Laguna Larga, (day 2)

Just a relax kind of day yesterday. Went for a hike in the morning, and part of our walk was on a trail that took us above the hot springs pools. And what did we see?

Laguna Larga, Michoacan

We left Valle de Bravo at around 8:30am and stopped to put 1,000 pesos ($80) worth of gas in the motorhome. Then a steep climb out of the valley, and headed towards the city of Morelia.

Apartment for rent near Valle de Bravo

Figured I'd do a little free advertising for our host Santiago. He has this nice little furnished apartment for rent at the marina, and it sits empty almost all winter. If we drive down in our little car next fall, this is where we will stay for a month or so!

Deal of the day

We love going grocery shopping in Mexico. There's always something that stands out as the deal of the day! Yesterday, it was boneless rib-eye steaks!

Back to Valle de Bravo

We left the house yesterday morning around 9:30am. Made our way to the Metro station and took a couple of different trains to the Observatorio Terminale de Autobuses. Found our bus line and paid the 130 pesos ($10.40) each for the two hour and fifteen minute ride back to Valle de Bravo.

Teotihuacan

Yesterday morning we waited for rush hour to subside and we hopped on the Metro (subway) at around 9:15am. We had to take three different trains to get to the North bus terminal where we took the bus to the Teotihuacan ruins site. Cost for the bus was 36 pesos ($2.88) each for a one way trip.

Back to downtown

Yesterday morning we headed back to downtown. It is so simple to hop on the subway. It let us off right at the central plaza. Such an efficient system, and only 3 pesos (24 cents) per ride! Warning...lots of photos from yesterday!

Xochimilco

Yesterday morning, Edith dropped us off at the nearby Metro station and we took the subway to it's end stop on the line. Then, we took a light rail train further south to the borough of Xochimilco.

A day of rest

And, it was moving day. We said goodbye to Adrian as he left for work early and we just relaxed at his apartment until just before 1:00pm. Then, we walked to the metro to take the subway to our new couchsurfer host.

Mexico City (day 3)

El Centro. Downtown. On a Sunday, Mexico City's downtown core is PACKED with people. The main avenue running through the central core is closed to traffic and only bicycles, runners, and rollerbladers take over the pavement.

Mexico City (day2)

We only had coffee and tea yesterday morning. I think we were still full from the tacos the evening before! Finally getting hungry around around 10:30am, we left the apartment with Adrian taking us to a "sandwich" place. What a sandwich!

Mexico City

We took the 11:00am bus from Valle de Bravo. We had been on most of these roads with Sherman, so didn't take any pictures of the ride there. We had been told that it was a two hour and fifteen minute bus ride, and sure enough we pulled into the Observatorio terminal at 1:10pm.

A new adventure!

We are off to Mexico City this morning. We only have six days planned in what is one of the largest cities in the world! The metropolitan population is estimated to be close to 22 million people! So we will be taking advantage of every day.

Mordida

The Spanish term "mordida" literally means "the bite". It is when an official is asking for a bribe. For our purposes here in Mexico, the term is most often used in relation to a traffic police officer who is asking for money for a bogus, or maybe even legitimate, traffic infraction.

February expenses

Five months in Mexico, and February was our most expensive month yet. We spent a total of $1,224.75, and it was short month. A little higher than we like it to be, but we had Lindsey and Cameron with us for the first eight days, so that made a difference.

Visit to Avandaro

Yesterday we took the collectivo taxi to the nearby town of Avandaro. We actually had to take two taxis, one to the center of Valle de Bravo, and another one to Avandaro which is on the other side of Valle from where we are. Total taxi cost for the return trip was 84 pesos ($6.72) for the two of us.

Is Mexico safe?

This question drives me nuts and this is the only time I'm going to address it here.

More new friends

Sundays are busiest here at Embarcadero Chago. (Chago's Marina) We pretty much have the place to ourselves during the week, so it's a welcome change to interact with the others on the weekends. There are several families of "regulars" who come here, and we were happy to meet some more people yesterday.

Misinformation

There is a lot of wrong information floating around, and I think it's because people don't bother to check things for themselves, instead simply relying on what is passed on from someone else who hasn't checked for themselves.

Tally ho!

And we're off to merry ole England! Well, we're not off yet, but we've booked the flight! Leaving Toronto the evening of June 12, overnight flight, and arriving London the morning of June 13.

Valle de Bravo (day 8)

Took the collectivo taxi into town again yesterday. Needed some more fruit and veggie, and wanted to explore a  different area.

Valle de Bravo (day 7)

We arrived here a week ago today! Hard to believe. We're going to be staying a while yet because our couchsurfing host in the center of Mexico City can't accept us until Friday March 2. We're looking for a different host for a couple of days before that now, so hopefully we'll be heading to Mexico City this coming Tuesday.

We are not normal.

We read quite a few other blogs, mostly written by other RV'ers. It's very apparent that in most ways we are not normal RV'ers. In fact, we're not normal in a lot of ways outside of RV'ing!

Valle de Bravo (day 5)

We relaxed for the morning, and then after lunch we took the collectivo taxi into the town of Valle de Bravo. We're actually about 7 kms  (4.5 miles) from the center of town, but the taxis run regularly and are very inexpensive.

Valle de Bravo (day 4)

Been here four days already and we have only left the property once, to walk over to the nearby village and buy some fruits and vegetables. Yesterday was a beautiful day, but we didn't do anything except read and have an afternoon nap!

A fiesta

Valle de Bravo is one of our three favorite places in Mexico. We've figured out that it's not necessarily the surroundings that make these three places special to us, it's the people that we meet and the fun that we have.

