We drove to La Paz with a to do list – meet up with friends flying in from Calgary, upgrade the battery charging system in the delica, and get on a ferry to the mainland.
While shopping for DC-DC chargers for our van, I’m dismayed to see the Mexicans are still using lead acid batteries for off grid solar systems. Lithium is so far ahead at this point.We hear about exporting Canadian values. How about exporting Robertson? Phillips should be condemned as a human rights violation.Stuff is expensive in Mexico! I don’t see any Harbor Freight / Princess Auto equivalent. When Marta started traveling again, she was too weak to leave the van at night to go pee. So I built a very basic toilet between the two front seats. Desigual, our Mexico Delica has now been updated. This will prove useful when we stealth camp in town.
Desigual has now been out of Canada since December 2023. Keeping a van running without a proper garage is a challenge, and our standards keep going up. Starlink, drones, laptop – we use much more electricity than we did two years ago.
This is not our van – The first L400 Delica we’ve seen in Mexico. They complained about overheating so we sold them our spare thermostat. Small worldOur friends from Calgary, the Olorenshaws. I met Brad (center) at Mt Assiniboine in 2003, I met Lisa through Brad, and Marta through Lisa. And he married us in 2011.
Shipping trailers is so much work compared to loading containers. I suspect Mexico does very little ocean shipping internally, so it’s not worth building the infrastructure to deal with sea cans. Ride an industrial ferry overnight. It’ll be fun they said.Sinaloa, here we come… The ferries for the Baja are treated very carefully. A pilot boarded our ship to guide her into Topolobampo. Tugboats lined us up on the pier.I’ve always wondered if the high price of food in Mexico was only in the Baja. The mainland is definitely cheaper. We discovered this vegetable wholesale market and Marta bought a bushel of cilantroWe stop in the town of El Fuerte, on our way up to Copper Canyon. Turning 15 years old is a big deal for Mexican girls.Sinaloa state has zero foreigners right now. The first gringo we meet, we ask her Spanish friend if it’s safe to drive the backroad from Los Mochis to Creel in the Copper Canyon. She has a friend who drives the road often, makes a call, and confirms it’s fine. Just don’t drive at night and don’t fall off a cliff. Turns out Polish people are big fans of Zorro. Marta is thrilled to learn that El Fuerte was the birthplace of Mexican BatmanEl Fuerte is incredibly beautiful.The Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range (and the Copper Canyon) rear up ahead of us.
Marta and Chester's Maleficent Adventures 