Valle de Juárez, Mexico

Our home in Valle de Juárez, Mexico is this large trailer. It has all the comforts of home and we thank Sal and Bard for letting us have use of it for our vacation.

Morning breakfast usually consist of cereal and toast but today we were off to "La Cocinita" for breakfast.
Doug and Nancy have been here several times and love the food and especially the people who work here.

This is truly a traditional Mexican cafe. When you enter there is the aroma of fresh coffee and tortillas cooking on a wood burning stove. Need an orange juice? Here you can get a glass of freshly squeezed juice and it does not cost you a fortune.

My breakfast had an assortment of flavours, from the retried beans to the green and red peppers on the eggs. Have to visit this place again before we leave.

After breakfast it was off to see more sights in town. Previous picture show hand made tortillas, the following is an automated tortilla store. Customers come here to get their fresh tortillas ever day. The dough is placed in the hopper and within a couple of minutes a baked tortilla is ready to go. I think the homemade ones taste better!

Off to the market where you can fine all types of fresh fruits and vegetables. It would be nice to have these markets back home.

Fresh peppers at the market. How hot are these peppers? Small pieces add a lot of flavour and heat to your meals.

For our dinner Nancy suggested we get come cooked pork to make carnitas. At "El Retiro" a local restaurant they also set up an outdoor kitchen to slow cook the pork in a large vat. Nancy ordered "carnitas light" which had less fat on it. Most Mexicans prefer more fat with the meat but we got the diet version.



Chema, the owner of the restaurant had us come in for a drink. How can you get more traditional than a lime, mescal and Mexican beer? Since Doug and Nancy have been regular customers he made this round of drinks on the house. Thank you very much for this treat!

Off to Sal and Barb's home for a view of the valley. The workers were doing some of the finishing touches and were applying plaster to the exterior brick walls. I think of it as the castle at the top of the mountain.

Barb, Nancy and Danna looking out over the valley.

Even though Doug is retired he cannot help himself when it comes to organizing things. Here he is with Barb setting up a new registration sheet for the RV Park, "Hacienda Contraras".

That night we had our carnitas with the fresh tortillas. There was even enough left to make sandwiches for tomorrow's lunch.

"Take only memories, Leave only footprints"

Mazamitla Mexico

The architecture of Mexico is similar to some of the buildings we saw in Europe. Tile roofs are seen on everything. From small barns through to beautiful homes.

While in Mazamitla I noticed the plaster that had come off this wall. Underneath the plaster finish coat is the traditional adobe brick.

Two ladies on the loose in Mazamitla.

Walking down the street we heard a dog barking and here he is, a Giant Schnauzer. This picture is for our schnauzer, "Maggie".

From these pictures you can see that the roads and buildings came first and then electric street lighting. Mexican ingenuity was needed to place the lamp standards on the sidewalk and still clear the overhanging roof.

The clip clop sound of horses is a common sound in the smaller towns.

There were a couple of kids surrounding this lady. In her hands she was holding a nest that had some small birds in it. From what we could understand she had rescued the birds and was hand feeding them.

There was a festival in town and the ice cream vender was ready to do a brisk business. Ozzie was a very friendly fellow. Here he is with his wife.

What would a Mexican festival be without a Mariachi Band? When they saw the camera they all turned and smiled at us.
Everyone was in a festive mood!

A huge tent was set up in the town square. A band was playing so we went in to get a better look. A friendly lady came by with a tray full of drinks and gave each of us a glass at no cost, thank you! The drinks are called "Vampiros"

What do you need to make a Vampiro? Here are the ingredients - tequila, limes, salt, Squirt® citrus soda and Viuda de Sanchez mixer. For this occasion they were making the drinks in 40 litre containers.

Price to use the washroom is only 3 pesos or $0.25 compared to €1.50 or $2.10 it was in Venice last year.

"Take only memories, Leave only footprints"

Rural Mexico

One morning I went for a walk around the park and found this lime tree. Found it strange to see fresh limes in April. We used a couple of them in our Margaritas that night.

Nancy bought a chair from this roadside vendor. He had an assortment of stools, chairs and tables upholstered in leather. I was amazed to see the man sitting in the chair had polished shoes with all the dust around here.

On our first day here we went to see the small dairy farm. Today we see a herd of cattle walking alongside the road. One of the cows decided to walk in front of us just as we got close to it. Good thing the van has good brakes.

Beglaws and Bortolins at the park


Walking down the stairs we had a good view of the waterfall. The cool spray was very refreshing on this hot, muggy day.

The park had an enclosure with sheep, chickens and a couple of warthogs. Nancy walked over to another cage and the bird came over and put it's head close to the fence so that Nancy could scratch it's head.
Very friendly little critter.

It was good to see that recycling programs are being encouraged at this park.

The little girl in the picture is Maria and she was in the square with her brother and grandmother. Granny said it was OK to take their picture. She has beautiful eyes.

Seems to be a common thing for us to see cows on our trip. Another herd crossed the road in front of us.



Church in Conception de Buenos Aires

These trees with purple flowers are seen an all areas of Mexico.

I wonder how may kilometres to a bale of hay this horse gets. Someone had ridden him into town and tied him up while they were shopping.

This sign says the restaurant is closed on Wednesday and Thursday.We were too busy talking and did not notice The sign. The owner apologized that they were closed and then remembered that Nancy told him she would be back with visitors from Canada. Next thing you know we were sitting at a table eating chicken fajitas.Talk about great customer service!

Relaxed lunch with an orange tarp over our heads to shade us from the sun

Danna & Nancy looking in all the shops.


This is one very hard working man. He would take a full wheelbarrow of the adobe mixture to where he would place it into the wooden form. Look close and you will see he is not wearing anything on his feet. Before I took these pictures I asked if it was OK, they smiled and said "OK".


Another brick for the wall. After letting the bricks dry on one side they are placed on edge to let the other side to dry.

"Take only memories, Leave only footprints"