Relaxing in La Barra

"La Barra" is the village of La Barra de Colotopec. It's located about 7 kms (4 miles) SE of Puerto Escondido. It's mostly local Mexicans living a very basic lifestyle, with the odd gringo passing through on his way to surf at the beach ten minutes away.

It's a pretty laid back place!

Back in Puerto Escondido!

We are back in La Barra de Colotopec, the little village by the river where we first met our friends Alfredo and Mary almost six years ago. We're about 7 kms (4 miles) south east of Puerto Escondido.

We flew here yesterday from Mexico City. We used VivaAerobus, a Mexican discount carrier. It's one of those airlines that offers a very cheap base fare, and then adds on for anything extra.

Mexico City and Computer Crash

We caught up on our sleep yesterday morning. Then, I unsuccessfully tried to do some repairs to my old laptop when it suddenly wouldn't boot up. I can't even get it to boot in safe mode. It's almost like it's not even recognizing that the hard disc exists. So unfortunately, I believe the hard disc is done.But hopefully I can eventually salvage some pictures and information from it.

All of our pics are also on Ruth's little laptop, with the exception of most of our San Francisco pics.

Hello Mexico!

Well, we're back in Mexico. We'll be in the country at least for the next two months I would say. No firm plans, but we want to see the Copper Canyon before we leave! Then maybe in the mid January time frame we'll tour around Arizona for a month or two in Sherman the motorhome. We don't arrive back at the motorhome for another three weeks, so we'll figure out our plan then.

So, we're in Mexico City, but really it's only for a stopover.

On our way to Mexico City!

Wow. We're finally on our way to Mexico City. Writing this from Phoenix Airport where we're waiting for our connecting flight.

We had a great day yesterday spending some time with our couchsurfing hosts David and his twin 5 year olds Benjamin and Sophia. First, they dropped us off at the California Academy of Sciences while they went for brunch. Then, they brought us outside of San Francisco, a little bit north to the Muir Woods National Monument.

Fun time sailing San Francisco Bay!

We went sailing yesterday!

There are a lot of boat tours that do San Francisco bay, but we wanted to do something a little different. A sailing company called Adventure Cat Sailing Charters does catamaran tours of the bay, and we've never been sailing on a catamaran style vessel.

What a great time!

Doing Some Time on Alcatraz

Yesterday, we did some time on Alcatraz. And, we saw somebody who really did do time on Alcatraz!

It was another great day in San Francisco, and we spent about four hours touring the island of Alcatraz. This island in San Francisco Bay is best known because of  the inescapable federal prison that existed there between 1934 and 1963. We're going to tell you a little about the best way to do this tour. And, it is a tour that you really should do some day!

The Streets of San Francisco

I was a young teen when this 1970's series starring Karl Malden and a very young looking Michael Douglas was popular. So I don't remember it very well, but it would sure be interesting to watch it now that we've seen some of those streets!

We did a hop-on hop-off bus tour yesterday. It took us all over the streets of San Francisco!

Hello San Francisco!

We've been wanting to visit San Francisco for a long time. In fact, even before I met Ruth I've been wanting to visit. The closest I came was way back in 1988 when I went to a conference in San Jose, only a few miles south of the Bay. But I flew into San Jose airport at the time, and never did see the city of San Francisco itself.

But we're here now, and we're pretty excited. We don't think five days is enough!

Seattle's Pacific Science Center

We had tickets to the IMAX 3D theater located at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, right beside the base of the Space Needle.

We had a choice of movies to see, and because we're leading up to Veterans Day (Rememberence Day in Canada) we thought it was only fitting to go see D-Day 3D - Normandy 1944.

Time flies when you're having fun

Tomorrow morning, we fly to San Francisco! Can you believe we have already done four days in Seattle? Wow.

I know we've already told you about some of the attractions we've seen, but there's been a lot more going on behind the scenes...

Seattle Underground Paranormal Experience!

Many of you will remember the popular 1984 movie "Ghostbusters".

Well on Saturday night, we became Ghostbusters ourselves when we joined the Underground Paranormal Experience searching for spooky happenings in the underground passages that once formed Seattle's streetfronts back in the late 1800's.

Seattle Architecture Tour

We got on the bus at 9:20am in order to get downtown by 10:00am for our tour.

The Seattle Architecture Foundation does quite a few different tours, but because it was our first time in Seattle, we figured we had better do the "Greatest Hits" tour in order to see the most interesting buildings that shape the city's skyline.

What it cost for a month in Korea

This is actually our October expense report, but we'll give a little more detail about our costs in Korea since 28 of the 31 days of the month were spent in Korea itself.

Overall, the trip was slightly more expensive than we expected. But we had a lot of help from friends and the people we met along the way. Korea is probably one of the most expensive places to visit in Asia, except for Japan and the larger cities of Singapore and Hong Kong. It's certainly not as cheap as what we've heard regarding Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and that area.

Pike Street Market and the Space Needle - Seattle

Friday started off as a rainy day...welcome to Seattle!

We took the bus from the north end to downtown. It was about a forty minute ride and the bus stop was right out front of where we're staying. Pretty convenient, and priced at $2.25 ($2.55 CAN) per person.

The one bus brought us right downtown.