This blog was written by Kendra, so you will get to enjoy her random facts and ramblings!
February 17- Ajijic
The drive to Guadlajara was uneventful and after having our propane stolen in Sayulita we make sure we stay at places with parking. Many places on AirBnB will say they have free parking, but this is often street parking, so we were excited that this AirBnB had a secure parking lot. We knew the parking was in an underground lot so we stopped and removed the propane and tire from the roof, in case the underground parking was limited in size. Unfortunately, the parking limit was significantly less than expected. With a height restriction of 6’2” (Paul doesn’t make the limit), we just couldn’t fit with the roof rack and awning still on. Luckily we were able to park on the street and had our propane securely stored for safekeeping during our stay. Unluckily when backing out of the too-short parking garage, Paul backed into a vehicle and scuffed the door a bit. After apologizing and offering to have it fixed through insurance, we were given a quote for repairs and paid in cash; so no harm no foul.
After the adventure of parking and arriving in Mexico’s second largest city; it was time to relax and explore. We headed to the rooftop balcony for some leftover wine and a gorgeous sunset overlooking Gudalajara. We had been told by the AirBnB host that there was a light festival going on with fireworks at 8:00 and 10:00pm. We watched the 8:00 (actually 8:30pm) fireworks from the rooftop balcony and planned to head downtown to Centro for the 10:00 pm fireworks. We were able to leave Rupert at the AirBnB as we wandered around looking at all the lights, listening to orchestras and mariachi bands, and watching circus performers. The city was alive and there were so many people taking in the GDLUZ festival. After wandering we were hungry so settled on getting some “traditional” street food- Tostilocos. Tostilocos are delicious! These ones consisted of Salsa Verde Tostitos, pico de gallo, hot sauce, breaded peanuts, and other random things like sliced up hot dog and a splash of clamato juice. We ordered with all the toppings and knew it would be good as there was a group of police officers ordering too. It’s like taco in a bag that we can get back home, but with a larger variety of toppings. Now Tostilocos is not to be confused with Dorilocos, which can be similar but it is made with Doritos and the toppings are dependent on what is special to that area or to that individual street food cart.
After feasting on Tostilocos we wandered a bit more and Paul ordered some fresas con crema, which was strawberries in a cup of whipping cream. It was the perfect sweet treat to end the night.
February 18- Where should we go, what should we do?
Now to get there we would need to take transit or a taxi or Didi/Uber. We were unclear whether transit was dog friendly, so we carried Rupert in his carrying backpack and made our way to the train station. We bought our tickets, found the platform, and made it on the train without anyone saying anything to us. Rupert got a few smiles from other transit riders and luckily there was one other dog on the train whining and barking, so we knew it was okay since Rupert would not be the one getting complaints. Once we arrived in Tlaquepaque we began wandering. The centre square was full of food stalls with signs stating they do not accept $500 peso bills, and our wallet had only $500 peso bills. We wandered a little then found a restaurant to sit outside of and have a drink (so we could break our $500 bill and be able to buy street food). Our first street food purchase was Marchuran Elote Locos- a cup of instant noodles filled half way with corn then drizzled with cheddar cheese sauce, a white cheese sauce, and sprinkled with queso, surrounded by salsa verde tostitos drizzled with more cheese sauce, topped with more corn and queso. We shared one of these corn and cheese monstrosities and feel as though we have consumed more corn in this meal than in the past 4 years.
Next we decided shaved ice, raspados, would be in order. These were good and Kendra added chamoy sauce to hers, but it still did not compare to the Chamoyada in Mineral del Chico. After more wandering and being exhausted from all the walking today we decided it was time to head back to the AirBnB. WE ordered an Uber who didn’t read the message that we had a dog, so then we tried to get a bus but we were confused by how the buses work and how to know which one is the correct one (Google was not useful because the bus numbers provided weren’t corresponding to any buses driving by, but we now know locals use an app called Moovit), so our last effort before having to walk an hour was catch a taxi. We flagged one down, asked if it was okay with our dog (he seemed confused that our dog was contained in a backpack) and we were off. We tracked where google said the fastest route was and where our taxi driver drove and he easily shaved 10 minutes off of Google’s estimated time of arrival!
