What a day we had!

But first of all...Happy Birthday to my beautiful wife Ruth! Hoping that this year is fantastic and that it will be followed by many more!

And secondly...Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American friends and readers. We sincerely hope that you have a lot to be thankful for this year, and that you think often of others who perhaps don't have much to be thankful for.

We are thankful for the great day that we had yesterday and that we are spending our time with good friends!

We were up early yesterday morning so that we could make our way through the huge metropolis of Mexico City, to the western bus terminal at Observatorio Station. We took the Mexico City subway. We tried to time it so that we would leave after rush hour, and we did in fact make it to the subway station just after 9:00am, but it was packed. It now costs 5 pesos (43 cents) to take the subway in Mexico City. What a deal.

As we made our way to the end of the line, people regularly got off and by the last stop we almost had the car to ourselves. Mexico City is so big that they have four different intercity bus stations. In order to get to Toluca, we had to go to the far western station, Observatorio. Then, a five minute walk to the terminal itself.

Quite a few different lines go to Toluca, but we were pointed towards the Caminante line as being the best one. They have a bus that leaves every 7 minutes that also makes stops along the way. It costs 56 pesos ($4.87). Or, they have a direct "first class" bus that costs 68 pesos ($5.92). It leaves every 20 minutes.

We decided to splurge and take the first class bus!

Included in the price was a bottle of water and a bag of peanuts each.

We were assigned the front seats.

Wifi and electrical outlets at each seat. Super comfy, and lots of room. I tell you, Greyhound Canada could learn a few things!

Countryside in between Mexico City and Toluca.

We've driven the route close to Toluca when in the motorhome. As you can see from the countryside above, there are actually a lot of places where you could park a self sufficient RV for a few nights in the area. Surprised there isn't an RV park of some kind here. It would be a great base from which to explore Mexico City.

Mexico City to Toluca, about 65 kms (40 miles).

We arrived at the Toluca bus terminal and our friend Paco was there to meet us. We met Paco and his wife Oti a few years ago at Valle de Bravo in December of 2010 and we've been back a few times since to visit them and other friends Pepe and Maricruz.

Paco is a retired teacher, and Oti is a preschool teacher who is still working for another year and a half.

Paco brought us to the Metepec area of Toluca where there are a lot of artisan shops and we wandered around for an hour.

Ruth, looking at the trinkets.

This one of Noah's Ark was fantastic! 

Toluca is famous for the "tree of life" decorations.

Oti was finished school at 1:30pm, and Paco drove us over there to pick her up. As I said, she's a preschool teacher and her class has 25 kindergarten students age around 5 years. Class was dismissed, so the children had already left.

Except for this one!

Oti and Ruth.

Wouldn't it be fun to be in kindergarten again?!

Paco, Oti, and Ruth. Out for a late lunch.

Oti, Ruth, and Kevin.

We went back to their place and got settled. And I had a siesta! Nothing like a late afternoon nap on a full stomach! After that, it was off to visit our other friends Pepe and Maricruz and their 10 year old son Emilio.

Pepe is a dentist, and Ruth has been having a problem with one molar. She had mentioned it to Pepe, and he said he would have a look at it for her. 

Pepe said "hold your hand up if you feel pain"!

And he went to work. Turns out the molar was cracked, but he said he could fix it up no problem.

Ruth is lucky. She has nice teeth!

And then it was fixed. We asked him how much, and he said we could buy him a bottle rum sometime! Considering they are also letting us use the apartment beside their house at the lake this weekend, it's going to be a good bottle of rum!

Then, we went out for dinner. Lots to talk about. Maricruz works for an international office supply company and she gets to travel a lot for work. Her English is quite good. Pepe's English is probably about like our Spanish, and their 10 year old son Emilio goes to a private school where he also learns English. We helped him with his homework!

Kevin, Ruth, Emilio, Maricruz, Pepe.

The restaurant was in n old distillery.

Kevin and Ruth.

Then Pepe dropped us off at Paco and Oti's house where we sent the night. Today, we were going to go to Valle de Bravo, but Paco and Oti found out that it's Ruth's birthday today so they want to help us celebrate! So we will go to Valle de Bravo tomorrow.

If any of our American friends are doing any Black Friday shopping through Amazon.com today, we'd appreciate of you visit through our link in red near the top right of the page. Also, Amazon has a great deal on a Nikon DSLR camera with lens...check it out...

Nikon D7000 16.2 Megapixel Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm Lens (Black)