Last full day in Newfoundland

Today the weather was really crappy with overcast skies,occasional downpours and light mist all day long. Yuck!

We left our Air bnb shortly before 11 AM and slowly worked our way south east of the city to Petty Harbour and our favourite Newfoundland Restaurant "Chafe's Landing" where we had our usual seafood chowder and then split a 2 piece plate of lightly battered fresh codfish coupled (this time) with a really yummy Caesar salad.

With time to kill and really nasty weather we headed north to see some small towns on the north side of the city.

Later, (about 3 PM) we visited Avalon mall where I saw this T shirt in a store. Had a good laugh!

 From there we went to our hotel to check in. We requested the airport shuttle for 10 AM tomorrow morning only to be informed that the shuttle was in for servicing and they didn't know when it was coming back. And that was the extent of their conversation.NO apologies or anything. Weird. I went back to the front desk after we dropped our stuff in the room and said that the shuttle was the only reason we were even staying here and quite quickly the lady said they would pay for a cab for us. I can't imagine we are the only people here needing the shuttle.

We dropped the car off at 4 PM and asked them to drive us back to the hotel. We put 4453 kms on it. Considering St John's to St. Anthony is 1100 km (each way) we did a lot of extra driving!

About 7 PM we decided to head down the street to the Denny's we went to when we first arrived but a minute or two outside in the cold, rainy conditions convinced us to see what the hotel restaurant had on the menu. We selected nachos. Hmmmm-not so good. Caro called the salsa "marmalade" because it was so sweet. Not one bit of "zip" in it.

We will watch Survivor tonight (comes on at 9:30 PM) and hopefully get a good night sleep.

South from St.John's

Today was the last day for serious driving.

First,we tidied up a bit. Some clothes items were never used.

Yup, swimming suit and shorts just took up space; actually the swim suit was "just in case" we ever stayed in a place with a pool but I thought the shorts might have gotten some use! Ha!- this vacation has probably been the worst we have ever had weather wise (but as always we have had a fantastic time).

Our first stop as we traveled down the east side of the peninsula was at Ferryland-the home of Lord Baltimore's first colony

Established in 1621 (one year after Cupids) it was apparently the capital of English Newfoundland. The French destroyed the original town in 1697 (as they did shortly thereafter at Cupids). We got lucky here because normally you pay to go to the "dig" but the office/visitor centre was closed for the season. A school road trip was happening at the time we arrived so we assume the site may have been opened up for them and we were able to "sneak a listen" to a local guide explaining some things. We got  most of our info from the placards located around the site however as we really couldn't "blend in" with the group ha ha.

Next we started driving around the coast line looking for nice views. There were many today.

We had high overcast clouds with the odd sprinkle or two but nothing too difficult to deal with. In fact I got out of the car at one point when we were on the "tundra" area between the east and west coasts and had to deal with mosquitoes.

We drove the remainder of that portion of the peninsula circling back through St. Mary's and then straight north before hitting the Trans Canada and turning east to St.John's. We were only gone for about five hours so we had time to to head back downtown St. John's for grand kids souvenir shopping and a meal at one of the down town pubs. Good food!

Tomorrow is our final full day here in St. John's. We leave this basement suite in the morning. We have slept beautifully here and this place really suited us nicely. Our car rental is to be returned by five and we have a room rented at the same place we stayed at the first night we arrived.

Howling Winds-Part 2

We were out the door about 10 AM heading north west.

Our first stop was the town of Cupids. I don't remember reading about this important town before but once we got there and saw a new building called the Cupids Legacy Centre we decided to check it out. What a good decision that was! It turns out this town is the first English town in North America, founded in 1610; ten years before the pilgrims landed in Plymouth. The centre showcased this towns' many "firsts" and was really interesting. I have found that I really did not know much of Newfoundlands long European history so I am always happy with each museum we stop at with what I am learning. In 1910 the town decided to hold its' 300th anniversary and as part the celebration they acquired a massive union jack flag. That flag is in the centre and is so big it is hanging folded in half. We were told it is the second biggest union jack in the world (second only to the one flying at Buckingham Palace).

With that unexpected pleasure completed we headed north to the small city of Bay Roberts. There is a well known hiking trail there called Shoreline Trail. It is about 6.3 kms long and has only a height variance of 100 metres. Of course we had winds at 40 bazillion kms/hr making walking difficult at times. The first half of trail is truly wonderful with beautiful views and paths sometimes beside the sea cliffs. The second part is just getting back to the start using the roads in the area.

There were also historical markers and you could see where old settlements used to be located at.

