December expenses

As expected, December expenses were back to normal. We know from past experience that we can live pretty well here in Mexico for very little money, and December fell right in line with that.

A drive and a birthday party

Yesterday after our morning power walk, Ruth and I decided to take a drive in the little blue car. We wanted to see if a particular route was motorhome friendly, and the results of that are in our previous post. We drove 170 kms (105 miles)! We made it back in time to get ready for 4:00pm when all the campers were invited to a birthday party for two year old Francisco.

Villa Corona to Hacienda Contreras

Or vice versa. Hacienda Contreras to Villa Corona.

At the town of Villa Corona, there is a popular RV Park and Waterpark. Many RV'ers often make there way from there to here and the other way around. Using the main roads, there's really only one route, and part of it is on a stretch of busy, narrow road that isn't really "RV friendly".

Where are the carrots??!!

What a great start to the day yesterday! At 9:00am, a bunch of us gathered in the camper room because Chris and Juan had offered to make everyone a popular Mexican breakfast...huevos rancheros.

Pajaretes and puppies!

You'll remember from a couple of weeks ago when we came across some people milking cows and they offered us a cup of pajarete. Well yesterday, Barb and Sal arranged for the rest of the campers to be able to taste this special local drink.

A great day out exploring!

When we visit different places around the world, one of the questions we ask ourselves is "could we live here"? Well we came across a little town yesterday and one of the things we said was "we could live here"!

Minor maintenance and a hike to the castle.

Yesterday morning, Ruth hiked over to the "castle" with Teresa and Cassia. We've been there a couple of times before, so I didn't go. Instead, I did some minor repairs to Sherman, including fixing one of the blinds that had come loose. Or at least I thought I fixed it!

Looking forward to Valle de Bravo

Yesterday, Christmas Day, was a pretty coasting kind of a day. I had a little too much Christmas cheer the night before, so was a little fuzzy in the morning. Things cleared up in the afternoon, and I managed to have a snooze for a few minutes in between doing not much of anything at all!

Lots of Christmas Cheer!

Most of the day yesterday was spent preparing for last night's big Christmas Eve feast. Here at Hacienda Contreras, we had all planned a potluck dinner for Christmas Eve, with everybody bringing a special dish or two. And what a feast we had!

There's always something going on!

Never time for any rest around here. I started a book a couple of weeks ago and I think I've read two chapters. We were a little late getting going yesterday morning and by the time we finished the blog post and got our morning power walk in, there was just enough time to show Chris how to clean their fridge burner before we were leaving to go see a Friesian horse.

A beautiful part of the world.

I was looking forward to our visit to a little mescal distillery up in the mountains near here. Ruth and I had been there last year with a couple of the campers and while the distillery itself is interesting, I absolutely love the scenery up there.

Things you might see from a Mexican highway

Made it back to Hacienda Contreras yesterday, to a pleasant surprise! Seems we're having a Mexican blogger convention of some kind...

A visit with a famous Canadian!

Yesterday was moving day. Our couchsurfing hosts Wanda and Irwin were changing rental accommodation here in order to house their family members who are visiting after Christmas. So yesterday morning we packed up and moved to a beautiful huge place closer to the central area.

San Miguel de Allende (day 3)

Busy day yesterday! First, we made a bit of a last minute decision to go to the nearby town of Atontonilco. Then, we made a totally last minute decision to go to the city of Dolores Hidalgo and visit a huge pottery factory. Then after lunch, we did a nice hike in the botanical gardens.

San Miguel de Allende (day 2)

First on the agenda was a visit to the Tianguis Mercado. This is a major market in San Miguel that takes place only on Tuesdays. It's definitely one of the larger markets we've been to in Mexico, and you can buy just about anything there.

San Miguel de Allende (day 1)

We were planning on leaving Hacienda Contreras around 10:00am yesterday morning, and ended up hitting the road at 10:30am. No worries, we were in no rush and had told our hosts Wanda and Irwin that we wouldn't arrive until late afternoon anyhow.

