December expenses

Once again, we are under our $1,000 monthly budget. Not by much though, and we'll have to be really careful in January when our daughter and grandson come to visit, plus we will have higher gasoline expenses because of our upcoming drive south of Acapulco.

Wedding #2

Yesterday started off beautiful, but we actually had some clouds move in later in the morning and even had thunder in the afternoon. Saw one or two rain drops, but certainly not enough to say it actually "rained" so we are maintaining our rainless streak that now stands at 11 weeks.

Wedding #1

Just another beautiful morning at Hacienda Contreras yesterday, but after lunch we were off to a wedding!

Las Jaras Hot Springs

Fellow campers Ulli and Heinz were going to the Las Jaras hot springs in the town of La Garita and they invited us to come along. So we left just before 11:00am. It was about a 40 minute drive on the other side of Mazamitla.

The castle

All of the campers hiked over to the "castle" yesterday morning. It's not really a castle, but it is an interesting building that you can see from the campground. Ruth and I were there just last February, but some of the campers had never been before.

Bike ride to town

You would almost think that sunset photo has been touched up, but that was the true color of the sky. We have beautiful  sunRISEs almost every day here at Hacienda Contreras, but it's not very often that we have a sunSET this colorful.

Hacienda Contreras (day 6)

We sure do like having shorts and t-shirts weather on Christmas Day! I've been reading some other blogs where RV'ers are freezing cold in most parts of Texas and Arizona. Although we would like to explore those areas more, those states obviously don't have warm enough weather for us in winter. And parts of Florida are nice, but Florida is simply too busy for us. Mexico has great weather, and more...

Another fun day at Hacienda Contreras

There is always something going on around here. Never a dull moment. We were just starting our morning walk around the park when we were hijacked by Barb and Sal who were going into town to see Barb's Christmas present. She had no idea what it was...and it turned out to be a burro!

Feliz Navidad!

Well that's a very cute grandson, even if we do say so ourselves! Can't wait to see him and Lindsey next month. Cameron is now almost 9 months old. Seems not that long ago that we were up in Nova Scotia for his birth. Time sure does fly when you're having fun!

RV'ing in Mexico for under $30 a day.

I just wanted to give an overview of how much it cost for our 6 week trip (actually 46 days) around Puerto Vallarta. RV'ing in Mexico can be so inexpensive!

Mexican Christmas Feast

At 6,400 feet altitude, it does get chilly at night. The temperature inside Sherman when we wake up in the morning is around 10C (50F) so we put the furnace on for half an hour to take the chill off. But by 9:00am it's warming up outside and with the sun shining it becomes perfect daytime weather around 23C (74F).

Back at Hacienda Contreras

Didn't rush out of Colima yesterday. Figuring we would let the morning traffic die down, we left at around 9:00am, and got onto the toll road heading north towards Guadalajara. We've done this route a couple of times before, so we were familiar with the roads.

Colima

Arrived in the city of Colima around 11:00am. This is the third time we’ve driven that highway, so we’re now a little bit familiar with the area. There’s no actual campgrounds in the city, but there is a listing in our Mexico camping guide for an event and party salon that allows RV parking. So that’s where we went.

Cuyutlan

Went for a walk along the beach yesterday morning before leaving Manzanillo. Beautiful sunrise with the ships in the harbor, and as we were walking a cruise ship was coming into port as well. But we wanted to get out of this part of town before things got busy, so we left right after our walk, just before 8:00am.

Manzanillo

Yesterday morning, we went for a bike ride to Melaque. It was only about 4.5 kms each way. Besides seeing the town, we had been invited to visit one of our readers who has a house there. But it wasn't meant to be!

Barra de Navidad

Only a short drive yesterday morning. We drove a total of 20 kms (12.4 miles) to the towns of Melaque and Barra de Navidad which are on opposite ends of the bay.

Ecocamping Los Ingenios (day 2)

Went for a walk in the village yesterday morning. We were looking for a view, and there is a new house built way up on the side of a hill so we found the road that leads up there. Very steep!

Ecocamping Los Ingenios

We had read about a new campground a couple of kms inland from La Manzanilla. So we set off yesterday morning to check this place out. It was only a 63 km (39 mile) drive.

Punta Perula (day 3)

Went for a bike ride to explore the town yesterday morning. Quite a few Canadians have bought property in the area and built winter homes. Most of them previously showed up here in an RV, then decided this was where they wanted permanent winter digs.

Punta Perula (day 2)

We are parked up at the Hotel Punta Perula (GPS 19.59053 -105.12751). They have seven RV sites at this nice place, and there's only us and one other couple.

Punta Perula

We were up at 6:00am yesterday morning, and had the tanks dumped and the water filled by 7:00am. Gary was up to say goodbye to us, and we hit the road about 7:10am.

Rancho Altarose (day 7)

What a fun day we had yesterday! Well, not so much in the morning as Ruth did a bunch of laundry...but just after lunch Gary took us on the ATV's up to the tequila ranch in the hills. And THAT was fun!

San Sebastian del Oeste

We were up at 6:00am yesterday morning, and by 7:00am we headed out on the 2.3 km (1.4 mile) walk into town to catch the bus. We had to catch our second bus at 9:00am, and we arrived there just in time!

Rancho Altarose (day 5)

Well, I said we would be busy here, and we have been. Took us a little while to get going yesterday morning, but then we packed a few snacks and headed out on the 4 wheel drive ATV's up into the hills with Gary.

Nopalea

Yes, this is the drink sourced from the fruit of the nopal cactus. The healing properties of the nopal cactus have been relied on for centuries by native peoples and they're now available in Nopalea.

Rancho Altarose (day 4)

Our plan for yesterday was a hike in the morning, and a bike ride in the afternoon. The first part of the plan came together, but we lost ambition for the bike ride, so we'll get to that this morning!

$4 visit to Puerto Vallarta

We figured out how to take the local bus from here to downtown Puerto Vallarta. We walked about 2 kms into the town of Valle de Banderas and asked at the central square where the parada (bus stop) was.

Rancho Altarose (day 2)

Around 11:00am yesterday, Jean came by and asked if we wanted to go into town. That was our plan anyhow, so we went with her...sort of! She took her quad ATV, and we followed along behind on our bicycles!

Altarose Rancho

We woke up at 6:00am yesterday and got ready to leave Sayulita. We had a coffee and wrote the blog post for yesterday, and we were on the road by 7:00am. Kind of surprised that there was still a fair bit of traffic at that hour on a Sunday morning, but I’m sure it was quieter then than it would have been later on.

Sayulita (day 2)

We slept fine parked on the road. We were still up early though, we tend to get up around 6:00am anyhow when the sun starts to come up.

Sayulita

We woke up yesterday morning to the sound of singing. It was about 6am, and the roosters were crowing, and a guy was singing. Loudly. He was quite good though. He was singing while he was washing his car. It was time to get up anyhow, so we did. Opened the blinds, and watched this guy go get his horse. He walked the horse up beside his car, and proceeded to wash his horse. All this while singing at 6am. We love Mexico.

Lo de Marcos

Before we left Rincon de Guayabitos we had one last walk we wanted to do up the hill behind the town of Los Ayala. So that's where today's header pic was taken. Nice view, and good exercise. Then, it was time to move on.

Rincon de Guayabitos (day 6)

Well we sure didn't plan on staying in Rincon de Guayabitos this long. Gonna have to get a move on because we've only got three weeks left to get back up to Hacienda Contreras for Christmas!