The remainder of the day was driving around looking at the scenery and the small towns. Quite nice. Also,because the Jimmy Kimmel show from the US has been making fun of the town of Dildo we had to go there. Mehhh. But...the town has been there since the mid 1700's so I think the name came first and the new meaning of dildo came much later.

Supper was purchased at Sobey's again.

Sunday hiking

Another great sleep and by the "crack" of 10:30 we were out the door to Signal Hill.

Getting there turned out to be a bit of an adventure as a marathon was being run and we ended up driving all over the place to get to the proper access road for the hill.

We parked near the bottom and walked up using the goat paths etc ending up (initially) at the Queens Battery-located a ways beneath the highest point. We continued upwards and soon were at the top. From there we hiked down using the numerous steps and pathways built along the edge of the cliff. At one point there was a chain to hang on to prevent getting blown off the side. And of course it was extremely windy! But it was blue sky.

The trail (seen in the photo above) ended up in the tiny enclave called Quidi Vidi. It is very much like a typical cliff hugging village here in Newfoundland although it is well within St.John's.

With that 90 minute hike over we headed back down south to Petty Harbour to the restaurant we ate at yesterday. We had the same thing; seafood chowder and fish and chips. Mmmm Good. The chowder is made in-house and the fish is purchased daily from the local fishermen. Below is a photo of the harbour there.

After that we drove around for over an hour exploring new territory for us. We finally stopped at the local sea side park located maybe a kilometre from here.

It turns out the park is located on part of the Eastern Coast Trail so we took the opportunity to hike about a kilometre of the trail before turning back.

Supper was a few items purchased at the nearby Sobeys.

We also got word from Andrea (our hostess) that her reservation for the next couple of days had cancelled out and the place was ours-Great news! Also we are not using Air Bnb for this so instead of paying about $74/night we are paying $50.

HOWLING WINDS

A great night's sleep last night followed by a lazy morning. A glance out the window indicated lousy day with rain/mist and very windy.

We had heard that Petty Harbour, located just south of St. John's was pretty and it sure was. A beautiful little fishing village that was had tourist buses coming into its' narrow winding streets.

The photo above is a panorama shot of the harbour entrance and town.

We ate lunch in wonderful cafe there. I had seafood chowder. Super delicious (made right at the cafe).
Next we off to Cape Spear. Now that was an experience. The wind was insane! While walking up to the light house we saw an older gentlemen actually lose his balance and get blown off his feet.We helped him up and asked if he needed our help to which he said "no"; only a second or two later to almost get blown down again! We grabbed him and got him safely to a nearby bench. He looked pretty scared at that point. We then proceeded up the hill to get his wife and let her know of his issues. We assume they were from the cruise ship P&O Arcadia (just in from Southampton we believe).

The hill has an interesting history from the days of WW2.

There was a fishing boat out near the Cape as well. I suppose that for those fishermen the weather wasn't too much out of the ordinary.

We wanted to tour a bit more just north of the city but the weather got too rainy so we headed back to the Air Bnb where Caro washed clothes. We ventured out a couple of times to pick up supper etc. but that was basically it for our day.

Whales

A great sleep last night and by 9:30 we were on our way to Bay Bulls for a boat tour.

It is late in the tour boat season but we lucked out big time because we saw a couple of whales (it may have been the same one, just at a different location). It was a juvenile humpback and it was feeding right beside an island, at times coming right up beside the rocks there. The boat guide was saying they hadn't seen this before. While looking through my binoculars I saw the tail come out completely when it dived. How cool is that?

I also wanted to see puffins, which we did. These juvenile birds were too small and fast to get a photo but I was able to see them very nicely using the binoculars. We didn't really need binoculars to see them because they were swimming nearby and flying around but the binoculars were a great help

After the tour we headed into St John's where we walked the downtown, visited "The Rooms" (I think it must be the provincial museum), then toured Signal Hill. 

A panorama shot of the harbour and harbour entrance from Signal Hill (photo above)

We have quickly realized that there isn't enough to keep us busy here as we had hoped so we have been looking at how to utilize our remaining time. I even phoned Westjet to see how much it would cost to come home early (too much!). Time will tell how it goes

Air Bnb contacted the host of the Bonavista house we screwed up on and requested a partial or full refund (they did this as per our request- it was a faint hope that we might get a bit back). The host said "no" as was his right to do so. Interestingly the host then left a review of us on Air Bnb. This left us in a quandary. We can't see the review until we write one (which I wasn't planning to do). What if he gives us a terrible review because of what happened? This would make us look bad and future hosts might reject us. So I wrote a review saying I couldn't give a truthful review because I paid for a night I didn't use. I also explained what happened, expressing (twice) that it was my fault and the host was within his rights to accept our reservation and charge us. His review of us said he would host us again. Hmmm

Paradise!

