Black Snail Travel

18/02/2026

Cañon del Sumidero, Chiapas Mx.
Starting from Chiapa de Corzo, a pueblo mágico and the first Spanish-founded town in Chiapas, you can board a lancha and begin a 2 hours long ride down the Rio Grivalja. This 480km long river starts in Guatemala and ends in the Golf of Mexico. But its highlight are the 1000 meters high cliffs on either side. In the 16th century, 15,000 Chiapaneca people jumped to their death from these cliffs, into the them raging river, rather than submit to Spanish enslavement. Today, the river has been tamed by two hydroelectric dams and we can calmly admire the beauty of the canyon with its crocodiles, spider-monkeys and thousand of birds.
If you haven’t heard about the Isthmo, make a quick research. This is the shortest distance between the Pacific and the Golf of Mexico which creates a bottleneck for the wildlife, the reason why this region has the most diverse amount of species between North and Central America 🐒🐊🦩

01/01/2026

¡Feliz Año 2026!
Bonne Année!
Happy New Year!

2025 was quite the year for us and we were so lucky to have been able to share our little piece of paradise with so many friends and family who came to visit.
For those of you who couldn't make it, I am sad to let you know that it's too late, we will be on the move again very very soon in 2026!
Owning a small business in Mexico brought its load of challenges, which we tackled with our usual determination. We are very proud of what we have accomplished and learned so much about ourselves. After two years of relentless hours and commitment to ensure our Dive Center thrived, we are ready to re-retire...again.
So we SOLD it!
We have met incredible people along the way and soaked up all the sunshine our body could possibly handle.
We are welcoming 2026 with an interior peace of mind and trust that this new chapter will be just as colourful.
We will be making our way back to Canada to give old Zeus a bit of stability for his few final years. And allow us to plan the next adventures! As you know, we don't settle very long anywhere and this is what keeps us blooming!

24/09/2025

24/09/2025

ROCKS Alert! If seeing rocks doesn’t excite you, then you can skip this post, and the next one coming up soon too.
But if like us, you LOVE rocks, old rocks, then keep reading!
We couldn’t finish this little road trip without checking out some archeological sites. And Mexico has sooo many of them, it is almost impossible to see them all (unless you are Kerry and Ray!)
Because it was on our path, we first visited the site of Tula, a few km northwest of CDMX, and we were not disappointed!
These rather unusual statues, holding the 4 m high ceiling, are representing Toltec soldiers, displaying butterflies breastplates, feathers headdresses and turquoise stones daggers. Strong, fierce, adorned and adored; my theory is that they were the first beloved drag queens!
After its fall around 1150, the Aztec Empire took over and used the site to worship the feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl, which we can still see multiple amazing carvings.

22/09/2025

The last week went by so fast and we are a little behind showing you all the amazing places we’ve visited on our last leg of this trip. We made it home safely, without any issue apart from an horribly squeaky suspension, on Friday. We were happy to reunite with Zeus, who was well taken care by his favorite pet-sitter.
Grutas Tolantongo is one of the most amazing place in the country and we spent the weekend longing in the hot water pools lining the side of the mountain. I visited a few years ago with my friends Marina and Jose and I was happy to finally show this place to Ken. We explored the grounds a bit more in depth, finding some tunnels, more suspended bridges and of course, reaching the end of the massive cave where the air is so hot that it is difficult to breath.
And to top it off, we had some goats friends all weekend just across the river by our camp spot 😁

17/09/2025

Next, we had to start making our way back east and eventually further south. So our next stop was a little Pueblo Magico we had been wanting to visit for a while but was never quite on our path: La Peña de Bernal. From almost anywhere in town, you have the majestic view of this rock, the third biggest monolith in the world. We arrived a bit late in town and the next morning the weather was cloudy so instead of hiking around the rock, we decided to take a stroll in the centro and we just loved it! This is such a beautiful little town and we are so glad we stopped by.

