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!