Views above Melaque

During Covid, one of the projects for the town of Melaque was to improve the west shoreline, so they built a nice malecon along that section. 

During our two past visits here, we spent most of our time at the eastern part because that's where the big RV park is located. But now that we've spent some time in the western part, we like it much better.

Arrived in Melaque, Mexico

We took our time getting ready to go Wednesday morning. We knew it was less than a two hour drive, so we didn't leave Cuyutlan until about 10:00am.

Our route took us up and around the big port city of Manzanillo. It's a huge shipping port, and the busiest container port in Mexico.

Heading north up the coast towards Puerto Vallarta

Good news! Our new Starlink Mini Satellite Internet hardware has arrived in Puerto Vallarta and is ready to be picked up. That was fast!

And it has to be picked up within 7 days or they send it back, so we need to be there by Monday just to be on the safe side. That's about when we wanted to be there anyhow.

Day trip to some different beaches... and some great Starlink news!

Yesterday morning, we hopped in Barb and Mark's pickup truck with Barb and their son Shawn. Mark stayed behind because they were having some work done on their property.

We weren't going far... just a half an hour or so down the coast to check out some different beaches.

Beach time

Rancho B RV Park is located on a 10 km (6 mile) long stretch of virtually empty beach. There is a nearby town called La Placita, and occasionally you'll see some locals at the far end of the beach, but otherwise you can have it totally to yourself.

Yesterday morning, we tried to get out before it got too hot, but it was 10am before we got down there. We will do better today!

Down to the coast of Michoacan, Mexico

We tried to get going by 9:00am, but it was almost twenty after by the time we pulled out from Sue and Roy's place at Valle de Juarez. We had a great week with them while Igor was getting his top painted. Thanks for putting up with us!

We headed into Mazamitla to fill Igor's fuel tank at 24.70 pesos ($1.75 CAD) per liter. That's about $4.61 USD per gallon. 

Igor is finished, and we are off to the coast today!

For anybody just checking in, Igor spent Monday to Friday parked at a body and paint shop here in Valle de Juarez, Jalisco, Mexico. 

We wanted to get the fiberglass cap painted. They removed the striping and molding, smoothed out the seam under the molding, removed the awning brackets and filled the holes, and filled the kitchen exhaust vent hole on the other side. 

Igor will be painted today!

No, Igor was not ready yesterday, however they will be painting this morning and we should be able to pick him up this afternoon. We'll drive back over to Sue and Roy's, then tomorrow morning we'll head down to the coast.

Yesterday afternoon, Ruth and I took a walk over to "the castle".

A looong walk in the hills! And of course an update on Igor's paintwork...

We set off at 9:20am heading up into the hills behind Valle de Juarez towards the village of El Tigre, 12 kms (7.5 miles) away, and almost 2,500' higher up in altitude.

We've done this route before, the last time was with some of our RV Caravan group on New Year's Day 2020.

Igor update #2

Not much to report, really. They didn't start work until about 9:30am. We walked back over to Sue and Roy's at around 10:00am, spent the day there, then walked back to Igor around 6:30pm. 

It was dusk, and they were just finishing up. 

Progress report on Igor

We moved Igor over to the body and paint shop at 7:30am on Monday morning. We hadn't discussed with the guys what time they would get started, but we figured we would have him there before they opened, just in case they got started right away.

And there were pretty much right on schedule as they got working at about 9:00am!

Thinking about Starlink Satellite Internet

Actually, we're not only thinking about it, we've decided that we want it! There's only one thing stopping us.

Back to Mazamitla

There is a restaurant in Mazamitla called "La Troje". We've been there many times, and have never had a bad meal. We've never been there for breakfast, but Sue and Roy have and they highly recommended it. So the four of us hopped in their car and we went to Mazamitla for breakfast.

Slight change of plans!

Yesterday morning we moved Igor from the campground over to an empty lot beside Sue and Roy's place. 

Along the way, we stopped in town at another auto body and paint shop to get another price on painting Igor's fiberglass cap.

Off to the dentist, and good news!

Yesterday was dentist day!

We've been going to Dr. Lissette Gomez here in Valle de Juarez for quite a few years. She's really good, and of course we get charged the same prices the locals pay. Nobody likes going to the dentist, but at least the reasonable prices make it bearable!

Invited to a fiesta!

We went for a walk into town again yesterday afternoon. There's another body and paint shop we wanted to stop in and talk to, and we had to buy a birthday present because we were invited to a fiesta!

