Feliz Navidad!

Merry Christmas to all of our friends, relatives, and loyal blog readers! We hope that you are exactly where you wanted to be today.

We are very happy where we are, with perfect weather and good friends. We are only missing our family this Christmas. Sure would be fun to spend Christmas with the grandkids, they're at the perfect age. Perhaps another year.

Our first Mexican posada

As with past days here, yesterday morning wasted away without a problem. Then, we received an invite from Luis and Lorena to come over to their RV at another marina as they were having friends over for food that afternoon, and did we want to join them? Yes please!

So Ruth made a big salad to take for everybody and Luis said he would pick us up around 2:00pm.

We got a fun surprise we got when he arrived!

A good bottle of scotch!

Yesterday afternoon, we took the collectivo back in to town. Ruth wanted to get her hair cut (for the first time in 13 months!) and we wanted to pick up some booze that had been on sale at 20% off. I say had been on sale, because when we got to the store it turns out that the sale ended the day before!

But, that doesn't mean there weren't some deals to be had...

Our top 10 campsites of 2015!

As you can see, we've got a few top 10 lists on the go. We're also counting down our header photo over the next few days with our top 10 header photos of 2015.

Our regular readers already know that we're not "RV park" type of campers. We don't like to have neighbours too close by and we like to have a nice view out of our windows. That's just what's important to us. That usually entails some form of boondocking, and we sure did our fair share of that this year!

So...in chronological order...(if you click the date, it will bring you to the blog post from that day)...

New friends. Some with two legs, and one with four!

It's pretty easy to pass the mornings here simply doing nothing. Not nothing really...but just puttering around. Internet time, washing a few pieces of laundry, cleaning Sherman. Just hanging around the motorhome. Seems like the morning just disappears.

So we try and make an effort to do something in the afternoons. Yesterday, we went and visited some neighbors!

The very best place to buy your fruits and veggies!

Just about every town in Mexico does a weekly tiaguis market. There is no English translation for the word "tianguis", since this is essentially a Mexican and Central American event. The tianguis market can take place on any day of the week, but it usually takes place on the same day of every week in each particular town. Here in Valle de Bravo, the market takes place on Sunday of each week.

We have found that the weekly tiaguis market is the very best place to go and buy your fruits and veggies in Mexico.

Plus, it's fun to go to the tianguis market!

Plans change, but we adapt and move on...

We had been looking forward to a visit from Ruth's cousin Helen and her husband Tony. They were scheduled to arrive here in mid January and stay with us in the motorhome for two and a half weeks. They live in England, and have never been to Mexico and we were really looking forward to showing them the real Mexico...the one outside of the tourist havens and all inclusive resorts.

But last week, Helen broke her leg.

Well that was fun day!

Around 9:30am yesterday morning, we were sitting at our laptops when we noticed some activity going on out front. A truck had arrived and they were unloading some tables and chairs. We knew right away what this meant. There was going to be some kind of fiesta!

Our friend Chago (who owns this marina) often rents out the green space overlooking the waterfront to various groups. Sometimes wedding parties, or family reunions. Whatever. So we wondered what it would be this time! It's usually a good party, and we have often been invited just because we happen to be here.

A great way to do laundry!

Normally when we're in Mexico we get our laundry done at a "lavanderia". It's usually relatively inexpensive. You simply drop off your clothes, they weigh them, and the price is based on what your dirty laundry weighs. If I remember correctly, prices are usually between 10 and 13 pesos per kg, and your clothes are washed, dried, and folded and you pick them up fresh and clean later that day or the next morning. Normally, our total cost is between $5 and $10 CAD depending on how much stuff we have.

It's a great way to do the laundry! However, where we are parked up just now there is no lavanderia within walking distance.

Now...that's better!

We arrived here on Tuesday afternoon, and since then we haven't had very good internet. We've been using our BearExtender long distance antenna and it was picking up a very weak unsecured signal. And of course only one of us could be online at a time...and even then, the internet would come and go.

Very frustrating, so that was the first problem we had to fix!

A 20 hour transportation marathon...part 2

This is the second post of today...if you missed the first one you can read it here...

http://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2015/12/a-20-hour-transportation-marathonpart-1.html

When we left off there, we had just got on the airplane and taken off from Medellin, Colombia. It was a four and three quarter hour flight that left at 1:00am in the morning. And then the first thing they do is serve you some food and put on a movie! Pretty sure that all everybody wanted to do was to sleep!

A 20 hour transportation marathon...part 1

We are happily back with Sherman (our motorhome) in Valle de Bravo, Mexico, after a 20 hour transportation marathon from Medellin, Colombia.

We left our couchsurfing host Andrea's house at 4:00pm on Monday. The Medellin international airport is located about about 50 kms (30 miles) outside of central Medellin, and we were leaving during rush hour traffic. We could have waited until the traffic subsided, but the area where you have to get the bus from is a bit sketchy and we didn't want to do it after dark.

What a fun public transportation system!

Note to city planners:

Want people to use the public transportation system? Then make it so that it's cheap, easy, and efficient. Then, add an element of fun, and everybody will use it!

Yesterday, Ruth and I used the public transportation system here in Medellin, Colombia to go from the Robledo neighborhood situated high on an eastern hill to the Parque Arvi (Arvi Park) situated high on a western hill on the opposite side of the valley that contains the city itself.

They were right.

Medellin, Colombia is one of the top 10 places in the world to view Christmas lights!

So, yesterday we had a busy day! The Medellin Botanical Garden in the afternoon, and the Christmas lights displays in the evening. And, a ton of walking.

I didn't measure out how much walking we did, other than knowing the distance from the house we're staying at to the Botanical Gardens...which was 6.0 kms (3.8 miles). Ruth and I decided to walk that route and we met our couchsurfing host Andrea at the gardens because she had some work to do prior to that at the University near there.

First, the big news...

I mentioned in yesterday's post that we were working on an exciting development that would affect our normal travels during the month of February. And yesterday afternoon we signed the deal, so now we can tell you all about it.

We had committed plans between now and February 2nd. Tomorrow (Monday) night, we fly back to Mexico City. Early Tuesday morning, we take the bus from Mexico City back to Valle de Bravo where Sherman (our motorhome) is waiting for us. Then, we're going to relax in one spot for a month. I think we're due for that. And on January 14th, Ruth's cousin Helen and husband Tony are coming from England to spend two and a half weeks with us so we can show them Mexico for the first time. They depart on February 2nd.

And then a new adventure begins for us!