Looks like winter is off to an early start

Yikes. Looking at the weather across most of the United States and Canada makes us quite happy that we're in hot and sunny Mexico! We're planning on heading up to the southern Arizona and California area in January...I guess we'll keep an eye on the weather before making that decision.

Don't mind chilly nights, but so long as it's warm enough for a light jacket when doing some hiking we'll be fine.

Moving day

We moved to our "vacation" property yesterday! Nice little spot and it'll do fine for a week. Closer to the action, and a little more privacy than we have had for the last six days! Still, we enjoyed spending time with our friends in La Barra. And we'll see them again a few more times even though we've moved.

We had planned on going to the beach yesterday, but we never made it!

An update about our Mexican friends

In response to a couple of recent comments...yes, we need a vacation. We know that sounds odd. But we've have been going pretty much non stop since we left Saskatchewan just over six weeks ago. Moving every few days and living out of a backpack does take a toll and you do need a break from it every now and again.

I wanted to talk a little more about how things are going with our adopted Mexican family.

WiFi in Korea!

We're behind on a few things that we have been wanting to tell you about, so we'll try and get caught up throughout the rest of this week.

Our regular readers know that we like to tell you about details that can make your travels better, and one of the things we came across that was really convenient during out trip to Korea was our own portable source of internet!

All three goals accomplished!

We went to the main tourist area of Playa Zicatela yesterday morning. With three goals in mind. One, to get breakfast at a spot we had visited almost two years ago. Two, to visit some fellow Canadians. And three, to find a place closer to the beach to spend our last week here.

All goals accomplished!

Family chicken dinner for $5.00!

We finally made it to Playa Zicatela and Puerto Escondido. We had driven through Puerto Escondido on the way from the airport, but otherwise we've just been hanging out at La Barra.

So yesterday morning, we hopped into the collectivo and first made our way to the beach.

Life in La Barra

Got up this morning and had a shower. Not the typical shower that we would normally have! You stand in the small shower room with a drum filled with water, and a curtain over the entrance way. You then dump cold water over yourself using a small bucket.

Not much of a problem using the cold water. The daytime temperature is usually between 30C (86F) and 33C (92F) and it rarely falls below 22C (72F) at night.

You really don't need any hot water!

Relaxing in La Barra (part 2)

Okay...sorry about that. I don't like only giving you half a blog post! I've made it up to the Oxxo corner store and I've charged up our internet stick with a 400 peso ($34) credit. That gives us 3GB of usage, or 30 days...whichever comes first.

So, let's continue from our post this morning.

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!