After watching another beautiful sunset from the rooftop we decided it was time to ditch our tired dog and head out to Colonia American to experience the nightlife, and it did not disappoint! There were street vendors selling goods and food, bars with people lined up and music coming from every direction. This definitely felt like a completely different pace than where we sat and had coffee this morning. We found a pub with live music, had some dinner and drinks and wandered some more before getting an uber back to the AirBnB, where again the Uber driver did not follow the “planned route” in the app and instead shaved close to 5 minutes off the estimated arrival time. We were a surprised to arrive back to the AirBnB and see that Rupert had managed to jump onto the bar height stools and onto the counter to help himself to an entire loaf of banana cranberry bread. We even had put our food onto that table so he wouldn’t get it, but he does manage to surprise us with his quests for food and his athletic ability to help him obtain human food.
February 19 – Colonia Americana – Take 3?
We woke up this morning and figured it was a great time to explore Colonia Americana and its Sunday Markets. We decided to leave Rupert in the AirBnB since he was still stuffed from his cranberry loaf from last night. We were going to take the bus but with it being Sunday and still not being successful with understanding bus routes we ended up walking. While we were walking we figured we had stumbled upon a marathon or bike race of some sort. The road was completely shut down and there were people rollerblading, biking, running and walking. It turns out this is a typical Sunday in Colonia Americana from 8 am- 2pm. The road shuts down and everyone is out and about. It was so neat to see this and we figured some places in Canada could do this, but probably only in the summer.
Next it was time to do some non-dog friendly things, since Rupert was back at the AirBnB most likely regretting eating the entire loaf yesterday. We went to the Museo Cabanas which was an art museum unlike any museum we had been to before. The art was communicating a lot about a range of issues; the first people here who encountered the conquistadors, labour and labouring, and societal challenges. It was not like the art of nature that we have become familiar with in museums in Canada.
After the museum we were on a quest to find a local delicacy that was created in Guadalajara; Tortas Ahogadas- the drowned sandwich. There are many places that sell these sandwiches drenched in sauce (there’s even one in Colonia Americana that was featured on Heavenly Bites Mexico), but we headed to one of the largest markets we have been to on this trip- Mercado Libertad- San Juan de Dios. If you look up this market it looks like it is its own neighbourhood on Google Maps, turns out it is a 3 level building spanning many city blocks full of vendors selling anything you may think you need. We wandered the food section looking for a top-rated restaurant but couldn’t find it amongst the hundreds of food stalls, so settled on a very busy food stall. The sandwiches were filled with chicken and drowned in a tomatoe and onion sauce. Kendra googled how to eat this saucy concoction since they were served with a spoon and the internet said “with your hands” so we both dug in. The spoon is used to scoop the sauce all over the sandwich as you eat it. These drowned sandwiches were delicious and Kendra ended up wearing some sauce for the rest of the day. After feasting we were able to successfully catch a bus back to our AirBnB and we met up with Rupert who was excited to see us. After a quick dip in the rooftop pool we watched sunset and headed back to our room to kick up our feet and watch other travellers and van life people online (we enjoy Home A Roam because we met them and Mel helped us out with Rupert’s infected paw plus they’re great people, and then we usually watch Leah and Levi and Eamon & Bec with a more critical lens).
February 20- Goodbye Guadalajara, going back to Guanujuato!
This morning we reloaded the tire, propane bottle (replaced a broken ratchet strap), and ventured down a road we had already travelled; this time we are healthy! We left Guadalajara, stopped at the bank to get more pesos and headed back on the road to Guanajuato.
In case you are wondering, today was the most expensive bank withdrawal of our trip (so far)! The Canadian Dollar has been weak the whole time we have been travelling which was painful when we were in the USA trying to spend less than $140 usd per day (our budget is $200 CAD/day for us aka $100 CAD/person/day). We usually take out $9000 pesos and spend around $650 CAD to do that. Early on in our trip it was closer to $670 CAD to take out that amount because we were foolish and accepted the bank that owned the ATMs conversion rate, but you can decline it and save almost $20cad – we will not be making that foolish mistake on this trip again. The past few days there has been a connection error leaving us with our bank card and no dinero (don’t worry the connection error wasn’t a scam and all our money was safe in our account) so we were relieved to leave the bank with money in hand today. However, this time $9000 mxn cost us $680 cad!!! The Mexican Peso is doing extremely well currently and even the Americans are noticing it hit their pocket books too. Luckily we had budgeted for $9000 pesos to last us about 7 days, but we’ve been able to stretch it 10 days and even 12 days at the longest point in time, so we are still under our budget, even though it feels like we’re losing more money every time we make a withdrawal.
