If you’ve not been keeping up with our daily stories of our travels around Mexico, this January recap is for you!
We kicked off the first day of the year with the most unique place we’ve ever spent a night in our truck camper. The TMC cargo ferry took us 278 miles, over the course of 16 hours, from the city of La Paz in Baja California Sur to the city of Mazatlan on the mainland of Mexico. This would be our first time ever traveling on the mainland and we were about to understand why Baja is aptly described as Mexico Lite.
Seven friends and our three rigs surrounded by semis on the TMC cargo ferry.
Within a few hours of getting off the ship and making our way inland, we encountered the cartel. While they wanted nothing to do with us, the sight of these men standing on the side of the road with guns larger than I’ve ever seen was enough to get our hearts pumping and minds racing nonetheless. And yet the road where the encounter was had was one of the most beautiful we’d ever seen.

While no further encounters have been had since then, it’s the hectic driving conditions that are keeping us on high alert. On the highways, what Americans would view as two lanes, Mexicans use as three, the shoulders being the primary driving lane with the center of the highway being used for passing no matter if there’s a double line, blind curve, or oncoming traffic. On the mountain roads, of which there are numerous, blind curves are plentiful, guard rails are not, grades are steep, and shoulders are non-existent. Town streets are built for sedans, not our full-size pickups which feel like monster trucks when trying to navigate the tiny streets. This is all precisely why we converted our bed to include boxes so that we could leave our little utility trailer behind.


The learning curve since arriving to the mainland has been as steep as the roads themselves. While Baja is similar in size to Florida, mainland is practically as large as the western half of the US. Selecting our routes and subsequent campsites has been a time-consuming task. The iOverlander app has been an invaluable resource for locating campsites which, here in Mexico, are often people’s backyards. While wild camping in remote locations is what we typically gravitate towards, we’ve been prioritizing safety and convenience while we acclimate to this new and unfamiliar land.

In 30 days we’ve traveled through seven of thirty-one states which has been enough to reveal the impressive variety of flora and fauna that makes Mexico one of the most biodiverse countries in the world. While I was naively expecting nothing but heat and humidity, we spent much of the month between 5,000 & 9,000’ in elevation where the air was crisp & cool. More than once this month we’ve gone from forest to jungle and back again.

Acclimating to mainland Mexico has been a bit more of a feat than we would have guessed. But we’re getting exactly what we came for which is to be pushed outside our comfort zones in an effort to grow and learn. Mark, and our amazing travel companions Heather & Adam, agreed when I said the other day that we’re currently somewhere in-between surviving and thriving on this trip so far. Every day I find us getting a bit more comfortable with being in a land we know absolutely nothing about, surrounded by people we can barely communicate with. In another month, I hope to see us inching closer to thriving.

A few random facts from January…
- Cost of La Paz to Mazatlan ferry: $405
- Miles driven: Approximately 1300
- Average cost of diesel: $5.00/gallon
- States visited: 7
- Cartel encounters: 1
- Paid campsites: 11
- Free campsites: 2
- Dogs I’ve wanted to take home: too many to count

coming up on the blog
For a closer look at what it’s like traveling around Mexico in a truck camper, be sure to check out our daily posts. Find days 1-47 here or sign up here to subscribe and receive posts straight to your inbox. Tomorrow kicks off our favorite week in Mexico so far with our waterfall tour around the La Huasteca region of San Luis Potosí. We hope you enjoy following along!

Four Wheel Camper Blog Feature
This month I wrote an article for the Four Wheel Camper blog about our evolution to full-time travel. If you’re interested in a little behind-the-scenes look at all the rig configurations we’ve tried up to this point, you can check out the article here.
Thanks so much for being here!

Cheers!
Michele & Mark
That was fun to read! I love the picture of the map of Mexico showing where you’ve been and the picture of the waterfalls!
It was a last minute decision to write a recap of January so I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it!