Four months after Joe's rotator cuff surgery we were ready to leave Avon, CO. After our aborted trip the prior winter, we were anxious to get back on the road, this time with our new rig. First goal: the Barrancas del Cobre, in the Sierra Madre of Chihuahua, Mexico.
From there we planned to work our way south through central Mexico, Oaxaca, Chiapas and the Yucatan.
We hoped to be in Belize by Karen's birthday in February 2019.
South to Mexico

Into the Sierra Madre

Exploring the Copper Canyon

Mexico's Day of the Dead

Durango, Nayarit and Jalisco

Central Mexico

Oaxaca

Chiapas

In the Land of the Lacandon

Campeche and Quintana Roo

Exploring the Yucatan

South to Mexico

First Tracks
Late September was the perfect time to leave Colorado. Although the aspen were approaching their peak fall colors, nights were still quite warm and we were confident we...
Into the Sierra Madre

Into Mexico
The previous spring, our route into Mexico had taken us down the eastern shore of the Sea of Cortez. We had purposely chosen the coastline not just for...
Exploring the Copper Canyon

Creel and Surrounding Area
The drive to and from Uruachi, and then on to Creel was long and tiring, and we because we arrived late in the afternoon in the...
Durango, Nayarit and Jalisco

Durango, Durango
Our tour of the Sierra de Madre and the Barrancas de Cobre complete, we left the Sinfarosa overlook, bound for Durango, Durango.
Durango, Durango is not a Mexican...
Mexico's Day of the Dead

Patzcuaro
A few weeks before leaving Colorado, we had secured a three week house-sitting job in Erongaricuaro, a little town along Lake Patzcuaro in the state of Michoacan. The lake...
Central Mexico

Guanajuato
It was finally time to leave Erongaricuaro and continue our exploration of central Mexico.
We had done a month-long house-sit in San Miguel de Allende the previous year, and...
Oaxaca

Magical Green Macaws
After leaving the Tehuacan-Cuicatlan reserve, we headed south on the two-lane road to Oaxaca. While the toll-road would have been faster for sure, we tend to prefer the...
Chiapas

San Cristobal de las Casas
From Playa San Augustin, we struck out for the mountains of Chiapas and San Cristobal de las Casas. After dropping almost a mile in elevation...
In the Land of the Lacandon

Naha Ecotourismo
I had been interested in seeing the Lacandon jungle ever since my first overland drive in Mexico, some forty years earlier. At that time the forest was just beginning...
Campeche and Quintana Roo

Calakmul
Our next destination was Playa de Carmen, where we planned to meet up for New Year's with our friends Dan and Carrol from Sammamish, Washington. They had rented a...
Exploring the Yucatan

Searching for Cenotes
By this stage of our journey, we were pretty well into a rhythm of making half-day drives ending up at a nice spot to camp, with nearby...