House sitting near Aberdeen for the next 11 days

Yesterday we drove from Glasgow to Aberdeen with a short detour along the way to stop at a waterfall.

And, we met out host family and their dog Loki who we will be looking after for the next 11 days.

Today is moving day!

Friday the 13th... and we are moving up to the outskirts of the small city of Aberdeen (pop 224,000) for our 12 day housesitting assignment looking after Loki the chocolate lab, and some chickens.

So, we've got almost a three hour drive ahead of us, plus we want to stop and do a walk to a waterfall, and a stop in Perth to see the house my great aunt used to live in.

We had a great day doing things we shouldn't have been doing!

Wednesday was another day of nice weather. We actually had one older local man comment to us that we should enjoy it because "Scotland's weather isn't always like this". 

We had picked out three different things to do that looked interesting.

Glasgow was good for a day

Tuesday was a beautiful day with the weather, and it's supposed to be even warmer today! Calling for sunshine and a high of 22C (72F) which is pretty decent for Scotland in June.

So, we set off into downtown Glasgow yesterday. We thought about taking the bus just to avoid dealing with any traffic, but I found a free parking lot about 3 kms from the center, and of course we don't mind the exercise.

We are going to stay in a castle!

I've always had a bit of a fascination with castles, and we have visited many over our years of travel. The best ones are the ones that are authentic and not necessarily restored to "modern" standards.

And I've always wanted to stay overnight in one! But first of all, it's usually prohibitively expensive, and secondly, most of the castles that have been turned into hotels are are more similar to a manor house rather than an actual authentic looking castle.

Last minute surprise visit!

Long time readers will remember that we have spent quite a lot of time over the years with Ruth's cousin Helen and her husband Tony. Even back in our working lives, we sometimes took vacations together, including one way back in 1987 when we went to Scotland!

Helen and Tony live in southwest England, but they recently bought Vinnie the motorhome and decided to do a trip up to Scotland with Vinnie. We had planned to meet up with them, but not this soon!

We picked up our brand new car, and saw some interesting sights on our way to Glasgow

I had to go back to downtown Edinburgh to pick up our rental car. Ruth stayed back at the house because it didn't make sense to pay another £2.20 bus fare just so that she could accompany me. 

Car rental in Scotland is much more expensive than Spain was. I started searching months ago, and the best price I could get for a one month rental was £578 ($1,071 CAD, $782 USD).

There is a lot to see in downtown Edinburgh!

As is evidenced by the 56 photos and one video below! 

In fact, we probably could have done with two full days in the central area. But we will have to return our car rental here, so maybe we will do another day towards the end of our time in Scotland.

Edinburgh day 1

Our accommodation is located about 8 kms (5 miles) SW of the center of the city. It's a newer three bedroom three bathroom townhouse. The owner is a single woman about 35, and there is a flatmate who is rarely seen, and when she is here she spends most of her time in her room. And they rent out the third bedroom on Airbnb, which is of course our room. The room itself is tiny, but we have full use of the kitchen and living room so it's totally fine. And the bed is comfy!

On Thursday, we went for a 10 km (6 mile) walk around the area.

Welcome to Scotland!

We had some time to spare before we had to drop off our car rental at Madrid airport, so we did a small detour to the 11th century town of Sepulveda.

Then we drove to the airport and waited for our flight to Scotland!

Today is a busy travel day!

On Tuesday, we drove from Palencia to the village of Fresno de Cantespino, with a stop in Peñafiel.

Overcast, with the threat of rain almost all day, but we never got more than a few drops.

Through Astorga to Palencia, Spain

On Monday, we headed further east from Molinaseca to Palencia, taking a route with a stop in the town of Astorga.

I've forgotten to include a map of our travels the last couple of weeks, so I'll include a map update below.

The gold mines at Las Medulas and the city of Ponferrada

Our next accommodation stop was just past the city of Ponferrada at the small town of Molinaseca.

It was only about an hour and a half drive, but we had a stop to make along the way.

More waterfalls and viewpoints!

I published our May expense report last night. You can check it out here.

We headed out fairly early yesterday because we wanted to beat the heat. We weren't going far... only about half an hour away to a parking spot in the forest near a trailhead that leads to a waterfall.

May Expenses... right on target!

Usually when I make up the budget for the next month, I do so with a best case scenario... to try to give us something to shoot for. That's why we generally go over budget. It's not that we absolutely need to stick to the budget... it's just a guide. And provided the annual expenses don't often go over $40,000 CAD ($30,000 USD) or so, then we're doing just fine. And even if they do go over that amount, we're still doing just fine!

Anyhow, it is odd when we do come in under budget... and even more odd when we pretty much meet the budget bang on!

Boat cruise on the Sil River

We stayed home and relaxed until about 3:00pm when it was time to get going for our 4:30pm boat tour departure on the Sil River.

Oh, but before we get to that, I have to show you a video of the drive we have to do to get to our accommodation here on the side of the hill...

Viewpoints over the Sil River Valley

We are in what is known as the Ribeira Sacra... a spectacularly beautiful wine region in the Sil, Miño, Cabe and Bibei river valleys in Galicia in the northwest corner of the Iberian peninsula in Spain. 

There are many miradors... viewpoints that are made overlooking the valleys. Yesterday, we decided to drive to some of the viewpoints.

Day trip to Pontevedra and Spain's west coast

We got a fairly early start, hitting the road at just after 9:00am for the two hour drive to Pontevedra. 

Pontevedra itself is only about 83,000 people, but the built up areas continue all along the coast and as you reach the beaches, it's quite busy. 

Day trip to Montforte de Lemos

The nearest grocery stores of any size are located in Montforte de Lemos, about 25 kms (15 miles) away. 

We had already been there when we first arrived as we needed to stock up, but we never explored the city itself at the time.

We are going to rent a house!

No, we're not "settling down". 

However, we do want to have a home base. A place where we can be part of the community. Somewhere that we can just lock the door and leave, and come back to and find things exactly as we left them. Somewhere close to a major international airport, because of course the travel will continue!

