Home on the Highway - San Francisco to Ushuaia, Argetina in an 87 4Runner
02-05-2012, 10:19 PM
#121
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Too bad about missing your friends in town... good the guy was so "understanding"... the evil side of me wonders though if we was trying to take advantage of a couple of gringos from El Norte by "staging an accident"...
great update anyway... as always have fun and be careful...
great update anyway... as always have fun and be careful...
02-12-2012, 10:02 PM
#123
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Freakin AWESOME! Just read the whole thread and heading to your website next! What engine is in your 4runner? How many miles have you traveled in total so far, including your US adventure? Best of luck, Stay safe, Have fun and keep on truckin! I'm jealous! did 10K around the US in a car this summer but would trade it for your trip in a heart beat! SUBSCRIBED!
02-12-2012, 11:10 PM
#124
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You two are absolute CHAMPS. Wish you the best of times and ill be watchin. Love the pictures, some very talented snaps no doubt.
Cheers from Canada!
keep on truckin you beauties!
Cheers from Canada!
keep on truckin you beauties!
02-14-2012, 04:02 PM
#125
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Thread Starter
We really really appreciate it!
02-14-2012, 04:05 PM
#126
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Freakin AWESOME! Just read the whole thread and heading to your website next! What engine is in your 4runner? How many miles have you traveled in total so far, including your US adventure? Best of luck, Stay safe, Have fun and keep on truckin! I'm jealous! did 10K around the US in a car this summer but would trade it for your trip in a heart beat! SUBSCRIBED!
02-14-2012, 04:47 PM
#127
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Sorry it has been so long since we have updated, We have been caught up in a whirlwind of travel lately. (This is a good thing!) We have now settled down in a beautiful place called San Pedro De Laguna, Guatemala. We found a great spanish school that rents out nice little cabanas for $25 a week! We are right on the water and loving it here. I am lounging in the shady hammock outside, typing this up and listening to the birds chirp in the trees. Behind us about 100 yards is gigantic lagoon ringed by 3 massive dormant volcano mountains. Have we found paradise already!? Perhaps… Needless to say we have decided to stay here for a month taking spanish lessons and slowing down the pace.
Now back to our regular scheduled programing!
After our hectic day in Oaxaca we decided to put some miles down. My friend Doug runs a community center for a small barrio in Cancun. We had told him we were going to stop by and help him out so we set our sights for the tip of the Yucatan peninsula. As we descended from the top of the Oaxcan mountain range towards the isthmus of Mexico the change was immediately apparent. The pine trees gave way to jungle and the the cool dry air was now thick with humidity. Toto…We’re not in Kansas anymore.
On our way up to Cancun we stopped into the city of Villahermosa. A primarily industrial city with not much in the way of scenery. However it did have a nice museum/zoo combo that sounded interesting. The “Parque Mueso La Venta” combined both native Yucatan animals and excavated artifacts from the nearby Olmec ruins of La Venta into one attraction. Plus it was only $3 which the budget surely appreciates.
Yucatan Crocodiles. Vicious little guys. Note the croc is already missing one foot.
Lauren goes to the bathroom and when she gets back she hurriedly tells me “I think something escaped from the zoo!” and drags me to come look. Figuring she has been standing in the sun too long I reluctantly follow, and sure enough… something did escape!
or so we thought… We went and grabbed some employees and drug them over to look. They just took a glance at this obviously escaped zoo convict and started laughing. Ummm… hello? Aren't you going to put it back in the cage!? Well… it turns out these odd looking foreign creatures are basically a Yucatan raccoon and are more of a pest than a zoo exhibit. As we walked around the rest of the zoo we ended up seeing tons of them digging and climbing all around in the jungle. Man… we are such gringos.
The Olmec artifacts were very interesting, the La Venta ruins site is just up the road from Villahermosa. In the 1950’s they were planning to bulldoze the ruin area for crop land. An archeologist took charge, relocated most of the ruins to Villahermosa, and started the “Museo Venta” to educate people on the ruins site and Olmec heritage.
Magnificent Olmec heads weighing over 9 tons.
Growing up in Florida I have seen my fair share of Gators, I've seen the “World’s Largest Gator” at least 4 different times in 4 different tourist traps. But I think I may have finally found the actual “Worlds Biggest Gator”. Rumor has it that this thing eats Coatimundi’s by the bakers dozen, as the zoo keepers try to rid the park of the pests they toss them into the gator pit for dinner. He was a BEAST. I would say easily 17ft-20ft long.
Note the turtles in the pic are huge snapping turtles, not any baby sized Red Slider nonsense.
