GNP Insurance - Trans-Americas Journey

You’re right. We were headed south, as in south of Mexico City. But then stuff changed (surprise) and we had to head north again. For the past three months (but who’s counting?) on a forced pit stop in California, so our posts have been few and far between. However, we had our reasons.

First, we needed to fix damage done to our truck after a taxi hit us a few months ago in Mexico and that turned out to be more of a fight than we expected, but hardly worth blogging about (we like you too much to subject you to the drama that ultimately unfolded). Suffice to say, we are NOT fans of GNP insurance and the profoundly incompetent “foreign client service” our claim received. That means you, Mr. Solis.

We also spent a lot of time working on new business ideas in an attempt to generate some funds to keep our Trans-Americas Journey rolling along. Most of you know about the time and energy we put into our video application and follow up hustling to try and land a Really Goode Job–a six month gig as social media wine country lifestyle correspondents for Murphy-Goode Winery.

When that didn’t go our way we decided to harness the knowledge, confidence and ideas we gained during the MG process to create our own social media marketing consulting business for wineries in the Paso Robles area. And, so, Paso Winos was born. Reception to our services was good but slow and we simply couldn’t hang around for the additional months needed to really get clients on board–though we are eternally grateful to those wineries and wine folks who got what we were trying to do right off the bat and supported us (talking ’bout you Meg at Alta Colina, Terry and Marissa at Clautiere, Ryan at Wine for Water and the Paso Wine Centre and Brandy and crew at Donati Family Vineyard).

We still have a very exciting iron in the fire (hint) and we hope to have some great news shortly. In the meantime, we’re back on the road and our first destination is a doozie: Havasu Falls!

We’ve hiked into the Grand Canyon from both the South and North rims of Grand Canyon National Park, but we’ve never explored the canyon in the Havasu Falls area. Owned and managed by the Havasupai tribe, the area is famous for its blue/green water (the word Havasu means blue green water). The beauty of the area is legendary and in high demand, however, the tribe limits the number of camping permits it issues each day so it’s tough to get in.

We got in for three nights and we can’t wait to see the area. Devastating floods hit the area in August of 2008, nearly killing some hikers and radically changing the landscape and water flow, so we’ll let you know how it is once we manage to hike back out.

After Havasu we are returning to our beloved Telluride, Colorado and checking into the Mountain Lodge for a few days so we can take in the Blues & Brews music festival. Buddy Guy! Bonnie Raitt! Joe Cocker! Anders Osborne! Plus a chance to see our friends music photographers Dino Perucci and Allison Murphy.

From Telluride we’re planning an excellent Colorado adventure including Colorado Wine Country (who knew?), the Bar Lazy J ranch for some epic-sounding horseback riding, Valhalla cabin to hang with our very own nordic goddess (hi Marca!) and enjoy two nights (count ‘em) of Galactic live at the Fox theater in Boulder. Toss in some 4-wheel driving around Ouray/Silverton and Ute Mountain and Hovenweep in Mesa Verde Country and you’ve got a great month.

After that? Two words for you: Copper Canyon! Then we promise it’s all South from there.

It’s sure nice to be back where we belong.

It was April Fools Day, but this was no joke

We were making our way up the Cosatlegre from the Las Alamandas Resort to our next destination, Hotelito Desoncido. After turning off the highway we weren’t sure if we were on the correct road so we decided to pull off the road to consult the map. We came around a corner and there was a side road on the left to pull off onto. I had seen the taxi in my rear view mirror approaching fast, but I figured he would see my brake lights and turn signal. One of the conundrums of Mexican driving is that a turn signal can mean “pass me” (handy when stuck behind a slow moving truck), or “Look out, I’m turning.”

As you may note, these are two conflicting interpretations.

Since we were on a corner in a no-passing zone we figured the taxi would slow down. Wrong. We started our left hand turn onto the side road but the taxi was already trying to pass, horn blaring and brakes screeching. Luckily, by the time he hit us as we were almost off the road he had slowed considerably.

End result? Not as bad as it could have been. Everyone was fine and the truck is fully operable except for the rear door that doesn’t really close well anymore. And now we have, as they say, our first Mexican tattoo.

Some of the damage done.

Luckily we invested in decent insurance. The only problem was that we had to wait for four hours on the side of the road for our adjuste from GNP insurance to come from Puerto Vallarta. Along with the police, the taxi driver, and most of a nearby village we sat on a dusty road in the heat waiting. In the end, after some negotiating, we had a choice to make: let them impound our truck, hang around this tiny village for a few weeks and wait for a local judge to assign blame (though the taxi driver was clearly wrong) OR suck up our $500 deductible, get the truck fixed at our leisure, at the repair shop of our choosing (even back in the states if we want). Guess which option we chose…

This is the genius (aka Mexican taxi driver) who thought it was wise to pass on a corner (no passing zone) while my turn indicator was on.

This is the genius (aka Mexican taxi driver) who thought it was wise to try to pass us on a corner over a solid no-passing dividing line while our turn indicator was on.

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