Well, Paradise on two fronts today.

First of all it was a full day of sunshine and second,we are in the St. John's suburb of Paradise.

We started the day by heading to Placentia. This was a nice trip as we first toured Fort Royal at Castle Hill Historic Site. We hiked some of the same paths that have been hiked for over two hundred years. Pretty neat.

Afterwards we headed to the town site and after some chili at Timmies we went to the O'Reilly house for a tour. A Victorian/Edwardian house, it was really neat.

Upon leaving we made the decision to head to St. John's and do day trips from here. We found an Air Bnb apartment for about $73/night and it is located in the town of Paradise in the basement suite with the owners living upstairs. We will be here for 4 nights and have told the owner we will stay two extra (if her previous reservations cancel out for next Monday and Tuesday).

We went to the local Dominion store (Loblaws- same as Superstore)

Tonight after a late meal purchased at the store I got on line with Airbnb  to see what could be done about the non-stay I got charged for in Bonavista. It was our fault for how things went and it will be up to the owner to decide if we get a refund (or partial one). Time will tell on that.

Bonavista and area

Last night's situation with Air Bnb turned out to be for the best as the regular Bnb we got in the nearby town of Elliston was fabulous. The house itself had a strong curry smell (which we knew about from reading reviews) so we "sucked it up" because we are not fond of curry. The lady owner of the place was amazing and after a wonderful breakfast of basically "home cooked" everything she told us all of the great things that we could do in this rainy, windy type of day.She was right!

We were out her door at 10 AM and went 100 metres down the road to a very well done display/museum on the life and times (and tragedy's) of the life of a seal hunter. Very well worth the few dollars we spent to get in (and we are "seniors" here for most entries).

From there we backtracked a few kilometers to the town of Port Union. This town was essentially the vision of one man who got fishermen to band together to form a co-op and live and work in together for their own betterment. They had electric power in town before most cities did. Some of the town has been rebuilt (with much to go yet). The museum stop was worth every penny as part of it included a tour of the old linotype newspaper and how it all works; our guide for that part was the old fellow who learned (as a young man) from the last newspaper owner on how to operate all its  many printing  components.

Once this fascinating tour was completed we drove back to Bonavista where we completed three separate tours. The first was the Mockbeggar Plantation (basically farming on the flat area next to the sea); the second was a drive out to the light house (and being able to go up into it to see how it actually worked). The third was called the Ryan Premises which was the restored buildings of an extremely well off family in the 1800's with the last name of Ryan. These people were a merchant family and like most merchants in those days they were usually hated by the fishermen and sealers-hence the founding of the town in Port Union which aimed to take some control away from  the merchant families controlling all aspects of the fishermen's lives. They used a barter system called "truck" as there wasn't much physical money around and of course the merchants controlled the local economy (like the "company "coal towns in Alberta).

About 4:30 ish we started driving off the peninsula taking a secondary highway along the north shore. The waves were crashing and the sea was really roiled up. Great photos ops to be had!

The road was totally awful with many areas in desperate need of repair; you know it is bad when you can't even get the car up anywhere near speed limit!

We had a grand total of ZERO minutes of sunshine today and had howling winds for most of our time.

We are staying at a Quality Inn at Clarenville and tomorrow we will be on the Avalon Peninsula where St. John's is- although we won't be there tomorrow (I don't think anyway)

Elliston/Bonavista

Interesting day.

We started off driving in the mist/light rain that has been so typical of our vacation time.

Three hours later we were on the Bonavista Peninsula and no longer in crappy wet weather, but simply overcast, 10 degrees and very windy.

Our first stop was Trinity and oh my; it was a beautiful old town to visit! The building guides were very informative and we enjoyed speaking with them. One of our "long ago" relatives probably came here as a fisherman.

After touring the town we drove around to the lighthouse-the location of which,"back in the day", was a site of a French fort and later an English one. Judging by the wind we were enduring I can't imagine it being much fun back then living there.

The photo shows Trinity-as seen from the other side of the bay

We then drove around to the north side of the same bay and hiked one of the premier must-do hikes in Newfoundland; called Skerwink. A 5.3 kilometre hike along the seaside cliffs it was monumental. The views were outstanding. The weather mostly co-operated with only strong winds but at least no rain!

Truly a wonderful hike!