We packed up from Villahermosa and headed deeper into the Peninsula. We have visited a few ruins on the trip so far but we have heard that “Palenque” was one of the larger more magnificent ruins in Mexico. After learning about the Mayan Emperor Pakal, his tomb, and his jade mask in Mexico City, we were excited to see where it was all discovered.
The Palenque ruins were discovered in the 1800’s, explored and excavated over the centuries by a few different archeological groups. It is a beautiful Mayan site set deep in the jungle. They have done a great job with the excavation and restoration. The site and grounds are wonderful to tour around.
Although the site has been worked on for 200 some years, It wasn’t until the 1950’s that Alberto Lluhlier discovered Pakal’s tomb buried deep inside the temple. When he removed the (7 ton!) sarcophagus lid he discovered Pakal’s body dyed a deep maroon red and covered in magnificent jade jewelry. It was one of the largest archeological discoveries ever made on the Yucatan peninsula.
Pakal’s temple
I heard heard rumor that there were Mayan bathrooms at the site. I think this is a ancient Mayan ˟˟˟˟ter. Either that or I just desecrated thousands of years of history to make a poop joke.
Read more on the blog... http://homeonthehighway.com/getting-...gley-out-here/
Now back to our regular scheduled programing!
After our hectic day in Oaxaca we decided to put some miles down. My friend Doug runs a community center for a small barrio in Cancun. We had told him we were going to stop by and help him out so we set our sights for the tip of the Yucatan peninsula. As we descended from the top of the Oaxcan mountain range towards the isthmus of Mexico the change was immediately apparent. The pine trees gave way to jungle and the the cool dry air was now thick with humidity. Toto…We’re not in Kansas anymore.
On our way up to Cancun we stopped into the city of Villahermosa. A primarily industrial city with not much in the way of scenery. However it did have a nice museum/zoo combo that sounded interesting. The “Parque Mueso La Venta” combined both native Yucatan animals and excavated artifacts from the nearby Olmec ruins of La Venta into one attraction. Plus it was only $3 which the budget surely appreciates.
Yucatan Crocodiles. Vicious little guys. Note the croc is already missing one foot.
Lauren goes to the bathroom and when she gets back she hurriedly tells me “I think something escaped from the zoo!” and drags me to come look. Figuring she has been standing in the sun too long I reluctantly follow, and sure enough… something did escape!
or so we thought… We went and grabbed some employees and drug them over to look. They just took a glance at this obviously escaped zoo convict and started laughing. Ummm… hello? Aren't you going to put it back in the cage!? Well… it turns out these odd looking foreign creatures are basically a Yucatan raccoon and are more of a pest than a zoo exhibit. As we walked around the rest of the zoo we ended up seeing tons of them digging and climbing all around in the jungle. Man… we are such gringos.
The Olmec artifacts were very interesting, the La Venta ruins site is just up the road from Villahermosa. In the 1950’s they were planning to bulldoze the ruin area for crop land. An archeologist took charge, relocated most of the ruins to Villahermosa, and started the “Museo Venta” to educate people on the ruins site and Olmec heritage.
Magnificent Olmec heads weighing over 9 tons.
Growing up in Florida I have seen my fair share of Gators, I've seen the “World’s Largest Gator” at least 4 different times in 4 different tourist traps. But I think I may have finally found the actual “Worlds Biggest Gator”. Rumor has it that this thing eats Coatimundi’s by the bakers dozen, as the zoo keepers try to rid the park of the pests they toss them into the gator pit for dinner. He was a BEAST. I would say easily 17ft-20ft long.
Note the turtles in the pic are huge snapping turtles, not any baby sized Red Slider nonsense.
We packed up from Villahermosa and headed deeper into the Peninsula. We have visited a few ruins on the trip so far but we have heard that “Palenque” was one of the larger more magnificent ruins in Mexico. After learning about the Mayan Emperor Pakal, his tomb, and his jade mask in Mexico City, we were excited to see where it was all discovered.
The Palenque ruins were discovered in the 1800’s, explored and excavated over the centuries by a few different archeological groups. It is a beautiful Mayan site set deep in the jungle. They have done a great job with the excavation and restoration. The site and grounds are wonderful to tour around.
Although the site has been worked on for 200 some years, It wasn’t until the 1950’s that Alberto Lluhlier discovered Pakal’s tomb buried deep inside the temple. When he removed the (7 ton!) sarcophagus lid he discovered Pakal’s body dyed a deep maroon red and covered in magnificent jade jewelry. It was one of the largest archeological discoveries ever made on the Yucatan peninsula.
