The south end of the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Hua Hin, Thailand.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Maldives on March 23rd.

Monday, December 31, 2012

December expenses

As expected, December expenses were back to normal. We know from past experience that we can live pretty well here in Mexico for very little money, and December fell right in line with that.

A drive and a birthday party

Yesterday after our morning power walk, Ruth and I decided to take a drive in the little blue car. We wanted to see if a particular route was motorhome friendly, and the results of that are in our previous post. We drove 170 kms (105 miles)! We made it back in time to get ready for 4:00pm when all the campers were invited to a birthday party for two year old Francisco.

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Villa Corona to Hacienda Contreras

Or vice versa. Hacienda Contreras to Villa Corona.

At the town of Villa Corona, there is a popular RV Park and Waterpark. Many RV'ers often make there way from there to here and the other way around. Using the main roads, there's really only one route, and part of it is on a stretch of busy, narrow road that isn't really "RV friendly".

Where are the carrots??!!

What a great start to the day yesterday! At 9:00am, a bunch of us gathered in the camper room because Chris and Juan had offered to make everyone a popular Mexican breakfast...huevos rancheros.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Pajaretes and puppies!

You'll remember from a couple of weeks ago when we came across some people milking cows and they offered us a cup of pajarete. Well yesterday, Barb and Sal arranged for the rest of the campers to be able to taste this special local drink.

Friday, December 28, 2012

A great day out exploring!

When we visit different places around the world, one of the questions we ask ourselves is "could we live here"? Well we came across a little town yesterday and one of the things we said was "we could live here"!

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Minor maintenance and a hike to the castle.

Yesterday morning, Ruth hiked over to the "castle" with Teresa and Cassia. We've been there a couple of times before, so I didn't go. Instead, I did some minor repairs to Sherman, including fixing one of the blinds that had come loose. Or at least I thought I fixed it!

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Looking forward to Valle de Bravo

Yesterday, Christmas Day, was a pretty coasting kind of a day. I had a little too much Christmas cheer the night before, so was a little fuzzy in the morning. Things cleared up in the afternoon, and I managed to have a snooze for a few minutes in between doing not much of anything at all!

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Lots of Christmas Cheer!

Most of the day yesterday was spent preparing for last night's big Christmas Eve feast. Here at Hacienda Contreras, we had all planned a potluck dinner for Christmas Eve, with everybody bringing a special dish or two. And what a feast we had!

Monday, December 24, 2012

There's always something going on!

Never time for any rest around here. I started a book a couple of weeks ago and I think I've read two chapters. We were a little late getting going yesterday morning and by the time we finished the blog post and got our morning power walk in, there was just enough time to show Chris how to clean their fridge burner before we were leaving to go see a Friesian horse.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

A beautiful part of the world.

I was looking forward to our visit to a little mescal distillery up in the mountains near here. Ruth and I had been there last year with a couple of the campers and while the distillery itself is interesting, I absolutely love the scenery up there.

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Things you might see from a Mexican highway

Made it back to Hacienda Contreras yesterday, to a pleasant surprise! Seems we're having a Mexican blogger convention of some kind...

Friday, December 21, 2012

A visit with a famous Canadian!

Yesterday was moving day. Our couchsurfing hosts Wanda and Irwin were changing rental accommodation here in order to house their family members who are visiting after Christmas. So yesterday morning we packed up and moved to a beautiful huge place closer to the central area.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

San Miguel de Allende (day 3)

Busy day yesterday! First, we made a bit of a last minute decision to go to the nearby town of Atontonilco. Then, we made a totally last minute decision to go to the city of Dolores Hidalgo and visit a huge pottery factory. Then after lunch, we did a nice hike in the botanical gardens.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

San Miguel de Allende (day 2)

First on the agenda was a visit to the Tianguis Mercado. This is a major market in San Miguel that takes place only on Tuesdays. It's definitely one of the larger markets we've been to in Mexico, and you can buy just about anything there.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

San Miguel de Allende (day 1)

We were planning on leaving Hacienda Contreras around 10:00am yesterday morning, and ended up hitting the road at 10:30am. No worries, we were in no rush and had told our hosts Wanda and Irwin that we wouldn't arrive until late afternoon anyhow.

