Almost time to retire

We've actually been semi-retired since 2007 when at age 45 we sold our house in Canada and bought a motorhome. I actually used to call it pre-retired... or my own made up word "pretired".

But the problem was that we didn't have enough money! Pretty tough to retire when you have no way to support yourself.

Into central Guanajuato for Chinese food lunch!

It gets pretty hot up on Igor's roof, and there is zero shade here. So I need to force myself to get outside a little earlier in the day to finish up this solar panel project and see if I can fit that third panel up there.

Yesterday, we went down into the city to join Doug and an expat friend of his for lunch.

New solar panels working, and possibly a little bonus!

The solar panels I had bought last August were defective. The company who supplied them had me do some tests, and neither one of them were putting out the rated amps. They gave me a 50% refund, and I got to keep the panels because obviously it wouldn't have made sense to return them.

But as a result, the system wasn't working the way I designed it. 

On to Guanajuato

It was only an hour and a half drive from San Miguel de Allende to Guanajuato, so we were in no rush. Eventually, we got ourselves packed up and made a stop for fuel and groceries before leaving town.

Igor's tank was pretty empty, in fact it was probably the lowest we've had it. The 132 liter tank took 111 liters! Fuel is 23.99 pesos per liter, so it cost 2,664 pesos ($192 CAD, $134 USD) to fill him up.

Well that was a fun day!

We were heading into downtown San Miguel de Allende to meet up with Gregg and Janet. We had met this couple along with their daughter in February of 2023 in Morocco. We got along well at the time, and we figured we would meet up again at some point in the future.

In fact, I looked up the blog post from that day and I had said "Pretty sure we'll bump into each other again at some point in the future. You never know where or when though!"

Igor is getting some new solar panels!

Our bus was scheduled to depart the big and busy Mexico City Norte Bus Terminal at 10:15am. 

We were up at 6:30am so we didn't feel the need to rush. Went down and had a nice breakfast and were outside waiting for our Uber taxi at 9:00am.

Return to Coyoacan for a big sandwich!

When we were in Mexico City the very first time in 2012, our friend Adrian had taken us to the Coyoacan market where he knew of a place that makes these delicious huge sandwiches. 

Of course it's been 13 years since we were there, but we figured we would go back and try to find the same place!

So much to see in Mexico City

A company had sent me full access to walking a tour app for free, so we decided to try it out here in Mexico City. One of the tours was to an area called Polanco, which is an upscale neighborhood that has world famous brands, and pricey international restaurants. 

Not really our style to hang out in places like this, but it was a part of Mexico City that we had never been to.

Arrived in Mexico City!

Our bus was scheduled to depart San Miguel de Allende at 9:55am, and rather than wait out front for a local bus to the bus station, we played it safe and ordered an Uber. Uber is relatively cheap in Mexico, and it cost 93 pesos ($6.65 CAD, $4.60 USD) for the ten minute ride to ensure we got to the bus station with lots of time to spare.

Wandering around San Miguel de Allende

As expected, we had a peaceful nights sleep up at the botanical garden. After breakfast, we got ourselves packed up for the drive to the other side of town to the Hotel San Ramon that has an RV parking area.

There are only two RV park options in San Miguel de Allende. One is right in town located at the tennis courts. It's convenient for walking everywhere, but it's also fairly expensive. And the other is the Hotel San Ramon about 4 kms from the center of town.

Arrived in San Miguel de Allende

It was about a two and a half hour drive from Lagos de Moreno to San Miguel de Allende.

But it's not a very scenic drive until you get to the outskirts of Guanajuato. There's a lot of industrial areas, and of course we had to make our way around the big city of Leon, and the smaller city of Silao.

What a disappointment.

Sorry this is late! We wanted to get a decently early start, and I had some computer work to do first thing, so we just decided to put off the blog post. Anyhow, here it is!

On Thursday, we drove from the overnight spot at the dam up to the small city of Lagos de Moreno. 

Knock, knock, knock... by the police this time

It was another beautiful quiet night in the Primavera Forest just west of Guadalajara. But we had to put some miles on, because we want to be in San Miguel de Allende by Friday... Saturday morning at the very latest.

So we got things packed up and hit the road around 10:15am for the drive around the western part of the big city of Guadalajara.

Soak in a hot water river!

This is such a quiet spot during the week, but I'm sure it gets quite busy on the weekends because it is so close to the big city of Guadalajara. In fact, we are only 25 kms (15 miles) from the center of the city.

Yesterday, we walked to the hot springs river. In fact, the river is named Rio Caliente (Hot River). And it was hot, temperatures vary between 35 to 40 C (95 to 104 F)!

Moving on to the Primavera Biosphere Reserve

We tried to get going by 9:00am yesterday morning, but it was almost 10:00am by the time we said goodbye to Bonnie and her daughter Sam. We always love visiting this area at Etzatlan.

