Pan Am Bum Rush!
This won't be to much of a trip report but should be some fun pictures and info....
I left Jackson Hole Wyoming on Tuesday December 7th at 8pm. I had so many last minute things to do I was at least 12hrs behind my schedule. As a result I had no choice but to drive 24hrs straight from Jackson to Dallas. I picked up another forum member (Matt) in Houston on the 9th. The night of the 8th was spent in Dallas with other forum members who I had the great pleasure to meet!
We cross the border into Mexico yesterday morning at 6am. We now are sitting in Tuxtla, Mexico. So we have crossed 85%+ of Mexico in 2 days! I had hoped we would be in Comitan tonight but it would have just been to late when we arrived. Tomorrow we head out at 6am and should be in Guatemala in about 4-5hrs. If we are lucky will will be in Antigua tomorrow night.
Nearly 3,000 miles logged so far. There has been 2 days of 24hr driving stints, not much more plans for more of that! Once we hit Guatemala we plan to slow down. Yet, I have to drop my co-pilot of in San Jose, Costa Rica next Saturday (the 17th) so he can fly home. I will then head for Panama on my own.
So far we have met other travelers, seen burned out cars full of bullet holes on the side of the road, passed on the Roach Motel (litterally huge cockroaches everywhere in the room), got pulled over for going to slow(!), made friends with several Federal Police (great guys to get directions from), got lost in a very poor bario on the Gulf Coast (I think it was in Tuxpan or Tampico), have street tacos 3x a day (!), I backed up into a guy this morning (that cost me $125), we have been pulled over nearly 12x so far but have paid zero bribes. Instead we have been giving the cops warm cans of coke and asking for directions, not even giving them a chance to start the bribe process. I have found this works great and plan to keep doing this! The Taco is running excellent despite me lacking the time to do a few last little things before hitting the road. The new suspension is simply awesome!
We did get pulled over in Manuel south of Tampico for going to slow! I was doing 20k in a 20k zone, the cop tried to give me a ticket (bribe) but I was not having it! No other cops have tried to bribe us because we have not given them the chance! We did make some friends with some Federals who informed me my Mexico map is old and sucks! No wonder navigating 3x through Mexico has been a challenge!
We are having a great time so far! Sorry no pictures yet, perhaps soon. That is about it for now....it is late and have to gte up at 6am and drive many miles into Guatemala.....
more soon, TBC.
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Originally Posted by washington taco
