Viva Mexico!

Cela fait trois jours qu’on est au Mexique et c’est vraiment un pays complétement différent. Pas les mêmes paysages, pas la même nourriture, pas les mêmes campings, pas les même policiers ni la même conduite, pas la même richesse ni la même langue et surtout des gens différents.

Nous sommes en basse Californie et le paysage est plutôt désertique avec plein de cactus géants et des montagnes au loin. On se croirait un peu dans la vallée de la mort à part pour les cactus. Hier on était au bord du Golf de Californie et pour la première fois on a eu chaud et on s’est même baignées dans la mer !

Au niveau de la nourriture, au bord de la route il y a des gens qui préparent des plats partout, un peu comme au Ghana et la cuisine est très bonne : des fruits de mer, des poissons, de la viande avec des ‘’ Tortillas’’ ; des ‘’Tacos’’ et bien entendu du riz et des haricots rouges. Et ce n’est pas cher du tout cher. 

Pour les campings on revient au plus simple parfois… pas d’électricité, pas d’eau… des douches et des toilettes qui ne fonctionnent pas…

Au niveau de la conduite, les mexicains sont très agressifs surtout les chauffeurs de camions et ne respectent en rien la signalisation. Sur la route il y a des contrôles avec des militaires qui nous demandent d’où on vient ou on va, si on est en vacances etc…

La basse Californie est assez pauvre : pas de distributeur d’argent dans la plupart des villes ni de banques, des sacs poubelles partout, les voitures datent d’un autre âges.

Au Mexique on parle espagnole et j’ai un peu de mal à m’y mettre à chaque fois que je veux parler cela sort en anglais !

On a pas encore eu le temps de vraiment rencontrer des mexicains mais j’aime bien ce pays ! Viva Mexico !

In Mexico now!

We are in Mexico now. Tonight, we are in Ensenada in a beach resort, a hotel coupled with an RV park (park for recreational vehicles, campers like us). So we enjoy all the facilities of the hotel, restaurant, bar, pool, beach but sleep in our very confortable van with full hookup, this means we have running water and electricity in the van the whole night without pumping out the batteries and the tanks. And wifi of course. It is still a bit cold for the beach and the pool though.

So we left Chula Vista this morning at 10am to cross the border at San Ysidro/Tijuana. It all started very smoothly, almost no one at the border, a Mexican custom officer searched the van, found nothing, was a bit startled when we told him we were going down to the Yucatan and further to Guatemala but he let us in. Except that to enter Mexico properly, we need to have our passports stamped, get a tourist card and a temporary import permit for our vehicle. Without this, we might have problems when leaving the country. The custom officer directed us to an office nearby. When we got there, we were told that we actually had to go to another border post, five miles away. We tried to reach it from the Mexican side, a taxi driver offered us to guide us there, we started to follow him, but he seemed to take us to some weird places, narrow streets, slums and so on, so we made a U-turn and went back to the USA… There was a long queue to enter the US, we had a little food with us that we had to report. So we were sent to the special inspection, where we waited another half an hour, before a US custom officer looked at our food. He was very nice, we explained what had happened, he took away one apple and three peaches, but did not seem to notice the meat and other perishable we had in the fridge, said he hated to have to take this food away but these were the rules and explained to us how to reach the other border post from the US side. We found it very easily and off we went, crossing the border a second time. Same thing there, but the Mexican custom officer explained to us that the immigration office was further up in town and gave us the directions. We found it and got our passports stamped, tourist cards and vehicle registration within an hour. So now we can stay in Mexico for six months.

As soon as we crossed the border, we felt in a different country, and we actually are in a different country. The driving is a bit different, speed limits are in kilometres, not in miles and we buy gas in litres, not in gallons. And we will have to improve our knowledge of Spanish language fast; we will not go very far with only English… We had some taste of it last night already: we did some shopping in a supermarket, in the USA, close to the border and guess what: all the labels were in Spanish, no English translation and the cashier greeted us in Spanish… We are planning to drive down until the southern tip of Baja California. This should take us a week. More updates to come soon!

