7 November: After a long daylight flight from London we are back with Mr Jones, a little scared for what awaits us in the morning light as when we opened him in the dark all you could smell was mould. All bedding has been stripped off before we collapsed into an exhaustion induced sleep.
8 November: First priority today was to source a starter battery for Mr Jones which involved a 3 hour round trip into Cancun with Marty (who stored him), thankfully he started straight away after that but only after Stuart had applied some repairs to the clutch pedal as that was not springing back. Then we trundled into Puerto Moreles for grocery shopping only to discover after buying meat, yoghurt, cheese etc that the fridge/freezer is not cooling – for us this is a major issue and has left us very very despondent! It seems we have just come back to a continuation of challenges that nearly broke us before taking our 5 month break in South Africa.
9 November: What a difference 24 hours can make, today we packed up and headed out with clearer heads and the intention of finding solutions. Only 20 minutes into our drive we got caught in a huge downpour which was so bad we pulled over to wait it out but weren’t stressed (whereas yesterday that would have been the proverbial straw that broke the camels back) and so just sat on the side of the road and chilled. Our first stop was at a possible fridge place which while they couldn’t help us have given us a contact so perhaps we may still succeed on that front. From there we googled an exhaust repair place and found one in what on the surface looked like a dodgy neighbourhood but was actually fine and the family run place were great – immediately moving vehicles they were already working on and fixing Mr J right away, we may have overpaid slightly but not by much. While that was happening, Tania researched campsites and found a really nice one near the centre of Cancun (even has a luxury swimming pool) but before stopping there, we shopped for ice and new meat and yoghurts seeing as yesterdays purchase will be thrown away. Tonight, we sit next to Mr J with music playing, feeling so much more at peace and knowing we will find away to make everything work!
12 November: Thanks to the efforts of the campsite owner (Alfredo) today we had some fridge technicians come out to us at the campsite. While we are not holding out too much hope given that they have never ever worked on a fridge such as ours (12v & 220v plus one which is designed for 4×4 applications) they have made some initial good progress even if we have butchered the original design. For us, if we can just get it too work a little bit that would be a win. So far they have cleaned the pipes, re-gassed, ripped out and replaced the filter and evaporator although the “new evaporator “ is just a bunch of copper pipe coiled moulded around a cooldrink bottle…. The good news is we don’t seem to have a gas leak in the main body (unfixable) and the fridge is cooling but rather slowly. We are all confused as to why the freezer is not cooling.
14 November: The fridge guys were meant to come back yesterday but only returned today and it was a frustrating day of rinse and repeat (drain gas and re-gas) while trying to find issues. The conclusion is there is a solenoid type valve which controls the flow of gas to each compartment and that this is sticking so they have taken the controller for that away to see if they can find a replacement.
15 November: another day of attempts on the fridge after no replacement parts could be found but Stuart has certainly learnt a lot about the inner workings of a National Luna fridge. Eventually we just removed the suspected faulty solenoid valve hoping that gas would now flow to both compartments equally and so while we might not be able to set two different temperatures we would at least be able to create one big fridge. Weirdly now the freezer compartment is cooling and not the fridge (whereas it was the opposite 3 days ago) but as it was late in the day when we got to this point they have left and promised to come back on Sunday.
16 November: a little bit of good fridge news – while the fridge compartment is not cooling properly it does seem to drop in temp via a transfer of cold through the insulated walls and so if we set the digital controller high enough the compressor does switch off when it reaches this point. This was a concern that by removing the faulty valve controller that this wouldn’t happen and the motor would just run 24 hours a day which would not be good for off-grid living. It definitely runs more than the past so we have lost some efficiency but this is better than just having a manual ice chest.
17 November: what an irritating night last night, the campsite had some locals come stay for a birthday celebration and they thumped out music until 4 am, so we are feeling very sleep deprived. To Alfredo’s credit he immediately apologised this morning and told us he wouldn’t be charging us for last night and we got the pleasure of seeing some very hungover campers this morning. Sadly the fridge technician cancelled on us today (not surprised given it is Sunday) so we have no choice but to spend the day chilling. On the positive side, all these days has meant we have largely missed Tropical Storm Sara which is currently causing devastation in Belize and Guatemala where we would have been if not for the fridge issues.
18 November: even though today is a public holiday, the fridge technicians come to the campsite to attempt more repairs. We had been hoping that when they soldered the pipes together to bypass the faulty valve that this had caused a blockage in the one flowing to the fridge but the conclusion this morning is that there is a little bit of gas going there but that as the compressor is small (and efficient for 4×4/off grid applications) it can’t pump to both compartments efficiently hence why the one is cooling quicker than the other. While not ideal we have decided after days of effort this is the best we will get and it is certainly better that what we had before when we thought we would have to be buying bags of ice each day in order to use it as a cooler box. So even though we have butchered the unit (and will certainly never be able to return it to National Luna for repairs) we are happy to have tried and partially succeeded. And all that work only cost us R2k. Now we can look forward to moving, as we have itchy feet and thankfully Tropical Storm Sarah has now passed too.