Pakal’s temple
I heard heard rumor that there were Mayan bathrooms at the site. I think this is a ancient Mayan ˟˟˟˟ter. Either that or I just desecrated thousands of years of history to make a poop joke.
Read more on the blog... http://homeonthehighway.com/getting-...gley-out-here/
02-15-2012, 03:58 AM
#130
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Thread Starter
were getting better and better at spanish, doing Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur Audio books, also stopping in Guatemala for a month to take spanish school. We still completly suck but we are able to get by, thanks!
02-15-2012, 05:24 AM
#131
Registered User
02-16-2012, 09:26 AM
#133
Buddy, .... you are REALLY doing a fantastic job of cataloging this beautiful journey! Your children will one day PESTER you to take them, ......... you realize this, right? hahaha.(Ooops, did I say 'children'???? Ok, I'll slow down, hehe).
Thanks, again, for the sharing of this wonderful adventure! "SOME DAY", I keep telling myself! hahaha.
Stay safe,
Mark
Thanks, again, for the sharing of this wonderful adventure! "SOME DAY", I keep telling myself! hahaha.
Stay safe,
Mark
02-25-2012, 06:52 AM
#134
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Thread Starter
I spent 20 minutes trying to come up with a clever title, not much rhymes with Yucatan. I thought maybe YuCAtaN DO IT! but then gave up on that. I considered making up a fictional character named “Yucatan Dan” who lives in the jungle and grants 3 wishes to lost gringos. “I wish for 20 gallons of DEET bugspray…” Perhaps “Doin our thang in the Yucatang”… I don’t know! I have spanish class in 30 minutes and need to get this post done. Focus James!
We pushed further down the Caribbean coast headed towards a concentration of Mayan ruins called “The Ruta Puuc”. The Ruta Puuc is about 25 miles of backroad that connect 6 different Mayan ruins together. In Mayan times there was actually a road of limestone running through the jungle connecting many of the large sites. Unfortunately this road is long gone and were stuck to boring ol’ tarmac.
We drove on and on through the jungle on the paved roads eventually arriving near the Mayan site of Uxmal. The Sun was setting and we needed to find a camping site quick. We pulled our usual maneuver of scoping out the surrounding areas for cutty backroads, eventually finding one that looked good and turned off into the deep jungle.
We followed this trail for miles, passing 2 small bee farms and not much else. Intrigued as to what the hell this random road in the jungle leads to we pushed on further. Slowly the road deteriorates to little more than a single track ATV trail. After 10 miles of slow going through the jungle we stumble upon a very small, very creepy camp.
Hmmm… Skulls, dirty old clothes, random stick structures, 15 miles deep in the jungle. Me thinks we should NOT camp here.
Next morning we woke up and headed to Uxmal. Uxmal is a magnificent Mayan site. Estimated to have supported over 15,000 inhabits at its height in 900 A.D. or so. The site is one of the finest examples of Mayan construction, relying on precisely cut stone blocks for the exterior of the buildings rather than plaster which wears away quickly.
The carvings here were still in great shape and easily recognizable.
The site is surrounded by dense jungle as far as the eye can see, we were driving around somewhere in that mess the day before.
They had a wonderfully intact ancient mayan ball court as well.
The “goal”. I believe the way the game is played is the players are allowed to use any part of there body aside from there hands and feet. The game is over when someone sends the ball through the hoop. Rumor has it that the captain of the losing team is sacrificed. Now that’s some team motivation!
They also had this weird shrine to penises, or is it penii?
Fractals everywhere, endlessly repeating patterns, the Mayans were definitely spacing out on something…
We spent about 1/2 of the day touring Uxmal then headed down the road towards another site named “Kabah”
Kabah is home to the “Codz Poop”…
Surprisingly enough. to me, Codz Poop is in fact not petrified Mayan doo, but in fact a hugely impressive “Palace of Masks”. The entire face of the building is compiled of hundreds of repeating “Chac Mool” (The Rain God) carvings.
Read the whole story on the blog Home on the Highway
We pushed further down the Caribbean coast headed towards a concentration of Mayan ruins called “The Ruta Puuc”. The Ruta Puuc is about 25 miles of backroad that connect 6 different Mayan ruins together. In Mayan times there was actually a road of limestone running through the jungle connecting many of the large sites. Unfortunately this road is long gone and were stuck to boring ol’ tarmac.
We drove on and on through the jungle on the paved roads eventually arriving near the Mayan site of Uxmal. The Sun was setting and we needed to find a camping site quick. We pulled our usual maneuver of scoping out the surrounding areas for cutty backroads, eventually finding one that looked good and turned off into the deep jungle.