Then, we had to go into town and fill Igor's fuel tank. And pop in for some groceries. Then finally hit the road!

Now *that* was a parade!

When we had gone downtown on Thursday evening, we had been promised a "parade" that turned out to be a little lame. But yesterday there was talk of another parade... and this turned out to be the real thing.

It was supposed to start at 10:00am. But we know how things work in Mexico. So we set out from the campground at around 10:20am and walked downtown.

Carnaval in Etzatlan

So it's Carnaval weekend here in Etzatlan and there is a lot going on in town. 

We had wanted to see a fancy horse show at the bull ring on Friday afternoon, but unfortunately it got cancelled. Still, there's a lot of other stuff going on, and most of it is free.

More flight tickets bought!

I love buying flight tickets! Planning the trip is half the fun!

As you already know, we are booked to fly from Mexico City to Madrid, Spain on the evening of May 5th. But we only wanted to stay in Spain for a month or so while waiting for Scotland to warm up a little bit!

February Expenses... pretty good, except...

We actually had a pretty good month when it comes to our expense report. The only thing that put us over was Ruth's new laptop. 

Otherwise, we actually would have been slightly under budget.

There's always some kind of fiesta going on!

It's been over a month since we got Igor's fiberglas roof cap painted and during that time I just haven't had the opportunity to give him a proper bath with actual soap and running water. 

He was looking a little dusty too, so yesterday morning I got up the ambition to get him cleaned up!

It was a clear blue sky day!

We tried to get out fairly early yesterday for a hike. It gets pretty hot by afternoon, and certainly the morning is better for a hike. The high temperatures here have actually been pretty warm, at around 30C (86F), but there is absolutely zero humidity.

I think it was about 9:20am by the time we finally got going.

Flight tickets bought!

Ruth went over to the bathroom here at the campground, and came back to tell me I have to take a picture of the lizard she saw because it's so tiny!

So I wandered over later and put a coin on the floor beside it so you could see just how tiny it is.

Just relaxing...

And puttering around with Igor.

When we bought Igor at the end of June last year, he was a mess. One of the things that we never got done was to shampoo the carpet in the front. I mean, these vans don't have much of a carpet up there to begin with, so it shouldn't have been a very big job.

Into the town of Etzatlan

Sunday morning we walked into town. We just have to cross the main highway, then it's about a 20 minute walk on a cycling/walking path to get to town.

We just wandered around, then found a spot to have lunch.

What's the plan?

We never left the campsite yesterday. Just a relaxing day, but we puttered around and did some cleaning. Igor was pretty dusty inside from the dirt roads we had been on.

I also adjusted some of our cupboard doors because we had two of them fly open recently.

Hiking part of the Ruta de Peregrinos in Jalisco, Mexico

After a totally silent night parked in a farmer's field, we woke up to a beautiful sunrise. It seemed like the color was going to last all day. 

By 9:00am we were ready to set out hiking. We wanted to do a difficult section of the Ruta del Peregrino (The Pilgrims Trail), a religious route running between the towns of Ameca and Talpa de Allende.

The gate was closed, but we went in anyhow.

Had a quiet sleep by the river. Got packed up around 10:00am and drove the short distance into the town of Talpa de Allende where we easily found a parking space for Igor.

Talpa de Allende is the end destination of a pilgrimage route that begins in Ameca. Pilgrims travel the challenging 117 km (73 mile) route to arrive at the church in Talpa to see the Virgen del Rosario de Talpa who apparently grants miracles.

Parked by the river in Talpa de Allende

The last time we did this route in March of 2016, I did a blog post titled "Next time we'll do this in a week instead of a day". I was referencing the fact that we drove all the way from Etzatlan to Puerto Vallarta on this same route in one day.

And here we are, doing exactly that!

Knock, knock, knock by the military

We left San Sebastien just before 10:00am, but we weren't going very far. We had read about the nearby La Hermita waterfall, and it looked different, we just weren't sure if there was going to be much water at this time of year!

We were surprised to find one other car parked up at the trailhead to the waterfall. On a Tuesday morning, we figured it would be pretty quiet.

If you don't like creepy crawlies...

Then it's probably not a good idea to visit the Santa Gertrudis mine in San Sebastien.

We were originally planning to do a long 22 km hike up to La Bufa... but I found out that the route uses the same path that the ATV's do... so it's not a true hiking trail. So we changed our plan to do a much shorter 7 km walk to the Santa Gertrudis mine... an old silver mine that dates to the 1800's.

Heading into the mountains

First though, I need to tell you the end of our Starlink story. I had mentioned yesterday that their support people were slow getting back to me, but once they did, the guy was absolutely fantastic. He spoke perfect English. He cancelled our Canadian contract, refunded the amount paid, and set up my email address to be able to easily start a Mexican contract. Once that was done, I still had a few glitches trying to get it paid with our Canadian credit card, but eventually our Wise debit card came though with the approved payment. 

