One section of the road had some magnificent views

As our regular readers know, we're not big beach people. But, we do enjoy a week, or two at the most. So yesterday we made our way down the twisty, windy highway MEX80 to the dusty beach town of Melaque/San Patricio.

We got going just before 10am, with a plan to arrive just after 12 noon.

Camping with armed guards

We headed out yesterday morning at around 10:30am. A little bit of a plate start, but we knew we were only going to be driving about three hours.

First stop was for gasoline, at 23.98 pesos ($1.86 CAD) per liter. That's the equivalent of $5.07 USD per gallon.

Avoid non essential travel!

I belong to several travel forums on the internet, and one newbie traveler posted the current travel warnings for Mexico. 

The Canadian government says that the area we are headed to is listed as "Avoid non-essential travel!"

Your safety and security could be at risk. You should think about your need to travel to this country, territory or region based on family or business requirements, knowledge of or familiarity with the region, and other factors. If you are already there, think about whether you really need to be there. If you do not need to be there, you should think about leaving.

Where to next?

We had been planning a full week here in Etzatlan, but we're thinking we're going to head out tomorrow (Monday), a day early. 

We're heading down to the coast, but we're taking a route we've never done before.

Mexico is no longer the bargain it was, but it's still far cheaper than Canada!

Our week here is going by quickly. In fact, time itself seems to be going by quickly... we're already 1/3 of the way through January!

We walked into town the last two days. Ruth's cheap phone was having charge cable connection problems, so we needed to find a cellphone repair place.

What new countries do we want to visit?

Following on yesterdays post about countries we've been to, but don't feel the need to return to, someone suggested we should list the new countries that we really want to visit.

And there are a lot of them!

Which countries would we not return to?

One of our regular readers made a comment on our facebook page yesterday... "You’ve been to many countries. Are there some to which you wouldn’t want to return?"

And there are! The question actually prodded me to update our "countries visited" list, which I hadn't done for a couple of years.

What happened to Central America?

One of our long time readers saw that we are going to Kyrgyzstan in May, and asked "What happened to Belize and continuing on to South America?

And she was right to question that! When we made our Central and South America plan, it was designed to be fluid. We don't have to be anywhere at any certain time, and we knew it was a three or four year plan.

Moving on today

We never did make it into the swimming pool! Being a Monday, they only had one pool open yesterday. And so it was quite busy, and already turning green by the time we looked at it. The regulars here say the best time to get in is right when they fill them first thing in the morning, but I'm afraid we're not in a swimming mood first thing in the morning!

Arrived at Chimulco Water Park

On Saturday we walked into the town of Valle de Juarez and got some errands done. I was able to pay our home internet bill at the local Oxxo store, then we stopped into a hairstylist for Ruth to get a haircut.

Then we went back into town in the evening and had shrimp for dinner!

Big trip plans just booked!

When we did the "stan" countries two years ago, our friends Danielle and Ron had told us about a campervan rental company in Kyrgyzstan that they had used and really enjoyed. That thought has been stuck in our minds since then. We didn't really do Kyrgyzstan the justice it deserves at the time since we had been there in November and most of the mountain accommodation had been closed.

So we wanted to go back at a better time of year!

Another fiesta!

We relaxed and hung out here at the RV park most of the day yesterday... nothing wrong with that!

But late afternoon, we were invited to another fiesta. I don't think there was any purpose behind it, just that a lot of relatives had been here over the holidays and some of them were heading home to Chicago area.

Made it to Valle de Juarez

Last we checked in, we were parked up just west of the big city of Morelia at the sandstone rock formations called Los Piloncillos. We slept well there again... total peace and quiet!

But it was chilly the next morning, so we got up and drove right away. We were taking another back road... and it was in BAD shape!

2025 Year in review

Overall, we had a great 2025! 

We started the year in Mexico, and we ended the year in Mexico. But in between we were in Spain, Scotland, England, Italy, Albania, Ireland, Greenland, Iceland, and Canada.

Into and out of the big city of Morelia, Mexico and another great overnight spot

We had a great sleep at the top of the mountain, and then headed downhill all the way into the big city of Morelia (pop 900,000).

On the way, we stopped for an hour at a Pemex gas station with a good parking area and had some breakfast and filled up with gas.

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.

The closest thing that you can do that feels like flying like a bird

Valle de Bravo is well known as a world class paragliding destination. It has near perfect wind conditions and the international paragliding community holds annual competitions here.

So we finally talked ourselves into doing tandem paragliding when we were with one of RV Caravan groups back in January of 2019. 

The wind didn't co-operate.... again!

So we tried to go paragliding on Wednesday and the wind didn't co-operate. Then yesterday, we tried to go so sailing. And we actually did go sailing... but eventually the wind didn't co-operate again!

We ended up on the water for about four hours!

The wind didn't co-operate

We left here about 9:30am and took a collectivo taxi into town. We were lucky to get one with three empty seats at that hour. 