And we think we have found that place.

It was a good test of my new boots!

Ruth packed a lunch and we set off walking directly from the house. We were headed to two different viewpoints.

Into the city of Ourense, and a wine tasting evening!

I only had one pair of shoes with me so far on this trip... the new Sketchers that I had bought in Madrid. I learned the other day that I need some hiking boots! Those Sketchers are fine for walking on flat paved surfaces, but they have zero support for anything more than that. And, I knew I was going to have to buy hikers soon anyhow. 

So, we headed into the city of Ourense (pop 109,000) to see the sights and buy some hiking boots.

Well, the time has come

But let's face it, it had to happen eventually.

A fun hike, right from our front door!

We decided on an 8 km (5 mile) round trip hike that leaves right from our door. The destination was the deserted hamlet of San Cosmede.

We kind of thought we might get some nice views of the Sil Canyon, but unfortunately not. However, there were a lot of other interesting things to see along the way! In fact, it turned out to be a really good hike!

Day trip to Ribadavia, and the Melon Waterfalls

There are so many choices of things to do and places to see, it took us a while to decide!

We chose to go to the town of Ribadavia, about a 45 minute drive. Then, Ruth found an 8 km (5 mile) hike with some waterfalls a few kms past Ribadavia, so we went there afterwards.

Hike to a beautiful viewpoint

Once again, we woke up to fog that doesn't seem to totally burn off until after lunch. And there's no point in hiking in beautiful scenery if you can't see the scenery!

So we didn't get out walking until about 2:00pm.

A few photos around the village where we are staying

We woke up Monday morning to thick fog. We couldn't even see the mountain on the other side of the river valley!

Our schedule has been pretty hectic for the past while, and it was nice to just relax for the morning. It was after 11:30am by the time we hopped in the car to go find a grocery store.

Our home for the next two weeks... what a great area!

We headed out of Valladolid with plans to make one stop... at a big Carrefour grocery store on the outskirts of the city. 

Good thing it wasn't much of a detour... because it was closed!

A busy day as we explored both Segovia and Valladolid

We took the metro (subway, underground) from the north part of Madrid to the Atocha train station. We had used up our original ten ride purchase at €0.61 a ride, and it didn't make sense to buy another ten ride package so we had to buy individual tickets at €2 ($3.12 CAD, $2.23 USD) each. 

Arrived at Atocha station a half hour early for our 10am rental car reservation.

The bus broke down, so extra time in El Barco de Avila!

Well, Friday was the last day of the volunteer language program, and we are now back in Madrid.

Busy, busy though... I didn't even have time to do a blog post yesterday, and time is quickly running out this morning too!

Walk into town

Another busy day. They give you fun group assignments, and you think that maybe you don't have time to complete them, but somehow you manage to get them done, even if it cuts into your free time.

As I said, they sure keep you busy!

Another fun day!

Once again, a fun and enjoyable day. 

It's so nice that we are able to go out walking during our one on one conversations. It's such a beautiful area, and we've been pretty lucky with the weather although we did have a few drops of rain yesterday afternoon.

They sure do keep you busy!

We had a fun day yesterday. They sure keep you busy, and the time passes quickly. We had breakfast from 9am to 10am, then began our "one on one" sessions with the Spaniards.

You do three 50 minute sessions, each one followed by a 10 minute break.

First day of the language program

We had signed up as volunteers at an English language program for Spaniards here in Spain. So, this language program is not about us learning Spanish... it is to help Spaniards learning English.

It's five nights/six days, and Sunday morning at 9:30am the bus picked us up to take us to a resort two and a half hours west of Madrid near the village of El Barco de Avila.

Some quirky things in Madrid

Once again, we waited out the rain before heading out to do more exploring here in Madrid. So it was almost 1:30pm before we set out on the subway towards the center of the city.

We often use the Atlas Obscura website to find interesting things to see that aren't necessarily on the tourist radar, and Ruth had mapped out a short list of them.

We moved to another accommodation

Despite sleeping in Friday morning, we managed to get out of the apartment with time to spare. We walked to the nearby subway station to take the metro underground to the north of Madrid.

Only a ten minute walk from the subway station and we arrived at our next accommodation. It's in a very residential area, with a lot of apartment buildings.

Madrid's El Retiro Park, and another photo matchup

We went and did some shopping Thursday morning. I actually didn't plan this very well. I wore my hiking boots on the plane as the only pair of footwear that I brought. But I knew that my hiking boots didn't have many miles left on them. I should have left them behind and wore my sneakers and bought some new hiking boots here.

Wandering around central Madrid, and some more photo matching!

We had two goals on Wednesday. The first was to see the special changing of the guard ceremony at Madrid's Royal Palace that only takes place on the first Wednesday of the month. And the second was to match up a couple of my dad's photos from when he was here in October of 1954.

We only got one goal accomplished.

Getting ourselves settled in

When we left you last, we were sitting at a coffee shop in Madrid airport. We had some time to waste because we weren't able to get into our accommodation until 12 noon, and it was only 8am. 

We left the airport at about 9:30am. The express bus from the airport would be able to take us to the Atocha train station, and then it would be a 2.5 km (about a mile) walk from there to our apartment.

Arrived at Madrid Airport

We were down for the included breakfast at our Mexico City hotel right on the nose at 7:00am when they opened. Once again, it was a good breakfast. This was the same MX hotel chain that we have used in the past in Mexico City, although this was the first time at the Hotel MX Congreso location.

Not bad, for 784 pesos ($55 CAD, $40 USD) a night with the good included breakfast. On the down side, we found the room too warm, and the WiFi didn't work very well. Good thing we have enough cellular data left on our Telcel SIM card.

And... we're off!

Saturday evening we had a nice surprise.

Normally, we look forward to seeing friends Paco and Oti whenever we visit Valle de Bravo. This time, they had other plans and had told us they weren't able to make it. We would have to wait to see them when we return in October.

