Not many birds, but lots of butterflies!

We came to San Agustin to visit the archaeological park here, but we heard rumors that it was to be closed on Tuesday. It's supposed to be open every day of the week, so we figured that the only way to find out for sure was to walk on over there!

The main part of the park is 3 kms (1.9 miles) from town, so if it ended up being closed at least we would get a walk out of it!

Travel day! Popayan to San Agustin, Colombia.

Had to get up fairly early yesterday to get to the bus station at a decent hour. We had read that the road between Popayan and San Agustin is in pretty bad shape at some parts, and that the 135 km (84 mile) journey would take 5 hours.

Got up, went out to get some take away breakfast stuff, stopped at the BanColombia ATM to get some more pesos then back to the room to grab our bags. As we left the hotel, we flagged down one of the thousands of little yellow taxi cabs, and paid him 3,000 pesos ($1.36 CAD) to take us to the bus station.

No better, but no worse...

Went for a walk around town yesterday morning. Stopped into a place for breakfast and ended up having lunch. We weren't really presented with a menu, and by the time we finished talking to the guy about what to have we ended up with plates of rice and meat again. A little expensive too...with the hot chocolate it came to 24,000 pesos ($10.92 CAD) for the two of us.

Too funny. I know that's still dirt cheap, but it's more than we have paid at other places.

A visit to a Colombian doctor...

Not for Ruth this time though. Fortunately, her kidney infection from a week or so ago seems to be all better.

This time, it's my turn.

About five or six days ago I noticed a rash appearing on the left side of my right calf. I've had this twice before in the past couple of years, both times while in Mexico. But this time it got much worse.

Travel day! Buga to Popayan, Colombia.

Yesterday was a travel day, and while some travel days go smoother than others...this was one of the worst. Not terrible, really...just not one of the better travel days we've had.

At least we woke up to some sunshine and blue sky.

The bus terminal in Buga was located just over 1 km from our downtown hostel, so we decided to walk it.

Six miles in the Colombian jungle

Yesterday, we signed up for a guided tour to a waterfall done through the Buga Hostel where we're staying. There is a local guy, Pipo who runs inexpensive tours to several nearby locations.

There was one other couple who went with us, Courtney and Joel from Florida. The five of us met in the lobby here and then walked a few blocks to take a local bus into the countryside.

Exploring the city of Buga, Colombia

Went for a walk around the small city of Buga, Colombia yesterday. Population here of about 98,000 people. It's not on the international tourist trail at all. Most people head straight to the city of Cali, about 70 kms (43 miles) away.

But in doing the research, we couldn't find much of interest to us in Cali, plus we've had several locals tell us it's not the safest city. So we are going to skip it.

Travel day! Filandia to Buga, Colombia.

We paid our bill at Bidea Hostel in Filandia. 186,000 pesos ($88.35 CAD) for three nights. A little overpriced compared to some of the other hostels we've stayed at in Colombia. Two things that typically have bothered us about these hostels...the kitchen facilities available to the guests have been substandard in our opinion, and they seem to have a massive shortage of hooks and hangers in Colombia, because none of the hostels that we have stayed at have enough of them!

Seriously, for something so simple...buy some hooks for the walls and put up some shelving in the rooms! And yes, we did mention this to the young owner before we left.

The fascinating scenery at Valle de Cocora, Colombia

This area is why we came to Salento to begin with. Of course we had seen pictures on the web while doing our research for this trip, and that was the instigator to come here. But pictures never do it justice, and that's certainly the case here. Being there in person is far better.

Ruth had not been feeling well last week, so we never made it there on our schedule. But we weren't leaving the area without seeing the giant wax palm trees! So we hung around a few more days until Ruth recovered. Yesterday, was the day...

Nice lookout tower...but it's closed.