The same guy was readily available until I got everything sorted. 

Time to hit the road!

This post coming to you via Starlink internet! No, we haven't worked out all the financial details yet, but the system is working as it should. The internet is fast enough, but their customer support is very slow! Anyhow, the main thing for now is that the system is working perfectly.

Saturday was our last day here in Puerto Vallarta.

What a circus!

We went to the circus a week ago, but now we are experiencing another one!

Yesterday was the day to activate our new Starlink Mini because our cellular internet plan runs out today at midnight. 

The price of eggs

We puttered around for the morning, then after lunch we walked inland to the Pitillal neighborhood to the laptop repair shop we had stopped in at the day before.

We got the data transferred to Ruth's new laptop, and ended up leaving the old one with him to see if the screen problem can actually be repaired rather than replacing the screen.

Extended our portable solar panel

We went for a walk yesterday. We had seen a pathway that led alongside a river here in Puerto Vallarta, and coincidentally it led by a store where I had been told I could buy the cable for our portable solar panel.

So we went there, and then continued on to a laptop repair place.

Apparently laptops only last two and a half years

Ruth had been having problems with her laptop the last couple of weeks. The screen would only come on after playing with the angle a little bit, and she would have to turn it off and turn it back on several times.

Mine had exactly the same issue last November, and I ended up buying a new one then. 

Some great ideas!

Yesterday, we hopped on the local bus to go out to the town of Valle de Banderas.

Whenever we have stayed in this area in the past, we went to the Rancho Alta Rosa RV Park which was run by a Canadian couple from Alberta. I think the first time we stayed there was in 2011, and then several times since.

We are open to suggestions!

We had a nice relaxing day yesterday.

The main priority of the day was to get some more cash. We had to pay another 3,300 pesos ($230 CAD, $160 USD) for our second week here at the RV park in central Puerto Vallarta. 

Market day, and everybody loves the circus!

There's a weekly local tianguis market just a 15 minute walk from us every Saturday morning. Here in Mexico, the weekly market is where most locals go to get the best prices and the freshest produce to put on their plates for the week ahead.

So that's where we go as well!

Out exploring with Lorne and Sue

Yesterday, our friends Lorne and Sue drove down from their winter hideaway in La Penita about an hour and a half north of here. 

Just to give you some background, Lorne and Sue were readers of this blog, and they contacted us way back in 2016 because we were going to be passing through Manitoba and they had just sold their house and bought a motorhome.

Crocodiles in Puerto Vallarta!

We set off in the morning to walk to the old historic district to meet up with our friends. We met them on the malecon and wandered around for an hour or so, then headed up to Pepe's tacos for lunch.

Views above Puerto Vallarta

Just for something to do, we went for a walk over to what they call the Romantic Zone of Puerto Vallarta. Ruth had found a viewpoint on the map that we could climb up to for some beautiful views.

Starlink and politics. And our refrigerator!

Yesterday morning we puttered around cleaning up Igor. There was still lots of bodyshop dust because we never got a chance to get him properly cleaned up after getting his roof painted, and then of course we were at the beach with all the salt and sand flying around. 

He's looking much better!

Good news, and bad news!

We needed to get some exercise, so we started out by walking on the beach. And we had to pass by the resort our friends are staying at, so when we got there we decided to walk right in. Worse case scenario, they would just kick us out. Everybody had wrist bands of some kind, but nobody seemed to notice that we didn't.

Sure enough, we found them enjoying themselves by the pool.

They sold our Starlink!

On Sunday, we did the 102 km (64 mile) drive from Tomatlan to the big tourist city of Puerto Vallarta.

You would think that would take an hour and a half or so, but it took us two and a half hours!

We met Igor's cousin!

We went for a walk around Tenacatita before heading further north. There was supposedly another camping area up around the bend on the other side, so we walked over that way.

Still early, so the beach vendors were only just getting set up for the day.

January Expenses

Well, January was finally back to our sort of normal expenses. Traveling in a motorhome is our cheapest way to live, and this is the first month in a long time where we didn't have much in the way of extraordinary expenses. 

But there were some.

Free camping at Tenacatita Beach

Tenacatita is a beautiful bay with a tumultuous history.

Back in 2010, the entire beach was shut down and many buildings were demolished due to a property dispute. Land owners (some American and Canadian) were evicted from properties they thought they owned outright.

Views above Melaque

During Covid, one of the projects for the town of Melaque was to improve the west shoreline, so they built a nice malecon along that section. 

During our two past visits here, we spent most of our time at the eastern part because that's where the big RV park is located. But now that we've spent some time in the western part, we like it much better.

Arrived in Melaque, Mexico

We took our time getting ready to go Wednesday morning. We knew it was less than a two hour drive, so we didn't leave Cuyutlan until about 10:00am.

Our route took us up and around the big port city of Manzanillo. It's a huge shipping port, and the busiest container port in Mexico.