Monday, December 17, 2012

Headed for San Miguel de Allende

Road trip! This morning we're heading out for San Miguel. Although we love it here at Hacienda Contreras, we are due for a change of scenery. It's only a short visit though, and we're planning on being back here on Friday.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Campground electricity useage

Okay, not an exciting subject for some of you.

But many of our readers are also RV'ers, so it will be of interest to them. Or at least I hope it will be!

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Day trip to Chapala

Yesterday morning, we hopped in the little blue car along with friends Chris and Juan. Our main objective was to try and replace our Mexican Immigration tourist cards that were in the bag that was stolen back in Zacatecas in November.

Friday, December 14, 2012

Going 4 wheeling in the hills!

One of the campers, Don, has a four wheel drive jeep and he wanted to try it out up in the hills around here. So we went with him for the drive to see what kind of tracks we could find that may not be suitable for a regular vehicle. We were gone for three hours!

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Guadalupe Day in Mazamitla

Yesterday was Our Lady of Guadalupe Day here in Mexico, so we could hear noisy fireworks coming from the surrounding towns all day long. Mexican people are 83% Catholic, and they sure love their religious celebrations! There have been celebrations in the town of Mazamitla in the days leading up to yesterday, and so we went into town yesterday evening for the final fiesta.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Miserable start to the day!

Very strange weather yesterday morning! We actually woke up to raindrops on the roof, and it was chilly and windy all morning. It's not normal to get any rain at all down here at this time of year, and it actually came down fairly hard at times.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

How to cut a fresh pineapple

We love having fresh pineapple when we're in Mexico. First of all, it's cheap. You can usually buy a fresh pineapple for about 10 pesos (80 cents). We typically buy one per week, so I'm getting pretty good at cutting them up. It wasn't always that way, but practice makes perfect!

Monday, December 10, 2012

I bet you've never had "pajarete"!

Well the votes are in for the naming of the little blue car. As is usually the case with any election, it was a total waste of time. Either people didn't like the candidates, or they simply didn't exercise their right to vote! And then if you name a winner, the majority of the population isn't happy. And so it is with the little blue car.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Finally, out for a hike!

Barb and Sal arrived back from Chicago late Friday afternoon and so we are absolved of our campground responsibilities. This means that we can now feel free to go out and do little day trips and hikes like we've been wanting to do. So yesterday afternoon we climbed a nearby hill.

Saturday, December 8, 2012

It's time to vote!

Okay, the suggestions are in and it's time to vote! We sorted through all the choices and came up with three of them that we kinda like.

Friday, December 7, 2012

Things are lookin' good!

Getting excited about the next few weeks! We've been looking after things here at Hacienda Contreras for the last two weeks and while that's been an enjoyable thing to do, it's also put a little cramp on our exploring.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

The "little blue car" needs a name!

Are you ever bored? One of us saw on facebook the other day that someone mentioned they were bored. And we both had to think about when the last time was that we were bored. Can't remember. I guess we simply don't get bored!

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Why Mexico?

When we bought a motorhome, we were originally planning on spending the winter in the southern United States as many "snowbirds" from Canada and the northern United States do. But our friends Glen and Steve were planning on exploring the Mexico's Baja Peninsula, and we decided to join them.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Clear and chilly

The last couple of nights the sky has been crystal clear! That also brings some cooler temperatures. We haven't seen any frost here yet (we're at 6,400 ft altitude), but it was only 9C (48F) inside the motorhome when we woke up this morning!

Monday, December 3, 2012

Where are we going next?

Thinking a little about our winter travel plans. We've been enjoying our time here relaxing at Hacienda Contreras, but we're into December now and it's hard to believe that we've been here three and a half weeks already!

Sunday, December 2, 2012

What is it about Mexican carrots?

Yesterday was market day again. We love going and doing our weekly Saturday shopping! First stop is the little store on the way in to town where I picked up a box of 24 beer for 205 pesos ($16.40). That alone is enough to make my day!

Saturday, December 1, 2012

November expenses

November was actually a pretty good month, with one exception. Our regular readers will remember back in September when 20 year old cat Molly was sick and had an emergency visit to the vet. Well we finally got around to reimbursing my sister for some of the expenses and so that got lumped into November's bills.