Last Days in the USA

Good news: our transmission has been fixed. For those of you interested in these not particularly interesting details, there was nothing wrong with the transmission; Steve, our mechanic changed the fluid and added another cooler to make sure that it does not overheat again. We took this opportunity to have a thorough revision of the vehicle to avoid any bad surprises on the road. So the camper is as good as new now and should take us smoothly to Tierra del Fuego, we hope. In the meantime, we stayed at Janet and Adrian in San Luis Obispo and did some sightseeing, walking in the hills and barbecuing. That was great, thanks Janet and Adrian for your warm welcome and for taking us around when the van was in the shop. We then drove south through Santa Barbara, where we stayed overnight at Ann. Thanks Ann for the great welcome in Santa Barbara. It is a beautiful place, I would not mind living there one day! We are now in Los Angeles, for our last days in the USA, staying at Dorothy and Carol, in their beautiful house not very far from Hollywood. 

So we are ready to continue on the next leg of our journey, Mexico. If everything goes according to plan, we will cross the border on Sunday in the morning. We have contracted a third party liability insurance covering the camper in Mexico (mandatory); we also have some pepper sprays (courtesy of Adrian), just in case. Let’s hope we will not need them, but each spray can be used 25 times, so we can stand 50 attacks all in all. Better to be safe than sorry, it gives some peace of mind and is better than carrying a gun, that none of us would be able to use in any case… We also made some laminated copies of our driving licences. We read on some blogs that some policemen in South America take the driving licences and do not want to give them back unless they get a bribe. So it is recommended to give them copies, so if they do not give them back, no problem. I do not know whether this is true, but again, better be safe than sorry. We will spend our last night in the US in a camp site right at the border. It is Memorial weekend in the USA this weekend, so all campsites are fully booked, but we managed to book a site for Saturday over the phone. Although I would not mind continuing touring the USA; some friends even suggested we do so and make up some South American stories on our blog; but we have to move on and our next update will be from beautiful Mexico and for real!

Yosemite ou Death Valley?

En l’espace de 2 jours nous sommes retrouvées dans 2 parcs nationaux complétement differents : des dômes de Granites dans la Sierra Nevada au désert le plus sec! Il vous suffit de faire 350 kilomètres pour atteindre ses deux extrêmes. Je parle des parcs de Yosemite et de Death Valley. 

Le premier a des façades de granites et des cascades impressionantes avec la rivière “Merced’’ qui coule au milieu. Ce lieu est pour faire des ballades en montagnes et aussi ils accueillent la plus fine fleur des grimpeurs. Car c’est ici que se sont formés les premiers adeptes de l’escalade pour grimper les pics comme Half-Dome ou le Cascadeur.

Le second est le plus sec désert de toute l’Amérique du Nord avec des dunes de sable et des paysages presque lunaires avec des couleurs oscillant entre l’or, l’orange, le vert, plusieurs sorte de bruns et le blanc pour le sel.  La vallée de la mort contient aussi le point le moins élévée de l’Amérique du nord avec Badwater qui s’éléve à – 86 mètres.  

Tous deux sont le lieu de refuge de toutes sortes d’animaux : daims, ours bruns, castors, lions des montagnes, écureuils, oiseaux, truites, aigles, serpents à sonnettes pour Yosemite et pour la Vallée de la mort serpents à sonnettes, serpents à sonnettes, serpent à sonnettes , oiseaux, lézards etc…

Yosemite est le 3ème parc le plus visité des Etats-Unis et j’avoue que quand on est passées tous les campings étaient pleins… On a dût dormir à l’extérieur du parc. Il y avait beaucoup trop de monde. Dans la Vallée de la Mort l’été commence et il y beaucoup moins de monde, la moitié des campings était fermés le jour où on est arrivées. Que choisir : un désert où il fait 37degrès ou un parc où il y a plein de monde ?