We followed this trail for miles, passing 2 small bee farms and not much else. Intrigued as to what the hell this random road in the jungle leads to we pushed on further. Slowly the road deteriorates to little more than a single track ATV trail. After 10 miles of slow going through the jungle we stumble upon a very small, very creepy camp.
Hmmm… Skulls, dirty old clothes, random stick structures, 15 miles deep in the jungle. Me thinks we should NOT camp here.
Next morning we woke up and headed to Uxmal. Uxmal is a magnificent Mayan site. Estimated to have supported over 15,000 inhabits at its height in 900 A.D. or so. The site is one of the finest examples of Mayan construction, relying on precisely cut stone blocks for the exterior of the buildings rather than plaster which wears away quickly.
The carvings here were still in great shape and easily recognizable.
The site is surrounded by dense jungle as far as the eye can see, we were driving around somewhere in that mess the day before.
They had a wonderfully intact ancient mayan ball court as well.
The “goal”. I believe the way the game is played is the players are allowed to use any part of there body aside from there hands and feet. The game is over when someone sends the ball through the hoop. Rumor has it that the captain of the losing team is sacrificed. Now that’s some team motivation!
They also had this weird shrine to penises, or is it penii?
Fractals everywhere, endlessly repeating patterns, the Mayans were definitely spacing out on something…
We spent about 1/2 of the day touring Uxmal then headed down the road towards another site named “Kabah”
Kabah is home to the “Codz Poop”…
Surprisingly enough. to me, Codz Poop is in fact not petrified Mayan doo, but in fact a hugely impressive “Palace of Masks”. The entire face of the building is compiled of hundreds of repeating “Chac Mool” (The Rain God) carvings.
Read the whole story on the blog Home on the Highway
02-25-2012, 05:29 PM
#135
WOW, you guys look to be having a GREAT adventure, hiccups and all! 
I hope you and your beautiful wife stay safe, have more fun and find more 'AWWWWWWWESOME' moments, each and every day! Hey, she's passing you up in the tan dept., buddy! lol.
I have to get off the puter for now, .....but I made a bookmark of this post so that I don't forget to catch up on the 'OTHER' blog!
Have fun!
I hope you and your beautiful wife stay safe, have more fun and find more 'AWWWWWWWESOME' moments, each and every day! Hey, she's passing you up in the tan dept., buddy! lol. I have to get off the puter for now, .....but I made a bookmark of this post so that I don't forget to catch up on the 'OTHER' blog!
Have fun!
02-25-2012, 10:14 PM
#136
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15mi in the back jungle... bleached bull skulls... old dirty rags... random stick hovels...
no es gusto... vamenos muchachos... andele!... coulda been a stopping point for "travellers" headed for el norte... a coyote camp... or a smuggler's hide out...
a mui bad place to camp in any case...
you seem to have a strange fascination with phallic symbols amigo...
mocking the rain god by sticking your head in his mouth?... if you get stuck with bad weather I hope your lady does not blame you too much when her tan starts to fade...
great posts can't wait to read the blog entry
no es gusto... vamenos muchachos... andele!... coulda been a stopping point for "travellers" headed for el norte... a coyote camp... or a smuggler's hide out...
a mui bad place to camp in any case...
you seem to have a strange fascination with phallic symbols amigo...
mocking the rain god by sticking your head in his mouth?... if you get stuck with bad weather I hope your lady does not blame you too much when her tan starts to fade...
great posts can't wait to read the blog entry
02-26-2012, 06:05 AM
#137
Registered User
Subscribed, donated. I would love to do something like what you guys are doing, Don't know if I'd do it alone like you guys are. Ya got mucho cahones. not sure if I spelled that right but you get the just of it, haha. I'd say the only rough place I've been to is the south pole station in antarctica for a year, with the doc that had the breast cancer, that's another long story. Wish you all the best and if you need some more funds, don't hesitate to ask, I'm sure you will get help. 
02-26-2012, 06:34 AM
#138
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This trip is awesome, I would love to have thisexperience myself one day, till then I will just enjoy yours. Subds and donated.
Wishing you a safe and continually fun trip, Jeff
Wishing you a safe and continually fun trip, Jeff
02-26-2012, 06:43 PM
#140
Still following along with every post, what an awesome trip!
The amazing thing is how great both of you look, it doesn't look like you guys have been traveling and living out of a vehicle on any part of your trip. If that were me I'm sure I would look like a complete hobo by now.
The amazing thing is how great both of you look, it doesn't look like you guys have been traveling and living out of a vehicle on any part of your trip. If that were me I'm sure I would look like a complete hobo by now.