Headed for San Miguel de Allende

Road trip! This morning we're heading out for San Miguel. Although we love it here at Hacienda Contreras, we are due for a change of scenery. It's only a short visit though, and we're planning on being back here on Friday.

Campground electricity useage

Okay, not an exciting subject for some of you.

But many of our readers are also RV'ers, so it will be of interest to them. Or at least I hope it will be!

Day trip to Chapala

Yesterday morning, we hopped in the little blue car along with friends Chris and Juan. Our main objective was to try and replace our Mexican Immigration tourist cards that were in the bag that was stolen back in Zacatecas in November.

Going 4 wheeling in the hills!

One of the campers, Don, has a four wheel drive jeep and he wanted to try it out up in the hills around here. So we went with him for the drive to see what kind of tracks we could find that may not be suitable for a regular vehicle. We were gone for three hours!

Guadalupe Day in Mazamitla

Yesterday was Our Lady of Guadalupe Day here in Mexico, so we could hear noisy fireworks coming from the surrounding towns all day long. Mexican people are 83% Catholic, and they sure love their religious celebrations! There have been celebrations in the town of Mazamitla in the days leading up to yesterday, and so we went into town yesterday evening for the final fiesta.

Miserable start to the day!

Very strange weather yesterday morning! We actually woke up to raindrops on the roof, and it was chilly and windy all morning. It's not normal to get any rain at all down here at this time of year, and it actually came down fairly hard at times.

How to cut a fresh pineapple

We love having fresh pineapple when we're in Mexico. First of all, it's cheap. You can usually buy a fresh pineapple for about 10 pesos (80 cents). We typically buy one per week, so I'm getting pretty good at cutting them up. It wasn't always that way, but practice makes perfect!

I bet you've never had "pajarete"!

Well the votes are in for the naming of the little blue car. As is usually the case with any election, it was a total waste of time. Either people didn't like the candidates, or they simply didn't exercise their right to vote! And then if you name a winner, the majority of the population isn't happy. And so it is with the little blue car.

Finally, out for a hike!

Barb and Sal arrived back from Chicago late Friday afternoon and so we are absolved of our campground responsibilities. This means that we can now feel free to go out and do little day trips and hikes like we've been wanting to do. So yesterday afternoon we climbed a nearby hill.

It's time to vote!

Okay, the suggestions are in and it's time to vote! We sorted through all the choices and came up with three of them that we kinda like.

Things are lookin' good!

Getting excited about the next few weeks! We've been looking after things here at Hacienda Contreras for the last two weeks and while that's been an enjoyable thing to do, it's also put a little cramp on our exploring.

The "little blue car" needs a name!

Are you ever bored? One of us saw on facebook the other day that someone mentioned they were bored. And we both had to think about when the last time was that we were bored. Can't remember. I guess we simply don't get bored!

Why Mexico?

When we bought a motorhome, we were originally planning on spending the winter in the southern United States as many "snowbirds" from Canada and the northern United States do. But our friends Glen and Steve were planning on exploring the Mexico's Baja Peninsula, and we decided to join them.

Clear and chilly

The last couple of nights the sky has been crystal clear! That also brings some cooler temperatures. We haven't seen any frost here yet (we're at 6,400 ft altitude), but it was only 9C (48F) inside the motorhome when we woke up this morning!

Where are we going next?

Thinking a little about our winter travel plans. We've been enjoying our time here relaxing at Hacienda Contreras, but we're into December now and it's hard to believe that we've been here three and a half weeks already!

What is it about Mexican carrots?

Yesterday was market day again. We love going and doing our weekly Saturday shopping! First stop is the little store on the way in to town where I picked up a box of 24 beer for 205 pesos ($16.40). That alone is enough to make my day!

November expenses

November was actually a pretty good month, with one exception. Our regular readers will remember back in September when 20 year old cat Molly was sick and had an emergency visit to the vet. Well we finally got around to reimbursing my sister for some of the expenses and so that got lumped into November's bills.