Getting things organized

Spent the day yesterday giving Igor a good cleanup. He'll be sitting here waiting for us for five months until our return around October 8th. The exterior will need another good scrub by then, at least the inside will be ready and waiting for us.

This morning, I am going to change the solar charge controller to the one that came with the last kit we ordered. I think it's a better quality one, and the one that's currently installed doesn't seem to want to kick down to float voltage when the batteries are fully charged.

Well, that was a great trip!

Reflecting on the last five and a half months, what a great trip this has been! Of course we always love our time here in Mexico, but we hadn't been here for almost five years and we were really missing it. This trip was all about visiting old friends and favorite locations, with only one new area that we hadn't explored in the past.

We had arrived in Cancun on November 12th.

April Expenses - Our cheapest month so far this year

We had a budget of $1,783 CAD ($1,247 USD) for the month of April. We spent more than that, but we always make our budget as a best case scenario as something to strive for. So although we spent more, it wasn't by much.

We spent $1,960 CAD ($1,420 USD), which is the lowest month we've had since April 2023... so we're pretty happy with that!

Back at our happy place

We spent much of the last two days driving, and have now returned to Valle de Bravo, the place where we set out from on January 2nd, almost four months ago.

But while we did a lot of driving the last two days, we still managed to do some sightseeing. We stopped in at the Tula archeological site to have a look around.

Experiences like this are why we travel!

It was already almost 30C (86F) when we set off just before 9:30am. But we were headed from 500' altitude to over 5,000' altitude. So we were looking forward to more comfortable temperatures.

We stopped and filled Igor's fuel tank for what should be the last time until we return to Mexico in October.

One last night in the heat!

We only had about an hour to our next destination, an event salon and restaurant. We had stayed here with our Mexico RV Caravan group five years ago, and the woman running the place remembered us!

We had slept well in the cooler weather up in the mountains near the big hole in the ground. It had been at about 3,500', and we were headed back down to 500'.

A big hole in the ground!

We did the one hour drive south to the Sotano de Golondrinas. The direct translation of this is "Basement of the Swallows", however that's not entirely correct.

Sotano de Golondrinas is a huge hole in the ground. It's 512 meters (1,612') deep. It's the sixth deepest abyss in the world. 

A wet afternoon at Tamul Waterfall

You'd think we would have seen everything there is to see in Mexico, and we have seen a lot of the country over the years. But there are still a couple more items on the list.

Tamul Waterfall was one of the places we had wanted to bring our Mexico RV Caravan group when Covid started shutting things down in March of 2020. We finally got to cross it off the list!

There is a lot of travel on the agenda for the next five months!

There's been a lot of planning going on behind the scenes here at Travel with Kevin and Ruth!

Our flight to Madrid, Spain is only a week and a half away and there is a lot more travel planning on the agenda for the next five months.

Back to the doctor, and arrived at a great campground!

Our break in the city of Ciudad Valles went well... we got a lot accomplished. The hotel was a bit of a bust... for 780 pesos ($56 CAD, $40 USD). I know, that sounds cheap nowadays, and it is. But the mattress was lumpy, the towels were almost worn out, the shower head needed replacing, and the drain needed cleaning. On the bright side, the WiFi worked well, the air conditioning worked well, and the parking was good for Igor.

Oh, and the location was right in the center.

We were feeling a little grungy!

We know that it starts getting warm by 10am, so we set off at just after 8:30am for the 6.5 km (4 mile) one way walk to the Cascada El Aguacate (Avocado Waterfall).

We knew that we could have simply walked on the road... but we were looking for more of a hiking route than just walking alongside the road.

Happy Easter!

Easter Sunday, and that brings about the end of the busy Semana Santa period here in Mexico. Monday is just a regular work day here, although the school kids still have the day off, so some employees will take the extra day off as well.

It will be interesting to see how quickly things clear out here beside the river. 

It's busy here now!

When we arrived at this little spot by the river over a week ago, we figured it would be a nice quiet spot to spend the busy Semana Santa week. Most days, we have pretty much been the only ones here.

That all changed on Thursday!

Igor is getting an upgrade!

I belong to a group on facebook specifically for owners of the Airstream B190 motorhome. It was a lot of help last year when we were getting Igor ready for this trip. And, I've made a lot of contributions to the group myself with the upgrades and changes that we've made.

When we bought Igor, he had not been well maintained. I'm guessing he hadn't had anything done for probably ten years or more.

Off to the doctor, and exciting news for May!

Late last month I had a sinus infection. It cleared up on its own, or so I thought it did. The beginning of this month, I woke up with a sore throat one day. It turned into a few sniffles, and actually started to get better quite quickly. But the last week or so it has gone downhill and I believe it turned into some kind of chest infection.

Not so bad that it was affecting our day to day activities though. I still felt fine overall, and had no problem doing our normal walking. But the cough was bothersome and it was starting to affect our sleep, so we figured I should do something about it.

We had only paid for three nights

Yesterday we did the short walk into the town of Damian Carmona.

Damian Carmona was a famous Mexican soldier in the 1800's who fought during the French invasion. He survived a grenade attack and was awarded honors for remaining at his post, only to die from typhoid two years later at the age of 24.

Taxes done!

I spent the morning doing our Canadian tax return that is due April 30th. A fairly heavy tax bill, but as my accountant used to say, "if you're paying lots of taxes, it's because you're making lots of money."

I suppose. Well, that and... you're a resident of highly taxed Canada! 

We don't know what to call this place...

Lots of back roads to walk in this area. In fact, it looks like we can walk all the way to the El Aguacate waterfall 6.4 kms (4 miles) away. We'll have to plan an early start the day we decide to do that!

Yesterday, we just set off on a dirt road that led through the sugar cane fields.

We found a great spot to hang out

Yesterday's blog was posted vey late, so if you missed it you can read it here...

https://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2025/04/fun-afternoon-at-micos-waterfalls.html

The reason it was late was because we had overnighted in the parking lot at Micos Waterfalls and yesterday was Friday... also the start of Semana Santa week.

Fun afternoon at Micos Waterfalls

The Huasteca Potosina region is all about the waterfalls.