Friday, November 30, 2012

October expenses

Here we are at the end of November and we haven't even posted October's expenses yet. I was thinking about not doing it anymore, but obviously some people are interested because we've had a couple of reminders. So we'll keep posting them every month.

They had the parts!

Yesterday morning, we went into Mazamitla to go to the bank, and on the way back we stopped in at a little auto parts store to see about getting new brake pads for Sherman. There's another store in nearby Valle de Juarez, but we figured we would stop at this place because we were driving right by it.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Playing mechanic

Well day two of playing mechanic didn't go quite so smoothly. I found out what was causing the brake squealing noise, and I'm going to need some parts.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

I must be a pretty good mechanic!

Woke up to a bit of a misty morning yesterday, but by the time we finished our power walk and exercises the sun had burned through and it became a nice day.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Happy Birthday Ruth!

A week or so ago, I took apart the front brakes on the little blue car because the slide on one of the calipers was seized. Cleaned and lubricated where it was needed and put everything back together. No problem.

Monday, November 26, 2012

Weekend happenings

Saturday was market day, and we went back to the same vendor that we always go to for our weeks supply of fruits and veggies. This week's order came to 110 pesos ($8.80).

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Back to Iceland

It's hard to believe that it was only seven weeks ago that we were in Iceland. We were thinking about that yesterday and Ruth reminded me that we never presented part two of our day trip to the Snaefellsnes Peninsula. So for today, we're going to take you back to Iceland!

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Drive to Guadalajara

Yesterday we took Sal to the Guadalajara airport. Fortunately, the airport is on the south side of the city, so we didn't really have to drive in the city itself. And we've been to the airport twice before so we were familiar with the area.

Friday, November 23, 2012

The Queen goes RV'ing

Rainy season is pretty much over, and it wouldn't have surprised us not to see any more rain until spring. But we've had some clouds hanging around the last two days, and yesterday it finally opened up on us!

Thursday, November 22, 2012

I Can't Stand Graffiti!

We've been in a lot of different cities this year and one of the things we notice is graffiti. In fact, we even notice it when there's a lack of it! We really noticed it in the city of Pittsburgh. Why? Because there isn't any!

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Well that was a fun parade!

Yesterday morning, we had planned on going for a walk along one of the back roads near here. But when we spoke to Sal, he said that there was going to be a parade in town starting at 9:00am, so we decided to take the little blue car into town and see what was going on.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Hacienda Contreras RV Park

Most of our long time readers know that we're not really "RV park" kind of people. Two things turn us off the idea. One, most RV parks are overpriced for what you get. And two, most RV parks have you stuffed together like sardines. We like our space! We think that there is nothing worse than opening your blinds in the morning only to see another RV parked 10 feet away!

Monday, November 19, 2012

What a drive!

We took the little blue car for a drive in the mountains yesterday. We had done this drive in March of 2009, but we were with another couple who had a Jeep 4x4. We remembered the road was pretty rough then, but we figured the little blue car could do it!

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Market day

Saturdays are market day in the nearby town of Valle de Juarez. So we went in and got our weekly supply of fruits and veggies, and we stopped at the carneceria (butcher) in the central plaza.

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Drive to Sahuayo

We took the little blue car for a drive yesterday. The nearest large grocery stores are located in the city of Sahuayo (pop 60,000), about a 43 km (27 mile) drive from here. There is a large Bodega Aurrera (owned by Walmart) store there as well as a Soriana grocery store.

Friday, November 16, 2012

A post from Ruth...

Ok, you asked for it, now you are going to get it!  My gluten free chocolate chip cookie recipe that is!

Many of you that have been reading our blog for a long time know that I (Ruth) am "Gluten Free" but I don't let that stop me from enjoying some good homemade food.  I have now been gluten free for two years so I have a little practice at it and we don't really eat any different than before. And the food, in our opinion doesn't taste any different.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Ten things you may not know about Kevin and Ruth

We've been writing this blog for over five years now, and we've shared a lot of our personal day to day stories. But there are some things that you probably don't know. Some of them are important to who we are and how we came to be at this stage in our lives. Some of them are pretty random, and not important at all!