Very late in the afternoon after driving 30ish minutes to Bonavista we started  looking for accommodation. It was "a lesson learned" type of evening as we couldn't seem to find anything available at a reasonable price. We found an Air Bnb place for $100 plus taxes so I booked that BUT did not get an immediate response to the request and didn't realize until shortly afterwards that the website indicated the owner "usually" responds within an hour to confirm.  DAMN.  It was already too late and we were running out of options My mistake! I messaged the owner that we weren't coming and thought he would see that message and not confirm the booking but NO, he confirmed it 90 minutes later (at about 8 PM). We had picked up another Bnb in a close by town by then. It was my mistake and will cost us about $112. Oh well. No more Air Bnb rentals that aren't done well into the future.

An unfortunate situation but one of our own making.

Back in Grand Falls-Windsor

We were up early, checked out of the motel shortly after 8 AM and five minutes later were at the Grenfell house to conclude yesterdays museum visit . We love this house (built in 1909-1910) and enjoyed viewing the contents (most of which are original to the family).

After leaving the house/museum we drove back out to the lighthouse to look for whales but none were visible (probably headed south by now anyway) so after a breakfast at Timmies we hit the road. The first two hours were not pleasant with the same kind of weather and road conditions as yesterday. 

Eventually things smartened up, and while not sunny at least the roads dried off and I could run with cruise control and easily manoeuvre around the pot holes and ruts.

North of Gros Morne Park we stopped at a place we had wanted to see yesterday but the weather was too nasty then. Today was the day! The park is called Arches Provincial Park and it sure was pretty. The grains of sand are a bit "chunky" but the view was nice. ha-ha

Later we passed the parking lot for the fjord boat tour we took two days ago and it was clear we had chosen the best day as both yesterday and today would have been awful to be out on that fjord lake ("If" the tours were even held).

Soon we were through Gros Morne Park (by-passing Rocky Harbour) and stopped at Deer Lake for a breather. Here Caro took over driving (the final two hours of the seven hour driving day) and I am glad she did because I was getting tired. Caro had to deal with Trans Canada Highway traffic and numerous small rainstorms.

While driving we were debating back and forth if we should stop at Grand Falls-Windsor or carry on to Gander ( a further hour). At one point we had decided on an Air BnB place in Grand Falls so I decided to book it, however as I was in the process of booking on-line we entered a "no service" cell area so the booking never got completed. Once back into a "service" area we changed our minds and were looking at places in Gander but eventually confirmed our Grand Falls Air BnB thought only to find the apartment had been rented to someone else! Oh well.

We got a motel room instead and after a sub for supper we have spent a couple hours in the room relaxing. It is raining again-go figure!

L'anse Aux Meadows

We woke up to an overcast sky with light rainfall (just like the forecast said) and by 8:40 AM we were on the road. It has been a long time since I drove in such terrible conditions. The weather, combined with deplorable road surfaces at times made for an exhausting 4 hours getting to L'anse aux Meadows. I am sure that when the road is dry it is easy enough to go around potholes and obviously not have to deal with hydro planing however this was not the case for us! On the positive side the rain stopped about 40 minutes before L'anse aux Meadows so that was a plus!

We arrived at 1:10, toured the museum, and at 2 PM, after watching a film we, along with a dozen others, had a guide give us a description and tour of the settlement. Very interesting!

The outline of the house in the photo is believed to be that of Leif Erickson (from the year 1000 AD). Super Cool!

Of course we had to showing off our inner Viking!

We left the site shortly after and were in St.Anthony by 4:10 which gave us enough time to start seeing the Grenfell exhibit. They closed at 5 PM but our ticket is good for tomorrow so we will finish off before heading back south.

We ate supper at the Lighthouse restaurant-it was over priced for the small amount of food we got but we had more local food and a local rum so all was good in the end. The restaurant was located at the end of town so there was a nice viewpoint and a few trails that we were briefly on before the 10 degree windy weather had as back in the car where we drove around the town.

We are in our motel room planning tomorrow's adventures.

Western Brook Pond Tour

Today we took a boat tour on a fjord called Western Brook Pond here in Gros Morne. This tour was the main reason we came to this park and we were greatly impressed with it.

After a breakfast (at the same place we were at yesterday) we headed up towards the location of the boat tour (about 30 minutes north of here). We, along with everyone else taking the tour, had picked a fantastic day full of sunshine which we all enjoyed as we walked three kilometres to the boat dock area.

The boat was on its way by 12:30 and before too long we were in the fjord. OMG!!!

The tallest cliff is about 700 metres high ( 150 metres taller than the CN tower) and our boat got right beside these cliffs.

There were quite a few waterfalls and really,everything was very interesting.

This photo was taken at the end of the lake and we were told that the famous photo used in many of the Newfoundland tourist advertisements was taken about three quarters of the way up the mountain located in the far distance. The hike to get to that point is an 8-10 hour return walk. Not for us this time!!

