August 19, 2019 – September 7th, 2019
We made our way to Winnipeg, Manitoba, where we had booked a hotel room for two nights. We had been wild camping for a few days so we were both looking forward to a shower and we needed to get some laundry done. We didn’t end up doing much more in Winnipeg than that, other than enjoying having extra space, a television and take out food delivered to our door.
Continue readingApril 8, 2018 – April 15, 2018
We had booked a “roof-top cabin” in the historic centre of Montevideo for a week. We tried to pack light, but we were going to be without our truck for about 7.5 weeks, so the bags ended up being pretty heavy, despite our best efforts. We struggled with our bags and Piper through the streets of Montevideo, quickly overheating in the midday sun. We arrived at our building, hauled our bags up two interior flights of stairs and were led to an outdoor, circular, metal stairway that would lead us to the roof and our accommodations. We certainly did not anticipate the drama that was about to unfold.
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March 24 – April 1, 2018
The drive to the small town of Jalapa near the border of Honduras and Nicaragua took us through several small villages. The road was so much better than the ones in Honduras….it was made of paving stones and we came across a few crews working on repairing sections of it along the way. All along the road, power poles, traffic signs, trees and boulders were painted black and red with the letters FSLN painted on them, a reminder of the recent civil war in the country and the highly political nature of life in Nicaragua. Very often, even peoples’ clothing seems to reflect this colour combination with red shirts and grey pants or skirts.
El Chiflon is one of many sites in Chiapas that are run by an indigenous cooperative group called Paraisos Indigenas (Indigenous Paradises). We arrived at the falls later in the day with the plan of sleeping in the parking lot, but when we got there, we were once again enticed to book a cabin for the night (600 pesos, about $40).
We decided to head back to the coast and headed towards a camping spot about half way we saw on iOverlander where there was a nice river and some more caves. After a few hours of driving we turned off of the main highway and were in a small village that appeared to be quite poor. We needed some groceries for the evening and drove around looking for a tienda.
As we wait for storm season to pass in Mexico, we are dividing our time between our cabin in the Columbia Valley in British Columbia, and various family and friends in and around Calgary.
Our cabin is very rustic. It is 289 square feet, 60 or 70 years old and of douglas fir construction. It was salvaged about 16 years ago from Kootenay Nat’l Park near Radium Hot Springs when the Addison Cabins’ land lease was not renewed. We used it for years without running water or electricity. Then for awhile we had both. Currently we are again without running water due to burst pipes that we have decided not to repair. It is hard to keep them from freezing in winter.
Well, we are now officially homeless! We handed over the keys to our house to our tenants yesterday, convoyed in the truck and my car for some last errands around Calgary, then drove out to our tiny cabin in British Columbia. We will be back and forth between the cabin and Calgary for about the next month while we wait for hurricane season in Mexico to end, then we will start our drive south.