Anyways, back to travelling. As we were driving on the highway we encountered an intersection with what seemed like a gazillion topes and a man selling bread. As has become our new normal, we debated about buying it and then pulled over to actually buy some. The man was at our window right away and when Paul asked how much for one loaf/round of bread the man said $100 pesos for 3. We couldn’t resist the sweet homemade bread so drove off happily with 3 loaves of it. We have had it over the past few days and even 4 days later it still tastes like it did the day we bought it (update: Rupert helped himself to ¼ of a loaf of this bread while we were out exploring, he really does enjoy his carbs). After some more driving we arrived in Guanajuato. For those following along this is the location where we fully succumbed to our Covid sickness, finally took a test, and stayed in a campground overlooking a beautiful hillside and heard stories of the other campers returning from their daily adventures. We promised ourselves we would return to this city to explore it, and we loved it! We started by having the van completely die and lose all power (including to the brakes) on a steep hill. Luckily Paul was able to turn it off and on again and the van worked again. We figured we must have got some bad gas (we have a habit of filling up at the cheapest stations) because once the van restarted it was good to go again. What a thrilling experience! After returning to the familiar campsite (some people with Alberta plates were in “our” spot from a few weeks ago- go figures), we walked downtown.
We grabbed some chamoyadas to enjoy along the way and found ourselves admiring and loving every single street, square, and park. We got our picture taken at the Kissing Balcony, where two buildings were built so close that Paul entered the building on the right, Kendra entered the building on the left and we kissed while standing in different buildings! We wondered if returning to a city we had been to previously would be a regret, but there are no regrets here!
February 21- Our first full and healthy day in Guanajuato
With the van's most recent dying stint in our minds we figured it would be best to use most of the fuel in the van, then fill with more expensive gas and add a cleaner to our full gas tank (thanks for the advice Marcel). We drove around and the van did not die! Unfortunately, the people at our next destination were not so lucky.
The city of Guanajuato is in an arid and mountainous part of Mexico and is home to the Museo de Momias. In case your Spanish is as good as Kendra’s it is a mummy museum with about 100 or so mummies on display. These mummies were buried between the early 1900s and some in the 1960’s and their bodies were exhumed about 6 years after their initial burial. Most of the bodies were exhumed due to non-payment of burial and plot fees but once the grave diggers dug these bodies up, they realized the climate had naturally mummified them. Now they rest in the mummy museum on display for others to see. We thought the Museo de Cabanas in Guadalajara left us feeling a bit uneasy, this museum is easily the museum that has made us feel the most uneasy in our entire lives! There were the young and old on display with their hair, fingernails, teeth, and even eyeballs. The babies section left us feeling especially unsettled with doll sized creatures adorned in beautiful gowns all mummified. Kendra’s favourite was the world’s smallest mummy, a 6 month old fetus, because she is fascinated with world records. After Paul bought a t-shirt we left the museum speechless. We didn’t know whether to laugh or cry or how to feel about our 45 minutes surrounded by normal human mummies, and even writing this we still don’t know how to feel.
and the Cave of Saint Ignacio de Loyola. The views of the city and the open air cave was neat to see. Next we did a drive around the Panoramic road and stopped at a lookout of the dam and a lookout at an old silver mine. Then we headed back to the campground for a small lunch, since tonight was going to be our first taste of Dorilocos. After a quick bite to eat at the van we wandered back into town, via the tunnel.
I can’t remember if we mentioned it before, but Guanajuato is full of tunnels. They have tunnels on top of tunnels that you can drive and walk in and there are even intersections in the tunnels! After a bit of wandering we tried a flan from a street vendor which was delicious and found a Dorilocos vendor. This one said her specialty was De Pata, so we ordered regular nacho cheese Dorilocos with ALL the toppings. We weren’t sure of all the toppings in our bags of doritos; there was jicama, shredded cabbage, salsa, hot sauce, some flamin’ hot stick things, and a clear gelatinous thing that looked like sliced onion, but had no resemblance to onion.
