Colombia, on $39 USD per day

We recently spent just over six weeks (47 days including travel days from Mexico) touring Colombia. I wanted to detail our expenses over that period of time so that others can judge if they can afford to do the same type of trip.

Including our airfare from Mexico City to Medellin, Colombia, we spent a total of $3,062 CAD ($2,250 USD) for the two of us. That figure includes all food, travel, accommodation, booze, and entertainment.

A birthday party in Mexico

Sunday is market day in Valle de Bravo, and we went into town with our friends Paco and Oti who drove us in their car. It was getting close to lunch time and so we went to one of the many food food stalls and they asked if we wanted a bowl of menudo...a popular Sunday soup dish in many parts of Mexico.

But the main ingredient in menudo is beef stomach! Not our favorite part of the cow!

I wish we knew about this before...

We decided we had better get out and get some exercise, and we had been told of a nice hike in the hills behind where we are parked up, so around 10:30am we set off to try and find the trail.

And we found it! I think this is the fifth time we've been to Valle de Bravo and we never knew this trail existed. It's actually an old road that has obviously not been used as a road for many years.

Smile for the camera!

We had a good Christmas Day. We even got to watch our grandchildren open the gifts that we gave them! Through the miracles of modern technology, we were able to sit in our motorhome in Mexico while connected to our daughter Lindsey who was visiting the rest of the family back in Ottawa, Canada.

Not quite the same as being there, but certainly the next best thing!

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!