Back on the road. A terrible road...

We were on the road by 9:30am yesterday morning. Only 195 kms (121 miles), but that can be a four hour drive in the motorhome in Mexico. As always, the goal is to be parked up at our next location by 2:00pm. That gives us lots of daylight hours to fix a problem, should we happen to have one.

Fortunately, we didn't have any problems. Other than one bad road!

We're hitting the road...

Yesterday was market day, and then I had my final dentist appointment at 1:00pm. I wanted to have some lunch before my appointment, and of course brush my teeth before going, so that meant two trips into town. But we haven't had much exercise this week, so two trips walking into town was fine with us.

We left around 10:15am on the first trip. It's about two kms (1.3 miles) each way.

Something didn't look quite right...

We had invited our friends over for dinner, and so Ruth spent much of the day getting ready. Me? Not so much. Unfortunately the kitchen in the motorhome is kind of a one person operation. Better that way anyhow. Ruth is a much better cook than me!

However, I did manage to keep busy.

You win some, and you lose some...

If all goes according to plan, there's only two more sleeps and we're outta here. Scheduled to have my final dentist appointment Saturday at 1:00pm, and then Sunday morning we'll be up early and headed to Etzatlan.

Much of Mexico has been unseasonably cold the last couple of days. Apparently they had snow in the mountains behind us, and even the normally mild San Miguel de Allende had only the third recorded snowfall in recent history.

The smell of fresh baked bread in the RV!

There is nothing quite like the smell of fresh baked bread in the motorhome. Especially when it's a blustery, rainy, cold, windy day in Mexico.

It had rained a lot of the night before, and the wind was so strong it shook the motorhome. It continued throughout yesterday morning.

Eating out...again!

Man, the entertainment budget is taking a hit this year. But, at least we're being entertained!

We include all meals out in the "entertainment" category, although we should really include a
separate category for meals out. Maybe I'll go back into the budget and separate things.

I think we have eaten out more this winter season than ever before.

Planning our route north

We didn't expect to be here in Valle de Juarez this long, but because of my dental work it turns out that we're "stuck" here until March 13th.

While we're very happy to be spending more time here than expected, it also means that our drive up to Los Angeles area has to be done in a two week period. Which means we have to do more miles per day than we normally like to do.

Another great day in Mexico

Barb and Sal came to pick us up just before 9:00am and we went to a restaurant for breakfast. This was a little different breakfast! We had lamb with tortillas and garbanzo bean consomme.

And man, we were stuffed! Didn't need any lunch, that's for sure.

Market day in Valle de Juarez

One of the things we love about this area is market day in the town of Valle de Juarez. Saturday is the day of the weekly tianguis market, and so Ruth and I did the two km walk into town to get our supply of fruits and veggies.

When we got to the market, we met Barb and Sal there.

Visits to the dentist and the doctor in the same day!

Ruth had her teeth cleaning scheduled for 11:30am yesterday morning. We were planning on riding our bikes there, but a real strong wind had picked up and so we decided to walk the 2 kms (1.3 miles) in to the dentists office.

Arrived at 11:25, and sure enough Ruth was taken in five minutes later.

Mexico RV Caravan group profile... #4

Okay, here we are with two more interviews with the members of the Mexico RV caravan group. We had a lot of fun doing these interviews, and we learned a little about what motivates someone to go to Mexico in an RV...and even more, what it's like to do it with a group.

This particular group appears to have been very lucky, in that they were all pretty easy to get along with. That makes it more enjoyable for everyone, including those of us who led the group!

Back on our own

The RV caravan pulled out yesterday morning at 8:00am. I took a video of them all leaving, but it's too big to upload on our not very good cellular internet connection.

There had been another couple in the RV park as well, but they pulled out a little later, leaving Sherman all by himself.

Mexico RV caravan group profile...part 3

We had fun interviewing the people that we have spent the last month with on this Mexico RV Caravan. It's interesting finding out how people decided on this kind of trip and what their thinking was regarding taking an RV into Mexico.

I remember back in 2007 when we were first offered the opportunity to RV in Mexico. In all honesty, the thought of driving a motorhome into Mexico had simply never occurred to us!

Another change of plans!

Had a fun day yesterday with the group as we rented a tour vehicle that goes up into the nearby mountains of El Tigre. It comfortably sat 20 people so it was the perfect size vehicle.

