Isn't this an incredible picture? Mimi took this in the campground here in Patzcuaro, Michoacán. She thinks it is a Nashville Warbler.

We left Mérida and did some hard driving to arrive here late Friday night. We actually spent that night between here and Morelia at a Pemex and came in to the campground the next day. See a trend here? We get someplace late, decide it is too much hassle to drive into the campground then but really we hate spending money just to stay a few hours.

This is our 3rd trip to Patzcuaro, it's a beautiful town and we really like this campground. It's in the middle of a large block, way off the street and surrounded by pine trees. This area looks a lot like Colorado, blue skies, puffy white clouds, pine trees, dry air with no damn oxygen in it! It's almost 7000' in altitude, brutal! We were actually a lot higher on the way here, one pass over 10k' and around nightfall we were in Toluca a huge city at 8500'. Mimi really loves me because she said she wasn't tired and she would keep going to get us a little lower so I didn't have to spend the night up in Toluca. That morning we had left Orizaba in the state of Veracruz at around 1500', in 2 days we've gone from sea level to here. No slow acclimating.

We both ended up pretty sick from the altitude. This is embarrassing for Mimi the Colorado native. She's just been too long at sea level. We were supposed to meet some friends here but it didn't work out and we spent a couple days with headaches, joint aches, stomach aches. We were so sick we didn't even set up the internet dish for 2 days. I took this picture of our dish with the color changing light we put on it. Cool huh?

We did get into town for dinner and to search for dog food. This dog food search can be amusing. When all this started coming out about the rat poison in dog food in the US we decided to start feeding our dogs the BARF diet. It stands for Bones And Raw Food, you can google it. The important part is that we have to find raw meat and bones for the dogs, it's not as easy as buying a 25lb bag of dog food and not worrying about it for weeks. I thought I had us covered for the trip, I had frozen little packets of chicken and chicken livers for each day. Who would believe that our once homeless street dogs would not like chicken livers? Nope, turned up their noses at them. So, I had to use the next days food and then we ran short. When we got here we were too beat up from the altitude the first day so I made them a yummy dinner of rice, raw egg and yogurt. But by the 2nd day I had to go looking for raw meat.

This is the "real Mexico" and there are no big box stores nearby with nicely packaged meat and chicken. I had to find a carniceria or butcher shop. Once I found it I had to figure out what to order, my spanish is rather weak in beef parts. When I arrived the butcher was busy hacking up half a cow, I pointed to a likely looking chunk and asked for it. It was some joint or another so I asked him to cut it into smaller chunks as the bone was huge. He suggested deboning and cutting it into nice thin fillets but I had him cut it into pretty big chunks right through the bone. I wasn't about to tell the guy that it was for my dogs, I'm pretty sure he would have been insulted. As it was, he looked at me a little weird and probably wondered what kind of odd gringo dish I was going to make. I was back again the next day and picked another likely looking hunk of beef to have cut into large chunks. He remembered me and now I know he was thinking I was pretty weird. I went to a different butcher the next day as I was too embarrassed to return.

The dogs are loving the raw steak though, I don't know how well they are going to like it when we get back to the US where the beef is much more expensive and they are going to get a lot more chicken parts.

This is the campground we're at, our little spot of pastoral beauty outside of town. There is a great mix of people staying here and we've had a lot of fun happy hours and late night chats. That's one of the things I love about RVing, the camaraderie and the chance to meet and talk with so many different people from all over.

This is Mimi working hard to get us on the road to Mérida! It's really just a pic of our condo and how comfortable it is and why it is so hard to leave.

We did get going though, but not until 10pm Sunday night. We arrived in Mérida at 2:30am and spent the night at the Liverpool parking lot next door to the RV park. Hey, we're cheap and didn't want to pay $250 pesos for a couple of hours sleep. We moved into the RV park the next day.

Our meeting with the attorney was in the afternoon so we went over to see the house again. It's still a ruin and we still like it so that part is good. I took a lot more pictures but I will spare you most of them, just this one of the front of the house.

OK, just one more. This is the incredible tree that is growing on the wall of the house next door. It turns out that the actual house next door had a For Sale sign on it and we were tempted. On looking at the pictures though it appears that the lot does not go back as far as ours does and this tree may be on another lot off a different street. We mainly just loved the tree, the house didn't appeal to us much. We asked and there was already an offer on it so we didn't pursue it.

