We are off to Peru!

Yesterday, one of our readers asked about our trip cancellation insurance.

We have been using a TD Travel Visa that includes a variety of insurance provided you use that Visa card to book your trip. Now, we have a Scotiabank Passport Travel Visa and it includes the same suite of insurance products. Interestingly, in all of our years of travel, we have never had to use cancellation insurance, and this year we have had to use it twice!

Our trip to Ecuador is cancelled!

We've been closely watching the escalation of problems in Ecuador.

Ecuador does not have their own currency. They use the U.S. dollar. While this provides a level of currency stability, it creates other problems. When a country has its own currency, they simply print more of it. However in this situation, the Ecuador government was running out of money, so they went to the International Monetary Fund and took out a loan of $4.2 billion.

We head to the airport at 7:00am

We are back at our daughter's place. Busy household right now because our son came for a visit yesterday as well and ended up staying the night. Great to have the family together.

Gave back our rental car yesterday, so we are carless for the rest of our stay here. No plans, although Ruth is going to borrow Lindsey's car to go to her 40th anniversary high school reunion.

It was time for a change!

We've always been fans of Merrell brand hiking boots. We've probably owned more than five pairs each over the past 12 years or so. But the last pair we each bought did not seem to last as long as the previous pairs.

Especially the last pair that Ruth bought. They began falling apart less than three months after they were bought brand new! Sorry Merrell... that's not acceptable.

Problems in Ecuador

We don't ever talk about politics here unless it directly affects our travels. And in this situation, it might.

There is some civil unrest going on in Ecuador right now. Last week, the President removed the government oil subsidy and almost overnight the price of fuel doubled. So, people are upset... especially the transportation unions.

This has caused riots in the central Quito area and that in turn has caused the Government to move operations from Quito to the city of Guayaquil.

It's all about the choices you make

Not too many people comment on our blog anymore. Most of the comments are made on our facebook page because for most people it's a lot easier to comment there.

One of yesterday's comments mentioned how "fortunate" we are to be doing all the traveling that we do. And people in the past have said how "lucky" we are. But we do not consider ourselves either fortunate, or lucky.

We have not yet been around the world

When our dog Whiskey was with us, we were pretty much limited to traveling in our motorhome in North America. And we were quite happy with that at the time. But when she passed away in the fall of 2011, we knew that would give us the opportunity to do more international travel.

And we have totally taken advantage of that! While we still love RV travel, we can now do it in other countries. We have RV'd in Africa, Europe, and Australia. And we have also taken many "backpack" style trips.

Off to the hospital...

Busy day with the grandkids yesterday as we had to get them to their swimming lessons right after breakfast, and then after swimming Cameron has his karate lesson in the town of Kemptville, located about 60 kms (36 miles) south of Ottawa.

There's a short gap in between though, and they usually go to a nearby park and play for a half an hour before going to Cameron's karate.

One week to go!

We've been here in Ottawa area for 5 weeks now. Normally my limit would be 3 weeks, but we've been so busy that time has gone by quickly. Right now we're looking after the grandkids and Chester the dog, but Mom and Dad return home from New York City tomorrow.

This morning we have to take them to swimming lessons, and then Cameron has his karate lesson right after that. Then we are all going to visit my mom.

Ten years ago today...

Well, fall is definitely in the air today. With an overcast high of 10C (50F), it certainly feels like we have turned the corner. Fortunately, our time here is almost done and we will soon be at the equator!

We are at our daughter's house looking after the grandkids and Chester the dog. Of course the kids are in school all day, so we get to take Chester for some walks.

The cheapest way to do an official legal will

Getting lots done during our down time here. But, it's been busy! There's been something going on almost every day, and when there's nothing going on we are doing Ecuador research and planning for the Mexico RV trip this winter!

Life is never boring, that's for sure! We've also been looking after some personal things like changing our banking, credit card, and investing providers. Along that same line of thinking is updating our wills... something that hadn't been done since 1996!

September Expenses

Well, it was by no means a cheap month, but it did come in pretty much where we expected it to... so there were no real surprises. We always spend more money visiting "home" than we do when we're traveling!

We spent a total of $2,731 CAD ($2,060 USD) for the month.

Here are all the details...

More Ecuador planning

Last day of September! And our Ecuador trip starts in less than two weeks, so I figured I had better get some more planning done.

We are only there for three weeks... not very long in Kevin and Ruth time. And out of our 21 days there, we are a full week in Quito and 8 days in Galapagos, so that only leaves 6 days to see the rest of the country!

Weekend away, day 2

Well, we must be getting older and wiser. It seemed like nobody woke up with a sore head from excessive consumption!

But, we did wake up to rainy skies and it stayed that way until well after lunch. So it was an inside morning.

Away for the weekend

Yesterday, I kissed Ruth goodbye at around noon, and arrived at the "cottage" at around 2:00pm. I took all the back roads and the route was 141 kms (87 miles). One section was pretty curvy, but there has hardly any traffic the whole drive.

No problem finding the place.