Supposed to be breakfast included at this hostel, but as we watched the girl put it together yesterday morning we realized there wasn't much for us. Sure, coffee and tea, but we had already made our own hot chocolate anyhow. She brought out a big plate of chopped up papaya, and there were a couple of bananas and some bread and jam. That's it. Of course we couldn't eat the bread...so we left for our hike still a little hungry.

We stopped at a bakery. It's common in this area to get "pan de bono" which is a really soft cheese bread made with corn flour. It's really nice actually!

Travel Day! Salento to Filandia, Colombia

We really enjoyed our stay at El Mocambo farm hostel near Boquia, Colombia. It's a beautiful, tranquil spot. But, we had to move on...mostly because we couldn't extend our stay there, otherwise I think we probably would have!

El Mocambo has a shuttle service to bring you in to Salento at 8:00am, so we were up at 6:00am yesterday morning in order to get packed up and have breakfast before we left.

The town of Salento, Colombia

Yesterday, we relaxed for the morning and then went into Salento in the afternoon. This morning we are checking out of where we are staying and they only accept cash. We stayed two days more than we planned, plus we have to pay cash at the next place we are staying too so we had to find an ATM.

Otherwise, our cash supply would have been running low.

Hike to a waterfall

Ruth doesn't like being cooped up, so despite the fact that she was not feeling 100%, she wanted to get some fresh air. So she said she felt well enough to try the hike to the waterfall, and if we had to take our time and rest along the way, then so be it.

She did come for breakfast and get some food down, so that was a good start.

Not a great day

Yesterday's post was titled "Ruth is feeling better" but unfortunately things went downhill shortly after that and she had a bit of a rough morning. She spent most of the day in bed, and by afternoon was resting and feeling a bit better. Not much of an appetite for dinner, but she did come and sit up in the common area for a while in the evening.

So, no hike to the waterfall to show you yet, and we've extended our stay here until Saturday morning.

Ruth is feeling better...

Ruth has been having some pain and irritation from a bladder or kidney infection of some kind. Like most women, she's had these before at times. Not fun, and they're even less fun when you're traveling. So yesterday we decided we had better do something about it and get some antibiotics.

One of the girls at the hostel had some with her and gave some to Ruth to get treatment started before we went in to town.

Travel day! It's always an adventure...

Before we left Kolibri Hostel in Pereira, we walked over to the nearby Bancolombia and used the ATM. This time, we hit the button for 600,000 pesos ($292 CAD) and it worked fine. So we seem to have found a bank that works with our Canadian debit card. Two out of two times so far.

We went back to the room and packed things up. The bus to Salento was supposed to leave the terminal at 11:30am, and we wanted to be there early in case it fills up. Supposedly there's not another one until 4:30pm.

We've had enough of city life...

When we woke up yesterday morning, the sun was shining. We were trying to decide between a walk up the road into the hills behind the hostel, or a walk into downtown to see the cathedral. I checked google maps, and the road up into the hills only goes for 2 kms (1.3 miles) so we decided to head into the city.

Pereira is a modern looking city of about 380,000 people. Not a lot to do here in the city itself, and it's certainly not on the radar for most visitors to Colombia.

A lot of effort goes into the perfect cup of Colombian coffee!

What a fun and interesting day we had yesterday! No trip to Colombia is complete without a visit to a coffee farm, and when we heard great reviews about a small family run operation that was nearby, we knew this was the perfect one for us.

Don Manolo coffee farm is located just ten minutes outside the Pereira city center. It cost 9,000 pesos ($4.41 CAD) to take a taxi from Hostal Kolibri to the farm itself.

Travel day! Manizales to Pereira, Colombia.

We got up yesterday morning, had the included hostel breakfast at Hostal Kaleidoscopio, and asked the owner Martha if we had time to go for a walk to the monument overlook before check out time. She said "sure", and so we got our bags packed first, and then went for a walk.

This is the monument we were trying to get to a couple of days ago when it started raining and then we were sidetracked by paranoia!

Change of plans

Originally, we were planning on going from here (Manizales) directly to Salento. However staying at a hostel means that you're often talking to other travelers from around the world and sometimes that can give you ideas for different things to do in the area.

