Beautiful views, and some crazy rock climbers

We've pretty much exhausted the hiking trails that are within walking distance from where we are, but decided to stay another day anyhow.

And good thing we did, because we found a nearby viewpoint that wasn't marked on the maps... and only a half hour walk away!

Just another beautiful day in Mexico...

We totally forgot that this was a long weekend here in Mexico!

Today is Revolution Day... a federal holiday. So when we saw a few more tents set up that looked like they were staying the night, it finally clicked. 

It's actually quite busy!

The last time we were here in March of 2020 it was only a two night stay and those were Wednesday and Thursday nights. It was pretty quiet then, and our group were the only people here. 

But we arrived on a weekend this time, and it's actually been quite busy. There are even tenters braving the chilly overnights.

We have finally returned!

The last Mexico RV caravan that we did was just ending when Covid began at the end of March 2020. Hard to believe that was five and a half years ago!

Anyhow, one of our favorite campgrounds on the trip was in El Chico National Park.

Hiking in Parque Los Peñas de Dexcani Alto just north of Mexico City

We are about 70 kms (42 miles) as the crow flies north of the center of Mexico City.

Yesterday, we went hiking in the nearby state park. Uphill all the way!

Trip in to town, and good news!

We did the 6 km (3.7 mile) walk into the town of Jilotepec yesterday morning. It was an absolutely perfect day with mostly sunshine and a high of 21C (70F).

First stop was Parque Urbano Las Sequoias... a municipal park.

Felt great to get out for a hike!

This was only supposed to be a short stopover to break up the drive to El Chico National Park, but it turns out that this is a worthwhile destination itself.

Yesterday we went for a nice walk... about 6 kms (4.2 miles) through the forest in behind the campground.

First day adventures

I figured we might get on the road around 10:00am, but that turned out to be too ambitious. It was just after 12 noon by the time we got going! A very late start for us.

We weren't going that far... only 153 kms (95 miles), but it's a three hour drive!

Ran out of gas!

We're taking off in our campervan Igor for three weeks. We're heading to El Chico National Park in the state of Hidalgo to do some hiking. 

It's going to be cooler up there... calling for highs of 19C (66F) during the day and only 4C (39F) at night. Perfect hiking weather though!

Lots of visitors

We started loading everything back into Igor to get ready to leave tomorrow. A few more items to go, but it's mostly kitchen stuff that we need to use in the house as well, so that can wait until tomorrow morning.

The main job remaining is to give him a bath! He hasn't been washed since last May! 

Never again!

As long as we own some kind of campervan, there are two things I'll never pay someone to do. The first is to wash it. I have never paid someone to wash my motorhome. If I'm still able to drive it, I'm still able to keep it clean myself!

And the second is an oil change...

There's a reason the lake is full!

Because we've driven by it before, we knew there was a waterfall that you can see beside the road that leads to Avandaro. We were going into town anyhow, so decided to do a little detour to that waterfall because we had been told of a trail that leads up to another waterfall.

There's always something interesting going on

The house we are renting is located at an actual working marina. At this marina, the boats are not kept in the water. The marina stores the boats on land, normally under cover, and when the owner of the boat wants to use his boat, he calls ahead and the marina gets the boat out of storage, cleans it up, and puts it in the water ready for the owner to use when he arrives.

Most boat owners live in the nearby cities of Toluca and Mexico City and come here on weekends. So obviously things are busier around here at that time.

Where are we headed next week...?

We have been to all 32 states in Mexico, and although we have seen almost all there is to see in Mexico, there are still a few items to cross off the list. As well as a few places that we don't mind returning to!

One of those places is El Chico National Park and the town of Mineral del Chicos.

Life goes on...

Sunday of course is the weekly market in Valle de Bravo, and we did hop on the ATV and go in to town to do some shopping and have some lunch.

But because it was the weekend of Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), the town was actually pretty quiet and many of the regular market vendors weren't there.

October Expenses

October was an interesting month from an expenses perspective for several reasons. 

Bottom line... we spent quite a lot of money! 

It's going to be a nail biter!

We've been busy here, but nothing really worth reporting on. In fact I went two days in a row without taking a single photo. That doesn't happen very often.

We've got our garage area totally cleaned up. It actually looks a little empty with just our ATV in there! But at least visitors who are driving will have a decent parking spot.

That was a productive morning!

We drove Igor over to the mechanic shop at 8:00am, went over a few things with them, then walked back to the house. They weren't exactly sure how long it would take because I had asked them to check the brakes, but they said to check back with them in a couple of hours.