We tried to visit some of them towards the end of our last Mexico RV Caravan tour in March of 2020, but then Covid hit and we were never able to. 

After four tries, we finally got it right!

We took the back roads to get from Tamasopo to Ciudad Valles. Not a bad drive, but slow going. Took almost an hour and a half to do 65 kms (40 miles)!

Most of it was on paved farm roads that run through the sugar cane fields. The road surface was not the best, due to the heavy trucks that are used for the sugar cane... but at least it wasn't dusty like a dirt road would have been.

That was an adventurous day!

We waited until after lunch to pay our 150 pesos ($10.15 CAD, $7.20 USD) per person entrance fee to the Puente de Dios waterfall.

It sounds expensive to see a waterfall, but you also get to swim at the beautiful pool, and they've got it all set up with ropes to hang onto and they even have lifeguards and changerooms and lockers etc.

Not often you see a peacock showing off like this! And more news...

Another comfortable day, this time with some sunshine. We moved on from the waterfalls... to another waterfall! But in between, we stopped in Tamasopo to do some chores.

Igor's fuel tank was getting low, so we filled up with gas. Then it was off to the laundry. The guy said he could have it all done, sheets included, by 1:00pm, so we decided to just hang around town.

We ran out of power!

Sure enough, exactly as forecast, we woke up to clouds and cooler temperatures. What a relief.

Only problem is the clouds. We had been parked in the shade during the 40C+ temperatures for the three days before, and with those temperatures our 12 volt fridge runs non stop. It keeps things cold at that temperature, but it works pretty much non stop to do so.

The waterfalls are the reason to come to this area

This area of Mexico is called La Huasteca Potosina. It's a fairly large region that covers over 20 municipalities, and the waterfalls located in these municipalities are the main reason to come here.

And the waterfalls are quite spread out. For example, we are located near the town of Tamasopo right now, but there are other waterfalls we want to visit 40 kms north of here, 100 kms north of here, and 60 kms south of here. 

Today is our last day!

"Last day of what...?" you might ask.

Well, it's the last day of the oppressive heat wave that we've been enduring. Once again, the high today is supposed to go over 40C (104F). But tomorrow...?

Arrived in Tamasopo

We were supposed to have a two hour drive from Conca to Tamasopo. But it turned into three hours because we missed a turn, then decided that was okay and carried on to the next major turn. We ended up in a little town in the middle of nowhere and the nice paved road turned into a very rough dirt road.

We turned around and went back to the main road, but it cost us a few miles and an extra hour!

Three more days...

Despite how beautiful this place is, we've decided to move on. However, we are going to what is supposed to be another beautiful place!

We've got a two hour drive up to the town of Tamasopo, so we are hitting the road early to take advantage of the cooler morning conditions... they are calling for 43C again this afternoon.

Grandson Cameron's birthday, and saw our son on TV!

It's so hot in the afternoon, but the morning is comfortable enough. It's funny how 30C doesn't feel so bad when you know it's going to 40C!

So we set off walking at 9:30am to see some of the sights in and around the town of Concá.

March Expense report

We started the month of March in Etzatlan, Jalisco and ended it in Conca, Queretaro. Except we did do a three night detour into Mexico City as well. We had a budget of $2,200 CAD ($1.539 USD) for the month of March.

And we actually managed to get pretty close to that! It was the loss of Ruth's phone that put us over.

We ended up in an absolutely beautiful spot

While we enjoyed our weekend in the backyard of the Los 4 Pulques Hotel, it was time to move on.

And with even hotter temperatures in the forecast, we were looking for a spot where there was a swimming option. We definitely found exactly what we were looking for!

Walking across England?

Ruth seems to be able to function when it's this hot, but when it gets above 32C (90F) it just drains me, and I lose ambition to do anything. 

So what did we do yesterday? Nothing.

The readers have spoken

And quite overwhelmingly!

It was really nice to hear from so many long time readers who rarely comment. We really appreciate that, and it gives us the impetus to keep going with this blog. I still enjoy writing it, so you can expect to continue to be able to read about our adventures for a few more years yet. If it ever starts to feel like work, that's when we'll re-think things.

We have a dilemma

Dilemma - a situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more equally undesirable alternatives.

This dilemma has come up several times over the last 12 years or so. Each time we think we have dealt with it, it comes back again!

Another steep hike

We're sure getting our exercise up here in the mountains! 

We set off yesterday to try to find a waterfall, but it turned out that it's on private property and they charge 100 pesos ($7 CAD, $5 USD) per person to get in. So we took another route that turned out to be pretty steep.

Wandering around town, and a hike to a canyon

We found a much better place to park, right in the town of Pinal de Amoles. It's just a parking lot, but it's only 30 pesos for 24 hours, and they even have bathrooms and water available for another 10 pesos. 

So essentially, 50 pesos ($3.50 CAD, $2.50 USD) for overnight parking if we both use the facilities. Not bad!

We woke up in the clouds

And the clouds hung around all day.

It sure is nice and refreshing up here in the mountains though. Due to the lack of sunshine, the high temperature yesterday was only 19C (66F). We actually put the heater on for a few minutes to take the chill off when we woke up.

Now this is more our style!

We set off from Peñamiller fairly early because we knew it was going to be a long steep uphill climb and wanted to do it before it got too hot outside. Of course, the more we climbed, the cooler it got.

Really fantastic views... and Igor handled the mountain roads with no problem at all!

Very cool (and little visited) archeological site

We were driving between Dolores Hidalgo and Pinal de Amoles, but it's a four hour drive on some twisty curvy roads, so I would rather break that into two days.

While perusing the map of our route, I spotted the Arroyo Seco Archeological site. Reviews said it was interesting, so we stopped in and paid the 65 pesos ($4.60 CAD, $3.25 USD) per person entrance fee for the guided tour.

Dolores Hidalgo

Dolores Hidalgo is known as the birthplace of Mexican Independence.