Igor makes another visit to the mechanic.

Roy and Sue came over at about 10:30am and we had Igor ready and waiting to go for a drive. They left their car here at the campground and we all piled into Igor to head to the body and paint shop at La Manzanilla de la Paz.

It’s only about a half hour drive... almost half way to the shoreline of Lake Chapala.

So, what are we thinking of having done to Igor?

Our friends headed out yesterday morning, so we're on our own here at the RV park in Valle de Juarez. We'll still be seeing Sue and Roy over the week though, in fact we might even be staying with them for a couple of days while Igor gets some work done!

All depends on if we decide to get the work done, and how long it might take.

Earthquake!

We were both woken up just after 2:30am this morning due to an earthquake. Ruth had got up to go to the bathroom, and when she returned I said "I think we just felt an earthquake". And she agreed. I checked my phone, and sure enough the epicenter was about 170 kms away at the coast near Tecoman, Colima.

News reports say that it was a 6.2 magnitude. 

Whiskey's tree

It seems like such a long time ago now, but when we first set out in the motorhome in 2007, we were traveling with our dog Whiskey.

Whiskey was our family pet. She pretty much grew up with our kids, and she had been part of our family since she was 8 weeks old.

Arrived in Valle de Juarez

It almost felt like old times leading a group of RV'ers through Mexico! Except that there were only three rigs this time... and the ones we were leading are now experienced Mexico RV'ers in their own right!

But nonetheless, they allowed Ruth and I to take the lead, and they even loaned us a radio to communicate with them.

Into the town of Atotonilco

We all hopped on the bus to Atotonilco at around 10:30am. Have never been to that town, so we just wanted to go in and wander around.

The bus cost 23 pesos ($1.60 CAD, $1.10 USD) per person for the 13 km (8 mile) ride.

This is where they grow tequila!

Tuesday was a bit of a cool cloudy day. With a daytime high of only 20C, that's a bit chilly by Mexican standards!

But, it was great hiking weather. So the group of six of us took off up into the hills behind the campground to find some nice views.

The numbers...

Our regular readers know that we carry some games with us, and almost every day we play either backgammon, yahtzee, or cribbage.

To add a competitive edge to things, a few years ago we started keeping track of annual totals so we could see who was in the lead. It makes things more interesting!

Arrived at a new RV Park

It was a bit of a long drive for us. Not so much distance wise, but we took a lot of back roads and you don't get anywhere very fast that way in Mexico... but, it is the most interesting way for sure.

We got a bit of a late start and didn't get out of Yuriria until 10:30am. Originally, I was thinking that we were going to stop somewhere along the way. There weren't a lot of options though.

We stumbled onto a fiesta!

Most people would just take the toll road heading west towards Guadalajara, however we like to explore. There was a route heading up to the small city of Yuriria (pop 70,000), and we had never been there before. In fact, until we looked up the route, we had never even heard of it before!

The only tourists in Ciudad Hidalgo

We got up at 7:00am and hit the road right away. Might as well use Igor's engine to heat things up. Overnight temperatures get down to 7C (45F) or so, so it can be a little chilly when we wake up.

We weren't going far though... only into the city of Ciudad Hidalgo (pop 80,000) to a big Bodega Aurrera grocery store parking lot.

Great first day back on the road!

We had a plan to set off by 9:00am, but our host Chago didn’t seem to want us to leave. He kept coming by to ask questions, and wanted my help to try to set up his smart watch. But I have no experience with smart watches! Anyhow, it's nice that he doesn't want us to leave! We may be back in April!

It was almost 10:00am by the time we left, which was totally fine. I figured we had about a two and a half hour drive to do.

It's time to hit the road!

We always love our time here at Valle de Bravo. Good friends, great scenery, and perfect weather. We could live here, but we're not ready for that yet! There is too much to see out there, and we're not even close to ready to settle down. 

And as much as we love it here, after a few weeks, we're ready to go somewhere new.

How much did we spend in 2024?

We'll start off with our monthly breakdown of the month of December, then I'll give you a recap of our totals for the entire year. We knew December was going to be an expensive end to the year due to our vacation with our daughter and grandkids in Playa del Carmen. There weren't any surprises and we came in pretty much right on budget! That doesn't happen very often!

We spent a total of $5,475 CAD ($3,800 USD), which was our second most expensive month of the year.