We met with the attorney and got to see his boss's private collection of Mayan artifacts. Pretty amazing stuff. We signed the papers for the fideicomiso and some other stuff and that was that. The actual closing will be in a few weeks and we don't have to be present for it.

The next afternoon we met with the architect and that went really well. He thinks he can start the design sooner than he had said originally. We talked about how we would live in the house, what we wanted to see and I warned him that I would be sending him a lot of emails with pictures and ideas. I hope I don't inundate him and make him crazy. It's a hard line for me, I have so many ideas and so many things I want to do there but I don't want to stifle his ideas. I wonder if I should wait to see what he comes up with first. I've never worked with an architect before, this is all new to me.

We also stopped at the Gran Hotel to make reservations for my son Dupre and his wife Ginny + their friends Scott and Lisa. This is a picture of the inner patio on one floor of rooms, are those doors not gorgeous? They are going to be in our condo next week and wanted to come over to Mérida to see this ruin the mom bought. I'm really happy that they are going to see the house and the city. I hope they love it as much as I do, in fact I really hope they will want to come and visit often.

I'm sure none of you are surprised to discover that we are still in Akumal. I should just never say when we think we are going to leave because we never leave then. It's tough, really tough, to compress all your stuff back into 100 square feet of space when you've been spread all over hell and back in a 2 bedroom condo for 3 months. I'm not kidding, we didn't buy anything, we didn't add to the stuff, it's like the George Carlin routine, it just expanded.

So, when I got an appointment to see the architect in Mérida on Tuesday, I called and it was fine to see the Notario on Monday instead of Saturday, like you think this important lawyer is really going to see us on a Saturday? Maybe, but now we don't have to find out.

Instead of continuing the frantic packing, we of course slowed down and relaxed. Hey, we had 2 extra days. Tonight it is looking a little grim as tomorrow we really, really have to leave.

So now you are wondering if these pictures are just representations of our last few days, great clouds of stuff swirling around us....

No, it is the season of the waterspout here and the first two were taken today by Mimi. It looks like it is on land but in fact, those houses are on a point and behind them is Akumal Bay. The waterspout is still on the water.

The third pic I took on Friday, that one is straight out from our condo.

Pretty awesome looking, no? Luckily we are not from tornado country so we are not scared. People who have been there when they come ashore say that it is like having a bucket of water thrown in your face. They also rearrange all the plastic tables and chairs that are so popular here in the land of rust but they don't do much damage.

Things are better between the dog siblings owners and Chico came over today to say goodbye to his brother and sister. They went down on the beach next to the building and played and played. First, the start of the game... the stare down.

Then the spin and race in circles and wrestling start.

It's mainly the boys who do this part, Chica is a little more dignified and she is waiting to impress on them her dominance as soon as they get tired. She is definitely the one who must be obeyed. She will jump in the fray sometimes but if either of them get too rough with her she gets really mad and they know she is not playing. They both cower and crouch down until the Queen is happy again.

The twins, Chico and Chica. Aren't they cute?

I'm afraid to write it down but really, we are going to blow out of this town tomorrow and arrive in Mérida 5 hours later. I don't know if we'll put the dish up or not, but I may use the wireless at the real estate office to post.

We drove down to Punta Allen last week, it is at the tip of the Sian Kian preserve south of Tulum. Everyone always wants to know about the road, so here's the update. The road is definitely better, it's been graded in places and as you can see, they are still working on it. We had to wait about 15 minutes for this scraper to get done and let us by. It's still pretty bad with potholes and washboard in one stretch. Still, big improvement from years past and really big improvement since the hurricanes 2 years ago.

It took us about an hour and a half in our jeep with some stops to get the 40 or so miles to Punta Allen. I love the town, it's what all these Caribbean towns used to be like even when we first started coming here. Sand streets, relaxed life, people sitting around in the heat of the day.

We picked up a couple of beers here, sat around and talked, walked on the beach a little, enjoyed the day.

That kind of relaxation is sounding pretty good right now. We are in the throes of packing up Tortuga to head out on Friday. My dentist trips are over for now, all is wonderful. Plus, we got a call that all the paperwork on the house in Mérida is ready and we need to get over there to pay for the fideicomiso and meet with the Notario. It's all moving fast now. They want to close in 2 weeks but we won't be back in the US by then so I'm hoping to stall it for a month.

