A Travellerspoint blog

Dos Mares 500 off road desert race

The off road race runs across the desert from La Paz to San Jose Del Cabo, a 305 km rush over sand dunes and cactuses, mostly in the dark!

The show started with a parade over the Malecon whoch attracted a large crowdy including us.

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After the show-start the timed start happened early afternoon, about 30 kms North of La Paz. The participants races all night to the 300 kms finish line. We have picked a nearby spot in the desert to watch as they raced away.

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Posted by divatmotoros 16:41 Archived in Mexico Tagged desert mexico offroad racing Comments (0)

Cool campers #5

A series of cool camping vehicles we met.

How about a really special couple with an equally special travel rig? Claudia and Thomas (Dubu and more...) are from Switzerland. They have always loved to travel and to discover new countries and cultures. They converted an ex-military vehicle and you have to smile looking at it, it looks so nice and happy!

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DURO (Durable Robust) was a series of wheeled, multi-purpose military transport vehicles produced by MOWAG, developed for Switzerland. Their vehicle was a radio signal processing unit and it was fully rebuilt for global offroad journey.

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Posted by divatmotoros 02:59 Archived in Mexico Comments (0)

Cool Campers #4

A series of cool camping vehicles we met.

We met another Cool Camper at La Paz! "Basically Nomads" was built by Devin and Breanna, they live full-time in a 2001 Bluebird school bus.

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Bus Model: 2001 Bluebird tc3000
Dimensions: 39ft by 8ft (11,8 meter x 2,4 meter)
Square footage: Roughly 300 sq ft (29 m2)
Custom built, finished in 2018

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The Basically Nomads bus features a bedroom with a queen size bed, a bunk area for guests, and a fully tiled shower area with a slight roof raise. Other key features are a high end gaming PC desk space and double couches that transform into a large bed. They also have the ability to go completely off grid with a 740 watts of solar and a 100 gallon water tank!

They have a cool webshop with different branded goods worth checking!

Posted by divatmotoros 23:32 Comments (0)

Cool Campers #3

A series of cool camping vehicles we met.

We met Team Bodyduck at La Paz too and it was funny! I started to follow their facebook page. They met with another Hungarian travellers we follow for a long time, Ferenc and Evelin from Overlandsite.

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Team Bodyduck had Swiss plates and we were happy to spot their cool offroad truck in La Paz. So we walked to them and started talking in English, assuming they were Swiss (due to the licence plate). What a surprise when they responded in Hungarian! They did a fantastic journey so far including far North in Alaska and now thry are heading further South. Worth following their adventures too!

Watch their fantastic video on a dirt road in Utah!

Posted by divatmotoros 21:14 Archived in Mexico Comments (0)

Cool Campers #2

A series of cool camping vehicles we met.

If you do not want to leave right after watching this video of Akela then camping is really not for you. I watched their truck in awe and then my jaws dropped when I found their video too:

Talking to the a Austrian couple at the campsite they told that it is their 2nd circumnavigation! They started from Austria and drove to Australia in their first section, now we met in Mexico, La Paz. After six years on the road it is tough sometimes, but the memories are priceless. The truck is originally from 1977. A cool camper indeed!

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Posted by divatmotoros 01:46 Archived in Mexico Tagged 1977 coolcampers Comments (0)

Cool Campers #1

A series of cool camping vehicles we met.

In this series I will share some pics and technical details of cool camper vans, RVs and trailers we met. Let's start with a beautiful Barth bus from 1994. At first I thought it was fully restored but then chatting with the owner I realised it was in its original condition. I really liked the colors and the paint of it. Light blue stripes, exactly the same color I painted my trackracing motorbike 15 years ago. I also liked the small details like the flat front grille and the square headlights.

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Let's review the brief history of Barth from Tin Can Tourists, the "Original Vintage Trailer and Camper Club" :

"Although relatively few Barth motorhomes were manufactured, the Barth name is well known among aficionados of high-end motorhomes. The company’s history can be traced to Bob Barth, who owned the Beeline Trailer Company. In 1963, Barth left Beeline to form the Barth Trailer Company, which was founded on the principle of building quality all-aluminum travel trailers. At the time, many travel trailers and almost all mobile homes used a wood frame with aluminum sheathing. Barth produced his all-aluminum trailers in his Milford, Indiana, factory from 1963 until 1968, when he sold the company to Mike Umbaugh.

Umbaugh, whose business experience was in banking and not RVs, saw the Barth Company as a solid investment opportunity. Immediately after acquiring the company, Umbaugh changed the focus from travel trailers (which he eventually phased out in 1970) to the growing motorhome market. Rather than try to compete with companies like Winnebago and GMC that sold a relatively affordable product, Umbaugh decided to produce a high-end motorhome for upscale buyers.

