Pueblos Magicos

Pueblos Mágicos – Day Three

/ pizote / Leave a comment

Crossing the border…

Today Gary and I met up in Ajo, AZ. we headed south through Saguaro National Monument. a beautiful drive through the Saguaro and Palo Verde forests. Both of which were in bloom. Large yellow/white flowers at the top of the towering monoliths with a lower canopy of yellow from the Palo Verdes. The desert is tríelo a wonder to see.

Palo Verde in bloom and giant Saguaro

The border town of Lukeville is at the southern edge of SNM. There’s not much to it other than a gas station, border patrol and The Wall. Crossing the US border is simple – just drove through. They don’t care who leaves. There are no stops, no checks, no cares.

Entering Mexico is also practically a non-event. While a visa (FMM) is required for all, it’s not checked unless it is. And if you don’t have one, well, that was dumb. the immigration process is easy.

The customs portion of the border crossing is confusing. Especially if you are bringing a vehicle in and not staying in Sonora or Baja. At which point, you have to purchase a TIP – a temporary import permit.l for your vehicle.

I got mine (for a motorhome) online and it was pretty straight forward. Gary couldn’t get his online and has to have the vehicle inspected. But there’s no where anywhere near that border crossing to do so. From what we gathered, we have to drive on until the inspection site before we get to Caborca – two days from now. Let’s hope they don’t make us go back to the border.

Sonoyta, the town on the southern side of the border, is a typical border town. They have speed traps, so they take you license and force a bribe – unless you want to drive to the police station with your truck and trailer on a Sunday. Welcome to Mexico. PS – they ignored the bus…

Puerto Peñasco

We arrived in Rocky Point or Puerto Peñasco around noon. Set up and walked to the Malecón where we were assaulted by all of the pharmacy and cash exchange vendors. Then by the restaurateurs. They all want the contents of our wallets.

One thing of note is that all of the ATMs in the malecón only dispense US$. And all of the vendors accept US$ at a terrible exchange rate. In these situations, I tend to purchase on my CC and have them charge me in pesos, my bank gives the daily rate with no markup and no fees.

We’re staying at an RV park near the beach. Which is basically an empty lot with a bunch of RVs in it. Not my thing, but they have power and that’s important if it’s hot outside.

Sea of Cortez – looking southwest

This trip is about adventures outside of the comfort zone…

Being flexible and ok with things that you’re not familiar with is ok. They aren’t bad, they just are. This trip is all about doing things differently and, well… let the adventures begin.

Pueblos Mágicos – Day Two…

/ pizote / 2 Comments

Little things we normally take for granted – like air conditioning!

Today from Palm Springs, CA to Ajo, AZ, it was a good 93° on the highway. It wasn’t a long day – a medium day. The heat wasn’t too bad inside. And there’s a story behind the aircon.

This bus came from Louisiana where it -had- a huge air conditioning unit. It was engine driven and was big and noisy. It also took up room inside, and room outside where I now have the holding tanks. So I ripped it out. I did put in an RV aircon unit, but they work off of 110v, not the engine. Meaning that it works while parked and plugged into shore power, not on the road.

The aircon only uses about 1200w of power and I had a 2000w inverter to power it – or so I thought. The brand I have is rated is VA and not watts. So that 2000 on the model – nope. More like 1600w. BUT… that’s the rating at 70°. Who needs aircon at 70°? As the ambient temperature goes up, the rating for the inverter goes down. So when the temps reach the 90’s or 100’s, the inverter won’t power the aircon.

So… I bought a larger inverter – a 3k. I had tried it off and on to make sure that it would work, but never -really- stressed it.

The other issue I had was that my batteries would only power the aircon for 2-3 hours. That wouldn’t work for long trips through the desert, so I connected it to the alternator on the engine. That worked for a while, until the engine computer complained of low voltage during high draw situation – I was drawing too much current from the old 135amp alternator.

So, a month ago, I replaced the alternator with a 200amp one.

So this combination of the aircon running off of my inverter powered by the batteries, solar, and the engine works great. It’s not -cold-, but it isn’t hot/uncomfortable either.

In mobile environments with limited resources, we learn how to conserve. I closed the dividing curtain and am just cooling the cab/kitchen area and not the back of the bus.

After five hours and 300 miles on the road in 90° temps outside, the inside is in the high 70’s to low 80’s.

Unrelated, I also put new tires on it a couple of months ago at $800 apiece I was hoping for a quieter, smoother ride – and I got it. It’s still a big truck chassis, and not a town car, but hey…

To combat the noise, I have a pair of noise cancelling earbuds. Things are good…

So where am I?

