Now...that's better!

We arrived here on Tuesday afternoon, and since then we haven't had very good internet. We've been using our BearExtender long distance antenna and it was picking up a very weak unsecured signal. And of course only one of us could be online at a time...and even then, the internet would come and go.

Very frustrating, so that was the first problem we had to fix!

And, because we had been gone for six weeks, there wasn't a lot of food in the fridge. So that's the second problem we had to fix.

Oh, by the way. I had left the fridge running for the entire time we were gone. We had filled up the propane tank and I figured that would easily run the fridge for the six weeks. And it did. The tank is still 1/3 full. We have an indoor/outdoor thermometer and I keep the outdoor sending unit in the fridge. That way, we always know if the fridge is working properly.

Digital Thermometer with Indoor/Outdoor Temperature

And, it keeps a record of the highest and lowest temperatures. While we were gone, the lowest temp in the fridge was 1C and the highest was 7C. In the motorhome itself, the lowest temp was 11C and the highest was 32C.

Beautiful day. Sunny, and about 25C (77F). Perfect.

Around 1:00pm we walked up to the road and flagged down a collectivo taxi. These are shared taxis. From here, the price to go the 5 kms (3 miles) into the town of Valle de Bravo is 13 pesos ($1.08 CAD) each. When we first came to this area in 2010, the price was 10 pesos. But the cost of gasoline in Mexico has gone up a lot since then.

We found a TelCel cellular store and bought a new SIM card for the iPhone. They were on sale for 50 pesos ($4.15 CAD) and included 90 pesos ($7.50 CAD) worth of credit. Good deal. Then, we bought another 400 pesos ($33.20 CAD) worth of credit and activated a data package for 3 GB valid for one month. Now we can use the iPhone in hotspot mode and both be on the internet at the same time if we wish.

Next, we stopped at a computer supply store and bought a 10 meter (32 ft) USB extension cable. Now we can put the BearExtender antenna on the roof if we need to get a better free wifi signal from a distance.

Next, we walked to the big Chedraui grocery store. There is both a Chedraui and a Soriana in Valle de Bravo, but we find that the Chedraui has better prices. 

We spent a total of 1,380 pesos ($114 CAD).

(Note for our American readers. You can subtract another 30% from the Canadian dollar prices I've listed. It is very cheap in Mexico for anybody with U.S. dollars!)

Stocked up on beer and wine. 24 beer and 4 litres of white wine and 4 litres of red wine for a total cost of  538 pesos ($44.65 CA). Nice.

We've been coming to Mexico for 8 years and while prices for most items have gone up, we don't think it's by very much. Groceries are still much cheaper here than in Canada or the U.S.

We had quite a load of stuff so we took a private taxi from the store back to Sherman. Cost was 50 pesos ($4.15 CAD).

Later that afternoon, our friend Chago who owns the marina where we are parked suggested that we move Sherman to a nicer spot. So he and one of his employees got an old trailer out of the way and we fired Sherman up for the move. We got parked up nice and level, and have a gorgeous view out of our front and side windows, as well as a nice patch of grass and greenery out our front door.

Perfect!  GPS 19.224730, -100.139089

I'll take a video of the property and location for you all and post it tomorrow. We love it here!

And, I tried the extension cable with the wifi antenna, and now we get a nice strong unsecured (and free!) signal so we've got lots of internet available. Nice!

Ruth spotted one of these birds again. A groove-billed ani, almost the same as the one we saw in Colombia which was smooth-billed ani, which is strange because we don't think we've ever seen one in Mexico.