Travel with Kevin and Ruth!

We were all due for a day off to do our own thing and we think that everybody enjoyed doing just that!

We have full access to the pools here at Balneario San Juan so quite a few people took advantage of that throughout the day. I saw quite a few of our group getting laundry done at 20 pesos ($1.40 CAD, $1.05 USD) per load to use the washing machine here. Stuff dries so quickly in the sun that you don't need a clothes dryer.

Yesterday was one of the longer travel days on our route... from Canutillo to Durango city, a distance of 342 kms (212 miles) with some road construction. We left Canutillo just after 8:00am, and arrived at Balneario San Juan on the outskirts of the city of Durango at just after 3:00pm.

A long day, but we took a few breaks along the way. A couple of our breaks were forced on us by police and military checks.

We planned a late start at 10:00am because it was only an 80 km (50 mile) or so drive on relatively straight roads. Everybody in this group is always ready to go ahead of schedule and it seems like it's Ruth and I who are the last ones ready, even though we are also on time!

We were already at the south east corner of Parral, so we didn't have to drive through the city to get out. We were quickly on a nicely paved road heading south towards Durango.

On Wednesday, with clear sunny skies and a forecast high of 25C (77F), we walked from the hotel parking lot to the center of Parral, a distance of about 4 kms (2.7 miles) one way. Mostly downhill.

The city of Parral is known best for two things... a silver mine that was discovered in 1630, and the famous Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa.

On Tuesday, we did another driving day. We originally had two nights penciled in for Guachochi, but we're trying to get back on schedule due to the rain we had in Creel last week. However, if we do this trip again, we need to schedule more time at both Copper Canyon and Guachochi. There is a lot to see there, including another section of the canyon at Guachochi that not many people visit.

We set off at 9:00am, once again under clear blue skies.

Ruth and I are kind of recreating a route that we did in January of 2015... but in reverse. So while it's all new for the group, it's kind of new for us as well because we're seeing it in the opposite direction!

Monday's route we knew would be special. Hardly anybody goes this way... for whatever reason. But especially not tourists from Canada and the United States. The odd thing is that the route includes amazing scenery. As one of the group said at a rest stop... "you have really outdone yourselves this time!"

If we do another one of these Mexico trips, we will need to spend a week just at the Copper Canyon. Everyone totally enjoyed it, and of course it makes it all the better when there is perfect weather.

We used that word a lot yesterday. "Wow"! Not only did we use it, we heard it from the rest of the group too!

Five years ago, Ruth and I did the world's longest zipline here at the Copper Canyon. We've got a pretty adventurous group with us, so we figured some of them might want to try it too! Turns out that eight of our group of fourteen signed their life away and took the plunge!

On Friday, the sun came out and along with it some strong winds. But that was okay because we wanted things to dry up from that big rainstorm that went through on Wednesday and Thursday.

Ruth planned a morning hike with whoever wanted to go at 9:30am. I was busy catching up on some computer work when Aron came over to say that there had been some kind of power surge overnight and his refrigerator wasn't working.

Weather was a bit better yesterday, but it still showered on and off occasionally. Our original plan was to head down to Divisadero for a couple of nights, but because of the rain storm that went through on Wednesday we decided to stay put and let things dry out a bit.

Also, this way we could have our Thanksgiving potluck feast with the group indoors using the conference room here at the lodge.