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Our trip is entering its final hours on South American soil, it's been a wild ride. It's fun to flick through the images of the past 18 months, and remember our first border crossing and our first night on the beach in Baja. I'm not sure how to share all these images, a book maybe? Who knows. #overland #facethewind #travel #argentina #puertomadryn #alexthetravelingdog #ajkatanddog #getlost #breakshit #fixitlater #usa

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Wind Farm on the shore on Lake Arenal, Costa Rica. #costarica #wind #energy #sunset #travel #overland #ajkatanddog

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The Pacific Coast of Mainland Mexico

 We have been driving down the Pacific coast of mainland and have been blown away by its beauty! The pace has been a little hectic because we are trying to get to Belize by November 16th in order to crash our good friends honeymoon. This means that we have been driving all day and stopping by 4-5pm. If we didn't have this deadline we could have spent weeks or months roaming around Mexico so it's probably a blessing that we have this goal. 

Our second stop on mainland was at a beautiful vacation spot that hadn't fully opened for the season. The restaurant was a huge open space, there were two beautiful pools and a large colonial style hotel. The RV hookups were on the beach next to a long row of palapas, or palm covered huts, and we had the entire place to ourselves! 

The next day we got up early, and after being soaked to the bone for a week we decided to find a hot springs to warm up in. A quick google search gave us sketchy directions to a "beautiful hot springs resort outside the smallest town in Mexico, La Cucaracha." The directions went something like this: turn on this road, see a hut, go 45 minutes, turn left at this hut, then go 20 more minutes. We had been driving on the highway for a couple hours and had almost written it off when we saw the sign for the road. A little skeptical of dirt roads after the tropical storm we decided to give it a go and turn back if it got too crazy. It turned out to be the most beautiful jungle drive! The rains had made the jungle come alive with birds and butterflies and every shade of green imaginable. And to our surprise the directions were accurate and after an hour we were at a beautiful hot springs resort with over twenty different pools with pristine water piped in to each. And the best part? We were literally the only ones there!

After spending a couple hours at our private hot springs we got back on the highway and headed to Sayulita, a little surf town on the coast. It was so beautiful with cobblestone streets and restaurants setting up for dinner with their tables right on the street, little markets selling fresh produce and catches of the day. Our rv park was located on the ocean and offered cabanas and apartments to rent. The owner is a German man named Theis that is the cutest man you've ever met with his mustache and suspenders, wandering around the camp greeting everyone and fixing this and that. He fell in love with Alex and kept asking were his dog was? We fell in love with Sayulita, the camp, and Theis. We made an exception and stayed an extra night and probably could have stayed a month if we weren't careful! If you ever visit Sayulita make sure to stop by the hostel and have a margarita, these were hands down the best we've had in Mexico. 

Another little surf town along the way was called Troncones and we pulled in right before sunset when huge clouds were starting to gather. We found a restaurant that said we could stay as long as we had dinner or breakfast and an extra bonus they had bathrooms and an outdoor shower we could use. We had a quick swim and some fresh shrimp tacos then they locked us in for the night right as it began to lightning and thunder. It turned out to be an amazing show, we sat under the palapas and had some beers as AJ took some pictures. 

We continued on the coast through Acapulco, which was the first major town we had come to since Mazatlan, spent the night on a deserted beach and made it to our last stop on the Pacific side. A small peninsula with sweet little towns and beautiful houses and cabanas. As I'm writing this, looking out on the beach right after sunrise, a sweet local came up and sold me a fresh baked chocolate croissant. It's another beautiful day in Mexico and yet another beach we could lose ourselves for a week or even a month.