Boondocking up in the mountains of Michoacan

A bit of a late start yesterday morning. It just seems like there is more to do than we originally think there is! Anyhow, not a big deal because we're not on any kind of time schedule for the next couple of weeks.

And there are a lot of possible overnight areas along our route, so we figured that if we didn't get as far as we wanted, it really doesn't matter.

Road trip!

We are taking off once again in Igor for a Mexican road trip.

Heading out this morning towards two of our other favorite places in Mexico... Valle de Juarez, and Etzatlan. Both located in the state of Jalisco.

Our house is for available for short term rent near Valle de Bravo, Mexico

Two bedroom, two bathroom house overlooking the lake near Valle de Bravo, Mexico.

Valle de Bravo is known as "the Switzerland of Mexico" due to its stunning alpine-like scenery: lush, pine-forested mountains surrounding a large, blue lake (Lake Avándaro) with a charming colonial town featuring cobblestone streets, cozy boutiques, and a relaxed atmosphere offering a refreshing escape from the city. Its combination of nature, adventure sports (like paragliding!), and picturesque colonial charm creates a distinct European feel, attracting Mexico City's elite for weekend getaways. 

Three problems

We have had three ongoing issues that seem to be taking a long time to resolve.

The first is Igor's furnace. When we had been at high altitude in Hidalgo, the furnace was supposed to be compensating for that high altitude. But something wasn't right, and the combustion chamber became carboned up.

The numbers are in...

Now that our house is 90% furnished and finished, I thought I would add up how much we spent to do so.

We kind of had a loose budget of between $5,000 to $10,000 CAD ($3,700 USD to $7,400 USD) to get the whole thing finished. I based this on the experience of friends of ours who did a similar thing with a two bedroom apartment they rented in Mexico several years ago.

We finally won!

Regular readers will remember that when we arrived here in Mexico in early October, our motorhome Igor was infested with ants!

They were just tiny ants, and they didn't bite... but they were annoying and of course they had to go.

A traditional Mexican Christmas posada

Our friend Chago is involved with the local church, and of course 99% of Mexicans are Catholic, so the Christmas season is big thing. He told us about a local Christmas posada taking place in our nearby village of San Gaspar, and invited us to join in. 

It's a very popular thing where people walk down the street, with children singing songs and stopping at neighbors along the way to say hello. A very community themed event. Followed by a church service and punch and pinatas afterwards.

More flight tickets booked!

Back in October 2019, we had a trip booked to Ecuador. We had it all planned out, even with a visit to the Galapagos Islands included!

But unfortunately civil unrest cancelled that trip, and we ended up doing a very last minute trip to Peru instead.

What's on the agenda for January?

Once again, Sunday is market day here in Valle de Bravo so we were headed into town again to do our weekly fruits and veggies shopping. But we left a little early in order to hike up to La Peña again, this time with my sister Alison.

It was a beautiful blue sky day!

Millions of monarch butterflies

Ruth and I have been to see the monarch butterflies many times, but it never gets old. In fact, it's a magical experience. 

Ruth just added it up... including yesterday, we have been to the Mexican wintering grounds of the monarch butterflies eight different times, at four different locations. Yesterday, we went to the Piedra Herrada sanctuary located on the old highway between Valle de Bravo and Toluca.