Change of plans

Woke up yesterday morning at the run down El Banito Restaurant Balneario RV Park just south of Ciudad Valles. We wanted to visit some waterfalls in the area, but didn't want to base ourselves out of that particular RV park. I didn't even take any photos there!

Anyhow, online I found what looked like a decent parking area at the Micos waterfalls and I had read that they have a swimming area as well. And it was hot... calling for a high of 33C (91F). Nice to be somewhere to cool off in the water.

The odd surrealist sculpture garden of Edward James

We have known about this place for quite a long time and have never made the effort to visit. It's one of the reasons we came to this area besides the fact that we simply had never been here before and there is a lot of other stuff to see as well.

It was only a 25 km (15 mile) drive from where we had stayed Wednesday night at Club Palma Solas. So we headed out at 9:00am to try and beat any buses to the parking lot I had read about.

The most beautiful drive in Mexico?

Monday night we had been parked overnight at the Pemex gas station just south of the town of Jacala. When we got up Tuesday morning, several of us went for a walk in the countryside before heading out.

Even with a 10:00am start to the driving day, we should still arrive at our destination of Matlapa by 2:00pm.

And then there were five...

We started off this trip with 8 rigs. We had high hopes of finishing the trip with 8 rigs but then this Coronavirus (now apparently being called Covid-19?!) thing happened and people's plans change.

Larry and Martha decided their best option was to be back in the United States and they set off a week ago. Then a couple of days ago, Sue and Roy decided their best option was to be anywhere but the Unites States and they chose Valle de Juarez, Mexico (we were there at Christmas)... and Garth decided he didn't want to be in the Unites States either so he was going to visit his sister in Puerto Vallarta, but would go with Sue and Roy along the way.

Busy day with hot springs, caves, and waterfalls!

The tour buses began arriving at 7:00am. This is a popular spot, and especially so on holidays and long weekends. And they kept coming, all day long.

First thing we did was that I drove Sue and Roy's van down to the lower parking area before it got too busy down there. Roy would have had a tough time doing the climb up to the parking area where the rest of us are, and their vehicle can fit into a normal parking spot.

Yet another adventure for the group!

First off, let me address the craziness going on in the world. We do not talk about politics, our health, or the news unless it affects our travels. So far, what is happening in the world has not affected our travels. In fact, if it weren't for the internet we wouldn't even know about it.

And so that's all I have to say about it for now. If that changes, I will be the first to let you know! But for now, it is business as usual here at Travel with Kevin and Ruth.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming...

One of the prettiest campsites in Mexico

We were happy at the place we had stayed Wednesday night, and would have been prepared to stay another night. But Ruth and I had found a better spot just a couple of kms down the road. The sign at the entrance had said it was a community campground and it was 50 pesos per person to camp overnight. But there was nobody around and the gate was wide open. We had paid 200 pesos per rig where we were, so not only was the place down the road better... it was also cheaper.

We set off at 9:00am for what would be a very short driving day!

Yet another beautiful campsite in the mountains

We left the little ejido village of Tuliman right at 9:00am. Our host Josue insisted on leading us out of the area and up to the main road. Really nice people.

We were headed up to Mineral del Chico National Park.

An adventurous hike with waterfalls!

We hired Josue to take us for a hike into the canyon. He brought along Carlos, one of the local boys to bring up the rear so nobody got left behind.

Ten of us set off at 9:00am. We first went to the ridge of the canyon, and then walked the road down to the park entrance.

This is why we come to Mexico

9:30am start for the group yesterday after a great week in the Cholula/Puebla city area. But, it's time to get back into the countryside.

As I mentioned yesterday, the next couple of weeks are going to be interesting. Not many RV'ers to Mexico visit the region through which we are headed. As such, there aren't many official RV camping areas and we kind of have to wing it.

Not every day you see something like this. Especially here in Mexico!

Sundays are a great day to explore downtown Puebla... there is so much going on!

So yesterday morning at 10:30am, we ordered some Uber taxis and took the group downtown to central Puebla.

Bike ride in Puebla, and new dinette cushions for Sherman

(I posted February's expenses last night... you can read about it here... February Expenses.)

Eight of us set off at 9:00am yesterday for a bike ride into Puebla.

Puebla is a modern city of about 3 million people. It is located at an elevation of 7,000'. It's also one of the cleanest cities in Mexico... very little graffiti, and lots of green space. We purposely didn't go into the historical area itself since we are taking the group in there today. Plus, the "cyclopista" doesn't go into the central area.

February Expenses

Not a bad month, pretty much exactly as expected at $1,900 CAD ($1,415 USD).

We started the month in Cuernavaca and drove all the way to Ocozocoautla and back to Oaxaca so we actually did a fair bit of driving in February. So of course gasoline took up a fair chunk of our February expenses!

Steak for dinner!

It just occurred to me that I never published out February expense report... and I don't have time to do it now. We are headed out to do some cycling around Puebla this morning and we are leaving in 40 minutes... so this will be a quick post.

I'll get to the expenses later today.

We had to go to plan B

We had a van coming to pick us up at 9:00am to take us on a planned hike in the national park located between the two volcanoes.

The town of Cholula where the campground is located is at 7,000' altitude. The park where we were going is around 12,000' altitude, so it's a bit of climb by vehicle just to get to the trails.