We took your advice!

I can't remember now who suggested it, but we took your advice to decorate our walls with photos of Mexico that we took ourselves.

I found a Mexican online company called Canvas Lab that prints your own digital photos onto canvas so that you can hang them on the wall.

The view up there is spectacular!

Our friends Fernando and Yessi (she is also our Spanish teacher) invited us to go for a hike in the state park that overlooks Valle de Bravo. Yessi's sister Blanka and her 10 year old son joined us.

And so we combined our hiking trip with our Spanish lesson!

Too bad about Trusted Housesitters

Long time readers will know that we have done a fair bit of house sitting over the years. 

One of the more popular platforms that we have used is called Trusted Housesitters. We were actually among the original members of Trusted Housesitters when they began operations back in 2010.

A house is just a place to keep your stuff.

We have a few Canadian visitors who are camping here. 

When we rented this place, we hadn't thought of the benefit of meeting the other travelers who come through here, and we enjoy doing that. We like telling people about the things to see and do in the area, as well as helping them plan their journey through other parts of Mexico.

A good time was had by all

We were invited to a Mexican birthday fiesta that took place yesterday. Our long time readers know that we have spent quite a lot of time here in Valle de Bravo, and this is where we originally met our friends Paco and Oti.

Yesterday was Paco's 70th birthday and they had a big celebration that took place in the nearby city of Toluca where they live.

Such is life in Mexico...

Our furniture is supposed to be delivered this weekend, and we need enough cash to pay them. The total bill is 31,500 pesos ($2,395 CAD, $1,733 USD), but we've already given them a 10,000 peso deposit. 

So we still need to give them 21,500 pesos in cash. The problem is that I'm only able to take out 6,000 pesos at a time with the limits on my ATM card. So it's meant a few trips into town this week to go to the bank.

Our home Wifi in Mexico

We hopped on the ATV and did a trip into town yesterday. Had some running around to do... go to the bank, do some shopping, etc.

And, we signed up for home internet WiFi.

Our furniture is almost ready!

We rented this place partially furnished. There was one good bed, some decent outdoor tables and chairs, a good fridge and stove. and a usable sofa. But that's about it. Very little in the way of kitchen accessories. No television(s). No closets.

And we knew that. In fact the price we're paying in rent is more reflective of a totally empty place that you would have to furnish yourself anyhow.

What's on the agenda for December?

On Sunday, we went for a long walk in the forest. We followed an old trail in the state park near Jiltotepec that wasn't showing on any of the maps, so we didn't know where it ended up or how far it went.

We ended up doing 13 kms (8 miles)!

November Expenses... pretty reasonable!

Our budget was $2.125 CAD ($1,522 USD) for the month of November, and we ended up spending $2,258 CAD ($1,618 USD).

And that includes the rent on our house!