The Ancient Ruins of Mexico

A lot of people are familiar with the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza because they are located only a two hour drive from the popular tourist city of Cancun. And so a lot of people will do day trip tours to visit. The other ruins sites close to Cancun are Tulum, and Coba.

But those ruins sites have become very touristy, and in fact there are much better sites to see if you explore the country a little further. There is much more to Mexico than the beaches of Cancun!

Thinking of Puerto Escondido

Those of you who are regular readers will remember when we asked for your help when our friends in Puerto Escondido were having some medical problems. The operation that little Gael had in 2013 was a complete success and he seems to have grown into a normal, active little boy!

We sometimes get photos sent to us, and thought we would share a couple of recent ones here.

Well that was a bit of a job!

And it's not quite done yet.

Yesterday, I changed the timing belt in the little blue car. It's supposed to be done as a regular maintenance item...every 100,000 kms (60,000 miles).

The little blue car is at 203,000 kms, so I figured I had better get at it.

Another package arrives

Actually, two more packages! But that's it...our shopping for this year is done. We spent very little money over the past eight years, but this year it seemed like everything needed to be replaced all at the same time!

We did a fair bit of repair work and improvements to the motorhome this year. New awning, replacement fridge parts, new inverter, new Mr. Buddy propane heater. And of course I'm in the process of re-coating the rubber roof.

Sculptures from our travels (part 2)

When I did the original post last month, we received a few emails from people saying "yeah, but what about this one", and "you forgot this one". That post was never meant to be inclusive, however we realized there were many more interesting sculptures and statues that should have been on the list.

So, here is the rest of them...part two!

National Forest Boondocking gets easier!

As it is, there's no reason you shouldn't have an easy time finding free and cheap camping spots in the U.S. or Canada, especially if you use a great resource like http://www.ultimatecampgrounds.com/ .

But now, the USFS is using a new map symbol to display areas where National Forest "dispersed" camping is available.

The Beautiful City of Venice

Venice is a wonderful city that lures visitors in with its Italian charm, elegance and beauty. From the indulgent but fresh food to the renowned art scene to the romantic gondolas that float through the water streets, a vacation to this magical city in the heart of Europe is a must.

Here is a list of things to do in Venice that only gives a taster of what it has to offer guests...

Busy season is over

We knew from last year that this park is really only busy from the end of June until the middle of August, and sure enough that's what happened again this year. Of course we still have some trailers in the daily rental sites, but not very many. And most of the seasonal campers still have their trailers here, but there are sure not many people around. The place is nice and quiet for a change.

And not many reservations on the books either.

Now I have the materials...

Had a heavy box arrive at the post office the other day. I knew what was in it. The materials to do Sherman's roof refurbishment.

Kevin's doctor's appointment

So I went for my full "poked and prodded" physical examination yesterday. All bought and paid for by the Canadian government (the taxpayer). I suppose it's about time that I took advantage of the system, since I am one of the taxpayers!

All said and done, I guess I am going to live for a few more years. Not without some issues though...

If It Were My Home...

We're quickly realizing that six weeks in Colombia will not be long enough. Just the same as when we spent four weeks in South Korea, and South Korea is a lot smaller than Colombia.

I came across an interesting website the other day that compares various statistics from all the different countries in the world. Interesting stuff!

And the winner is...

Our latest contest was to win a one year membership to Boondockers Welcome, and yesterday evening we did the draw to find out who the winner was.

And we're happy to announce that it's our friend Renate Hoven. No offense to those of you who aren't regular readers, but we really do like it when one of our friends wins!

C*ck of the rock

I was doing some more research for our upcoming Colombia trip and I had read that Colombia has the largest bird list of any country in the world. You'll remember that we were impressed with some of the birds we spotted and photographed during our South Africa and Namibia trip and we're now looking forward to seeing some more interesting and colorful birds in Colombia.

There are over 1,850 different species of birds in Colombia!

Visitors!

We haven't had many visitors this summer. In fact, other than when our son came for a surprise visit in June, we haven't had any visitors.

So we were happy to hear that some fellow Mexican RV travelers were coming to say hello!

Ruth's doctor's appointment

It had been quite a few years since our last "annual" physical checkup.  Personally, I think that these annual physical checkups are a total waste of the system's resources, but I understand that is just my opinion. Others think differently, and that is apparent from the different provinces health care plans.

In Canada, even though we have "free" or "universal" health care, the program is administered by the provinces and each province does things quite differently.