November 2016: Fun in Mexico, eruptions in Guatemala

And that’s month number 8. This would have been the halfway time in my original plans. But with the new plan it’s more like one third. This month I took Spanish lessons and watched the sunrise on a volcano. I’m done with the big countries for now. Heading into Guatemala. The temperatures dropped quite a bit once I headed into the highlands. I even had a min 1 max 10 day when I slept on top of a volcano at almost 4000m.

The Good

• Language school was a very good idea. Loads of fun and I really notice the difference. There might not be many other travelers on my campsite but there is always a security guy with a shotgun to have a chat with.
•  Staying at a very social hostel in San Christobal. So many people, beers, food and fun stuff to do.
• Having a most Mexican weekend with Joel: caves, parks and fiestas with no other tourists around.

The Bad

• Overheating the van and then burning myself because I was too impatient. Not my best moment.

The Unforgettable

• Climbing huge pyramids with nobody else around except for some vultures (Calakmul)
• Volcano sunrise (Acatenango)

The Stats

• No days: 30 (286 total)
• No. km: 2253 (37103 total)
• Countries: Mexico, Guatemala
• No. Border crossings: 1
• No. of places stayed at: 12 (8 campsites, 4 hostels)
• Hikes: 48km height difference 3463m
• Books: 2
• Movies: 1
• New Beers: 7
• Photos: 771
• Weather:
  • Days: warmest 32 coldest 10, average 21
  • Nights: warmest 24, coldest 1, average 14

Daily costs for November

• Campsites: 7 Euro per night (plan was 10)
• Food: 6 Euro per day (plan was 6)
• Fun: 5 Euro per day (plan was 5)
• Total: 18 Euro per day (plan was 21)

Places to sleep were cheaper than planned. Largely because of the 7 nights for 25 euros at the language school. Food was on plan and for the first time on the trip I hit the fun plan. Once again mostly because of the language school (yeah that counts as fun).

 
Overall driving (6 months):

• Distance: 37103 (plan was 37514)
• Fuel costs: 63 cents/l (plan was 68 cents/l)
• Efficiency: 11.1 km/l (plan was 10.5 km/l)

I didn’t drive too much this month which is great. Also there aren’t too many detour options where the roads are good enough for my van. Efficiency was shit this month because of the log times of running the engine for my coolant problems.

 
Other costs:

Nothing too exciting:

• 80 Euros for the language school (20h of one-on-one lessons)
• 24 Euros to get the van imported to Guatemala
• 22 Euros for oil filter and diesel filter change
• 33 Euros to get my coolant problem fixed
• Actually the worst costs was the one time I needed to get cash and it only worked with my credit card: almost 20 euros in different fees and exchange rates.

See you next month!