Ruth and I had done this drive with the little blue car back in 2013, I think it was. Not really the type of road that you want to take a car on, but we are adventurous and did fine.

A Mexican cultural experience to remember

Yesterday, we took the RV caravan group up into the remote mountains of Jalisco, Mexico to see something that very few tourists ever get to experience.

Ruth and I had been up to this traditional family mescal distillery twice before. The owner, Don Jesus and his sons have been very welcoming to our groups in the past, and so we asked Barb and Sal if they could arrange for us to visit again and this time take the RV caravan group up there with us.

More of our Mexico RV caravan group...

We're going to tell you about a few more of our Mexico RV caravan participants. Next up is a very independent single lady, Danielle.

Danielle (68) is originally from the area around Los Angeles, California, and is currently living full time in her class B van....although she calls Reno, Nevada home.

Back at Hacienda Contreras!

Yesterday was a travel day. Everyone was ready to go by 10:00am. It was just a short drive of 80 kms (50 miles) and so we hoped to have everyone parked up by noon. And that's pretty much what happened.

It felt so good climbing up into the mountains near Mazamitla. We've spent a lot of time in this area over the last eight years and it almost felt like coming home.

February Expenses

Well, it was a pretty cheap month...but you have to put it into context. Our expenses were a little skewed to the downside for the month because we were with the RV caravan group from February 5th on.

We spent a total of $904 CAD for the month. (Our American readers can subtract about 25% from these numbers for U.S. dollar equivalent).

Who joins an RV caravan to Mexico?

Yesterday was a day off for the group and we had no organized activities planned. At least none that we knew about!

So in the morning, we visited our friend John who has been living here at Roca Azul RV Park for the past year and a half or so. We first met John when he was living in Acapulco, and we saw him again there a couple of years later, along with his sister Dianna.

No sun, but a great sunset!

Around 10:00am yesterday morning we did a long walk into the town of Jocotepec with eight others from the RV caravan group. It was an overcast day...in fact I don't think we saw the sun all day and it was abnormally cool for this area.

But, it was a good day for a walk.

How many is too many...?

Everybody was ready to go yesterday for our 10:00am departure time. We crawled our way out to the main highway in Villa Corona and made it through three sets of lights without getting separated too much. It's not bad with a caravan group of ten rigs, but I can't imagine doing it with more and trying to keep the group together.

In fact, I don't think we would do it with more. I think it would reduce the enjoyment of leading a caravan. And from talking to some of our group, they also enjoy it much more with a smaller group.

Travel day today!

I like travel days.

Our regular readers know that we don't like sitting in one place for too long. Even if it's a place that we like! We'd rather have a change of scenery.

So today, we take the RV caravan group on to it's next destination.

Some info about the RV Park here

We're enjoying our time here at Villa Corona's Chimulco RV and Water Park. This is the third time we've stayed here over the years.

But, we're into our last full day here and we head out tomorrow morning with the RV caravan group. So I thought I'd tell you a little about the place before we leave!

Massages and pedicures

We're sat in one place for a while, with nothing official planned. So Ruth and I have been organizing other group activities which people can participate in if they want to...or not.

Yesterday, Ruth walked with everyone who wanted to go into town. Villa Corona is a nice town. And yesterday was their weekly market day.

Looking forward to the 29th...

Everything is coming together for our visit to Hacienda Contreras and the town of Valle de Juarez. We're looking forward to showing the area to the RV caravan group, and we've made arrangements with our three favorite restaurant in the area for meals out.

As well, we're doing the trip up to the mescal distillery in the mountains, and a 4 wheel drive unimog tour. It's going to be a busy two day/three night stay!

Change of plans...

Our original schedule with the RV caravan group had us leading them down to the coast at Melaque on March 3rd from Valle de Juarez. That would have been our last official day with them, and the other group leader, Paul would be meeting us there. We probably would have hung around for a day or two just to relax at the beach prior to heading north.

We want to be in southern California by March 25th or so.

Day trip to the big city of Guadalajara

The last time we were right in downtown Guadalajara (pop 8 million) was in December 2009. We weren't overly impressed at the time...just another big city with a lot of graffiti. And although I think we warmed up to it a little bit more during yesterday's visit, it's still not on our list of favorite places in Mexico.

The bus arrived just before 8:00am again. Not great to have two tour days in a row, and many people weren't impressed with having to get up that early again.