6000 miles in an MJ

[GonzoTheGreat]

We stayed in the Nicoya peninsula for a few days, in the same area as last year, then moved on to Nicaragua. The nature there is incredible, but the socialist dictatorship thing is a little spooky. There are flags of the Sandinista party EVERYWHERE, and they have a ridiculous amount of bureaucratic bull---- to enter and exit the country. Regardless, we enjoyed the people and the places. We stayed in Granada and Managua for a few nights.

 

 

Everything in that area is very volcanic with a few active, and a lot of dormant volcanoes. we drove up a crazy dirt road to the top of a caldera outside of Managua, which is some kind of state park. The grounds-keeper told us it's the "second-most dangerous caldera in the world." My Spanish is not good enough to clarify that detail, so I have no idea where that statistic comes from, but it sounds like if you swim in the lake, you die.  We did not confirm this fact in practice.

 

After that we went down to the Bay of Fonseca for a few days where there is another volcano, where you can see Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador from the top. We stayed in a little fishing community there where I was actually pretty shocked to find a disc golf course.

 

 

It would have been nice to spend more time exploring the country, but the protest-delay in Panama set us back a few weeks, so we had to hustle a little bit. Next up: Honduras.

 

10 minutes ago, Pete M said:

looks like you having fun though   

 

It's been a good trip!

[89 MJ]

22 minutes ago, GonzoTheGreat said:

I'm way past due for an update, so if people are still following along, I'll post some progress.

I’m still following along. I love these updates. 

[GonzoTheGreat]

On 8/21/2025 at 6:52 AM, 89 MJ said:

I’m still following along. I love these updates. 

I'm glad to hear it! You never know on a webforum. There's no instant gratification like on social media, but I much prefer it this way. 

 

Honduras was my personal favorite part of this trip. Super nice people, a wide variety of natural environments, the best craft beer scene, and coffee at every gas station. That's honestly all I need in life. Ironically I didn't get a lot of pictures there. We entered at the furthest west border crossing, which was again on the pan-american highway, but this time we shot straight up to Tegucigalpa, staying in a mountain lodge just before the city. We explored the city a little bit, but we're not really city folk, so we headed up to Lake Yojoa, about halfway between Tegucigalpa and the Atlantic coast. That was a really neat spot. We spent a few days at a brewery/hostel and enjoyed the lake life. It felt like almost a temperate climate, but still full of wild palms and cultivated cacao and pineapples.

 

 

After that we went up to the Atlantic coast for a couple days, stopping in San Pedro Sula to check out the craft beer scene. Shout out to Lupulos for being the best brewery in Central America.

 

Then it was on to Guatemala. We aimed north this time and found a place to stay where we could easily get to Flores, Tikal, and the Belize border. Flores was Pleasant, but very touristy. Tikal was super cool. Deep in the jungle it's a seemingly endless chain of Mayan ruins. We spent a full day there, but that was barely enough time to see it all.

 

Also sometime during the border crossing I picked up a tek screw in the right rear tire. Shout out to Safety Seal AGAIN for saving the trip... well, saving me significant headache at least.

 

 

It would have been nice to stay longer, but but now we had a concrete plan and a schedule to keep, so we headed for Belize.

[GonzoTheGreat]

Ok, I had a rough first impression with Belize. Apparently it's illegal to bring beer into Belize.  Fruits, vegetables, narcotics, assault rifles, nuclear warheads, and unregistered human remains, I understand, and we made sure to avoid taking those items through EVERY boarder crossing, but beer was a surprise, and for those that don't know it, I tend to like beer, and I had planned on sharing local Central American beers with my family and friends when I got home. Long story short, I had 26 beers "surrendered" at the border. I won't confirm or deny if that was ALL of the beer that I was carrying, but it was a traumatic loss regardless. To top it off, I did some research and found out that it's not even about taxes or religion, or anything I can understand or respect. The guy who founded the largest brewery/bottled-water/cocacola plant in Belize was also a senator, and used legislation to build his business into a monopoly. 

 

I tried not to let that ruin the Belize experience. We saw some more Mayan ruins, and visited a small cacao farm run by a present-day Mayan family. We spent a day in Placencia to do the tourist thing, and overall, our time in the country was actually pretty nice.

 

 

I also made some progress in my side quest of crossing increasingly sketchy ferries.

 

 

This one was a four-car capacity river crossing barge with HAND-CRANK cable on drum propulsion. Not gonna lie, I didn't need to see the pyramid on the other side. I just wanted to ride the ferry.

 

After Belize it was time to wrap up this leg of the trip, as the budget demanded.  

 

We crossed into Mexico and spent a couple days at the "Lake of Seven Colors" just over the boarder, then went up to Cancun. Cancun is in the state of Quintana Roo, which, like Baja, is a duty-free zone, meaning I can drive my foreign-plated vehicle there for as long as I want, no local paperwork needed, as long as I have insurance, and my MA registration is good. This avoids all of the silly storage shenanigans I had to deal with in Costa Rica last year. I can now store the truck privately, where I want and when I want. So I found a Quebecois dude who runs an overlanding business just outside of Cancun, and he offers a very reasonable vehicle storage service.

 

 

It was a little sad to say goodbye again, but this time I know the truck is in good hands, and I can keep in touch with the storage guy whenever I want. Not sure exactly how long it'll be this time, but hopefully just a couple months. I will be sure to post an update when I return. 

[fiatslug87]

Return from where? Are you just staying local? When you get back to it please post up a few picture of your camper set up if you don’t mind.

[GonzoTheGreat]

11 hours ago, fiatslug87 said:

Return from where? Are you just staying local? When you get back to it please post up a few picture of your camper set up if you don’t mind.

I just got back to Italy for a few weeks of house-sitting, taking some courses, and wrenching on this turd again:

 

 

Then I'll work a temp gig or two. I'm a yacht engineer (mechanic), and the summer season will be winding down in the Med, so I'll be somewhere between here and the Caribbean until I've saved enough to feel comfortable going back to the Comanche.

 

I'll definitely take a few more pics when I'm back to the truck, but the camping set up is pretty rudimentary. 

 

 

There's four identical totes that make a flat surface to sleep on if the weather is bad, but we try to use the tent, or more commonly, cheap apartments. You can get a decent apartment on booking or aribnb for like $20-30/night in a lot of places with a kitchenette and everything. so for me, if I can camp for $15 or have a full apartment for $20 it's a no-brainer. The only time it makes more sense to camp is in the touristy areas where the prices change severely.

 

One of the totes is just kitchen, one is cleaning/showers/etc. and two are personal belongings. I also have a decent sized Coleman 12V fridge that is powered by the service battery which is in the toolbox. The toolbox is sizeable and separate from the rest of the cap on the driver's side. We only have a "pocket rocket" style camp stove, but it's perfect for espressos every morning in the moka pot (Italian-style ), or to prepare basic one-pot meals. The new addition of the PVC shower is a big improvement on the pile of plastic bottles we were keeping for dishes, etc. It's not luxury, but it's comfortable. Compared to the crew-quarters on a lot of yachts, the 6' bed is actually really spacious.   I've already got a million ideas for a long-bed in the future with a high-top fiberglass shell, better drive-train options, and bed-drawer storage, but for now, this is the truck that I have, so we'll enjoy it while we're there.