Great views from the highest freestanding piece of rock in the world!

Peña de Bernal (The Bernal Rock) is officially the highest monolith in the world. This freestanding piece of rock rises 433 meters (1,421 ft) above the town of Bernal in state of Queretaro about 60 kms (36 miles) west of the city of Queretaro.

So yesterday morning, we took the local bus from the hotel where the motorhome is parked to the main bus terminal. It cost 8 pesos ($0.66 CAD) each for the local bus ride. Then, 44 pesos ($3.60 CAD) each to cover the long distance bus to Bernal.

A good day with new friends!

Long time blog readers Peter and Shelagh are from Vancouver, Canada but they are renting a house in nearby San Miguel de Allende and we invited them to come visit us here in Queretaro. So yesterday morning, they hopped on a bus and came to say hello!

While they were on the bus, we walked over to the bus station to meet them. But the Queretaro bus station is not that close to downtown...it's actually on the eastern outskirts, so we had a good five km (3 mile) walk to start off our day!

If you have to ask, you can't afford it.

We woke up to rain yesterday morning and simply stayed in the motorhome. Ruth made a big pot of pea soup and we had that for lunch before going out. By that time, the rain had stopped, but it was still overcast and fairly cool for the rest of the day.

Ruth had a list of buildings that she wanted to see, so off we went.

New curtains for Sherman

Back at the end of September while still in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Canada we had bought new front curtains for Sherman. Just the material though...which still needed to be sewen into curtains.

The old curtains are just that...old. Twenty years old! Plus, they let through too much light, both when the sun is shining in, or when we are inside at night you can tell from the outside when there is a light on inside. This new material we bought is specifically made to block the light.

Yesterday, we set out to find somebody to make the curtains for us. Easier said than done!

Good first impressions of Queretaro

Beautiful blue sky sunny day yesterday, with a high around 23C (73F). Pretty much perfect.

Queretero (pop 800,000) has to be one of the cleanest Mexican cities we have visited. And apparently it's also one of the safest, as we have read in several publications. That probably has something to do with the fact that there are a lot of good jobs here, with a lot of international companies, and a more educated population.

Arrived in the city of Queretaro

Got up a little earlier than normal yesterday morning because we promised the caretaker at the university that we would be gone by 9:00am. He had said that he would be back to open the gate at 7:00am, but I kept checking and the gate was still closed. Eventually, around 9:00am I went looking for somebody to open the gate, and there was the caretaker on his way to do exactly that.

I asked him where he learned his English and he said that he had lived in Texas for about five years when he was younger, and that he probably hadn't spoken English in about 10 years!

Another adventure in Mexico!

We woke up to fog yesterday morning and had wanted to get an early start. But we decided to wait it out, and so it was almost 9:30am by the time it burned off and turned into a beautiful blue sky.

We crawled our way out the three kilometers or so back to the main highway, and heading in our direction the road soon turned into a construction zone.

I wonder where we'll end up tonight?

Sure enough, we decided to stay put, relax, and just enjoy the view from where we are parked. We're in no rush to get anywhere, so when we have a nice beautiful spot like this we might as well enjoy it. But, we are heading out this morning...don't want to overstay our welcome.

We did go for a walk for an hour yesterday though. Beautiful area.

Another great overnight spot...

We got off to a bit of a late start yesterday and it was almost 10:30am by the time we left our spot at the marina near Valle deBravo. Not a problem, because although we didn't know exactly where we would be overnighting, we knew we weren't going far. The goal is always to plan to be parked up by 2:00pm. That way, if you have problems you have lots of daylight hours left to fix them.

And so we began the steep climb out of the valley. The road out goes from 1,750 meters (5,750 ft) to 2,600 meters (8,500 ft) in about 50 kms (30 miles).

Time to move on...

We've enjoyed the past three weeks here at Valle de Bravo. It's one of our favorite places in Mexico. But, Mexico is a big country and we like  to explore and see what else is out there! So today, it's time to move on.

No idea where we're going to end up tonight. We're heading towards the city of Queretaro, which is only about 250 kms (155 miles) away, but we're taking the back roads and we don't know what we're going to come across.

A big giveaway to start off 2016!

We've hosted quite a few giveaways over the years, and it's always fun for us to see one of our readers win something. Last year Motorcycle House, one of the largest online motorcycle supply companies helped us give away a beautiful leather jacket.

This year, we're starting things off even better!

It's always an adventure...

We decided to do another day trip yesterday. Can't just spend our time lounging around when there's so much to see and do in this area! Our friend Paco had told us about a waterfall near the town of Ixtapan del Oro, about 44 kms (28 miles) from where we are staying.

One of the things we love about Mexico is that you don't need a car. It's relatively easy in most places to get where you want to go using collectivos and buses.

For rent near Valle de Bravo

This is our fourth time staying here at "Nautica Las Olas de Valle"...a marina on the opposite side of Lake Avandaro from Valle de Bravo. It's located in between the communities of San Gaspar and El Arco.

From the time we first arrived in December of 2010, we were welcomed by the owner Santiagao (nickname "Chago") and his family. Later, we also met some of the other regular visitors who have now also become friends.

The marina is a family business, and Santiago has slowly expanded the boating base of operations to include camping and rental accomodation.

RV'ing in Mexico. An informational forum...

There have been a couple of online forums that I've followed over the years regarding RV'ing in Mexico. But one of them only had a few regular posters, and the conversation regularly digressed to items regarding the perception of "safety" in Mexico. I got tired of it, and found what I thought was a better forum. And it was, for a while, but now it has gone way downhill in my mind, to the point where it's not helpful.

Someone said "if you're not happy, why don't you start you own forum?"

So I have.

Back to work!

Well, for most people in Canada and the U.S., today marks the return to work and school as the Christmas and New Year's season comes to a close.

Here in Mexico though, holidays continue through to January 6 which is Three Kings Day (Dia de los Reyes). So things don't return to normal here until Thursday this week when the kids return to school.

And we've decided that will be the day we move on.