Mordida

The Spanish term "mordida" literally means "the bite". It is when an official is asking for a bribe. For our purposes here in Mexico, the term is most often used in relation to a traffic police officer who is asking for money for a bogus, or maybe even legitimate, traffic infraction.

February expenses

Five months in Mexico, and February was our most expensive month yet. We spent a total of $1,224.75, and it was short month. A little higher than we like it to be, but we had Lindsey and Cameron with us for the first eight days, so that made a difference.

Visit to Avandaro

Yesterday we took the collectivo taxi to the nearby town of Avandaro. We actually had to take two taxis, one to the center of Valle de Bravo, and another one to Avandaro which is on the other side of Valle from where we are. Total taxi cost for the return trip was 84 pesos ($6.72) for the two of us.

Is Mexico safe?

This question drives me nuts and this is the only time I'm going to address it here.

More new friends

Sundays are busiest here at Embarcadero Chago. (Chago's Marina) We pretty much have the place to ourselves during the week, so it's a welcome change to interact with the others on the weekends. There are several families of "regulars" who come here, and we were happy to meet some more people yesterday.

Misinformation

There is a lot of wrong information floating around, and I think it's because people don't bother to check things for themselves, instead simply relying on what is passed on from someone else who hasn't checked for themselves.

Tally ho!

And we're off to merry ole England! Well, we're not off yet, but we've booked the flight! Leaving Toronto the evening of June 12, overnight flight, and arriving London the morning of June 13.

Valle de Bravo (day 8)

Took the collectivo taxi into town again yesterday. Needed some more fruit and veggie, and wanted to explore a  different area.

Valle de Bravo (day 7)

We arrived here a week ago today! Hard to believe. We're going to be staying a while yet because our couchsurfing host in the center of Mexico City can't accept us until Friday March 2. We're looking for a different host for a couple of days before that now, so hopefully we'll be heading to Mexico City this coming Tuesday.

We are not normal.

We read quite a few other blogs, mostly written by other RV'ers. It's very apparent that in most ways we are not normal RV'ers. In fact, we're not normal in a lot of ways outside of RV'ing!

Valle de Bravo (day 5)

We relaxed for the morning, and then after lunch we took the collectivo taxi into the town of Valle de Bravo. We're actually about 7 kms  (4.5 miles) from the center of town, but the taxis run regularly and are very inexpensive.

Valle de Bravo (day 4)

Been here four days already and we have only left the property once, to walk over to the nearby village and buy some fruits and vegetables. Yesterday was a beautiful day, but we didn't do anything except read and have an afternoon nap!

A fiesta

Valle de Bravo is one of our three favorite places in Mexico. We've figured out that it's not necessarily the surroundings that make these three places special to us, it's the people that we meet and the fun that we have.

Valle de Bravo (day 2)

We didn't do very much yesterday, just relaxed, although Ruth did a little bit of hand laundry. She says that if the choice is doing laundry by hand, or going back to Canada, she is quite happy to do laundry by hand!

Valle de Bravo

We didn't leave the park yesterday until 11:00am to comply with the greater Mexico City driving restrictions. But, we only had to drive 160 kms (100 miles) so it shouldn't be a problem, right?