Da Baja

Location: Cabo San Lucas, just after ferrying the car over onto the Baja Peninsula (and to think you never thought we'd make it out of La Eaperanza) Car status: Our water pump is busted so we have to stop and add water every two hours and drive about 60 kph in the e-lane with our hazard lights on so the car doesn't overheat. Truthfully its not all that bad we only really have to do that for about half the day. Our exhaust pipe broke again so we are driving with wads of tp in our ears and soda cans wrapped around and holding it together. All in all she's running pretty well. Passenger status: Half deaf and losing our figures Sample conversation: Colin: We just hit a bird Brendan: What? Colin: WE JUST HIT A BIRD!!! Darren: a what? Colin: A bird Brendan: I though it was a leaf Colin: I saw it fly out in front of us Brendan: Oh Colin: What? Brendan: I SAID OH!! Colin: Oh Kiki status: the warmer weather on Baja has her donning a mini skirt akin to something one might see in a Shakira video Legal Status: An environmental enforcement officer pulled us over leaving Guadalajara and tried to confiscate Darren's liscence as collateral for a fine. Apparently out car was emitting excessive amounts of smoke. We convinced the guy to let us go by repeatedly reminding him of the age of the vehicle and by ensuring him we planned on taking it with us when we left the country in a few weeks. Mileage: a litlle over 10,000 km or 6,000 miles Notes: One of the greatest adventures while travelling is the people we meet, and throughout our travels we have met many different types - some "good" some "bad". After spending a couple of days in the silver mining town of Taxco, and having met both types on our last night there, we headed to Morelia to meet up with Mitch's friends. We were a little hesitant at first to drop in on friends of friends out of the blue, but Enrique and Saul, not to mention their entire group of friends, took us in as three of their own. They took us to an awesome bar with live music, we played basketball (the first bit of exercise any of us had had in a long while), went to the lake town of Patzcuaro, as well as some surrounding ruins and still had time to catch "Batman Begins" (it kicked SO much ass) we honestly can't thank them enough for showing us around, and look forward to running into them again if we ever get the time to make it back. Or if Enrique ever gets his road trip plans north enough to come visit us. After leaving Morelia we headed to Guadalajara, evidently the birthplace of Mariachi music. For the most part, we slept alot, its tiring sitting in a car under the sun all day (especially after you've done it for 2 months). But we did manage to get out and enjoy the historical district and its parks for a little while. We were also lucky enough to decide to try one more bar on Tuesday night to see if there was anything going on, and stumble upon one of the better bars we've visited on this trip, including a foam pool and a pretty descent crowd. We were planning on ferrying over from Mazatlan but we were forced to drive another 5 hours north to Topolobampo due to maintenance work underway on the loading ramp. We got to the next port at about 3:30 and waited until 12:00 to actually get on the boat. So 5 hours of watching "Office Space" and sleeping on the ferries provided seating, and another 3 hours of driving south, we've arrived in Cabo San Lucas. Tired from lack of sleep but still planning a long night with a bottle of tequila.