Good first impressions of Queretaro

Beautiful blue sky sunny day yesterday, with a high around 23C (73F). Pretty much perfect.

Queretero (pop 800,000) has to be one of the cleanest Mexican cities we have visited. And apparently it's also one of the safest, as we have read in several publications. That probably has something to do with the fact that there are a lot of good jobs here, with a lot of international companies, and a more educated population.

Arrived in the city of Queretaro

Got up a little earlier than normal yesterday morning because we promised the caretaker at the university that we would be gone by 9:00am. He had said that he would be back to open the gate at 7:00am, but I kept checking and the gate was still closed. Eventually, around 9:00am I went looking for somebody to open the gate, and there was the caretaker on his way to do exactly that.

I asked him where he learned his English and he said that he had lived in Texas for about five years when he was younger, and that he probably hadn't spoken English in about 10 years!

Another adventure in Mexico!

We woke up to fog yesterday morning and had wanted to get an early start. But we decided to wait it out, and so it was almost 9:30am by the time it burned off and turned into a beautiful blue sky.

We crawled our way out the three kilometers or so back to the main highway, and heading in our direction the road soon turned into a construction zone.

I wonder where we'll end up tonight?

Sure enough, we decided to stay put, relax, and just enjoy the view from where we are parked. We're in no rush to get anywhere, so when we have a nice beautiful spot like this we might as well enjoy it. But, we are heading out this morning...don't want to overstay our welcome.

We did go for a walk for an hour yesterday though. Beautiful area.

Another great overnight spot...

We got off to a bit of a late start yesterday and it was almost 10:30am by the time we left our spot at the marina near Valle deBravo. Not a problem, because although we didn't know exactly where we would be overnighting, we knew we weren't going far. The goal is always to plan to be parked up by 2:00pm. That way, if you have problems you have lots of daylight hours left to fix them.

And so we began the steep climb out of the valley. The road out goes from 1,750 meters (5,750 ft) to 2,600 meters (8,500 ft) in about 50 kms (30 miles).

Time to move on...

We've enjoyed the past three weeks here at Valle de Bravo. It's one of our favorite places in Mexico. But, Mexico is a big country and we like  to explore and see what else is out there! So today, it's time to move on.

No idea where we're going to end up tonight. We're heading towards the city of Queretaro, which is only about 250 kms (155 miles) away, but we're taking the back roads and we don't know what we're going to come across.

A big giveaway to start off 2016!

We've hosted quite a few giveaways over the years, and it's always fun for us to see one of our readers win something. Last year Motorcycle House, one of the largest online motorcycle supply companies helped us give away a beautiful leather jacket.

This year, we're starting things off even better!

It's always an adventure...

We decided to do another day trip yesterday. Can't just spend our time lounging around when there's so much to see and do in this area! Our friend Paco had told us about a waterfall near the town of Ixtapan del Oro, about 44 kms (28 miles) from where we are staying.

One of the things we love about Mexico is that you don't need a car. It's relatively easy in most places to get where you want to go using collectivos and buses.

For rent near Valle de Bravo

This is our fourth time staying here at "Nautica Las Olas de Valle"...a marina on the opposite side of Lake Avandaro from Valle de Bravo. It's located in between the communities of San Gaspar and El Arco.

From the time we first arrived in December of 2010, we were welcomed by the owner Santiagao (nickname "Chago") and his family. Later, we also met some of the other regular visitors who have now also become friends.

The marina is a family business, and Santiago has slowly expanded the boating base of operations to include camping and rental accomodation.

RV'ing in Mexico. An informational forum...

There have been a couple of online forums that I've followed over the years regarding RV'ing in Mexico. But one of them only had a few regular posters, and the conversation regularly digressed to items regarding the perception of "safety" in Mexico. I got tired of it, and found what I thought was a better forum. And it was, for a while, but now it has gone way downhill in my mind, to the point where it's not helpful.

Someone said "if you're not happy, why don't you start you own forum?"

So I have.

Back to work!

Well, for most people in Canada and the U.S., today marks the return to work and school as the Christmas and New Year's season comes to a close.

Here in Mexico though, holidays continue through to January 6 which is Three Kings Day (Dia de los Reyes). So things don't return to normal here until Thursday this week when the kids return to school.

And we've decided that will be the day we move on.

What's the strangest thing *you* saw yesterday?

We took a little day trip to Avandaro yesterday. There is a park near there and the Velo de Novia (Bride's Veil) waterfall. We had done this trip 4 years ago, but it was at the end of February and there wasn't as much water as there is now, so we wanted to see it again.

Plus, being a Saturday in the middle of the holidays, there would be a lot more people and sometimes that makes for a better atmosphere in itself.

December Expenses and 2015 year end financial review

Considering that we explored Colombia for the first two weeks of the month, and we had some travel related costs to get back to Mexico and the motorhome, it was a fairly reasonable month in the expense department.

December came out to a total of $1,567 CAD. For those of you who think in USD terms, simply subtract about 25%.

The last few days...

First off, let  me clarify yesterday's post.

Yes, we will be picking up Helen and Tony at LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) but that doesn't mean that Sherman will be going into the city, or that we will be spending much time in LA itself.

In fact, we're likely going to rent a car and actually pay for Sherman to stay at one of those RV "resorts". Something around Palm Springs maybe!

California, here we come!

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that Ruth's cousin Helen and her husband Tony from England had been scheduled to come visit us here in Mexico, but Helen broke her leg and they had to cancel. Well, the leg is on the mend and they've rescheduled their trip.

Now, we're meeting them in Los Angeles, California!