest road of about 42 miles that follows the rim, called the Rim Road. Beautiful views by the hundreds, thousands even. I spent several nights camping up there and as I was slowly driving the remainder of the road north - a very rocky, in spots, dirt road - I noticed some unusual noise. I stopped to check it out and found I had been driving on a flat tire which was totally destroyed. Crawling along at 4-6 mph I hadn't even realized. Changing a 90+ pound tire on the dirt is not easy, it took about two hours.
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| one of many great Rim Road views 4.2025 |
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| bottle jack on a rock to get level 4.2025 |
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| flat tire on the Rim Road 4.2025 |
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| Alex helping with the flat 4.2025 |
I had not seen anyone drive by in about 45 minutes when Alex, his wife and their two young kids stopped and he asked if he could help. I was getting ready to put the spare tire on the truck and, yes, I could use a hand. Turns out Alex is from Mexico City and he's a chef with two restaurants in the Roma neighborhood. He gave me his email and said to contact him if I'm ever down there. So, however tenuous, I now have a connection into the culinary world of MC. How crazy is that?! In the Arizona forest. I mean really.
For various reasons I had to buy four new tires after this little adventure. I had often wondered how I would change a tire if it happened offroad like this. Now I know.
It's early May and I'm still bouncing around the Payson area and probably will for a couple more weeks before heading north, generally. I'll finish off the 2025 blog sometime in early 2026. I wanted to get the Mexico portion down while still semi-fresh in my mind.
Adios.