It's the place where Father Miguel Hidalgo uttered his famous cry for the independence of Mexico in the early hours of September 16, 1810, in front of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores parish church. After Mexico achieved independence, the town was renamed Dolores Hidalgo in his honor.

A last minute lunch with fellow world travelers!

Friday was our planned travel day to Dolores Hidalgo. It's not very far away from Guanajuato though, so we weren't in a rush to get on the road early.

So when we got a last minute invitation to lunch, it wasn't a tough decision to hang around!

One last day in Guanajuato

We spent one last day with our friend Doug, wandering the streets of Guanajuato. 

There is a lot to see in this town, and even though we've seen most of it before, it was fun having someone with us who lives here. And, we even managed to show him something new!

Solar panel job complete, and Ruth gets a new phone

I got up on the roof around 9:00am to finish up the work on the solar panels. I had already reported to you that I had installed the two new 100 watt panels, and they are working perfectly. 

However, I had tested the old panels, and it seemed that one of them was still putting out enough that it was worthwhile to keep it... so I put it up on the roof and did a couple of tests before mounting it permanently.

Views of Guanajuato

We set out mid morning to walk along the Panoramica... a road that circles through the hills above Guanajuato. If you did the whole thing, it would be about 9 kms (5.5 miles) one way.

As the name of the road implies, there are a lot of scenic views above the city.

Almost time to retire

We've actually been semi-retired since 2007 when at age 45 we sold our house in Canada and bought a motorhome. I actually used to call it pre-retired... or my own made up word "pretired".

But the problem was that we didn't have enough money! Pretty tough to retire when you have no way to support yourself.

Into central Guanajuato for Chinese food lunch!

It gets pretty hot up on Igor's roof, and there is zero shade here. So I need to force myself to get outside a little earlier in the day to finish up this solar panel project and see if I can fit that third panel up there.

Yesterday, we went down into the city to join Doug and an expat friend of his for lunch.

New solar panels working, and possibly a little bonus!

The solar panels I had bought last August were defective. The company who supplied them had me do some tests, and neither one of them were putting out the rated amps. They gave me a 50% refund, and I got to keep the panels because obviously it wouldn't have made sense to return them.

But as a result, the system wasn't working the way I designed it. 

On to Guanajuato

It was only an hour and a half drive from San Miguel de Allende to Guanajuato, so we were in no rush. Eventually, we got ourselves packed up and made a stop for fuel and groceries before leaving town.

Igor's tank was pretty empty, in fact it was probably the lowest we've had it. The 132 liter tank took 111 liters! Fuel is 23.99 pesos per liter, so it cost 2,664 pesos ($192 CAD, $134 USD) to fill him up.

Well that was a fun day!

We were heading into downtown San Miguel de Allende to meet up with Gregg and Janet. We had met this couple along with their daughter in February of 2023 in Morocco. We got along well at the time, and we figured we would meet up again at some point in the future.

In fact, I looked up the blog post from that day and I had said "Pretty sure we'll bump into each other again at some point in the future. You never know where or when though!"

Igor is getting some new solar panels!

Our bus was scheduled to depart the big and busy Mexico City Norte Bus Terminal at 10:15am. 

We were up at 6:30am so we didn't feel the need to rush. Went down and had a nice breakfast and were outside waiting for our Uber taxi at 9:00am.

Return to Coyoacan for a big sandwich!

When we were in Mexico City the very first time in 2012, our friend Adrian had taken us to the Coyoacan market where he knew of a place that makes these delicious huge sandwiches. 

Of course it's been 13 years since we were there, but we figured we would go back and try to find the same place!

So much to see in Mexico City

A company had sent me full access to walking a tour app for free, so we decided to try it out here in Mexico City. One of the tours was to an area called Polanco, which is an upscale neighborhood that has world famous brands, and pricey international restaurants. 

Not really our style to hang out in places like this, but it was a part of Mexico City that we had never been to.

Arrived in Mexico City!

Our bus was scheduled to depart San Miguel de Allende at 9:55am, and rather than wait out front for a local bus to the bus station, we played it safe and ordered an Uber. Uber is relatively cheap in Mexico, and it cost 93 pesos ($6.65 CAD, $4.60 USD) for the ten minute ride to ensure we got to the bus station with lots of time to spare.

Wandering around San Miguel de Allende

As expected, we had a peaceful nights sleep up at the botanical garden. After breakfast, we got ourselves packed up for the drive to the other side of town to the Hotel San Ramon that has an RV parking area.

There are only two RV park options in San Miguel de Allende. One is right in town located at the tennis courts. It's convenient for walking everywhere, but it's also fairly expensive. And the other is the Hotel San Ramon about 4 kms from the center of town.

Arrived in San Miguel de Allende

It was about a two and a half hour drive from Lagos de Moreno to San Miguel de Allende.

But it's not a very scenic drive until you get to the outskirts of Guanajuato. There's a lot of industrial areas, and of course we had to make our way around the big city of Leon, and the smaller city of Silao.

What a disappointment.

Sorry this is late! We wanted to get a decently early start, and I had some computer work to do first thing, so we just decided to put off the blog post. Anyhow, here it is!

On Thursday, we drove from the overnight spot at the dam up to the small city of Lagos de Moreno. 

Knock, knock, knock... by the police this time

It was another beautiful quiet night in the Primavera Forest just west of Guadalajara. But we had to put some miles on, because we want to be in San Miguel de Allende by Friday... Saturday morning at the very latest.

So we got things packed up and hit the road around 10:15am for the drive around the western part of the big city of Guadalajara.

Soak in a hot water river!

This is such a quiet spot during the week, but I'm sure it gets quite busy on the weekends because it is so close to the big city of Guadalajara. In fact, we are only 25 kms (15 miles) from the center of the city.

Yesterday, we walked to the hot springs river. In fact, the river is named Rio Caliente (Hot River). And it was hot, temperatures vary between 35 to 40 C (95 to 104 F)!

Moving on to the Primavera Biosphere Reserve

We tried to get going by 9:00am yesterday morning, but it was almost 10:00am by the time we said goodbye to Bonnie and her daughter Sam. We always love visiting this area at Etzatlan.

