Couchsurfing

Some of you have had questions or comments regarding the couchsurfing program we have used recently to stay with local hosts in Mexico City and Las Vegas.

Here's an interesting article published in this months "New Yorker" magazine online....

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/04/16/120416fa_fact_marx

Reflecting on the past six months

We had a GREAT winter! Of course it didn't start off so well with the death of our faithful traveling companion, Whiskey. That was definitely not a highlight. But the rest of the winter went according to plan.

Food budget

We went and did our weekly grocery shopping yesterday and we posted on facebook that we spent $22.68. It actually turned out to be $23.28 because I forgot about some celery that we bought at a different store! Anyhow, readers Roxanne and Susan seemed like they want a little more detail.

What have we been up to?

Not much, which is why for the next month or so we will be profiling some of our favorite pictures over the last 4 1/2 years. Every day will see a new picture from the past as the header.

Entering contests

Have you ever won anything worthwhile? We did once, back in 1999. A long weekend in Copenhagen, Denmark!

Vote for us...

Entered a travel contest. Gonna be tough to catch up to the guy who already has 2,000 votes, but you've gotta try, right?

Planning for Chicago!

Our next trip is to Chicago. We fly there from Guadalajara on May 7 for a three to four night stay. I was looking at some different attractions and was hoping to get opinions from anybody who has been there.

They don't make it easy!

So I tried to install the web famous Facebook "like" button here yesterday. Turns out it's not a simple matter. I managed to get it installed so that it showed up at the end of every post, but I don't want people to be able to like the post, I want people to be able to like Travel with Kevin and Ruth, if they so choose.

Blog changes

I'm going to make some changes to the blog. First thing gone is the Blogger "Followers" button on the right side. For whatever reason, this button and the followers weren't showing up anyhow. A Blogger "glitch" and despite trying to figure out why it wasn't there, I couldn't fix it. So it's gone.

March expenses

March turned out to be the most expensive month of our six months in Mexico, but that was expected due to our one week in Mexico City, and our one week in Las Vegas. Total expenses came to $1,881.08 for March, but $797.60 of that was travel related in order to actually get to those two destinations.

A fiesta...again!

Yesterday morning, Barb was going into town so we hopped in for the ride. Saturday is market day and we needed to stock up on fruits and veggies for the week. We went to the market and walked the 30 minutes or so back to the campground.

Six months in Mexico

Other than a week in Las Vegas, we have now been six months in Mexico. I'll do an update on our monthly expenses later, but we have proven to ourselves that we can live and travel the country quite comfortably here for under $1,000 a month.

What does a week in Vegas cost?

Well obviously there are a lot of variables. But it certainly doesn't have to be expensive, especially for first time visitors. If you've been reading our posts over the last week, you know that we kept very busy doing free things, although there is certainly the opportunity to spend LOTS of money if you want to.

Back at Hacienda Contreras

Well, that was a bit of a long 24 hours, but now we're back and can spend the next 5 weeks or so relaxing. We had a great time on our Vegas vacation, but it was certainly not relaxing!

Back in Mexico

No time to do a proper update, just letting you know we're safe and sound in Mexico. Taking the bus back to Hacienda Contreras (or possibly several buses!). Will post again later this afternoon.