Then we had a 2.5 km hike up through town to the trailhead at Monte Alto State Park, and then another 2.5 km hike to the paragliding take off point.

Our pictures arrived!

A day early. They were supposed to arrive today, but when we got back from Mexico City there they were sitting outside our front door.

Really pleased overall, but the two smaller ones are actually a bit too small.

The rooftops of Mexico City

Monday morning we took the entire Line 8 underground Metro route from downtown Mexico City to the suburb of Iztapalapa. We were 18 stops on the subway and it cost 5 pesos ($0.38 CAD, $0.28 USD) per person.

There, we got on the relatively new (2021) "cablebus" system... the public cable car system. That line runs for 10 kms, with one free transfer point. Cost for the entire ride, including the round trip if you don't exit the system is 7 pesos ($0.54 CAD, $0.39 USD) per person.

Always lots going on in Mexico City

Ruth and I took the bus from Valle de Bravo to Mexico City yesterday morning. It's a two hour direct bus ride and costs 310 pesos ($23.75 CAD, $$17.25 USD) per person each way.

We arrived at Ponitente Bus Terminal and walked to the new Observatorio Metro subway station. There, we bought a transit card for 15 pesos and filled it with another 10 pesos for the two of us to be able to do the 8 stop trip to the center. The Mexico City subway is super cheap.

We are off to the big tamale!

Most people know that New York City is often called "the big apple". So it's only fitting that Mexico City's unofficial nickname is "the big tamale"! Here's our plan for the next two days...

We're taking the 9:00am bus this morning from Valle de Bravo to the Poniente bus terminal in the western part of the city. It's about a two hour ride.  They now have the Observatorio metro station open again after a couple of years of renovations. Apparently it re-opened on November 15th.

Mexican Fireworks! And our furniture arrived!

But before we get to the fireworks, we have some good news...

Almost all of our furniture arrived yesterday! They said they would deliver it around 10:00am. It was almost 10:45am when they showed up... but they only had one piece with them!

We took your advice!

I can't remember now who suggested it, but we took your advice to decorate our walls with photos of Mexico that we took ourselves.

I found a Mexican online company called Canvas Lab that prints your own digital photos onto canvas so that you can hang them on the wall.

The view up there is spectacular!

Our friends Fernando and Yessi (she is also our Spanish teacher) invited us to go for a hike in the state park that overlooks Valle de Bravo. Yessi's sister Blanka and her 10 year old son joined us.

And so we combined our hiking trip with our Spanish lesson!

Too bad about Trusted Housesitters

Long time readers will know that we have done a fair bit of house sitting over the years. 

One of the more popular platforms that we have used is called Trusted Housesitters. We were actually among the original members of Trusted Housesitters when they began operations back in 2010.

A house is just a place to keep your stuff.

We have a few Canadian visitors who are camping here. 

When we rented this place, we hadn't thought of the benefit of meeting the other travelers who come through here, and we enjoy doing that. We like telling people about the things to see and do in the area, as well as helping them plan their journey through other parts of Mexico.

A good time was had by all

We were invited to a Mexican birthday fiesta that took place yesterday. Our long time readers know that we have spent quite a lot of time here in Valle de Bravo, and this is where we originally met our friends Paco and Oti.

Yesterday was Paco's 70th birthday and they had a big celebration that took place in the nearby city of Toluca where they live.

Such is life in Mexico...

Our furniture is supposed to be delivered this weekend, and we need enough cash to pay them. The total bill is 31,500 pesos ($2,395 CAD, $1,733 USD), but we've already given them a 10,000 peso deposit. 

So we still need to give them 21,500 pesos in cash. The problem is that I'm only able to take out 6,000 pesos at a time with the limits on my ATM card. So it's meant a few trips into town this week to go to the bank.

Our home Wifi in Mexico

We hopped on the ATV and did a trip into town yesterday. Had some running around to do... go to the bank, do some shopping, etc.

And, we signed up for home internet WiFi.

Our furniture is almost ready!

We rented this place partially furnished. There was one good bed, some decent outdoor tables and chairs, a good fridge and stove. and a usable sofa. But that's about it. Very little in the way of kitchen accessories. No television(s). No closets.

And we knew that. In fact the price we're paying in rent is more reflective of a totally empty place that you would have to furnish yourself anyhow.

What's on the agenda for December?

On Sunday, we went for a long walk in the forest. We followed an old trail in the state park near Jiltotepec that wasn't showing on any of the maps, so we didn't know where it ended up or how far it went.

We ended up doing 13 kms (8 miles)!

November Expenses... pretty reasonable!

Our budget was $2.125 CAD ($1,522 USD) for the month of November, and we ended up spending $2,258 CAD ($1,618 USD).

And that includes the rent on our house!

Busy place! The parking lot is full!

We only made it out for a short hike yesterday, but it was a relaxing day overall.

Oh, I never told you about the problems with our gasoline furnace. A bit of a pain, but the fix is in progress.