Mexico City to Belize

Here is the next phase of our grand adventure. From Mexico City we will head south to Oaxaca to celebrate Dia de Muertos, and from there will head to Puerto Escondido on the Pacific Ocean for a couple days of a little sun and surf. After we leave the beach, we will head to San Cristobal de las Casas via Tuxtla Gutierrez. After checking out San Cristobal and the beautiful Mexican State of Chiapas we will head to the epic Mayan Ruins of Palenque, arguably the most important of all the excavated Mayan ruins known to date. From Palenque we will head eastward to the northern boundary of Belize. All in all, this could take a week and a half to two weeks, giving us essentially 5 months more of great travel from Belize on. More pics to come.

Photos...

Sorry for the delay...

Hi,

We are safe and sound in San Miguel De Allende, a beautiful city north of the capital, Mexico DF. We will be back with pictures and more information as soon as we get settled manana...

Mo-jitos, mo-problemos

Mike

Vegas, a slice of American Pie

Lot of driving has been done in the first two days. I want to say thank you very much to the Columbels (pictured above) for allowing Mike and I to store our stuff on their beautiful ranch in Grass Valley. Mr. Columbel hooked us up with a tool box for our car which we hopefully won't need to use and Mrs C. makes some phenomenal breakfast muffins which powered us through a good 10 hours of driving. Final destination for our first night? Las Vegas... a true slice of American pie, wrapped in a nice warm box of sin and evil. We hit the road early in the morning and put Vegas in our rearview mirror. Thank God.

Leaving Las Vegas...pronto

Hi-

We just arrived in Phoenix, AZ - home of Logan Wilson. We are staying here for the night and then off to El Paso, TX and then Chihuahua Mexico by Thursday. Alex and I had a good couple of days driving from the Lake Tahoe area through the east side of the Sierra mountains and then into Death Valley, Vegas etc.. It was a reminder of how big, and beautiful, California is. The pictures are from various places, I will let you guess where...

MSeely

Burns of Todd...

Hi,

< 2 weeks to go...that is what i am talking about. alex is home saying goodbyes, logan is blind and bedridden, and i am trying to manage too much work for someone who is about to leave.

very exciting, very exciting, very xciteen.....

Seely factorfiction

Luke at Last Yankee Stadium Game

Yo....check out Lucas "Take Out the Trash" Seely on USA Today Cover picture of last Yankee Stadium game....trippy.

Counting down the hours...

Hello everyone. This is my first blog of hopefully many more to come. Time is getting nearer to departure date. T-minus 28 days. Last week I gave my company my 2-week notice. I've really enjoyed working for IronPort/Cisco over the last two years and will continue to stay in touch with my manager and friends that I have made over the course of my time here, and maybe, just maybe, I'll work here again upon my return to California. But that's a long ways away. For now, I am focused on the task at hand. Getting ready to leave for the southern tip of Argentina...and in one piece.

Everything is coming together smoothly. We've gotten our medical shots, we've gone to REI about 100 times to pick up/return camping and traveling necessities. I am feverishly applying sun spot cream to my chest and back to get rid of Tinea Versicolar before we depart (and by the looks of things, it's working). I don't want to look like a freak with a tan.

After purchasing our car and taking it for a few spins, I can honestly ask: Who wouldn't want to travel in a VW Eurovan?? The car is perfect in every way. It is clean and spacious on the inside and even has a fold down bed and table. Although I'm pretty sure the current cleanliness will be replaced by what I call "Man Tornado" after just a few days. From the outside, the car blends in perfectly with other cars that will be on the road. We aren't attaching surfboards to the top, we aren't putting McCain/Palin or Obama/Biden bumper stickers on the car and we aren't towing jet skiis.

On a side note, Mike's goal in terms of physical appearance will be to be the fluent Spanish-speaking dirty American hippy, as he has emphatically explained to me why growing out his hair as long as possible, growing a burly mustache and bringing a total of 2 t-shirts is the only way. Is it somehow a rite of passage? Maybe so. I'm sure we'll figure it out along the way...

Good To Go

My first blog, the first of many new things to occur over the next several months. I am happpy to say that I am now certified by PADI for Open Water Diving, got my shots, and purchased pepper spray with key chain containers. I was wondering if you had a list of all the vaccinations we needed or a place I can go to find out, don't want to miss anything. All that's left is getting foreign coverage on medical insurance and moving out of Dallas after my surgeries. All is moving forward nicely. I am working on finding additional body wallets and will keep you posted, but still haven't found anything yet.

I was watching a cool thing on PBS on southern Mexico. There are a couple towns they mentioned that sounded worth checking out, mainly Puerto Escondido (small resort town on Pacific Coast with great beaches and surfing). I will be out of commission for the next few days as I recover from my nose surgery, but hopefully the recovery time needed will be minimal. I wish everyone well on their progress.

Ants in our pants

Nothing really new to report/say/show...everything is pretty much status quo. I need a roommate to take over my room so if you know anybody please let me know. Logan bought mace and is getting us some leg wallets. This is pricey!

Meh...

1 month to go. Car works well. Stocking up on provisions and the like. Fishing gear, mud boots and other items in acquisition mode. good times, bleeding money.

Vaccination shmaxination...

Alex/myself have been vaccinated and or screened for Hep A/B, Tetnis (err spelling?), various STD's, typhoid, yellow fever and some miscellaneous weird stuff. We are in the clear, phew. Car has new tires, speakers. In "gear collecting" mode. Word.

New website

Hi everybody,

This is the blog we are going to be using to:

a) keep you informed on the trip
b) communicate with you (ex-emails)

I anticipate updating the website on a routine basis, and/or as new experiences/events dictate that we keep you posted.

On a side note, Alex/I purchased the car yesterday. 1993 Eurovan (~75k miles). Fingers crossed.

Mike