I had read that Pereira was more of a working class town, and there's not a lot to do there. But we spoke to five young guys visiting from Ireland and they had toured a small coffee plantation near Pereira and they insisted that it was such a good tour that we really should do it.

So we are going to!

Better to be cautious...

Yesterday morning we did some internet and then went to the common room for breakfast. Breakfast is included in our room cost of 60,000 pesos ($28.00 CAD) here at Kaleidoscopio Hostel, and our host Martha even cooks it for you.

She was a little surprised when we asked for arepas instead of toast...most people want the tourist breakfast. And she was so apologetic that she didn't have any and promised to have some for this morning's breakfast.

October Expenses

Yes, I know...we never did publish our September expense report. I've been trying to be so good about that too, because I know that some of you are interested.

But rather than rehash old news, I'll just give you the total. We spent about $1,400 CAD in September. About $550 of that was motorhome related...new shocks, a new inverter, and the inspection and registration for Saskatchewan plates. Not a bad month overall...I wish October had been that cheap!

Travel day! Medellin to Manizales...

Yesterday was a travel day for us. It's only 192 kms (119 miles) from Medellin to Manizales, but it's on a twisty two lane mountain road where you're lucky to get over 60 km/h (36 mph).

Lots of beautiful scenery though, to keep you occupied for the four to five hour bus ride!

Grocery shopping in Medellin, Colombia

Yesterday was a day of rest...up until we had to climb the hill back up to the house where we've been staying!

The city of Medellin is in a valley, but the suburbs have grown up into the very steep hills of the surrounding mountains. So it's not bad walking down to the grocery store, but walking back up is definitely exercise.

The best view in the world?

Maybe. It certainly ranks right up there among the best views that we've ever seen.

Yesterday we did a day trip to El Penol and the little tourist town of Guatape. El Penol is a rock monolith that has 740 steps that you can climb to get to the top, and it overlooks a beautiful lake that was formed when the Colombian government built a hydro electric dam in the early 1970's.

Exploring central Medellin

Spent the day yesterday exploring central Medellin. The temperature has been great...lows at night around 16C (62F) and highs during the day around 25C (77F). But, it's only just now getting towards the end of rainy season, so although it can be nice and sunny one minute, it can be raining the next minute.

And that's pretty much what happened yesterday.

First day in Colombia

Our flight went well. Actually managed to sleep a little bit on the plane, which is not normal for me. We flew with AeroMexico. I had bought the tickets during the summer when I saw them on sale dirt cheap.

Mexico City to Medellin return for $216 USD ($276 CAD) each. Not bad for a four and a half hour flight.

Arrived in Colombia!

We have arrived in Medellin, Colombia. Lots to talk about, so we'll break this up a little and back track to yesterday morning.

We left our motorhome Sherman parked up at Embarcadero Chago...our friend's marina at the lakeside near Valle de Bravo. We walked up to the roadside where many collectivo (shared) taxis pass by, sometimes more than one per minute. So it didn't take long for one to stop with room for two more people.

However, no matter how full they already are, they always think there is room for two more people!

We're on our way!

Got everything done yesterday despite the fact that it rained pretty much all afternoon. We've never seen rain like that here in Valle de Bravo, but then we've never been here this early in the season. We've ever only been here December through March, and it's always been sunny. We're told this is the end of the rainy season.

One day to relax, and one to get ready to go!

Normally, we take a full month to drive from the Canadian border to the Mexican border. We find that's a pretty good pace and it allows us time to relax and see things along the way.

So when we booked our flight from Mexico City to Medellin for October 30th, my thinking was that it would only add about 1,000 kms (620 miles) to our one month journey. Not really that much, when you spread it over the 30 days.

We made it!

(This is a catch up post, so if you missed this morning's, you might want to go back and read it first.)

