Mexico -1994

So in my last post i mentioned that i had travelled around Mexico for 3 months and that there were many stories that went along with that trip! A couple of people have asked for more detail on that... so i dug out my photo album (you do remember those don't you?) and scanned in some pictures from that trip.

We left in January 1994, I had just graduated from James Madison in December of 1993 and was ready for a break from school and work! So when my sister asked if i wanted to tag along on a surfing, hang gliding, camping trip for about 3 months around Mexico- it sounded like just the perfect thing! I mean it would be warm and sunny there, and cold and snowy here, right? :)

So the 5 of us headed out from Nags Head on a cold January day, our first stop was Lookout Mountain in TN- a famous hang gliding place, in case you weren't aware; and then we headed to New Orleans and camped there one night, then to South Padre Island, TX and camped there before heading to the border the next day. We travelled in a packed out Toyota Land Cruiser and pulled an old beat-up pop-up camper in tow behind us! I'm sure we were quite the site!

Here is a picture of the camper, inside and out- as you can see- it really isn't all that!

The quick run down of hot spots we 'hit' - New Orleans to Corpus Christi to South Padre Island to Brownsville to Tuxpan to San Martin (and the pyramids) to Mt. Santiago to Mexico City to Valle de Bravo to Zihautenjo to Nexpa to Boca de Apiza to Colima (volcano) to Puerto Vallarta to Sayulita to Puenta de Mita to Melanque to Ticla to Tecoman and La Placita to Guadalajara to Laredo, TX and back to Lookout Mountain! shew.....

if you were to look at a map basically we came in on the east coast went south and straight west thru Mexico City to the west cost, south to Guadalajara and then back north and easterly towards Laredo Texas.... quite the trip!

Here are a couple pictures of the guys hang gliding in Valle de Bravo over the lake there... the story from this location is that the last guy to launch actually landed in the water, this is NOT a good thing! you're strapped into the glider and have a harness and all on, luckily he had his pocket knife on him and was able to cut himself out and resurface... by the time he landed my sister and i were already at the bottom to pick them up- and the other guys were able to assit as well as some friendly mexican fellows- in dragging him and his gear out of the water to safety! and YES, of course he flew again the very next day!

I think i'll stop there for now, but i have a couple other 'interesting' stories i'll post later!