Valle de Bravo (day 2)

We didn't do very much yesterday, just relaxed, although Ruth did a little bit of hand laundry. She says that if the choice is doing laundry by hand, or going back to Canada, she is quite happy to do laundry by hand!

Valle de Bravo

We didn't leave the park yesterday until 11:00am to comply with the greater Mexico City driving restrictions. But, we only had to drive 160 kms (100 miles) so it shouldn't be a problem, right?

Somewhere in the mountains near Mexico City (day 2)

You might want to read yesterday's post first because I only posted them within minutes of each other!

Written Feb 16…7:30am

Yesterday morning, we were trying to find a trail to a lookout. We went for a walk around 9:00am, expecting to be gone an hour or two. We didn’t get back to Sherman until 1:30pm!

Somewhere in the mountains near Mexico City

Written Feb 15…8:30am

On Tuesday, we didn’t leave the RV park until 11:00am to make sure we were complying with the greater Mexico City driving rules. This was a late start for us, but even if we did the whole way to Valle de Bravo we would still arrive well before dark.

Ready to head out

Yesterday, we took advantage of our last day with unlimited electricity and water. We gave Sherman a major interior clean up including windows, screens, bathroom, floor, vacuuming, freezer defrost, etc.

The Ruins at Xochicalco

We've been to several ruins sites in Mexico, and all of them are a little bit different. Yesterday, we made our way to the Unesco World Heritage site of the Xochicalco ruins. This site is fascinating simply because of the size of it, with fantastic views in all directions.

Cuernavaca (day 3)

Well, we actually made it into the city of Cuernavaca yesterday. But first, we walked a km each way to the lavandaria carrying our laundry. This is a decent RV park, but there are no laundry facilities!

Cuernavaca (day 2)

It was pouring rain when we woke up yesterday and the rain didn't stop until after lunch. So we stayed in the motorhome all morning. Ruth made chicken soup with the leftover "pollo asada" from the other day. It's not that cold here, but the chicken soup was till yummy!

Cuernavaca

Yesterday, we did the drive to Cuernavaca. We left Acapulco just after 9:00am and got on the toll highway towards Mexico City.

Heading for Mexico City!

We got Lindsey off to the airport yesterday, and have learned that she and Cameron are safely back home in cold, expensive Nova Scotia.

Back in Acapulco

I had a great birthday yesterday, thanks everyone for your birthday wishes!

We did the two and a half hour drive back to the Diamante area of Acapulco. We're only about 5 kms from the airport, so it's a convenient location to say goodbye to Lindsey and Cameron today.

The Big Five-O

Ruth turned 50 years old last November. Today, it's my turn! The Acapulco coast is not a bad place to be celebrating this milestone, and at least we have our daughter and grandson here to celebrate with us. Missing our son Alex though.

Back at Playa Ventura

Yesterday morning, we were on the road just after 7:30am. We had to do the long 265 km (164 mile) drive heading back towards Acapulco. Hard to believe three weeks has gone by so quickly. Lindsey and Cameron head back to Canada on Wednesday!

Last day in Puerto Escondido

We said goodbye to our Puerto Escondido friends on Saturday morning. Sad to say goodbye, but time to move onto new experiences! We left and filled up with gas, and stopped at a hotel that has a dump station and paid 50 pesos ($4.00) to empty the holding tanks.

Barra de Colotopec (day 6)

Well, not much of an update this morning because we didn't do very much yesterday! And we didn't take any pictures! But, I will tell you the story of our bumper...

Barra de Colotopec (day 5)

I spent most of the day on the computer yesterday, while Ruth and Lindsey went into Puerto Escondido to do some shopping. Ruth bought 3 pairs of shorts for 240 pesos ($19.20).

La Cascada de la Reforma

"Cascada" is Spanish for waterfall. There are many beautiful waterfalls in Mexico, and we were taken to one yesterday. La Cascada de la Reforma is in the middle of nowhere 19 kms (12 miles) along a single lane dirt road.

January expenses

Considering we have had our daughter and grandson here since January 18, we did pretty good. And, we did a fair bit of driving in January so our gas expenses were a little higher. But, we still did really well, with January expenses coming in at a total of $1,062.09.

Barra de Colotopec (day 2)

Yesterday we just lazed around. We are beside the Colotopec River and so Ruth and Lindsey took Cameron down to the river to cool off. The locals from the mountains come down to this spot on weekends and lie in the river all day long.

Barra de Colotopec

Yesterday morning, we moved Sherman to our friends house in Barra de Colotepec. Or simply called, "la Barra" by the locals. On the way, we stopped by a hotel that has RV sites and used one of the dump stations to empty our tanks. They charged us 50 pesos ($4.00) to do that. There was only one RV there, a fifth wheel from Quebec.

Puerto Escondido (day 7)

Had another great day yesterday. Went for a walk up to the highest point overlooking the beach, then sat and watched the surfers, then went to la Barra for late afternoon dinner.

Puerto Escondido (day 6)

We relaxed for the morning yesterday, then we took a taxi downtown. For 3 people (plus Cameron!) it costs 15 pesos ($1.20) in total to take the camionetta and we would have had to walk up to the main road. The taxi took us right to where we wanted to go and it was only 30 pesos ($2.40).

Playa Zicatela

We didn't so much but laze around the beach yesterday, so I figured I'd tell you a little about the place we're staying. It's called El Salvador Restaurant y Cabanas.

Puerto Escondido (day 4)

Yesterday, Alfredo, Mary and Nataly came to get us with Uncle Eugenio's borrowed pickup truck. We could have just sat in the back and bounced around, but Alfredo suggested we make it more comfortable. So he went and put two of his uncle's beach chairs in the back for us. That worked well!