Slept fine at the water park on Sunday night. Monday morning, we headed out early. Pretty much woke up and hit the road. Didn't even make a hot drink. The goal was to find some internet and then relax for an hour or so and have breakfast then.

Quite a lot of traffic heading south through Tequisquiapan and San Juan Del Rio. In fact, the entire drive on Monday was pretty hectic and with a lot of bad road surfaces, including on the cuotas (toll roads)!

Some days don't go according to plan...

Well. Quite the day we had on Sunday. Sometimes you can plan all you like and it just doesn't come together.

First, we had to get out of the town of Guadalcazar. The plaza had been located very close to the entrance to town, but we didn't want to leave that way. We wanted to take the back way out because it looked by the map that it was a logical way to go.

The little town of Guadalcazar

(We went almost 48 hours without internet, so this is our day from October 24th...we'll try and put up another post this afternoon to get caught up!)

Raining on and off when we got up this morning, and if we didn't head further south quickly, we might see some residue from the hurricane. A short drive today though...we only did 136 kms (84 miles).

Parked up in Matehuala

Good drive yesterday under overcast skies with a few light rainshowers. Fortunately, we were heading south and away from the path of hurricane Patricia that was scheduled to pound the Pacific coast south of Puerto Vallarta yesterday evening.

We did 320 kms (200 miles), part of it through the mountains where we  climbed from 375 meters (1,230 ft) to 1,900 meters (6,200 ft). It was a bit slow going, but lots of nice mountain scenery.

There's a big storm coming!

Exactly as we wanted, yesterday turned out to be a day of rest. Never left the house except to go to the motorhome to get things ready to depart this morning. Ruth baked a batch of chocolate chip cookies and left some behind for Chris and Juan.

And I spent some time researching our route further south.

Monterrey, Mexico...a beautiful downtown river walk!

We've been around the Monterrey area a couple of times before, but we had never seen the downtown area. And we had heard that they had a river walk here that rivals the famous one in San Antonio, Texas.

And now, having been to both river walks...we think Monterrey is a step up over San Antonio.

Doing things on Mexican time!

Spent yesterday morning catching up on computer and internet stuff. What a luxury, having an unlimited supply of high speed internet for a change! I know that's a normal thing for most of you, but for those of us that don't normally have it, you really appreciate it when you get it.

That took up our morning, just lounging around. Then, around 1:00pm, we set out to get some food!

Culture in Cyprus

Nestling in the eastern Mediterranean, Cyprus is the last stop in Europe before you hit the Middle East. Its subtropical climate, warm seas and beautiful beaches make it the perfect place to kick back and relax no matter what time of year you travel.

There’s a lot more to Cyprus than sun, sea, and sand though - the country is steeped in culture, history and tradition.

First day in Mexico!

Long day for us yesterday. We drove 286 miles (457 kms)...about double what we normally do.

We woke up at around 7:00am and hit the road right away. When we travel in the motorome in Mexico we like to get as early a start as possible. Never know what snags you might encounter along the way and you want to have as much time to fix them in daylight as possible.

Boondocking night #14...peace and quiet

Not a very long drive yesterday, our last full day before crossing the border into Mexico. We stopped in the town of Carrizo Springs at the H.E.B store to see if there were any other things we should pick up. H.E.B (not pronounced Heb!) is a major grocery chain in southern Texas and Northern Mexico.

Unfortunately, not much to be had. We bought a bottle of wine for tonight's dinner, and a couple of bags of dried split peas!

Boondocking night #13...if you don't ask, you don't know...

Enjoyable drive yesterday through Texas Hill Country. For our route, the nice part of the hill country drive started in Junction, Texas and lasted right though until just north of our destination, Uvalde.

We were headed through Uvalde mostly because it has a big Walmart SuperCenter and there were a couple of things we needed to stock up on. Items that are more difficult to source in Mexico.

We don't like overnight parking at Walmart...but we still like shopping there.

Boondocking night #12...Sherman is a happy camper!

