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.