The Barth Company never produced more than 300 units per year, many of which were custom designed for the owners. Barth’s sales plummeted during and after the 1973 energy crisis as did the sales of all motorhomes. The company emerged from the crisis and altered its long-term vision by dedicating itself to manufacturing custom coaches designed for commercial purposes like mobile offices, medical support vehicles, dental labs, libraries, and remote TV production units. Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, Barth continued to manufacture motorhomes and specialized motor coaches but eventually ceased operations.

In 1998, the company’s assets were sold to Keith Leatherman, owner of Leatherman Construction, who intended to revive the company. Leatherman spent approximately half a million dollars retooling manufacturing equipment and making plans to move the factory to Albion, Indiana, but due to a lack of orders, he officially pulled the plug on February 13, 2001."

There is another interesting website (also quite old school, like the motorhome itself) at http://www.barthmobile.com/ where owners exchange information and tips, organize meetups and document sightings of this classic motorhome.

Posted by divatmotoros 05:24 Archived in Mexico Tagged rv motorhome 1994 coolcampers barth Comments (0)

One year of Camping - the book

We are a bit more quiet recently on this blog for a good reason. We are writing, editing, rewriting and re-editing the stories of the trip of our lifetime. We are busy finishing the book,

"One Year of Camping - The Guide to Plan Your Escape".

It will be part handbook for those people, who are travelers at heart but did not make the big step yet. Moreover it will have our favorite tips and the best (and ugliest) stories of our trip. Here is a peek preview of the cover:

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So please bear with us for now and make sure to sign up to be notified once the book is out.
Click here to sign up for the book in English or in Hungarian.

Expect it in May 2023!

Posted by divatmotoros 05:00 Archived in Mexico Comments (0)

Pichilingue, Balandra Beach and Playa El Tecolote


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We are spending our relaxed days at La Paz and entertain myself by hitting a pole when moving the trailer within the camp to a new site. There was a fairiy tight gate and I had to make a sharp turn right after the gate. The back of the trailer swings a lot and I know it, norrmally take good care of it, not this time. By misjudging it with about one inch the awning's mechanism hit the fence, and the screws at the bottom were ripped off.

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Next day I went to Home Depot, purchased a bit larger screws and some glue to fill the holes before re-installing the screws. Borrowed a ladder at the camp and checked it at the top as well. It was manageable, I used the larger screws and put in some extra ones as some of the screws were missing the frame, not holding much force. Now it is better than it was.

Another even more entertaining program was an excursion to one of the most beautiful beaches of Baja California, according to its website. There is a limit on people allowed to the beach daily but we got lucky again, just like at Lake Moraine near Banff, Canada. We simply showed up at 15:00 pm and we were let in without hesitation (you have to leave at 17:00pm). It was not very full (it is the end of March) so we really enjoyed it. Shallow water, clean sand and some palapas for shade. And a breath taking scenery indeed!

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After the famous beach closed we still wanted to check out a nearby beach called Playa El Tecolote. It was 5 minutes from Balandra and there were some beach-front restaurants and palapas for rent, many cars and a few campers. While Balandra was somewhat windy here the wind was really strong, I almost had diffficulties to open the door of the car when we stopped. That meant big waves too, it looked nice.

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Posted by divatmotoros 06:06 Archived in Mexico Tagged beach mexico playa baja maintenance bajacalifornia pichilingue balandra tecolote Comments (0)

Todos Santos


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Another noce daytrip from El Sargento was Todos Santos whoch we skipped last time as our smallest kid was asleep in the car. On thet day we got great whale sight instead at Cabo San Lucas. We decided to return to Todos Santos another day and it was absolutely worth it.

It is a very nice small town with lots of arts, cafes and historic buildings.

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One of the artist was creating and selling large and colorful sculptures from small mechanical hardware and nuts, bolts and springs. Echo fell in love with the colorful dogs for sure.

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After enjoying a nice icecream we drove past the town and looked for a spot on the ocean side to watch the sunset. We found a small gem with fishing boats and plenty of pelicans and other birds eating the fish pieces thrown away. At the same time we have seen whales near the shore, they were puffing water into the air, just like last time at Cabo San Lucas.

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Posted by divatmotoros 07:56 Archived in Mexico Comments (0)

Buenavista and Los Barilles


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We used the 8 seat capability of Fordy to make great excursions with the visiting grandparents. Our next stop was a nearby town called Los Barriles and Buenavista meaning nice view. Enroute we followed a pickup truck full of dogs who were happily barking left and right in the wind.

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And the place was nice indeed, a great beach which is also a turtle hatching place in the middle of the summer. In July at nights thousands of small turtles leave their eggshells behind and storm to the sea at this beach. Now in February it was quiet and no signs of turtles, just a clever huge fish eating the plastic bottles at the beach.

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As we walked in the sand a few local dogs made lasting friendship with Echo (which was much nicer than the last experience)

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We have seen hige rocks and quite nice buildings on the seashore.

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We finished the day with a nice taco dinner and a beautiful red sunset.

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Posted by divatmotoros 06:46 Archived in Mexico Comments (0)

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