By December 2025, Marta has sufficiently recovered from our disastrous wild foraging adventure to consider travel again. The Baja is warm and familiar, an easy place to start.
Our travel plans this winter are complicated – two months in Mexico, and two months in Europe. Which means vans on three continents. I drove Koliba to Toronto, where she will be containerized and shipped to Europe later in the winter.Canada is a really really big countryWith that done, we flew to Loreto in the Baja, where Desigual was waiting. It always seems like a miracle when a vehicle survives a full year in the heat of Mexico.We met up with Ian and Kate – gold miners from the Yukon. Also randomly met with a couple we know from the gliding club. Despite this, there is way less tourists this year. Perhaps Canadians are less inclined to travel – don’t want to drive through the USA, feeling a little more economic insecurity, concerns about the safety of Mexico?The first order of business was an oil change, fixing a CV axle, and changing the timing belt. We know a mechanic here who rents us space in their garageThis was the 7th (and last) timing belt I’ve done in 2025. Getting good at it. Last year, the harmonic balancer almost fell off the front of the engine, and I thought we could replace some parts and eliminate the remaining wobble. The crankshaft is banged up a little, so we’ll just cross our fingers and drive on.
It’s unbelievable we were able to find this brass nipple and a 1/8” npt tap in a smallish Mexican townWaldo’s, a dollar store chain in Mexico is selling a tiny little Chinese electric car. Looks way too cheap for the $7000 asking price On our way to La Paz we detour to a famous overlanding destination, Agua Verde. After hearing all the talk about the rough road, we are amazed how good it is. We’ve done so many brutal miles on Baja roads, a regular gravel road is luxuryMexican dogs are a different species – they know how to wrap people around their paws. This lady from California adopted this dog a week agoSpeaking of a different species, I affectionately call these folks “Van Scum”.
Marta and Chester's Maleficent Adventures 