Everyone arrived, but not without a few hiccups!

What a great group of people we have in this RV caravan. Everybody was ready to go by our 8:00am meeting, and we were all pulling out of the RV park by 8:20am or so. Right on schedule.

Our goal is to always be parked up by 2:00pm in the afternoon. That way, if there are any problems along the way, you have lots of daylight hours left to fix them. We were only doing 160 kms (100 miles) or so, but of course you can never get anywhere quickly in Mexico, so better to start earlier than later.

Another full day of tours and meals out!

Once again, the bus arrived right at 9:00am to pick everybody up. We had the same tour guide, Cony, and the same driver, Geronimo. So it's kind of nice that we can get to know them a little bit by spending more time with them.

There is such a busy schedule just now that some members of the group simply chose not to go. So this time, there were seventeen of us who went and two stayed behind.

Getting ready for our first travel day

Everybody in the RV caravan group enjoyed a well deserved day off yesterday. Almost everybody just hung around the campground and did some minor maintenance and cleaning of their rigs, and I'm sure that some simply relaxed!

At every stop along the way, we have group tours organized, and they really don't get a chance to just kick back and relax until we arrive at the beach on March 3rd. Of course they are not obligated to participate in every tour, and usually 3 or 4 different people do exactly that.

Our first full day with the caravan group

We always thought that these caravan tours were a little expensive. But I don't think we realized exactly how many "extras" are included in the price that you pay, especially with this particular caravan company. Yesterday was a great example of some of the extras.

And man, they keep you busy! Not much time for relaxing. Although today, Superbowl Sunday (and Kevin's birthday!) is an off day for the entire group. I've got some things to do though, like installing a brand new CB radio for Sherman. Everybody on the tour has a CB radio so that we can all keep in contact. It's not used for minor chit chat...only important stuff like upcoming turns, obstacles on the road, stuff like that.

The caravan has arrived!

After Thursday's hiking marathon, we needed a day to rest. So other than doing a few buckets of laundry, we spent much of yesterday just relaxing. In fact, we never left the RV Park.

And then of course we were expecting visitors. Lots of visitors!

Around 2:30pm, they arrived. Ten RV's, traveling in a caravan. We were looking forward to meeting this group of people who have been together since January 9th.

Well, that was an adventure!

"Why don't we walk from the RV Park to Guanajuato".

Said nobody. Ever.

That is, until we arrived here.

We were in the mood for a hike, and we saw a mountain in the distance, in the direction of the city of Guanajuato. I don't think we originally planned to walk all the way to the city, but somewhere along the line, Ruth said "Instead of returning the way we came, we could hike all the way to the city, and then take the bus home".

And this is exactly what we did...but it wasn't one of our better ideas.

Guanajuato is an amazing city!

We did some laundry yesterday morning. Remember I had said there was a laundry room here at the RV Park? Well there is. But it's not for the use of the campers! Go figure. The guy says that it's for their use to wash the linens for the little hotel here. Then, he offered to have someone come and do our laundry for 35 pesos per kilo. For perspective, we normally pay between 12-16 pesos per kilo.

Good thing we have our Breathing Mobile RV Clothes Washer with us!

The plan for the next month

Yesterday, we left the Oasis Balneario at about 11:00am, but it was about 1:30pm by the time we actually got on the road towards Guanajuato because we stopped in Dolores Hidalgo to do a big grocery shop and go to the bank.

After that, it was only about 80 kms (50 miles) to our destination.

Why won't they pick up the litter?

Yesterday was a national holiday here in Mexico (Constitution Day), and we hadn't realized that until we saw them filling the big swimming pool again. Actually, they hadn't emptied the pool on Sunday. When they filled it, they didn't fill it to the top. Yesterday, they added enough water to fill it to the top, and warmed it up in the process.

Not many people though. After all, it's winter!

January Expenses

Wow, another month done already. Only three months from today and we will be back at Cabri Park in Saskatchewan. Time flies when you're having fun!

Okay, on to our January expense report. It wasn't a bad month, although we overspent in just about every category. Not by much, but a little in each category adds up! We spent a total of $1,506 CAD for the month.

Best thing we ever did

Someone asked a question on a facebook forum as to what was the best RV modification/upgrade that you have done. Well, the best thing we ever did was to add solar panels to the roof and a decent battery system to the motorhome. Given the cost of a new RV, I can't figure why they don't come with solar panels and a decent battery system right from the factory. But, of course everybody has their own idea of how much electricity they need, so I guess it's better kept as an aftermarket installed option.