Yesterday, we went to the outskirts of Abilene (pop 117,000) to a big RV dealership to look for some things for some friends of ours in Mexico. They were looking for four specific items, and based on the two summers I spend running the parts department at an RV dealership, I figured the odds were that they'd have three of them in stock.

But no such luck. Actually, they did have two of them, but there were three different varieties of the one item so I couldn't buy it without being sure. So I had to send an email and wait for an answer that may not come in time.

Boondocking night #11...nice spot, but...

From Guthrie, Texas we continued south yesterday morning. Heading towards Abilene to an RV dealership to pick up some parts for a friend in Mexico. But we never made it that far!

We had a hard time finding free internet yesterday. Stopped in two towns, but neither had a library. Finally made it to the town of Anson (pop 2,400)  where they have open Anson wifi in the "downtown" core.

Traveling Through Europe

Most people associate traveling through Europe with heavy expenses and often talk themselves out of going for this very reason. However, it does not have to be as costly as you have been led to believe, as you can use coupons for target.com to save money on a number of different expenses and take advantage of various other special occasions. For additional tips on traveling through Europe on a budget, read on to learn more!

Boondocking night #10...the plan didn't come together

Before we left Perryton, Texas yesterday morning, we stopped in at a nice new little laundromat and did a couple of loads. Then at the gas station for some cheap fuel. Almost all of the stations in town were charging $2.19 USD a gallon, but two of them were at $1.89 USD a gallon. Pretty easy choice for us!

At $1.89 USD a gallon, that's $0.66 CAD per litre. That's some pretty cheap gas! Sherman is a happy camper with a full tank of that stuff!

Boondocking night #9...better than Walmart

It must be the route that we are taking, but we haven't come across a whole lot of nice free boondocking spots the last couple of days. Unless you like parking beside corn fields!

Quite a few of the towns have free and cheap campgrounds, but that's not really what we're looking for. They tend to be not very well kept, and are usually close to busy roads or noisy railway tracks. Sure, they have hookups, but that usually means nothing to us. We only need somewhere to dump our tanks and refill our water once a week.

Boondocking night #8...Lake Scott State Park

We had some internet work to do yesterday morning, so we left the free city RV park at McCook, Nebraska and headed for their local library. They had a nice parking area there and even though the library was closed when we arrived, the wi-fi internet signal was on and unsecured.

Last year we bought the Bear Extender long range wi-fi antenna, and it works really well. It enables us to sit in the comfort of our motorhome and use our laptops while connecting to a sometimes distant wifi signal such as a library, coffee shop, hotel or McDonalds or many other fast food places. Also, most Home Depot locations have an unsecured signal available.

Boondocking night #7...not our style.

Many of the little towns in the mid west offer a municipal campground. Most are very inexpensive, and some are even free. It's a great way for the city or town to entice people to stay for a few days and spend some time exploring and contributing to the local economy.

And so we headed for McCook, Nebraska where we had read about a free campground that even had a washroom and shower building.

Boondocking night #6...does it get any better?

A bit of a longer drive yesterday, at 179 miles (286 kms). It was hot, in fact we saw thermometer signs in two different towns...one said 89F (32C) and one said 91F (33C). Definitely shorts and t-shirts weather!

We purposely planned a longer driving day in order to get ahead of ourselves a bit. Hopefully this afternoon (Sunday) we will make it to the town of McCook, Nebraska where we have read that they have a very nice free city RV park that has showers and all the amenities. Only 7 sites, so hopefully there's a vacant one for us! Anyhow, we're due for a day off so if everything works out, we'll take a break from driving on Monday and just explore the town and relax.

Boondocking night #5...Toadstool Geologic Park

After our internet stop at Custer, South Dakota yesterday, we headed for Wind Cave National Park. We like caves, and thought about doing one of their tours. But at $12 USD ($16 CAD) per person we decided instead to do a hike. For free. :-)

Wind Cave National Park has highway 385 running right through it. There are a lot of bison in the park, and so you have to watch for them!