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| Dorilocos |
February 22- Goodbye Again!
It was now time for us to leave Guanajuato and it was easier to leave this time since we had seen everything we wanted to see, plus the campsite was the fullest we had ever seen it, and a few people already there were expecting at least 2 more vehicles to arrive. We waved goodbye to our campground neighbours (from Ontario, Nova Scotia, and Washington State) and hit the road for our next destination! We stopped to fill up our gas tank and add in the fuel cleaner and we were on our merry way.
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| The Campsite |
While on the road we were craving something sweet and saw signs for Fresa and Durazno (strawberries and peaches). We saw a few stalls with empty strawberry baskets and finally found a man on the side of the highway with not empty baskets. We pulled up to find out he did not have strawberries and peaches, but apricots and plums. We bought some delicious plums, quickly washed them, and continued down the road.
As we were driving it truly felt like we were back in Canada! We passed fields that had been baled, refineries, forests and mountains! Mexico is such a diverse country and is so much more than beaches and resorts. We finally arrived at our destination: the Sanituario de la Maiposa Monarca Sierra Chincua- the monarch butterfly’s winter home! We arrived around 3pm, which is when it starts to cool down so we figured we would see the butterflies in the morning when they wake up and start flying around. It was cool in the mountains, like Canada and once the sun went down it cooled off very quickly. We got out our spare blanket and realized it would be a cold night.
February 23- Marvelous Mariposa Monarca
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| Loving Butterflies |
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| Photo from a real camera |
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| Photo from Kendra's Phone |
After seeing the thousands, maybe even millions of monarchs we headed back to the area where we could buy a keychain to use as a Christmas ornament commemorating this unique experience. Next we headed to the van, played a quick game of Patchwork (a two player game that has become our favourite on this trip), and hunkered down for the night. We talked with our new camping neighbours from Germany and a couple we camped near the days before in Guanajuato and enjoyed playing with their dogs, since Rupert doesn’t play, and talking about travels and where everyone has been and where they’re planning on going to next. Teotihuacan seemed to be on everyone’s to do list and that is where we will head towards tomorrow.
Now one thing that came up in conversation for travelling towards Teotihuacan was the hoy no circula in Mexico City and Mexico State. This is an effort to reduce pollution and haze in Mexico City and the surrounding suburbs. It means that there are driving restrictions to when you can or cannot drive in Mexico City. Since our license plate’s last digit is a 1, we are forbidden to drive on Thursdays. Also, since we haven’t been emission tested we also cannot drive on Saturdays, and since we are a foreign plate we cannot drive between 5 and 11 am, so Friday will be our day to drive without risking being issued a $2000-$4000 peso ticket for not obeying the law.
February 24 – Making moves and adulting!
After another chilly night of below 0 Celsius temperatures in the mountains it was time to make moves. We said goodbye again to our camping neighbours and talked about all the things we would need to do today. We would need to enter the State of Mexico after 11 am just to be sure we wouldn’t be at risk of not following the hoy no circula laws (we didn’t have service to check the official rules, so figured it’s better to be safe than paying 1-2 days budget on a preventable ticket).
We stopped in another Pueblo Magico called Tlalpujahua and we were surprised to see the streets full of people, stalls, and children. It turns out there was a celebration for Ignacio Lopez Rrayon who was a general during Mexico’s war on independence. There was a parade of students with drums and trumpets playing. We found a place to park and began wandering around the town. We watched a bit of the parade and then bought some fresh squeezed orange juice. We didn’t find a grocery store but we bought some tortillas from a lady on the sidewalk and literally turned around to find some homemade cheese from another lady across the way. If there’s one thing we’ve learned in smaller towns, it’s that cheese wrapped in saran wrap being sold on a street is always a good idea. After Paul popped into the local market and got meat and some vegetables for less than $10 cad, we hit the road again. We travelled approximately 271kms today, which took just over 3 hours and cost $406 pesos on tolls (not paying tolls would have taken nearly double the amount of time). *Snapchat informed us it was “Flag Day” in Mexico, so we may have stumbled on a flag day celebration, but Google could not verify that.