We love being self sufficient for electricity! That's what allows us to sit in one spot like we are now without having to listen to the daily drone of a generator.

We were right...

This is a very quiet peaceful spot to hang out for a few days. That could change today and tomorrow as they fill the big hot springs pool, but even if it does get a little busy, it won't bother us. We enjoy seeing people out having fun.

It turns out that this place is very busy during busy season. I was talking to our host yesterday and he said that when Semana Santa (Easter holy week) begins, the place gets as many as 800 visitors a day.

Back to the countryside!

We walked to the market one last time before leaving Dolores Hidalgo yesterday morning. Picked up a kilo of fresh tortillas for 12 pesos ($0.96 CAD), and a kilo of lean ground beef for 140 pesos ($11.20 CAD).

We hadn't asked for the price ahead of time, since ground beef has never been that expensive. But 140 pesos per kilo for ground beef is getting up there. Had we asked in advance, we probably would have shopped around a bit.

Lunch at the local market

We went for a walk around town. Dolores Hidalgo (pop 55,000) is not a huge place and we really didn't have a plan on where we were going, we just simply walked the streets until we got hungry enough to stop for lunch.

And what a great lunch we had!

We should be safe here!

We're normally up between 6:30am and 7:00am. So yesterday was the one day that we tried to get up a bit earlier than normal, and it was 7:20am by the time we looked at the clock. So much for early.

Not that it really mattered. We try to get an early start on travel days, but we were only planning on going 35 kms (22 miles) or so. And we had Trish and John coming over at 10:00am to take advantage of a ride in Sherman up to the small city of Dolores Hidalgo (pop 55,000).

Anyhow, everything worked out without being rushed.

Time for a change of scenery

We've been here four nights, so it's time to move on. Trish and John are coming over this morning and we're all taking a drive up to the small city of Dolores Hidalgo (pop 55,000). It's only located about 35 kms (22 miles) north of where we currently are, so it won't be a long drive. Just enough for a change of scenery!

And we heard from our friend Chris over at Living and Boondocking in Mexico who said that you can stay overnight in the parking lot of the municipal auditorium there, so we're going to check that out since it's located very close to downtown.

Everybody needs a day off

And yesterday was ours.

We simply hung around the RV park here. I puttered about the motorhome and cleaned the windows. Ruth did some hand laundry and went for a little walk around the park. We played some yahtzee and backgammon and just relaxed.

We even had an afternoon nap!

A little tour of where we're staying. And a dinner invite!

The first time we arrived in San Miguel with the motorhome, there was a hotel and RV park right on the outskirts of town. A year later, that property had been sold and shut down with big plans for development, but it now sits as just an empty lot. There is also a trailer park right in town at the tennis courts, but it's for rigs under 26 ft and even then it's fairly crowded.

The only other trailer park option is the San Ramon Hotel and RV park about 5 kms (3 miles) outside of the town, and that's where we are now.

A fun day with new and old friends. And a puppy!

Peter and Shelagh came up to our spot outside the El Charco de Ignacio Botanical Gardens at about 10:00am yesterday morning, and we locked up Sherman and walked across the road to the entrance.

They've done quite a lot of work here since the last time we visited in December of 2012. And the price hasn't changed...still 40 pesos ($3.30 CAD).

Nice town, except for the gringos...

Two weeks from today we meet up with the Mexico RV Caravan that we will be leading for a month from Guanajuato to Melaque on the Pacific coast. We're excited about this new opportunity and looking forward to sharing our knowledge of RVing in Mexico with a group of new people.

Right now, we are staying on the outskirts of San Miguel de Allende in the state of Guanajuato. This is our third time visiting this area. It's a nice little city (pop 140,000) with a beautiful central plaza and one of the most photographed churches in all of Mexico.

The only problem we have with the city is the number of expats.

I have to admit, I was a little nervous. Twice.

We knew that we could park overnight at the Botanical Garden near San Miguel de Allende, so that's the direction that we were headed. But instead of taking the busy highway between Queretaro and San Miguel, we decided to take the back roads and perhaps we would come across another overnight spot along the way.

I checked out the road on Google Streetview, and the paved section looked quite nice...but there was a 7 km (4 mile) stretch of unpaved road. That particular section doesn't even show up in our Guia Roji Mexico Map Book, but it is there on Google maps.

So, how bad could it be, right?

You win some, you lose some...