What is going on with our transmission???

Here it is… we have now clicked almost 6’000 miles and not yet left the USA… and this is the right time to face mechanical issues, right? And also the right place, for that matter. First we had an issue with the front wheel, just before going into Death Valley. That was easily fixed with a little bit of welding and off we went. Then the transmission started to overheat on the pass leading to Death Valley. We stopped for a while and continued, I put this on the heat, Death Valley is very hot, even in May. But still, this was a little bit worrying. True, the road was steep and kept on climbing up for ten miles. We toured Death Valley and had the same problem on the way back, quite expected. Our camper has a 5.9l engine but is also quite heavy, but still… We headed off to Sierra Nevada, again on narrow, steep and winding roads, and guess what? Again, the same thing. There was some serious swearing on my side at that point, in French. Next time, I will swear in English, maybe our camper will understand this better. We went to a Dodge dealer in Bakersfield, he told us that it should be fine, but we should have the transmission checked, just in case. I am not too sure what is happening, but we are going to have the vehicle thoroughly checked in San Luis Obispo, before heading further south. What is absolutely great about the US, is that you can show up at a mechanic workshop, have the car checked and fixed immediately, if needed. And generally speaking, everything is so easy in this country, you need something, here it is, no waiting, no hassles, straightforward and quick. 

Will keep you posted on the condition of our transmission in a next update.

R.I.P. Go Pro

Most of you know how fond I am with taking pictures… well, I made a last attempt; I bought a Go Pro in Denver. A Go Pro is a miniature camera that can be pegged on a helmet, the bonnet of a car, the mast of a boat etc. and records whatever is worth recording. It is about an 5cm wide and 3cm high and fits into a kind of pod with a pad. We control it either with a remote or with an Ipad. I thought it could be fun to put this on the bonnet of our van and record some parts of our journey this way. Brilliant idea, right? Well… First it took me four weeks and the help of three friends, Jessica and Leo for the engineering and Maury for the operating parts, to make it work; I am not very interested in cameras so I was procrastinating a bit. Once it did work, it was kind of fun, I did some filming in the San Juan Islands and Redwood NP. We decided to put it on when crossing on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. So, we stopped a bit before at a gas station, I pegged the Go Pro on the front of the van and off we went. We were on a four lanes highway, and then, just before reaching the Golden Gate, ohhhh, no more Go Pro… this idiot fell off the car and there was no way to retrieve it on a highway. I have to admit that I must have not tied it properly, but still… so this was my last and final attempt at taking pictures or making movies… I do not even have a picture of this Go Pro as a memory… but as we all know, best memories are kept in mind, not in pictures!!! Leo, sorry for this, but you will not be able to have it at the end of our journey…

Redwood National Park

Je vais en Californie pour la quatrième fois est cet état me fascine toujours autant. 

Tout d’abord il fait toujours beau ! Ensuite les paysages sont magnifiques ! 

Hier nous avons visité le parc national des séquoias géants. Les séquoias  géants atteignent entre 80 et 100 de hauteur, mesurent environ 6 mètres de circonférence et ont en moyenne entre 1500 ans ou 2000 ans. On s’est promenées dans ce parc et on avait l’impression que l’on était dans un conte de fées. Ces abres sont tellement majestueux ! Redwood National Park est classé dans les monuments historiques par l’UNESCO depuis 1980. 

Aujourd’hui nous suivons la côte californienne.