Then, we had to go into town and fill Igor's fuel tank. And pop in for some groceries. Then finally hit the road!

Now *that* was a parade!

When we had gone downtown on Thursday evening, we had been promised a "parade" that turned out to be a little lame. But yesterday there was talk of another parade... and this turned out to be the real thing.

It was supposed to start at 10:00am. But we know how things work in Mexico. So we set out from the campground at around 10:20am and walked downtown.

Carnaval in Etzatlan

So it's Carnaval weekend here in Etzatlan and there is a lot going on in town. 

We had wanted to see a fancy horse show at the bull ring on Friday afternoon, but unfortunately it got cancelled. Still, there's a lot of other stuff going on, and most of it is free.

More flight tickets bought!

I love buying flight tickets! Planning the trip is half the fun!

As you already know, we are booked to fly from Mexico City to Madrid, Spain on the evening of May 5th. But we only wanted to stay in Spain for a month or so while waiting for Scotland to warm up a little bit!

February Expenses... pretty good, except...

We actually had a pretty good month when it comes to our expense report. The only thing that put us over was Ruth's new laptop. 

Otherwise, we actually would have been slightly under budget.

There's always some kind of fiesta going on!

It's been over a month since we got Igor's fiberglas roof cap painted and during that time I just haven't had the opportunity to give him a proper bath with actual soap and running water. 

He was looking a little dusty too, so yesterday morning I got up the ambition to get him cleaned up!

It was a clear blue sky day!

We tried to get out fairly early yesterday for a hike. It gets pretty hot by afternoon, and certainly the morning is better for a hike. The high temperatures here have actually been pretty warm, at around 30C (86F), but there is absolutely zero humidity.

I think it was about 9:20am by the time we finally got going.

Flight tickets bought!

Ruth went over to the bathroom here at the campground, and came back to tell me I have to take a picture of the lizard she saw because it's so tiny!

So I wandered over later and put a coin on the floor beside it so you could see just how tiny it is.

Just relaxing...

And puttering around with Igor.

When we bought Igor at the end of June last year, he was a mess. One of the things that we never got done was to shampoo the carpet in the front. I mean, these vans don't have much of a carpet up there to begin with, so it shouldn't have been a very big job.

Into the town of Etzatlan

Sunday morning we walked into town. We just have to cross the main highway, then it's about a 20 minute walk on a cycling/walking path to get to town.

We just wandered around, then found a spot to have lunch.

What's the plan?

We never left the campsite yesterday. Just a relaxing day, but we puttered around and did some cleaning. Igor was pretty dusty inside from the dirt roads we had been on.

I also adjusted some of our cupboard doors because we had two of them fly open recently.

Hiking part of the Ruta de Peregrinos in Jalisco, Mexico

After a totally silent night parked in a farmer's field, we woke up to a beautiful sunrise. It seemed like the color was going to last all day. 

By 9:00am we were ready to set out hiking. We wanted to do a difficult section of the Ruta del Peregrino (The Pilgrims Trail), a religious route running between the towns of Ameca and Talpa de Allende.

The gate was closed, but we went in anyhow.

Had a quiet sleep by the river. Got packed up around 10:00am and drove the short distance into the town of Talpa de Allende where we easily found a parking space for Igor.

Talpa de Allende is the end destination of a pilgrimage route that begins in Ameca. Pilgrims travel the challenging 117 km (73 mile) route to arrive at the church in Talpa to see the Virgen del Rosario de Talpa who apparently grants miracles.

Parked by the river in Talpa de Allende

The last time we did this route in March of 2016, I did a blog post titled "Next time we'll do this in a week instead of a day". I was referencing the fact that we drove all the way from Etzatlan to Puerto Vallarta on this same route in one day.

And here we are, doing exactly that!

Knock, knock, knock by the military

We left San Sebastien just before 10:00am, but we weren't going very far. We had read about the nearby La Hermita waterfall, and it looked different, we just weren't sure if there was going to be much water at this time of year!

We were surprised to find one other car parked up at the trailhead to the waterfall. On a Tuesday morning, we figured it would be pretty quiet.

If you don't like creepy crawlies...

Then it's probably not a good idea to visit the Santa Gertrudis mine in San Sebastien.

We were originally planning to do a long 22 km hike up to La Bufa... but I found out that the route uses the same path that the ATV's do... so it's not a true hiking trail. So we changed our plan to do a much shorter 7 km walk to the Santa Gertrudis mine... an old silver mine that dates to the 1800's.

Heading into the mountains

First though, I need to tell you the end of our Starlink story. I had mentioned yesterday that their support people were slow getting back to me, but once they did, the guy was absolutely fantastic. He spoke perfect English. He cancelled our Canadian contract, refunded the amount paid, and set up my email address to be able to easily start a Mexican contract. Once that was done, I still had a few glitches trying to get it paid with our Canadian credit card, but eventually our Wise debit card came though with the approved payment. 

The same guy was readily available until I got everything sorted. 

Time to hit the road!

This post coming to you via Starlink internet! No, we haven't worked out all the financial details yet, but the system is working as it should. The internet is fast enough, but their customer support is very slow! Anyhow, the main thing for now is that the system is working perfectly.

Saturday was our last day here in Puerto Vallarta.

What a circus!

We went to the circus a week ago, but now we are experiencing another one!

Yesterday was the day to activate our new Starlink Mini because our cellular internet plan runs out today at midnight. 

The price of eggs

We puttered around for the morning, then after lunch we walked inland to the Pitillal neighborhood to the laptop repair shop we had stopped in at the day before.

We got the data transferred to Ruth's new laptop, and ended up leaving the old one with him to see if the screen problem can actually be repaired rather than replacing the screen.

Extended our portable solar panel

We went for a walk yesterday. We had seen a pathway that led alongside a river here in Puerto Vallarta, and coincidentally it led by a store where I had been told I could buy the cable for our portable solar panel.

So we went there, and then continued on to a laptop repair place.