Anyway, back to our road trip. I took this pic of an old pier in Punta Allen. I just love the colors of the Caribbean, it's not unique, there were equally beautiful colors in the waters around Palau when we were there. But, if you add in the powder white sand and the relaxed feel... there's just nothing like it.

On the way back we stopped a couple times to walk along the beach. This is what a "wild" Caribbean beach looks like, beautiful and untamed not manicured and swept. There are more waves here too because the reef is farther out and not continuous.

Unfortunately, this is the view in the other direction. Plastic is the bane of the Earth's oceans. This probably came off boats or from towns far from here. Every beach collects mounds of plastic that washes ashore, they remove it early in the morning at the resorts so you never see it. It's there though and there is a lot of it. It's on the reefs, trapped by the coral and swept by the currents across the oceans. It drowns turtles and kills seabirds and it never rots and never goes away. It's so sad that we have done this to such beauty.

Ever ridden a bike through the top of the jungle?

What have we been doing? Not a lot but stuff involved with buying the house in Mérida, stuff with getting ready to leave here, dentist, seeing friends, dentist, riding SkyCycles through the jungle, dentist. Did I say dentist? Yeah, I thought I would be done and we would leave this weekend. Heh! No. I go back on Wednesday and hopefully will be done then. We will go to Mérida and then head for Michoacán.

So, we went over to Hidden Worlds with our friend Sandy and tried out the new SkyCycles. It's really cool, I'm calling it the Geezer Ride because even I could do it and the goal is to go slow, and quiet and alone and see things. That's Sandy, who is clearly NOT a geezer, getting ready to take off and heading out into the jungle in the SkyCycle.

These very ingenious guys went out through the jungle and strung a cable up in the canopy. They modified some bikes so that you recline and pedal yourself along on the cable through the jungle at whatever speed you want. They leave about 15 minutes between people so that you are out there alone.

There are no trails underneath you, just jungle. You're up at times about 50' I guess, right under the top of the canopy.

You look down on water filled caves or cenotes, rampant growth, bromeliads, orchids, palms. You can stop and listen to the birds, look for foxes and other animals, take pictures. It's really cool.

It's pretty level cycling, the occasional rises are done slowly and weren't hard. The downhills are also slow but since you can't coast they are almost harder as your feet are moving faster on the pedals.

I leaned way out to the side and took this pic with my foot in it for perspective, this was about the highest point. Did I mention that you are wearing a harness and hooked to the cycle? That's all good, you won't fall to the ground but you would be on a pretty good zip line zooming to the next bracket with no brakes. The brakes are on the handle bars above.

About a kilometer out and almost half way, you drop down into a cenote. They have a guy waiting for you before the drop who hooks a line onto you and helps with the braking as you go down. This is a pic looking down into the mouth of the cenote.

At this point, most people take a snorkle tour of the cenote. We opted out of that, we are all divers and have been in a lot of cenotes. It would be great for the cooling factor, after 30 or 40 minutes up in the jungle, diving into a cool cenote would be nice.

Instead we walked around a bit in the cool cenote bottom, there's a ladder so you could go up on top if you wanted. This cenote has a hole in the top that lets in a shaft of light, a small plant grows on an island where the light hits. Nature is so wonderful.

Heading back, you go through two more cenotes while you are still low to the ground. It's neat, just riding on through the cenote, low and slow, trailing your feet in the water if you want.

Looking out from a cenote is always beautiful, I've only done it from the water when we surfaced in one from a dive and then went down again and on. I think the fact that there are no trails and no visible disturbance of the jungle floor make this ride what it is.

Of course, I'm always fascinated by the bromeliads and orchids and other air plants. I'm not great with the names though, it bugs me that I don't remember what they all are.

We climbed back up to the canopy after the cenotes and I got some pics of bromeliads in bloom and orchids. It's the end of the dry season now so not a lot is blooming. This would be a fantastic trip in the rainy season.

Another kilometer or so of dense jungle up in the canopy. I was a little closer to Mimi this time, I could see her in the distance and used the 12x zoom to get this pic.

Then back into the jungle buggy for the ride back to the office and the road. It's about 5 kilometers in from the road, maybe more.

Such fun huh? If you're down here, I recommend going to Hidden Worlds and trying one of their adventures. They also offer cenote snorkle trips, cenote dives, and zip line adventures. Tell them Jonna and Mimi sent you.