20 November: Finally, back on the road again and boy does it feel good, even if our overnight stop turned out to be a bit disappointing and means we will be moving again tomorrow. Yesterday was 12 days since arriving back in Mexico and most of that time was taken up trying to repair the fridge. Overall though we are happy to have tried and partly succeeded but when we get the opportunity we will definitely have to buy a replacement.
21 November: what a difference a slight drop in temperature can make! Yesterday somebody said today would be 5 degrees cooler and whether it was that much who knows, but it certainly was cooler and it felt so good. Even had energy to get jobs done, so all the fans we brought back from ZA (2 for front seats and one for over the bed) have been wired in and are working. Could have even done other jobs but also took time to enjoy the place we are at, do some exercise and have sundowners on the jetty while discussing how good it is to be back on the road (despite the issues we encountered on our return) and that no matter what, this kind of lifestyle will always be our happy place..
22 November: A new country – Belize. First stop this morning was in Chetumal so that Stuart could visit an Autozone store, he now has a new radio, inverter and switch for the reverse camera to install (all victims of the humidity during storage). Then it was off to the Mexico-Belize border with both sides being pretty easy. Camped tonight at a wonderful family home in a litttle village which while being many hours from the coast turns out to be a “fishermans” village and the next village is a Mennonite one so every now and then a traditionally dressed family comes past on a horse drawn buggy.
23 November: An easy couple of hours drive to Belize City today, with a quick grocery shop thrown in. Our further impressions of Belize are it has a very high cost of living (groceries, fuel, internet) despite being so basic, not sure how the average citizen affords such items. Camped at the yacht marina just outisde town which has nice showers, water available, electric hookup and quite chilled. We could even have done laundry if we wanted as it has washing machines for the yachties.
24 November: Another easy couple of hours in the car. Have decided it is nice being in a small country as each day can just be a casual few hours drive. Negatives are we continue to discover and battle issues, today: the solar regulator for 2nd panel is not working (seems to have a short circuit) and we have leaks in the plumbing for our water system (hopefully have found them all and tightened hose clamps but time will tell). Also have very stiff steering at moment, not sure if it is steering box or the power steering pump or perhaps just a fluid issue. Once again we are at a marina and on arrival, we thought hopefully that we might be have stumbled onto a landy garage as there were quite some old ones parked in the yard but security tell is they belong to the owner and are basically abandoned as parts are ridiculous expensive here. Camping costs ZAR250 but if we want to hook into power it would be an extra ZAR500! Think it is too discourage Americans with big rvs and aircon but doesn’t help us when we have solar issues and a fridge that only kinda works and therefore is more power hungry
26 November: We had received some rave reviews about the 20km long peninsula that leads to Placencia so we come to check it out yesterday. It is really narrow with only space either side of the road for one plot of land (sea on one side and a huge lagoon on the other) and appears to be very popular with the expat community as it is almost all developed with big grand houses. For our taste it is rather soulless looking and lacks character and we weren’t too impressed with the views either. Anyway we can say we come and saw. We are camped at a really nice hostel run by kiwis which isn’t officially open yet but they welcomed us with open arms. It’s a nice spot and relatively cool so used the “rest day” to replace the inverter and wire in the UsB hub into our charging cupboard. And cut open our one bag which store items in the roof box as the zip had seized (another Cancun victim) and then dried out all the recovery straps, solar extension cable (also Cancun victims), etc, that were stored in it.
27 November: Another chilled day of driving with good roads and nice scenery (mostly jungle and hills). Had a very cool encounter with a young lad from South Africa (on a scooter) as we left the Placencia peninsula when he flagged us down after recognising the numberplate. The great thing with Belize is it’s so small you can easily get across the country in a couple of hours. It’s not often we need or use 4×4 but the when we do it’s really nice to have Mr J, the last 3km to todays stop was exactly such a case. The recent tropical storm has made it almost impassable.
28 November: Despite only being in the country for a week our time in Belize is coming to an end mainly due to it being such a small country and then also becuase we are unable to visit some of the forests and national parks as our fridge is just too power hungry to allow us to stay off-grid much. Overall Belize has surprised us – it is perhaps the Uruguay of Central America: very small, very organised and neat, most people appear rather poor but are super friendly and want you to enjoy their country and finally, just like Uruguay, the cost of living is rather expensive.
29 November: Our first night in Guatemala and we are camped in the parking lot outside a police station. Overall wasn’t the best day with a slow border crossing in which Stuart reversed into a pole after being directed to park in a difficult spot and has dented in the back of Mr J behind the gas bottle. Then we had hoped to camp at the Mayan ruins of Tikal but upon arriving at the entrance we discovered they don’t accept credit cards and as we hadn’t seen a single ATM since the border we had no cash so a u-turn was made and we headed off to Flores. At least we managed to do some shopping on arrival in town across from Flores, find an ATM and source a SIM card before taking a walk around the very pretty but touristy island of Flores.
30 November: only 180km but about 5 hours of driving today: slow roads, lots of tumulo (speed bumps), one ferry, some stops to interpret google maps and just generally slow going. The most exciting thing today was a brief grocery run before leaving Flores as we still can’t buy too much with the way our fridge works.