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!