[Above: Drive Around the World videographer Colin "Corndog" McAuliffe washes a vehicle near Ciudad Insurgentes, Mexico.]

Journal by Justin Mounts

Today started as any other day with Drive Around the World — running late. Although the team had plenty of time to rest up overnight, the ability to execute our schedule on time seems to elude us in one way or another every day. We woke up to a beautiful, sunny day in the quaint town of Loreto, Mexico. A sleepy bungalow village of approximately 10,000 people settled in the mountains on the western edge of the Gulf of California, it is a place I would like to visit again in the future. The roads leading into and out of Loreto are a dream ride. After we complete the expedition, I would like to bring my motorcycle down here for at least a week. The gentle curves are embraced by rocky terrain and the blue water in the distance plays peek-a-boo with the guests on the highway. It is enough to take your breath away. The village itself is subdued. Quaint restaurants and curio shops line the streets of the main square, and an old church serves as a sentry guarding the town center. Perhaps it is the beauty of the places where we are staying that holds us captive and unwilling to depart without a long last look. Perhaps.

Our route today carries us further south on Mexico 1 to La Paz, where we will catch a ferry to Mazatlan tomorrow. All told, it’s a relatively easy drive of 220 miles today. Rolf and I start by strategizing how we can make up time and better manage logistics so the team operates more efficiently. It’s a conversation we’ve had before. In fact, we were still having it as we pulled into La Paz for dinner about an hour ago. Just a quick example of why being efficient is so important — we have 9 members on the expedition. The expedition is roughly 270 days long. If we waste 20 minutes every day of the expedition, we will have wasted 810 hours. That equals one month. You can see why this is so important to us.

We stopped for a bathroom break after about 90 minutes of driving. As we were stopped, we started thinking about the upcoming Agricultural inspection that we’ll be subject to in Mazatlan. Now, if you’ve ever been through one of these (this will be our second), you know it’s pretty much crap. The officials look at your car, spray it with some unknown fluid (which smells awful — hold your breath), and charge you a fee for passing through. I’ve seen plenty of scams in my life, and this one fits the description on all accounts. One thing though, when entering into another country, it seems that the cleaner your car is, the less likely it is that you’ll be hassled. Normally for our crew, that’s not a problem since the cars stay pretty clean. We’re always showing them off to people, and we like to represent our mission well. But now that we’ve left the states, our standards are slightly lower. Yesterday morning, just for fun, we decided to take the vehicles off-road through some mud for the benefit of the film crew and our own guilty pleasure. These things are filthy. Mud caked on, in, under, and around just about every conceivable place. So, now we have to wash them. Thanks to some directions from a small boy and a bicycle escort from him and his friend, we found ourselves at a Mexican car wash. Basically, a garden hose. About an hour later, we were off again.

Just south of Cuidad Insurgentes, a question crackled across our radios. “Has anyone noticed the large grassy balls growing on the power lines outside?” We both stopped mid-sentence. “What?” we thought. So, we put our conversation on hold to peer out the window at the power lines whizzing past our vehicle. Sure enough. There are these round, grassy growths on the power lines. There’s no real consistency to their placement or size, but there they are. “What could they be?” we wondered aloud. Suddenly, everyone’s guesses are broadcast for the team’s enjoyment. “I think they’re bird’s nests,” someone offered. “I think grass seeds are left on the wires by birds after they poop and grass grows,” someone else joked. Rolf and I offered our own thoughts, which included theories with termites, cows that projectile defecate, and others silly thoughts that don’t warrant mentioning here. At last, Nick and Chanda offered something along the lines of birds building nests in those locations because the wires are slightly frayed and it offers additional heat for the baby birds. “Hmm….makes sense” we both said. Then Adam made the same suggestion. As did Rolf. The battle was on to claim ownership of this idea, when in fact I don’t think any of us really knows. If anyone out there does, please email justin@drivearoundtheworld.com. I’d love to add this bit of information to my endless collection of useless trivia.

So now, it’s 9:17 and we’re in La Paz. We’ve actually been here for over an hour and as soon as we wrap a few more things up, we’re going to head north of the city to camp out. We’ve had dinner (tacos again), seen parts of Forrest Gump in Spanish, written some emails, stepped in dog crap (well, that was just me), and seen a wedding party and the cake in the back of a pickup truck go by. Tonight, we’re camping on a beach called Tecalote. Which means it’ll probably rain. At least, that’s what has happened the last 3 times we’ve camped at the beach. I wonder at times if we aren’t rain gods. So, if you live someplace on a beach where it’s not raining, let me know. I’ll be right there with 8 of my friends.

Oh, and if you serve us dinner, we’re up for anything. Except tacos.

Logbook for November 15th
Start: Loreto, Mexico
Finish: La Paz, Mexico
Mileage: 225

Help support our cause: Drive Around the World aims to raise money for Parkinson’s Disease research by taking four certified pre-owned Land Rover Discoverys around the globe following lines of longitude. Readers are encouraged to pledge small amounts of money per expedition-mile via a pledge form that can be found on our Parkinson’s page by clicking here. Everyone making a pledge of $10 or more to raise money for the Parkinson’s Institute will be put in a raffle to win an expedition-style Land Rover.