Once we arrived in Teotihuacan is when the real adulting began. First we had to drop off our laundry, refill our water, see about oil and the possibility of an oil change, get Paul’s retainer fixed at an orthodontist since it broke over two weeks ago, and find a place to camp for the night maybe even two nights. First we followed Google’s directions to a non-existent laundry place, but found one just up the road. On the way to an orthodontist we found a water filling store, so got our jug filled there. The Orthodontist office was closed when we arrived but Paul was able to use Whatsapp and got an appointment for 6pm that very night (a Friday night). Next we looked at where to possibly buy oil for an oil change but decided it was time to find a place to camp for the night. Our first option didn’t pan out (it was all locked up and no one was camping in the camping area) so we settled on camping across the street from the historic city of Teotihuacan. After cooking up some quick and delicious quesadillas, Kendra settled into the campsite with the table and chairs while Paul packed up the van to head to his dentist appointment. 15 minutes and $300 pesos (approximately $22 CAD) his retainer was cemented back in place! Last time this happened it cost around $200 CAD in BC, so it was nice that we didn’t blow today’s budget on dental gear. Since the budget wasn’t blown we celebrated with some Corona Mega’s (1.2 L) also known as the “ballena”/whale.
February 25 -Pyramids
We had a short 5 minute walk to the pyramids and spent hours checking out the history and the museum. All signs and explanations were in 3 languages, one being English so we forwent getting a guide and self-explored. Kendra had never been to anything like this so she enjoyed seeing this side of Mexican culture. After a few hours in the sun we were ready for a cold snack, dreaming of chamoyadas. The park only had 1 popsicle vendor, but when we left Puerte 5 our prayers had been answered. There was a lady selling raspados, diablitos, and chamoyadas! Of course we each got a mango chamoyada and enjoyed the 15 minute walk back to the campground.
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| Temple of the Sun |
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| Temple of the Moon |
Once we returned, we let Rupert out of the van and we relaxed and rehydrated. We got a few new neighbours in unimogs (look up how massive these apartments on wheels are) that dwarfed a sprinter van and we got a bit of van envy. In fact we had passed one of these unimogs in our Canadian travels a few months ago, so it was amazing to see how far these beasts can go. For the rest of the evening Paul had some work to finish up and Kendra had some Netflix to catch up on and some Instagram posts to do, so we rested and relaxed.
February 26- Budget Smudget
Since we were now awake, Paul cooked a quick breakfast and we hit the road. Since we only had $160 pesos in our possession our first plan was to take out more money from the bank. A fun fact to know is that Santander limits you to taking out $9000 pesos at a time while HSBC bank lets you take up to $15000 at a time. Since there was an HSBC bank we tried to take out $15000, unsuccessful. Then $12000, unsuccessful. With the strength of the Mexican Peso Kendra’s daily withdrawal limit was reached by those amounts so she settled on $10000 pesos. We will see how long this lasts! On the way to the bank we passed the Municipal Mercado so decided to buy some meat and vegetables there since we were running low. We purchased some vegetables, 300 grams of mystery ground meat with who knows what else in it, some pork, and then played charades to get some chicken breasts. Next, we went to the Aurera Bodega (Mexican store owned by Walmart), and bought snacks and drinks for the next few days and then it was time to hit the road.
Hitting the road today was a little more stressful than previous days. There are many warnings for travellers on the roads between Teotihuacan and Cholula with corrupt police and non-justified fines with people paying bribes to get out of tickets. In order to avoid some communities specifically mentioned we would take a longer route with tolls. We were relieved when we arrived in Cholula without having encountered any corrupt people and without being pulled over. Again, we drive the speed limits right on the dot and use cruise control, so there should be no reason for us to be pulled over. In fact, one car passed us as if we were standing still, then we passed when they were pulled over by the police, and then they passed us 10 or so minutes later still speeding, so the police are definitely doing their jobs.
We made a quick pit stop at Autozone to pick up some oil for the van, a new oil filter, and an engine and cabin air filter, since we were already spending money. It turns out that oil costs quite a bit more in Mexico than in Canada ($1500 pesos for 6 litres- over $100cad), and the cabin air filter was in a locked glass display and cost $500 pesos! Today we reached our daily budget, which felt like we blew the budget since Mexico has been costing us closer to $1000 pesos per day. Our cabin air filter was filthy and extremely clogged so it was a good thing we replaced that and we can breathe a bit easier.
