Back in Valle de Bravo!

This is our fourth time visiting Valle de Bravo. We can't figure out why this beautiful spot isn't more on the radar of people visiting Mexico. We're only here for the weekend, but already we're saying we should have planned for longer.

Next time, it'll be for a couple of weeks!

Ruth's birthday party

The original plan for yesterday was to head to Valle de Bravo. But when our friends Paco and Oti found out that it was Ruth's birthday, they insisted on helping us celebrate! So we stayed in Toluca for one more day.

Oti took off from work early, and she and Ruth made up a birthday dinner, and a cake!

What a day we had!

But first of all...Happy Birthday to my beautiful wife Ruth! Hoping that this year is fantastic and that it will be followed by many more!

And secondly...Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American friends and readers. We sincerely hope that you have a lot to be thankful for this year, and that you think often of others who perhaps don't have much to be thankful for.

We are thankful for the great day that we had yesterday and that we are spending our time with good friends!

Back to Mexico City

We lazed around much of the day yesterday. Our flight back to Mexico City wasn't until 4:20pm, so we didn't have to get to the airport until 3:00pm or so. Puerto Escondido is just a small airport so it doesn't take long to get checked in and through security.

Made it out for one last breakfast at our favorite breakfast spot at Olas Altas Hotel's restaurant.

Off to the Mexican Doctor...

Ruth has been having a problem with one of her ears feeling like it's blocked up.We know there are over the counter and homemade solutions for trying to fix and maintain ear wax build up, but she was also having some itching and minor pain, so we figured we had better go have it looked at.

Especially since we're hopping on a plane again today!

Family Day in Mexico

Just a lazy Sunday yesterday. We went and hung out at Alfredo's mother's place in La Barra. The original plan was that Alfredo was going to go net fishing in the lagoon, but he was late getting there and then it got too hot. Oh well...it's Mexico.

Sunday is typically family day in Mexico. Most Mexicans work a six day week, so Sunday is the only day to get together with family.

Now that's a BBQ!

We walked downtown again yesterday morning. Ruth wanted to get her hair cut, and we needed to go to the bank and get some more dinero. And maybe a quick stop at the grocery store again.

Didn't bring the camera this time though. Sometimes you just don't feel like being weighted down with things.

Our Puerto Escondido Apartment

We wanted to tell you a little more about the place where we're staying here in Puerto Escondido. We were pretty specific about what we were looking for, and it's pretty tough to find a place that has everything going for it.

Bungalows El Maguey came pretty close though, so we signed up for an eight night stay!

Back to the Beach!

We did a little more travel planning yesterday morning. We leave here Tuesday afternoon, flying back to Mexico City. But we need to get to Toluca, which is another city just outside of Mexico City. Our plane doesn't arrive until 5:30pm and we figured that was getting a bit late for navigating subways and buses to get out of the big city.

So we booked another hotel room.

Day trip to San Pedro Mixtepec

San Pedro Mixtepec is a town about 20 kms (13 miles) inland from Puerto Escondido. It's just a quiet place, with not much to see, but it's a great place to go just for a day trip to get away from the beach. And along the way, there's the University's Botanical Gardens.

So just for something to do, we hopped on the collectivo and went for a ride.

Lots to do around Puerto Escondido

All we need is some ambition to get out and do some of it! We're totally enjoying just doing nothing, although we do have some plans over the next few days.

For example, there's a botanical gardens that we want to visit. It's located about 15 minutes outside of town on highway 131. We didn't know which collectivo to take, but we found out who to ask!

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!