Took Igor to the mechanic this morning

We got up early this morning because we had to take Igor to the mechanic shop at 8:00am. 

Now, this is Mexico and so things don't always happen the way you think they should. So we wouldn't have been the least bit surprised to arrive at 8:00am and find nobody there.

Igor is back on the road!

Yesterday's job was to get Igor fired up and see if we could move him out of the mud.

He hadn't been running since we arrived here at the beginning of May. So almost six full months.

Day of the Dead is coming...

We hopped on the ATV and headed into town to do our weekly fruits and veggies shopping at the Sunday market.

When we arrived, we went for a walk to the central plaza and found that they have a big stage set up.

Now... how do we get it home?

Late morning, we hopped on the ATV and drove in to the big Chedraui super store in Valle. We needed to pick up a few groceries, but we also wanted to have a look at a few washing machines that they had on sale.

There is a washing machine here at the marina, but we always have to ask our host if we can use it, and it really doesn't work the best. So we wanted one of our own.

Very strange...

The title of yesterday's post was "A lot of packages showing up today!"

And, how many packages showed up? Zero.

A lot of packages showing up today!

We had done some looking around town for beds and bedding, but it ended up there was a lot more selection and better pricing buying through Amazon Mexico. 

So we ended up ordering a bunch of stuff, most of which will be delivered today.

A little more work than expected

We were talking this morning and realized that we've been here for two weeks already. But we disagree on how much we've got done. Ruth feels like we haven't done very much, but I think we're doing okay considering it's only been two weeks!

And we're in no real rush. We have no time deadlines other than making sure the spare bedroom is finished for when my sister arrives mid December. 

First Spanish lesson!

When we started coming to Mexico in 2007, we didn't really know any Spanish. Ruth had taken some basic Spanish in high school, but her French was better than her Spanish.

Over the years, our Spanish is much improved... we can communicate what we need to, and we can ask questions and normally understand the answers. And we know a lot of words, but putting them into the correct sentence structure is difficult.

Lots of photos yesterday!

We were headed into town for our first ride on the ATV. Sunday is market day in Valle, so we go in to pick up our weekly supply of fruits and veggies.

But since we have the ATV, and that gives us a little more flexibility, Ruth suggested we do the short hike up to La Peña... the high rocks we can see in the distance directly opposite our balcony.

We picked up a couple of new brain buckets

We needed to go into Valle de Bravo Saturday morning. First of all, to buy motorcycle helmets, but we also wanted to look around some shops that may not be open on Sunday morning. We'll go in again today, but today (because we now have helmets) we can drive the ATV into town for our weekly supply of fruits and veggies at the Sunday market.

We need to buy motorcycle helmets!

The other day we went and wandered around the nearby town of El Arco. This is located only less than one mile from our house and we can walk there in 15 minutes. It's the place we go to get anything we need last minute, but the shopping is actually better in Valle de Bravo (simply "Valle" as the locals say).

We've been there many times, but never for the sole purpose of seeing what other shops are there.

We bought an ATV!

Some people have questioned why we are having to put so much money into a place that we are renting. And there are several reasons, so I wanted to take this opportunity to clarify.

First of all, outside of expat or tourist areas, a local Mexican house or apartment is usually a bare-bones space with plumbing and electricity... that's it. 

Tourism in Puglia: Different experiences for your days of rest

Travelling to Puglia means entering a different Italy—slower, brighter—where the landscape blends with everyday life. In this southern region, time seems to stand still among olive groves, endless coastlines, and towns that preserve an identity shaped by centuries of history. What appears on a map as the “heel” of the Italian boot is, in reality, a mosaic of sensations, aromas, and faces that linger in memory.

The new TV's have arrived. Just in time for the game!

We had to hang out here at the house all day waiting for our two new televisions to arrive. One for our room, and one for the room downstairs.

Because they are "high value" items, Amazon Mexico issues a code to the buyer that you have to give to the driver when your package arrives, so you have to be there when it does.

More progress on our house

Regular readers might remember Fernando and Yesie and their 6 year old daughter Aminah. We had bumped into them last year when we heard them speaking English in a local grocery store, and that sparked a conversation.

The first of many great sunsets

I spent most of the morning on the laptop. Actually, when you count the Blue Jays game later on, I actually spent most of the day on the laptop!

But in the morning, I was shopping online. We knew that we were going to have to spend some money to fix this place up the way we want, and also to fix it up enough that someone might want to rent the spare bedroom and bathroom on a short term basis (Airbnb). I originally figured we might have to spend between $5,000 to $10,000 CAD ($3,500 to $7,000 USD).

