Rug weaving, alebrijes, and pickpockets!

Most of the villages around the city of Oaxaca have specialty artisans. We visited two of them on Friday.

Our driver Omar showed up with a fancy 20 passenger van that we had booked for 9:00am. The van with bilingual driver rents for 370 pesos ($20 USD, $26 CAD) per hour. Omar can be contacted at [email protected].

Travel day... Puebla to Oaxaca

I'm certain that Roy and Sue thank you all for the "get well soon" thoughts. And, it seems to be working. Sue is pretty much back to normal, and Roy is improving every day. I'm pretty sure they'll be ready to travel when I go to collect them on Saturday.

In the meantime, the rest of us did the fairly long drive to Oaxaca City yesterday.

Moving on today

Not under ideal circumstances though. Roy and Sue's health seems to be improving, but not enough for them to do a six hour drive.

We spoke to the doctor again yesterday morning, and he asked us to take Roy to get a chest x-ray.

Still in Cholula

Cholula doesn't seem to want us to leave. Which is fine, because it's a nice enough spot that we're at and there is still stuff for the group to do in the area. Or for others, it simply gives you a chance to relax and get caught up on things.

Which is pretty much what we did yesterday!

2018 Financial Year in Review

I spent a couple of hours this morning finally getting caught up on our expenses from November and early December. Fortunately, I had been on top of things since mid December, so since then, and into January are already up to date!

2018 was our most expensive year since we took off in the motorhome in 2007. By far!

Minor change in plans

We were supposed to be on our way to the city of Oaxaca this morning, but Sue and Roy are still fighting a bug and we had the doctor back to check on them yesterday evening. So we're going to stay at least one more night, and possibly two. Actually, we'll stay until they feel well enough to drive.

That's the benefit of our schedule. We do have a route and a schedule planned out, but we are flexible enough to be able to make adjustments as we go along. Nothing is written in stone depending on if medical or vehicle problems come up.

Really good day showing off the city of Puebla

We took the group into the city of Puebla yesterday.

Where Uber is available, we use it a lot in Mexico. The system works so well, and it's so cheap. We stood outside and three of us ordered Uber using our phones. Within five minutes, the rides showed up and took us right to the center of Puebla, about 14 kms (8.7 miles) away. Total cost per vehicle was about 125 pesos ($6.75 USD, $8.75 CAD). Divided by 4 people, that's a pretty cheap ride!

Doctors still make house calls in Mexico!

We hung around the RVs yesterday morning. One of our group came down with a bug of some kind, and his wife ended up getting the same thing. We asked around if we could get a doctor to make a house call, and sure enough that's exactly what happened.

Just before noon, the doctor arrived. 

Probably the cheapest lunch ever!

We love showing people parts of Mexico that they have never been to before. And since most Canadians and Americans stick to the touristy beach cities of Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cancun, we're getting a lot of opportunity to show off some areas of Mexico that are off the typical tourist trail.

We are now in Cholula, which is essentially a suburb of the city of Puebla. And the city of Puebla is pretty much a suburb of greater Mexico City, except it is separated by two big volcanoes!

Driving day... Tepotzotlan to Cholula

Driving days are always interesting... you never quite know how smoothly things will go. Turns out that yesterday went pretty smooth, although there were a couple of minor glitches!

First thing we had to do was to top up the fuel. Mexico has been experiencing some fuel delivery problems, and there have been a lot of stations without any fuel at all. Usually, it's a very temporary situation.

Last day in Tepotzotlan

It was our last day at Pepe's RV Park. We spent the morning relaxing, and then after lunch a bunch of us walked into town to see the World Heritage Virreinato National Museum here in Tepotzotlan.

The building itself was a Jesuit College, built in the early 1600's. The attached Church of San Francisco Javier was built between 1670 and 1682. It is likely one of the most ornate churches we have ever seen, all of the alter pieces are carved of white cedar and adorned with 23 1/2 karat gold leaf.

A couple of days to get caught up

Compared to last year's trip, we have a lot more days of rest on this trip. It's one of the things we wanted to change, and so far, we think we have found the right balance. In fact, someone left a comment yesterday saying "Sure sounds as though this small caravan is working for you two."

And yes, we think it is. We had a little discussion yesterday with some of the group about things we could change or do differently, and it would seem that everybody is very happy so far. Including us!

Day trip to the ancient city of Teotihuacan

One of the highlights of the Mexico City area is the ancient city of Teotihuacan. It's a little difficult to get to from where we are at Pepe's Hotel and RV Park, but Pepe's sells organized tours to the ruins site, along with a guide and a bus. So our group took them up on that.

Yesterday was the first day of the year where the Mexican population is back to work and school. It was suggested to us that we leave early to make the best use of our time, so we were all on the bus at 8:00am.

Last day in Mexico City

We got the group back down for breakfast at 8:00am. With only three days and two nights in the Big Tamale, you want to take advantage of every minute. If we do this again next year, we might spread it over three nights and try to relax a little more. The downside to that might be that we don't relax, and we just try to see even more!

Anyhow, we decided to walk over to the Monument of the Revolution. Then to give the group a different experience, we took the Mexico City Subway to the historical center.

The best way to see a city is by walking

There is a lot to see in the downtown area of Mexico City, and there are many ways of getting around. Taxis are inexpensive, and Uber works well and is even cheaper. The metro buses, the subway (underground) shared bicycles, shared electric scooters... transportation for everyone!

But we choose to walk. Although... the shared electric scooters look like fun!