16/09/2025

For once, we can say that we picked the right itinerary to have comfortable weather all along the way. Since we left Toronto on Aug 27th, we only had one night of unbearable heat, in El Paso. Traveling via Chihuahua which is around 2000 meters high, gave us cool nights around 15 degrees with day temps in the twenties, perfect to explore without being exhausted.
We eventually had to keep driving south and it took us two days to exit the Copper Canyon and cross the immensity of the « north ».
We decided to rest for two nights in Zacatecas. This city charmed us when we visited just before Christmas a few years ago and we were happy to get to know it better.
There is a great spot where overlanders can park in a luxury hotel parking, with access to private bathrooms, just below the gondola and overlooking the city. We’ve taken the nice ride to see the city from above and we had such a surprise to discover that the roofs of the buildings display beautiful murals.
❤️Zacatecas, te amamos ❤️

13/09/2025

DISCLAIMER: readers with acrophobia OR BOTH OUR MOMS should not read this post!

Barrancas del Cobre ⛰🚞
The most popular way to visit the Copper Canyon (larger, deeper and more verdant that the Grand Canyon) in the state of Chihuahua is to board the famous El Chepe train. But to explore the land of the Rarámuri or Tarahumaran (google this culture, they are truly amazing!) in all its beauty, we’ve opted to drive the length of one of its six connected canyons, from Creel all the way to Urique where the road ends. We had one of our most iconic bivouac of all times on the edge of the gorges at the Copper Canyon Adventure Park. This premium parking spot allowed us to be the first one on the Via Ferrata the next morning where we had such a blast. And to top it up, we rode the second longest zip line on the planet!!! 2,545 meters of pure fun flying above the canyon at 135km/h for about 2.5 minutes!!! On an instant of wisdom, we’ve decided not to take our phone for photos on this ride so we can’t show you our euphoric laugh…which stopped abruptly once back in the parking lot as we realized that our van keys were most likely at the bottom of this amazing canyon…we won’t write here whom, between Ken or Andréane, had the keys before all that excitement, it’s more fun to let you make your own assumption 😄
Even if you are not seeking high emotions like we are, a visit to the Copper Canyon is 110% worths the detour to admire the fabulous views around every turn of the road. Definitively one of our highlight since we started this wild adventure!

10/09/2025

Since our first time around in 2022, I wanted to visit the remote region of the Copper Canyon but the timing with the wild weather always made us change our itinerary. This time around, we went for it despite a little rain forecast (better than snow like the previous years!)
We started our exploration with the Cascada de Basaseachi, the second tallest waterfalls in Mexico.
What a beauty she is!
This seasonal waterfall was at its best with all the rainfall from the summer. We even had to cross small impromptu cascadas on the easy walk to the top where we could experience the power of nature as the river crashes 246 meter below.
And since we were there, we decided to walk down the 1km not so easy trail to admire it from below. Anyways, what we could see through the rain and all the splash!

Luckily, the sun returned the next morning and we were blessed with an amazing view of the Cascada from the opposite side of the canyon.

And this was just the beginning of our Copper Canyon adventure!!!

07/09/2025

Dans le language Rarámuri, Chihuahua signifie “sec et sableux”. C’est exactement ce à quoi on s’attendait de cette grande ville, l’une des dernières pas encore visitées dans cet immense pays. D’autant plus que pas très loin avant de traverser la frontière, on s’est arrêté au White Sand National Park qui est pas mal sec et sableux! (les dernières photos)
Quelle surprise de voir que le désert de Chihuahua, sur plus de 300km entre El Paso et Chihuahua, nous a accueilli dans toute sa splendeur verdoyante. À ce temps-ci de l’année, après les pluies estivales, le désert est recouvert de jeunes pousses vert phosphorescent et de fleurs multicolores.
Pour ce qui est de la ville de Chihuahua, capitale de l’état de Chihuahua, j’ai été bien déçue de n’y rencontrer aucun Chihuahua 😞
En fait, ironiquement, c’est la ville mexicaine dans laquelle on n’a vu (et entendu) le moins de chiens tout court!

01/09/2025

We’re back on the road: a fast American story!
After a week visiting friends and family in Canada while Zeus is happily at home in Huatulco with his pet sitter, we have been blasting through the US.
Michigan-Ohio-Indiana-Illinois-Missouri-Oklahoma-Texas-New Mexico in less days than states!
From the beautiful state parks of the mid-west, camping alongside bisons or cool caverns, we then loosely followed the old Route 66 with all its tacky road side attractions. While the Ozymandias on the plains (Giant legs of Amarillo) were a bit disappointing, the Cadillac Ranch was worth the stop (maybe not worth a detour but since we were driving by anyway…)