Well that was a fun surprise!

Sundays are our favorite day here at Valle de Bravo. Why? Because it's market day!

We are located about 6 kms from the center of town. Normally we wouldn't mind walking one way, but the road is busy and much of it has no sidewalk. We've done it once in a past year, but it's really not the best for walking.

It's going to take some effort to get Igor moved!

We've had a lot of rain here since we arrived, but some parts of the neighboring state of Veracruz have been hit really hard. Reports say they got 21" of rain between October 6-9 and there have been landslides and flooding.

The bright side is that our lake is filling up quickly and it might even reach capacity by the end of the month. It hasn't been this full for over four years.

The water keeps rising!

We woke up to a beautiful day yesterday morning. That's normally the way the weather works here during rainy season. It's nice in the morning, then the clouds and showers move in around noon hour. Temperature is about 23C (73F) during the day, and 13C (56F) overnight. 

So, since it was so nice in the morning, we decided we had better tackle the ant problem in our campervan Igor.

More about our new home...

We think this house was built around 2018. But we don't think anybody has lived in it on a consistent basis since then! It was always the owners intention to rent it out on a short term basis, but he never advertised it properly and so the only time it was rented was by word of mouth. So it sat empty most of the time.

And, It was never properly furnished or outfitted for being lived in. We knew we were going to have to spend some money getting it to that point, which is one of the reasons we were able to secure such a good deal.

Arrived at our new home

Our flight from Toronto to Mexico City went well. AeroMexico is well known for its on-time performance, and we departed the gate a minute or two early, and arrived ten minutes early.

As has been every past experience entering Mexico, we were welcomed at immigration with a smile and stamped in with a six month visitors permit. And then we were pulled over by customs for a closer inspection!

We are off to Mexico!

Well, the Blue Jays lost last night, but we get another chance at it again this evening. At this point, part of me wants the Yankees to win again tonight to make it a nail biter do or die back in Toronto for game 5. It would be nice for them to win at home! 

Writing this from the premium lounge at Toronto airport.

Starting our 19th year

It was October 2007 when we closed the sale of our house, moved into our motorhome Sherman, and took off into a different lifestyle traveling Canada, the U.S., and Mexico by RV.

Wow... 18 years ago!

Two more sleeps

Well, anybody who cares already knows that the Toronto Blue Jays have won the first two games of a five game series against the New York Yankees. 

What a great couple of games for Blue Jays fans. Not so much for Yankees fans.

Friends and family photos

We've been doing some more visiting with friends and family during out last week here in Canada.

But first, a little update on my medical problem...

Go Blue Jays!

I'm a big Blue Jays baseball fan. This season, they won their division for the first time since 2015, and had their best regular season win-loss record since their back to back World Series wins in 1992 and 1993.

Last night, the New York Yankees won the wild card series, so Boston is done for the year and the Blue Jays will play a five game series against the Yankees starting tomorrow (Saturday).

September Expenses... not bad!

We had a budget of $1,800 CAD ($1,290 USD) for the month of September, but I knew that was an ambitious target. Sure enough, we exceeded it by quite a bit. 

We ended up spending $2,289 CAD ($1,641 USD) which at first glance seems really good right? But considering we were house sitting for the entire month it's actually higher than we expected.

What are our winter plans?

One week from today, we fly to Mexico!

You can't fly direct to Mexico City from Ottawa, so we have no choice but to connect somewhere. This is where the choices got interesting.

Ruth's weekend while I was away...

So, I took off on Thursday afternoon to spend the weekend away with the boys. Ruth was looking forward to seeing some of the girls she worked with 35 years ago when she was a hair stylist at First Choice Haircutters.

They got together Thursday evening for dinner.

Update on my condition, and weekend away with the boys...

I went away for my annual guys weekend on Thursday afternoon. 

Of course the major concern was my medical condition, but we decided that if I'm going to feel like crap, I might as well feel like crap up at the cottage visiting with my long time friends. So first things first, an update on my progress in that regard...

No, everything is not entirely okay.

Regular readers will know that I had a "medical emergency" on our flight a month ago from London to Barcelona.

I had passed out on that flight, and taken to hospital when we landed. All of my tests were fine, and they didn't tell us that anything positive came back that would have given us any indication as to what caused it. 

Shopping for a new car

In the last post, I had mentioned that I thought my sisters car was going to be a write off, and that turned out to be true.

So now it was time for her to go shopping. The only question was... how much would the insurance give her for her old car?