Apparently laptops only last two and a half years

Ruth had been having problems with her laptop the last couple of weeks. The screen would only come on after playing with the angle a little bit, and she would have to turn it off and turn it back on several times.

Mine had exactly the same issue last November, and I ended up buying a new one then. 

Some great ideas!

Yesterday, we hopped on the local bus to go out to the town of Valle de Banderas.

Whenever we have stayed in this area in the past, we went to the Rancho Alta Rosa RV Park which was run by a Canadian couple from Alberta. I think the first time we stayed there was in 2011, and then several times since.

We are open to suggestions!

We had a nice relaxing day yesterday.

The main priority of the day was to get some more cash. We had to pay another 3,300 pesos ($230 CAD, $160 USD) for our second week here at the RV park in central Puerto Vallarta. 

Market day, and everybody loves the circus!

There's a weekly local tianguis market just a 15 minute walk from us every Saturday morning. Here in Mexico, the weekly market is where most locals go to get the best prices and the freshest produce to put on their plates for the week ahead.

So that's where we go as well!

Out exploring with Lorne and Sue

Yesterday, our friends Lorne and Sue drove down from their winter hideaway in La Penita about an hour and a half north of here. 

Just to give you some background, Lorne and Sue were readers of this blog, and they contacted us way back in 2016 because we were going to be passing through Manitoba and they had just sold their house and bought a motorhome.

Crocodiles in Puerto Vallarta!

We set off in the morning to walk to the old historic district to meet up with our friends. We met them on the malecon and wandered around for an hour or so, then headed up to Pepe's tacos for lunch.

Views above Puerto Vallarta

Just for something to do, we went for a walk over to what they call the Romantic Zone of Puerto Vallarta. Ruth had found a viewpoint on the map that we could climb up to for some beautiful views.

Starlink and politics. And our refrigerator!

Yesterday morning we puttered around cleaning up Igor. There was still lots of bodyshop dust because we never got a chance to get him properly cleaned up after getting his roof painted, and then of course we were at the beach with all the salt and sand flying around. 

He's looking much better!

Good news, and bad news!

We needed to get some exercise, so we started out by walking on the beach. And we had to pass by the resort our friends are staying at, so when we got there we decided to walk right in. Worse case scenario, they would just kick us out. Everybody had wrist bands of some kind, but nobody seemed to notice that we didn't.

Sure enough, we found them enjoying themselves by the pool.

They sold our Starlink!

On Sunday, we did the 102 km (64 mile) drive from Tomatlan to the big tourist city of Puerto Vallarta.

You would think that would take an hour and a half or so, but it took us two and a half hours!

We met Igor's cousin!

We went for a walk around Tenacatita before heading further north. There was supposedly another camping area up around the bend on the other side, so we walked over that way.

Still early, so the beach vendors were only just getting set up for the day.

January Expenses

Well, January was finally back to our sort of normal expenses. Traveling in a motorhome is our cheapest way to live, and this is the first month in a long time where we didn't have much in the way of extraordinary expenses. 

But there were some.

Free camping at Tenacatita Beach

Tenacatita is a beautiful bay with a tumultuous history.

Back in 2010, the entire beach was shut down and many buildings were demolished due to a property dispute. Land owners (some American and Canadian) were evicted from properties they thought they owned outright.

Views above Melaque

During Covid, one of the projects for the town of Melaque was to improve the west shoreline, so they built a nice malecon along that section. 

During our two past visits here, we spent most of our time at the eastern part because that's where the big RV park is located. But now that we've spent some time in the western part, we like it much better.

Arrived in Melaque, Mexico

We took our time getting ready to go Wednesday morning. We knew it was less than a two hour drive, so we didn't leave Cuyutlan until about 10:00am.

Our route took us up and around the big port city of Manzanillo. It's a huge shipping port, and the busiest container port in Mexico.

Heading north up the coast towards Puerto Vallarta

Good news! Our new Starlink Mini Satellite Internet hardware has arrived in Puerto Vallarta and is ready to be picked up. That was fast!

And it has to be picked up within 7 days or they send it back, so we need to be there by Monday just to be on the safe side. That's about when we wanted to be there anyhow.

Day trip to some different beaches... and some great Starlink news!

Yesterday morning, we hopped in Barb and Mark's pickup truck with Barb and their son Shawn. Mark stayed behind because they were having some work done on their property.

We weren't going far... just a half an hour or so down the coast to check out some different beaches.

Beach time

Rancho B RV Park is located on a 10 km (6 mile) long stretch of virtually empty beach. There is a nearby town called La Placita, and occasionally you'll see some locals at the far end of the beach, but otherwise you can have it totally to yourself.

Yesterday morning, we tried to get out before it got too hot, but it was 10am before we got down there. We will do better today!

Down to the coast of Michoacan, Mexico

We tried to get going by 9:00am, but it was almost twenty after by the time we pulled out from Sue and Roy's place at Valle de Juarez. We had a great week with them while Igor was getting his top painted. Thanks for putting up with us!

We headed into Mazamitla to fill Igor's fuel tank at 24.70 pesos ($1.75 CAD) per liter. That's about $4.61 USD per gallon. 

Igor is finished, and we are off to the coast today!

For anybody just checking in, Igor spent Monday to Friday parked at a body and paint shop here in Valle de Juarez, Jalisco, Mexico. 

We wanted to get the fiberglass cap painted. They removed the striping and molding, smoothed out the seam under the molding, removed the awning brackets and filled the holes, and filled the kitchen exhaust vent hole on the other side. 

Igor will be painted today!

No, Igor was not ready yesterday, however they will be painting this morning and we should be able to pick him up this afternoon. We'll drive back over to Sue and Roy's, then tomorrow morning we'll head down to the coast.

Yesterday afternoon, Ruth and I took a walk over to "the castle".

A looong walk in the hills! And of course an update on Igor's paintwork...

We set off at 9:20am heading up into the hills behind Valle de Juarez towards the village of El Tigre, 12 kms (7.5 miles) away, and almost 2,500' higher up in altitude.

