Another fun day!

Once again, a fun and enjoyable day. 

It's so nice that we are able to go out walking during our one on one conversations. It's such a beautiful area, and we've been pretty lucky with the weather although we did have a few drops of rain yesterday afternoon.

They sure do keep you busy!

We had a fun day yesterday. They sure keep you busy, and the time passes quickly. We had breakfast from 9am to 10am, then began our "one on one" sessions with the Spaniards.

You do three 50 minute sessions, each one followed by a 10 minute break.

First day of the language program

We had signed up as volunteers at an English language program for Spaniards here in Spain. So, this language program is not about us learning Spanish... it is to help Spaniards learning English.

It's five nights/six days, and Sunday morning at 9:30am the bus picked us up to take us to a resort two and a half hours west of Madrid near the village of El Barco de Avila.

Some quirky things in Madrid

Once again, we waited out the rain before heading out to do more exploring here in Madrid. So it was almost 1:30pm before we set out on the subway towards the center of the city.

We often use the Atlas Obscura website to find interesting things to see that aren't necessarily on the tourist radar, and Ruth had mapped out a short list of them.

We moved to another accommodation

Despite sleeping in Friday morning, we managed to get out of the apartment with time to spare. We walked to the nearby subway station to take the metro underground to the north of Madrid.

Only a ten minute walk from the subway station and we arrived at our next accommodation. It's in a very residential area, with a lot of apartment buildings.

Madrid's El Retiro Park, and another photo matchup

We went and did some shopping Thursday morning. I actually didn't plan this very well. I wore my hiking boots on the plane as the only pair of footwear that I brought. But I knew that my hiking boots didn't have many miles left on them. I should have left them behind and wore my sneakers and bought some new hiking boots here.

Wandering around central Madrid, and some more photo matching!

We had two goals on Wednesday. The first was to see the special changing of the guard ceremony at Madrid's Royal Palace that only takes place on the first Wednesday of the month. And the second was to match up a couple of my dad's photos from when he was here in October of 1954.

We only got one goal accomplished.

Getting ourselves settled in

When we left you last, we were sitting at a coffee shop in Madrid airport. We had some time to waste because we weren't able to get into our accommodation until 12 noon, and it was only 8am. 

We left the airport at about 9:30am. The express bus from the airport would be able to take us to the Atocha train station, and then it would be a 2.5 km (about a mile) walk from there to our apartment.

Arrived at Madrid Airport

We were down for the included breakfast at our Mexico City hotel right on the nose at 7:00am when they opened. Once again, it was a good breakfast. This was the same MX hotel chain that we have used in the past in Mexico City, although this was the first time at the Hotel MX Congreso location.

Not bad, for 784 pesos ($55 CAD, $40 USD) a night with the good included breakfast. On the down side, we found the room too warm, and the WiFi didn't work very well. Good thing we have enough cellular data left on our Telcel SIM card.

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.

Off to the doctor, and exciting news for May!

Late last month I had a sinus infection. It cleared up on its own, or so I thought it did. The beginning of this month, I woke up with a sore throat one day. It turned into a few sniffles, and actually started to get better quite quickly. But the last week or so it has gone downhill and I believe it turned into some kind of chest infection.

Not so bad that it was affecting our day to day activities though. I still felt fine overall, and had no problem doing our normal walking. But the cough was bothersome and it was starting to affect our sleep, so we figured I should do something about it.

We had only paid for three nights

Yesterday we did the short walk into the town of Damian Carmona.

Damian Carmona was a famous Mexican soldier in the 1800's who fought during the French invasion. He survived a grenade attack and was awarded honors for remaining at his post, only to die from typhoid two years later at the age of 24.

Taxes done!

I spent the morning doing our Canadian tax return that is due April 30th. A fairly heavy tax bill, but as my accountant used to say, "if you're paying lots of taxes, it's because you're making lots of money."

I suppose. Well, that and... you're a resident of highly taxed Canada! 

We don't know what to call this place...

Lots of back roads to walk in this area. In fact, it looks like we can walk all the way to the El Aguacate waterfall 6.4 kms (4 miles) away. We'll have to plan an early start the day we decide to do that!

Yesterday, we just set off on a dirt road that led through the sugar cane fields.

We found a great spot to hang out

Yesterday's blog was posted vey late, so if you missed it you can read it here...

https://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2025/04/fun-afternoon-at-micos-waterfalls.html

The reason it was late was because we had overnighted in the parking lot at Micos Waterfalls and yesterday was Friday... also the start of Semana Santa week.

Fun afternoon at Micos Waterfalls

The Huasteca Potosina region is all about the waterfalls.

We tried to visit some of them towards the end of our last Mexico RV Caravan tour in March of 2020, but then Covid hit and we were never able to. 

After four tries, we finally got it right!

We took the back roads to get from Tamasopo to Ciudad Valles. Not a bad drive, but slow going. Took almost an hour and a half to do 65 kms (40 miles)!

Most of it was on paved farm roads that run through the sugar cane fields. The road surface was not the best, due to the heavy trucks that are used for the sugar cane... but at least it wasn't dusty like a dirt road would have been.

That was an adventurous day!

We waited until after lunch to pay our 150 pesos ($10.15 CAD, $7.20 USD) per person entrance fee to the Puente de Dios waterfall.

It sounds expensive to see a waterfall, but you also get to swim at the beautiful pool, and they've got it all set up with ropes to hang onto and they even have lifeguards and changerooms and lockers etc.

Not often you see a peacock showing off like this! And more news...

Another comfortable day, this time with some sunshine. We moved on from the waterfalls... to another waterfall! But in between, we stopped in Tamasopo to do some chores.

Igor's fuel tank was getting low, so we filled up with gas. Then it was off to the laundry. The guy said he could have it all done, sheets included, by 1:00pm, so we decided to just hang around town.

We ran out of power!

Sure enough, exactly as forecast, we woke up to clouds and cooler temperatures. What a relief.

Only problem is the clouds. We had been parked in the shade during the 40C+ temperatures for the three days before, and with those temperatures our 12 volt fridge runs non stop. It keeps things cold at that temperature, but it works pretty much non stop to do so.

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!