Camping in Mexico

La Barrita, Guerrero // Mentally, I feel melancholic this morning.  Why are we here?  What are we doing?  What’s the point?  These are the questions that swell inside my brain when I’m met by this state.  Having experienced depression throughout my life, this is not an unfamiliar feeling, but it’s one I work diligently to keep at bay.  So today, instead of sitting at my computer and doing the...

La Barrita, Guerrero // The low here at Casa Rayo del Sol actually dipped down below seventy degrees overnight; a welcome change from the last week.  I wake at 6:30 a.m. knowing our plan is to sit still today.  I easily doze off a while longer.  By the time Mark gets to cooking us breakfast, the sun is radiating off our kitchen area and cooking is a sweltering affair.  The...

Acapulco to La Barrita, Guerrero // An even more humid night than the previous few made it difficult to sleep.  Although, whether I like it or not, I’m starting to get used to feeling hot and sticky.  When we arrived at the coast five days ago, I felt shocked by the climate. Mark said we would adapt and that prediction is proving to be true. At 8:30, we’re back on the road. I tell Mark...

La Ventura to Acapulco, Guerrero // After five days on the southern Pacific coast of Mexico, I can tell you that it’s uncomfortably hot and humid for anyone not accustomed to such a climate.  However, the first two hours of daylight are deceivingly beautiful.  It’s warm but not hot, a light breeze gently rustles the palm trees overhead, and the rising sun casts golden hues across...

Cerro Hermoso, Oaxaca to La Ventura, Guerrero // The four of us are not quick starters in the morning.  However, with Heather & Adam’s a/c not working in their truck, we decide to get an earlier-than-usual start to the day’s drive with the hopes they can get at least an hour or two of driving in before the humidity really sets in.  At 8am we depart the small town of Cerro Hermoso...

Cerro Hermoso, Oaxaca // I’m amazed at what a good night’s sleep I got.  A number of things were working against me including the humidity and the number of mosquito bites I acquired when I went outside to pee in the middle of the night. I spend the morning doing everything and anything I might want to do inside the camper knowing that the space will be too hot to inhabit for a large part of...

Puerto Escondido to La Puesta, Oaxaca // We wake to seventy-five degrees at sunrise which feels considerably better than the peak of yesterday’s heat.  However, the temp is rising fast and we have no desire to sit around and bake so we pack up and head into the center of Puerto Escondido for breakfast.  Puerto Escondido is a surfing and vacation destination on the Oaxaca coast. ...

San Jose del Pacifico to Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca // You know the day’s drive will be an interesting one when the plan is to reach the sea and you’re starting at 8500’ in elevation.  For a couple of hours we drive along a sleepy, two lane highway that weaves its way through and down the mountain.  In that time, and over the course of 60 miles, our longest straight-away is perhaps 200’...

San Jose del Pacifico, Oaxaca // We decide to stay another day here in the forest at Rancho San Melchor.  Not just because we have the luxury of time on our side but also because the next leg of our trip, which is going to involve hugging the Pacific coast for more than a thousand miles, is likely to be stifling hot and humid.  After we leave here, when we’ll be in a temperate climate again is...

San Jose del Pacifico, Oaxaca // I wake to the chirping, singing, and calling of multiple birds I’ve never heard before in my life.  When I step outside, while I don’t see any birds, I’m greeted by a perfectly still forest that has just been touched by the first rays of sunlight.  The forested terrain I can see in every direction is a welcome change from the 8’ high concrete walls that...