We've done this route before, the last time was with some of our RV Caravan group on New Year's Day 2020.

Igor update #2

Not much to report, really. They didn't start work until about 9:30am. We walked back over to Sue and Roy's at around 10:00am, spent the day there, then walked back to Igor around 6:30pm. 

It was dusk, and they were just finishing up. 

Progress report on Igor

We moved Igor over to the body and paint shop at 7:30am on Monday morning. We hadn't discussed with the guys what time they would get started, but we figured we would have him there before they opened, just in case they got started right away.

And there were pretty much right on schedule as they got working at about 9:00am!

Thinking about Starlink Satellite Internet

Actually, we're not only thinking about it, we've decided that we want it! There's only one thing stopping us.

Back to Mazamitla

There is a restaurant in Mazamitla called "La Troje". We've been there many times, and have never had a bad meal. We've never been there for breakfast, but Sue and Roy have and they highly recommended it. So the four of us hopped in their car and we went to Mazamitla for breakfast.

Slight change of plans!

Yesterday morning we moved Igor from the campground over to an empty lot beside Sue and Roy's place. 

Along the way, we stopped in town at another auto body and paint shop to get another price on painting Igor's fiberglass cap.

Off to the dentist, and good news!

Yesterday was dentist day!

We've been going to Dr. Lissette Gomez here in Valle de Juarez for quite a few years. She's really good, and of course we get charged the same prices the locals pay. Nobody likes going to the dentist, but at least the reasonable prices make it bearable!

Invited to a fiesta!

We went for a walk into town again yesterday afternoon. There's another body and paint shop we wanted to stop in and talk to, and we had to buy a birthday present because we were invited to a fiesta!

Igor makes another visit to the mechanic.

Roy and Sue came over at about 10:30am and we had Igor ready and waiting to go for a drive. They left their car here at the campground and we all piled into Igor to head to the body and paint shop at La Manzanilla de la Paz.

It’s only about a half hour drive... almost half way to the shoreline of Lake Chapala.

So, what are we thinking of having done to Igor?

Our friends headed out yesterday morning, so we're on our own here at the RV park in Valle de Juarez. We'll still be seeing Sue and Roy over the week though, in fact we might even be staying with them for a couple of days while Igor gets some work done!

All depends on if we decide to get the work done, and how long it might take.

Earthquake!

We were both woken up just after 2:30am this morning due to an earthquake. Ruth had got up to go to the bathroom, and when she returned I said "I think we just felt an earthquake". And she agreed. I checked my phone, and sure enough the epicenter was about 170 kms away at the coast near Tecoman, Colima.

News reports say that it was a 6.2 magnitude. 

Whiskey's tree

It seems like such a long time ago now, but when we first set out in the motorhome in 2007, we were traveling with our dog Whiskey.

Whiskey was our family pet. She pretty much grew up with our kids, and she had been part of our family since she was 8 weeks old.

Arrived in Valle de Juarez

It almost felt like old times leading a group of RV'ers through Mexico! Except that there were only three rigs this time... and the ones we were leading are now experienced Mexico RV'ers in their own right!

But nonetheless, they allowed Ruth and I to take the lead, and they even loaned us a radio to communicate with them.

Into the town of Atotonilco

We all hopped on the bus to Atotonilco at around 10:30am. Have never been to that town, so we just wanted to go in and wander around.

The bus cost 23 pesos ($1.60 CAD, $1.10 USD) per person for the 13 km (8 mile) ride.

This is where they grow tequila!

Tuesday was a bit of a cool cloudy day. With a daytime high of only 20C, that's a bit chilly by Mexican standards!

But, it was great hiking weather. So the group of six of us took off up into the hills behind the campground to find some nice views.

The numbers...

Our regular readers know that we carry some games with us, and almost every day we play either backgammon, yahtzee, or cribbage.

To add a competitive edge to things, a few years ago we started keeping track of annual totals so we could see who was in the lead. It makes things more interesting!

Arrived at a new RV Park

It was a bit of a long drive for us. Not so much distance wise, but we took a lot of back roads and you don't get anywhere very fast that way in Mexico... but, it is the most interesting way for sure.

We got a bit of a late start and didn't get out of Yuriria until 10:30am. Originally, I was thinking that we were going to stop somewhere along the way. There weren't a lot of options though.

We stumbled onto a fiesta!

Most people would just take the toll road heading west towards Guadalajara, however we like to explore. There was a route heading up to the small city of Yuriria (pop 70,000), and we had never been there before. In fact, until we looked up the route, we had never even heard of it before!

The only tourists in Ciudad Hidalgo

We got up at 7:00am and hit the road right away. Might as well use Igor's engine to heat things up. Overnight temperatures get down to 7C (45F) or so, so it can be a little chilly when we wake up.

We weren't going far though... only into the city of Ciudad Hidalgo (pop 80,000) to a big Bodega Aurrera grocery store parking lot.

Great first day back on the road!

We had a plan to set off by 9:00am, but our host Chago didn’t seem to want us to leave. He kept coming by to ask questions, and wanted my help to try to set up his smart watch. But I have no experience with smart watches! Anyhow, it's nice that he doesn't want us to leave! We may be back in April!

It was almost 10:00am by the time we left, which was totally fine. I figured we had about a two and a half hour drive to do.

It's time to hit the road!

We always love our time here at Valle de Bravo. Good friends, great scenery, and perfect weather. We could live here, but we're not ready for that yet! There is too much to see out there, and we're not even close to ready to settle down. 

And as much as we love it here, after a few weeks, we're ready to go somewhere new.

How much did we spend in 2024?

We'll start off with our monthly breakdown of the month of December, then I'll give you a recap of our totals for the entire year. We knew December was going to be an expensive end to the year due to our vacation with our daughter and grandkids in Playa del Carmen. There weren't any surprises and we came in pretty much right on budget! That doesn't happen very often!

We spent a total of $5,475 CAD ($3,800 USD), which was our second most expensive month of the year.