Fifty shades of green

We finally left Washington state yesterday. We seriously considered to settle in Seattle as it is such a great place to be, but we have to continue our journey. We said goodbye to Stephanie and her beautiful house on the sea and headed south to Oregon on the Scenic Pacific Byway. As soon as we crossed the border, it started to rain… no surprise, Oregon is the state with the highest rainfall… and it rained and rained, all day and night. The coast is spectacular, rocks scattered on the shores, cliffs, huge waves, sand dunes and immense beaches. But the most amazing is the green, everywhere, in all shades. We saw trees growing on sand dunes: firs, spruces or pine trees, not sure, cannot make the difference, for me a tree is a tree like a flower is a flower… and we saw lots of flowers, colours everywhere, simply gorgeous. We drove the 350 miles plus down the coast and were just sorry not to be able to explore more… we walked on a beach for ten minutes and ended up soaked… the sky of Oregon was fifty shades of grey this weekend… 

18 mai 1980

Nous sommes dans les environs de Seattle depuis une semaine. Le premier jour nous avons visité le Mont Sainte Hélène. C’est un volcan qui a fait une éruption le 18 mai 1980 provocant 57 morts et toute une région dévastée. Je me souviens de la date parce le 18  mai c’est le jour où j’ai eu mon accident vasculaire cérébral, il y a bientôt deux ans. La montagne était encore couverte de  neige et le volcan et ses alentours étaient très beaux.

Après nous sommes allées chez Stéphanie Diakité quelqu’un que j’ai rencontré au  Ghana. Elle a une superbe maison au bord de l’eau au sud de Seattle à Des Moines. Le dimanche nous avons rencontré Vanessa Adams et son mari Emmanuel Level pour un petit déjeuner dans un restaurant chinois. Vanessa c’est une amie que je connais depuis 22 ans, c’est la sœur de Jessica Adams…

Nous sommes allées voir une exposition sur Miro au musée de Seattle et cela a fait du bien pour nos neurones… 

Mardi nous sommes allées dans le Parc National de Olympic. Il y a des forêts très denses et de magnifiques plages. 

Maintenant nous sommes dans une petite Ile, Orcas qui fait partie des îles de Suan Juan au nord de Seattle. Hier nous sommes allées sur le mont Constition où on a une vue à 360 degrés sur toutes les îles, sur le Canada, les Etats-Unis c’était magnifique!

Demain nous partons pour l’Oregon pour de nouvelles aventures!

Living in a camper

Well, after exactly three weeks on the road, I feel experienced enough to talk about life in a camper. No doubt about it, it is a drastic change compared to our previous lives in big houses in Ghana with house help. Now, we live in about 6 square meters, driving seats included. And we have to do everything ourselves, cooking, washing, etc. Yes, it is definitely a bit cramped in there, but so far we have not torn our heads off, and with a little organising, it works perfectly well. First, the camper drives like a big car, and not like a truck, because it is (relatively) small, so it is very convenient to drive, we drive miles every day and do not feel tired at all (Ok, I admit, I like to drive…I could spend my life driving from one place to another…). It has automatic transmission, and today, we learnt something new… we were driving up a steep road on Orcas island, part of San Juan islands, north of Seattle, when all of a sudden a sign on a dashboard went off: “trans temp”, we stopped immediately, let the engine cool for a couple of hours and took it immediately to a mechanic. He told us that steep roads are tough on transmissions, and it is better to put it in first gear when going up… well, did not know about that… but felt very relieved that it was not something worse. The camper is very confortable and everything has been well thought off to optimise the limited space: it has a stove, a sink with faucet, a microwave, a fridge and a freezer, a bathroom and toilets, sleeps two in a convertible “living room”, some storage space for clothes, bedsheets, computers and so on. It has air conditioning (we have not it tried yet) and a propane heater (we used it a lot in previous weeks, less now). It also has an awning, so we can sit in the shade in the evenings when need be. We hook it up on electricity and water in camp sites, we have a cable and a water pipe, so we have running water (hot too) and electricity all night. And it has a sewer so we can dump used water. So far, we have not used the bathroom, because camp sites in the United States are very comfortable with all the amenities, hot showers, toilets, always extremely clean. It also has a generator for the days when there is no electricity hook up. All this in this small place, and we can still manage to actually stand in it. So, we really hope it will take us all the way to the southern tip of the Americas… so far so good!!!