After a few wrong turns and us avoiding driving down one way streets we made it to the Las Americas trailer park, which is more like an RV storage facility with a few people actually camping. Currently about 1/3 of the vehicles are occupied by campers and the other 2/3 are just parked. This campground is $250 pesos per night and has a pool, flush toilets with toilet seats and hot showers. Paul finally beat Kendra at a few games of Hive and a game of Crib and then he submitted his final project for work while Kendra vegged out, so it was a successful day.
February 27 - A 4 hour Oil Change
We had done some research and found that oil changes can be quite pricey in Mexico, but that if you buy everything you need for an oil change you can pop into a local mechanic and they will change the oil for you for relatively inexpensive. So today was the day we were going to get an oil change!
First Kendra did some research because she was planning to go to Puebla today and we were aware the city of Puebla has recently started a hoy no circula program but information translated to English was sparse. We don’t fully trust Google translate but everything we could find online said that it is different than Mexico City in that tourists MUST have a permit before entering the Puebla valley and surrounding communities. In Mexico City and surrounding communities, tourist vehicles without a permit cannot drive between 5-11 am or on the day specified by the last digit of their license plate. In Puebla and surrounding communities (the information we read stated), tourists cannot drive without having a permit on any day, and even with a permit we will not be allowed to drive on Thursdays. We followed a few links with no success and asked in a few facebook groups if anyone knew where to obtain this permit. We finally found the form to fill out and have a digital copy, although we are supposed to print it and have it taped to the window, we hope we won’t be asked for it. Talking with others online and at our campground most people are unaware of this new rule since it is currently in its first two months of being in place. Our fingers are crossed anyone stopped for this hoy no circula will be educated instead of having this new law enforced with fines up to $2900 pesos. Anyway, we have our permit and we’re ready to achieve the first task for today: an oil change.
We found a car wash that can change oil so we pulled on their ramps and sat in the van. Next thing we know there is banging, the van is rocking, a few choice words were muttered in Spanish about our mothers and some sons, and we realized something is not right. A few more tools are pulled out, some more banging, and we are told that our bolt is stuck and they don’t have the tools to remove it. Most likely it was stripped when it was installed last time we had an oil change (which was in the US- could this be another reason to hate the imperial system?). We were told to go to the mechanic around the corner. After a quick drive around the corner we found the mechanic who said he could fix it and do the oil change in a few hours. Again, the oil change would take significantly longer because the bolt was going to be a challenge to remove and then they would have to replace it. Now in Canada we usually drop a vehicle off at the mechanic if it’s going to be a while and leave it there with the keys. Paul offered to leave the keys with the van and the mechanic seemed very confused, but eventually accepted our keys and we decided to grab some lunch.
We wandered around Centro Cholula and found a restaurant serving the local specialty; Mole Poblano on just about anything you would serve saucy. Paul settled for the enchiladas while Kendra had the chilaquilles. We haven’t eaten much mole in our trip but it is a nice change, a spicy sauce made with poblano peppers, a hint of chocolate, and supposedly a minimum of 20 other ingredients.
After some more wandering and wondering about how successful the oil change would be, we headed back to the mechanic where they were finishing up with our van. For just over $500 pesos (including a few hours of labour and a new bolt) we were ready to go. The mechanic was looking for $50 pesos in change for us, but we said we are okay if he keeps the 50 pesos because we were so grateful he was able to get the bolt off, change the oil and replace the bolt (could you imagine how offended someone in Canada would be with only a $4 tip?). The mechanic tried to explain to Paul not to tighten the bolt so much, but Paul assured him he didn’t do it; that it was some gringo in the USA, but the mechanic did not see the humour in that (he probably thought Paul was the gringo in the USA who screwed up the bolt). After one last quick stop to Autozone to grab a bit more oil because we were a little low, we returned to the campsite for a dip in the pool and to enjoy the sunshine.
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| The bolt that caused so many problems! Rupert does not approve. |
After owning a house we realized renovations always take 3 times longer than you expect and we are now wondering if vehicle things will take 3 times longer because we live in our van. We accomplished one task for today, but are happy to have clean filters and clean oil for the next 8,000kms of our trip.
As always.. enjoyed reading
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