We're pretty good at finding decent (and sometimes great!) overnight spots when we're traveling in the motorhome. But ocassionally things just don't work out. Of course when we end up in a spot that's less than stellar, it's always only for one night.

We like to check out different possibilities though, and we had read about a hotel north of Queretaro that had an RV parking area. In fact, at one time, the Juriquilla Inn had space and hookups available for up to 70 RVs!

Only one problem...

Only 7 kms (4 miles) away from the historical central area of the city of Queretaro is a 2,000 year old pyramid. With the remains of a 140 year old house sitting on top of it!

We figured out which local bus would drop us off nearby, and paid the 8 pesos (65 cents CAD) each for the bus fare. We got off, still on the main road, and walked the rest of the way.

Considering this pyramid is not very well known, it's a fairly impressive sight!

First impressions

We've been in Queretaro for over a week now, and it seems first impressions rang true again. We seem to be able to get a feel for a city on the very first day. Here it is a week later, and we still think that Queretaro is a nice city.

And it helps with beautiful sunny days. We decided to go for a walk yesterday morning, and we first headed down to the big Almeda Hidalgo park which had been closed when we tried to go there the other day.

What can you buy for one peso?

First of all, we were originally planning to stay here in Queretaro for one week. That week would have been up this morning. But we're not quite feeling ready to leave yet! And it's still almost three weeks before we have to be in Guanajuato which is not that far away.

So we've decided to hang out here for another couple of days or so. The only drawback is that it's cutting into our overnight budget. At 250 pesos ($20.75 CAD) per night, we won't be here that much longer!

We were scheduled to pick up our new curtains yesterday at 1:00pm, so we couldn't stray too far.

Great views from the highest freestanding piece of rock in the world!

Peña de Bernal (The Bernal Rock) is officially the highest monolith in the world. This freestanding piece of rock rises 433 meters (1,421 ft) above the town of Bernal in state of Queretaro about 60 kms (36 miles) west of the city of Queretaro.

So yesterday morning, we took the local bus from the hotel where the motorhome is parked to the main bus terminal. It cost 8 pesos ($0.66 CAD) each for the local bus ride. Then, 44 pesos ($3.60 CAD) each to cover the long distance bus to Bernal.

A good day with new friends!

Long time blog readers Peter and Shelagh are from Vancouver, Canada but they are renting a house in nearby San Miguel de Allende and we invited them to come visit us here in Queretaro. So yesterday morning, they hopped on a bus and came to say hello!

While they were on the bus, we walked over to the bus station to meet them. But the Queretaro bus station is not that close to downtown...it's actually on the eastern outskirts, so we had a good five km (3 mile) walk to start off our day!

If you have to ask, you can't afford it.

We woke up to rain yesterday morning and simply stayed in the motorhome. Ruth made a big pot of pea soup and we had that for lunch before going out. By that time, the rain had stopped, but it was still overcast and fairly cool for the rest of the day.

Ruth had a list of buildings that she wanted to see, so off we went.

New curtains for Sherman

Back at the end of September while still in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Canada we had bought new front curtains for Sherman. Just the material though...which still needed to be sewen into curtains.

The old curtains are just that...old. Twenty years old! Plus, they let through too much light, both when the sun is shining in, or when we are inside at night you can tell from the outside when there is a light on inside. This new material we bought is specifically made to block the light.

Yesterday, we set out to find somebody to make the curtains for us. Easier said than done!

Good first impressions of Queretaro

Beautiful blue sky sunny day yesterday, with a high around 23C (73F). Pretty much perfect.

Queretero (pop 800,000) has to be one of the cleanest Mexican cities we have visited. And apparently it's also one of the safest, as we have read in several publications. That probably has something to do with the fact that there are a lot of good jobs here, with a lot of international companies, and a more educated population.

Arrived in the city of Queretaro

Got up a little earlier than normal yesterday morning because we promised the caretaker at the university that we would be gone by 9:00am. He had said that he would be back to open the gate at 7:00am, but I kept checking and the gate was still closed. Eventually, around 9:00am I went looking for somebody to open the gate, and there was the caretaker on his way to do exactly that.

I asked him where he learned his English and he said that he had lived in Texas for about five years when he was younger, and that he probably hadn't spoken English in about 10 years!

Another adventure in Mexico!

We woke up to fog yesterday morning and had wanted to get an early start. But we decided to wait it out, and so it was almost 9:30am by the time it burned off and turned into a beautiful blue sky.

We crawled our way out the three kilometers or so back to the main highway, and heading in our direction the road soon turned into a construction zone.