Friday, February 12, 2021

San Felipe, Mexico

ODOMETER: 83,977 | TOTAL MILES TRAVELED: 6,032

Gamble Family Adventures and Travel Blog | Jana

 

by Jana

Today, Grant left in the morning to make the 200-km trip back across the border to El Centro to pick up our new tow package and internet routers. Our tow package broke on our way down to San Felipe almost three weeks ago and while Grant was trying to order a new one, he discovered that Mexican mail was incredibly unreliable and cumbersome. 

We have also not been able to secure a reliable internet connection for Jack and Ellie to do their online school classes, having to resort to occupying an outdoor seating area of a local coffee shop in order to do school work. While many RV parks advertise WiFi, it is very unreliable and unable to support Zoom. This is sometimes the case in the U.S. as well, but far less so than here, which points to obvious differences in infrastructure. 

saguaro national park

Our only option was to get things we desperately needed in order to function in Mexico delivered to a UPS store across the border in the U.S. and for Grant to drive back to pick them up.

His border crossing back into the U.S. was terrible as he was directed to a secondary inspection and that took forever. However, crossing back into Mexico was much easier and while the line was over a mile long, he was able to cross without any inspection.

There really doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to the border crossing process, which means that you’re largely relying on luck or a lack thereof. 

After a stressful day, Grant made it back to San Felipe just after dark with packages on board, which means that we can continue our trip as soon as he and Jack install the new tow package.

Our only option was to get things we desperately needed in order to function in Mexico delivered to a UPS store across the border in the U.S. and for Grant to drive back to pick them up.

 

Travel with us:

Travel Diary

Travel

This is a daily log and photos of what we’re up to.

Sailing Tahiti to Australia | Leg 3: Bora Bora to Fiji Passage

Sailing Tahiti to Australia | Leg 3: Bora Bora to Fiji Passage

After having waited in French Polynesia for two and a half months, we excitedly sailed out of Bora Bora around 7:30 am on Saturday, September 4th. Like the rest of French Polynesia, Bora Bora was in COVID lockdown, and we had spent the last week waiting for our departure paperwork to go through all the requisite bureaucratic channels. This required multiple trips to the local gendarmerie (police station), where Grant quickly befriended the two kind and helpful officers, Alex and Bruno.

read more
Sailing Tahiti to Australia | Leg 2: Mo’orea to Bora Bora

Sailing Tahiti to Australia | Leg 2: Mo’orea to Bora Bora

It took us about 24 hours to get from Mo’orea to Bora Bora on August 28 2021. Like the rest of French Polynesia, Bora Bora was in COVID lockdown, and we spent a  week there waiting for our departure paperwork to go through all the requisite bureaucratic channels. This required multiple trips to the local gendarmerie (police station), where Grant quickly befriended the two kind and helpful officers, Alex and Bruno.

We made trips to get water, fuel and provisions, but apart from that we had to stay on the boat. We passed the time snorkeling (saw a giant moray eel!) and inventing new water sports.

Once we received our exit paperwork, we were finally free to leave for Fiji.

read more

Reflections

Reflections

These are our personal thoughts on some of our experiences.

How Big Is Too Big?

How Big Is Too Big?

Lessons From the Road | How Big Is Too Big?Does Our Built Environment Affect Our Relationships? The “Big Mac” symbolizes the belief that more is better. If one beef patty is good, wouldn’t two beef patties be better? Similarly, the colloquialism of the “McMansion”...

read more
Lessons from the Road | Less is More: Adventure over Stuff

Lessons from the Road | Less is More: Adventure over Stuff

Lessons From the Road | Less is More: Adventure Over StuffWe have been on the road for about four months, and while that’s a relatively short time, I think that some of the big lessons happen in the initial “adjustment period” of an experience like this. One thing is...

read more
My 10 Favorite Books of 2020

My 10 Favorite Books of 2020

My 10 Favorite Books of 2020Welcome to 2021! Most of us couldn't wait to see the back of 2020, looking forward to better times with hope and anticipation. If you are at all astrologically inclined like I am, you know that on December 21st, our world experienced a rare...

read more

Our Trip

Trip

Our Trip

Trip

Culture Nomads Travel Blog | Our Trip

HOME      ABOUT US       TRAVEL BLOG      CONTACT

Get in Touch:

15 + 7 =

TRAVEL WITH US!

We are currently sailing the South Pacific to Australia.

 

Thank you for joining us, have a great day!