In the middle of nowhere with no gasoline!

Yesterday, we decided to take the little blue car out for a tour. We wanted to go to the town of Donato Guerra, about 23 kms (15 miles) away. Well what started out as a tour, soon became a mystery tour!

Kayaking is fun!

We took one of Chago's kayaks out for a spin on the lake yesterday morning. Almost a two hour spin! We made sure we left fairly early while the lake was still calm. The winds tend to pick up by 11:00am or so, and then there's a steady breeze most of the afternoon.

The beach is nice, but...

We've been in Mexico for almost two and a half months now and haven't seen the ocean yet. That's okay, we're heading there next week. A lot of people come to Mexico strictly to spend their winter on the beach. I guess that's what they want, but we think that they are missing the best of what Mexico has to offer.

Grocery Shopping in Mexico

Yesterday was a day of rest. Well, until we had to go into town to do some grocery shopping. We relaxed most of the morning, and then had a snack before deciding to go into town and do some grocery shopping. We headed out around 12:30pm.

Thermal Baths and Gorditas!

You might want to check out yesterday's post first because we were so busy that it actually didn't get posted until late afternoon. Why? We wanted to get an early start because we had another busy day planned. in fact, we were in the car by 7:30am, heading south to the spa town of Ixtapan de le Sal.

Toluca, a birthday party, and a wedding reception!

You'll notice that we're a little late posting the blog today. That's because we simply haven't had time until now! Non stop fun since we arrived here at Paco and Oti's and the fun carried through until today with a short break for some sleep last night. So, what were we up to yesterday...?

Hike up the 15,300 foot Toluca Volcano

It's not as bad as it sounds, because you are able to drive to the 13,600 foot level!

And we never made it to the top of the highest peak, but we did make it to 14,700 feet, so we weren't far off. Still, it was a great day and we enjoyed the hike and we got some fantastic photos.

Nice day to do nothing.

We needed to rest up yesterday to prepare for a big day today...we're headed to the top of the Toluca Volcano. Never been at an altitude of 15,300 feet and still been on the ground! There's supposed to be a road that goes part of the way up, but we will have to hike the last 2 kms or so. Hopefully the skies will be clear and we'll get some great views.

The Monarch Butterflies at Piedras Herrado

Yesterday, we drove about 35 kms (22 miles) through the town of Valle de Bravo, and then uphill all the way, into the mountains south of the city of Toluca. Our destination? The Piedras Herrado Butterfly Sanctuary.

Mexico City is sucking up all the water!

As soon as we arrived here last Saturday, the first thing we noticed was the water level of the lake. This is the third time we've been here at Valle de Bravo and Lago Avandaro, and each time the water level of the lake has been lower than the time before.

What happened to yesterday?

Monday just seems to have disappeared. We didn't do much of anything, yet the day just flew by! We did manage to go out and get some groceries and we stocked up on some beverages for our time here. Speaking of which...

Settled in to the little apartment

Yesterday was a relaxing day. We spent the morning getting the rest of our things into the apartment and sorting out our "kitchen". This apartment does have a kitchen, but it's a separate locked room off the balcony and there's no key!

What can happen in ten months?

Well, quite a lot apparently!

It was almost exactly ten months ago that we were here at Embarcadero Chago (Chago's Marina) on Lago Avandaro near Valle de Bravo.

Where do I start...

This is a fairly long post because it covers almost two full days! We keep fairly busy, so when we miss doing our daily blog post (like we did yesterday!) it's hard to remember where to start. Good thing we take a lot of pictures to help refresh our memories! Okay, when we left you last, we were about to hop on the local bus to go to central Morelia.

Hacienda Contreras to Morelia

Originally planned on leaving at 10:00am yesterday morning, but it was almost 11:30am by the time we finally headed out. Said goodbye to some people, sorry we missed most of you! Had we stuck around to say goodbye to everyone it would have been another half hour!