I’m in a little town just 40 miles north of the US-Mexican border called Ajo – Spanish for garlic. But they don’t grow garlic here. It’s possible it was named after the Tohono O’odaham word oʼoho meaning red paint or red tint. Ajo is rich in minerals and is home to the first copper mine in the state of Arizona. It’s interesting to see a satellite picture of it.

Ajo is also close to Saguaro National Park. And the saguaros are in bloom. Beautiful majestic cacti. a keystone species in the Sonoran desert.

Tomorrow my friend catches up to me and we will cross the border into Mexico. Puerto Peñasco is our first stop.

Pueblos Mágicos – The journey has begun…

/ pizote / 1 Comment

Well, after years of talking and months of planning, the journey has begun. I left yesterday and it was a long day. All interstate. All 520 miles of interstate. Ok – mostly interstate with some US highways thrown in.

Took the 101 to the 580, to the 5, to the 210. I was going to stay in San Bernardino but decided the extra 80 miles to Palm Springs to meet up with my friend was worth it. He’s staying at an established campground. When I got here, my frugalness led me to opt out of the $88/night KOA and park under the security trailer at the local Home Depot the price is good – free. No hassles. For transitory nights, I just can’t justify spending money like that.

I woke up before 0600 and my first urge was to hit the road. Wait – why? I have everything I need with me, my destination is only five hours away, I can leave at any time. So, I decided to sit back and enjoy my coffee in the cool morning desert air. Forecast today is 100° so better enjoy outside now than later.

The bus performed exceedingly well. Not towing the Jeep makes a big difference. I don’t have to monitor the temps, and I can travel with the flow of traffic. Not towing the Jeep, I’ve gained 150 miles range on one tank of fuel. Now I’m up to about 600 miles. heading over the grapevine, I stayed at 65 up and over. No struggle – it just went.

I’ve named the bus “El Alebrije”. Which is a fairly modern term in Mexico. It’s a piece of art. But more than that, it’s a fantastical creature with multiple aspects of spirit protectors or guides, or nahual. They are there to guide and protect you in every day life. Alebrijes are guided for the spirits. To guide them back to the world of the living, to the altar that those that remember them have built for Día de Los Muertos in November.

While my Alebrije is not guiding the dead, it is a fantastical merging of a school bus and a home on wheels, and it is guiding my inner Pizote, or mischievous self in this journey – where there is no destination, only the road traveled.

Wish me well on this journey and welcome along in the telling of it.

Pueblos Mágicos 2023

/ pizote / 1 Comment

The time is rapidly approaching that I embark on another epic adventure with my good friend GLRay. This year, the adventure entails cultural exploration by visiting many Pueblos Mágicos and UNESCO sites in the central highlands of México. The general idea, as my brother-from-another-mother says, is to not have a plan. This year, we have a general idea of what we want to do, but it’s open ended and with a few exceptions, there is no itinerary. We will be traveling in a pattern guided by vagaries.

Our method of travel will be that of dérive. This word literally translates to “drift,” but thanks to some mid-20th century French philosophers, it can also refer to a spontaneous trip, completely free of plans, in which you let your surroundings guide you. This is a much different method of travel than either of us typically embark on, with lots of planning and strict itineraries. This is a journey of change, growth, awareness, and acceptance for what is.

We have some dates and timelines we must abide by, meeting up to leave, when to be at certain airports to pickup/drop-off family and friends that are visiting, visa limitations, etc. Other than the initial getting to México and our first couple of nights, we don’t know where this adventure will take us.

In my past adventures, I have been asked to write about them as most people don’t have the opportunities of travel that I have, and my stories are educational, funny, and inspirational – or so I’m told. I have found that the easiest way to reach people is on social media, but the little red flags and bells have me drooling worse than Pavlov’s dog, and I have better things to do with my time than watch cat videos and engage in toxic exchanges on social media. So the birth of this blog. If I can figure out a way to post my blogs posts of past adventures here, I will, but some of those are many years old and it might not be worth it.

The Dates

The current dérive plan – an oxymoron in itself is to enter México on May 14th, and to return sometime mid-late August, or maybe September… So as mid-May approaches, you will see more and more posts, and possibly a daily post once we enter México.

Meet the Players

El Alebrije – this is my beast. It’s a school bus conversion, it took me about 18 months to build. Another 24 months in fine tuning and changing things up to meet my needs. The latest iteration was to take out the two captain’s chairs and large dining room table, and in place install a sofa/lounge/bed and a smaller table (still sizable) for mobile work area/dining table, etc. For this trip, I will be taking just the bus. The Jeep (Pizote) stays home.

The word Alebrije is a new term in Mexican Spanish. For more information – visit El Alebrije

Owlbear – this combination is my friend GLRay’s rig. He bought the truck 18 months ago and the trailer about 8 months ago. We’ve been working on modifying the solar and electrical system of the trailer.