Our boat ride concluded with one of the boat staff singing typical Newfoundland songs. He was a great singer and a great performer with lots of good banter going with the crowd. He got lots of tips from everyone (including us of course). It really was an awesome finish to our time there.

We also did some sightseeing in a couple of locations nearby including one town (Cow Head) and one ecological site (Green Point).

We checked the weather forecast for the next few days and it is not good at all. Because we feel that there is no point hiking in the rain at Twillingate we are heading north to see the viking settlement instead; a complete reversal of yesterday's decision. We have already booked a room in St.Anthony and will be heading there as soon as we get up in the morning.

Friday night in Rocky Harbour

This morning, we (actually Caro) found a great little cafe where we were able to order a nice hot breakfast. I had pancakes and Caro had a breakfast sandwich.

Something also new for us here in Newfoundland is a day with sunshine. Although the temperature is not very hot it was really nice to see and feel the sun!

We drove about 60 kms to the area we wanted to hike in. The first hike was an easy 4 km hike called Tablelands. This area is a UNESCO site because of the mantle lava that pushed itself up through the earth's crust and as this event is extremely uncommon the Tablelands area is well researched. On one side of the valley is the old mantle (see photo below) while the other side is what we would think of as regular hills/mountains.

Next we had to decide whether to complete a 3-4 hour hike or do a 2-3 hour. Both were listed as moderate hikes and due to time constraints we decided to do the shorter one; called Lookout Trail. This trail took exactly one hour to climb and was a real workout. The view from the top was magnificent and was worth the sore muscles. We could see Tablelands in one direction and Bonne Bay in the other.

The photo of the two of us shows Bonne Bay. You can just make out the a green roofed building behind Caro's right shoulder. Our car rental is down there. The second photo shows where we hiked earlier  at Tablelands (the creek in the middle of the photo)

We were at the top for 15 minutes before the wind chilled us and we headed back down. Caro's knee started giving her trouble on the way down but only on the slopes-it was fine on the flat areas.

Before heading back to Rocky Harbour we drove to a couple different sea front villages in the area. They were Trout Lake and Windy Point. Nice places to see.

Supper was at a small restaurant called Sun Set Cafe. We had fish burgers and partridge berry crumble. Both extremely yummy!

We sat down and brainstormed our plans for the next week. It has become apparent that we will miss far too many things that we would like to see down here in the south if we take the two days needed to travel to/from and visit at St. Anthony up north (no Vikings this trip!). With that decision made we started looking for accommodation a couple hours away from here for tomorrow night after we finish our scheduled boat tour about 3;30 PM. We couldn't find anything so ended up being able to get another night here at our motel so we will be up very early Sunday morning to hit the road toward Twillingate.

A nice sunset to finish off our hectic day.

Gros Morne

This morning after having a great chat at the breakfast table with three other well traveled couples we hit the road westward toward Deer Lake (two hours away). Funnily enough while using Tim Horton's wi-fi to make our evening sleep accommodations one of the breakfast couples walked in. We took their advice to reserve their favourite motel in Rocky Harbour (in Gros Morne Park). With that job completed (and a boat tour registration for Saturday) we headed south for an eventual drive on a twisty, turny, poor condition secondary highway to a small port called Lark Harbour (west of Corner Brook; afterwards to a another port called McIvers (photo above) on a different highway across the water from the previously traveled one. We probably averaged no more than 50 km/hour for the two hours of coastal driving. We noted there was a big cruise ship in Corner Brook.

About 6 PM we made it into Rocky Harbour and after getting our motel room for the next two nights we went to a well known local eatery called Earles. It was so busy we waited over 40 minutes for a table and even after we were finished there was still a lineup. We decided to try more local food.

The meal includes seafood chowder (Cod,halibut and scallops), moose and veggies meat pie with homemade fries (I assume the moose was not from road kill!), and Newfoundland beer made from 20,000 year old ice. It was a good meal.

As the sun set I snapped the following photo

Surprisingly we drove 550 km today, however tomorrow we hike.

Hello Newfoundland

Wednesday Sept 11/2019

Yesterday Dad took Caro and I to the airport for our 1:15 PM flight to Toronto, connecting onward to St. John's, Newfoundland. All went well on the flights although our connection in Toronto left no time to get a bite to eat.

We arrived at 12:30 AM and after waiting a bit for the hotel shuttle we were checked in to our room by about 1:15 AM.

Caro's hunger pangs had us walking to a 24 hour Denny's about 15 minutes walk away. Even though I wasn't hungry I felt the "gentlemanly" thing to do was help her out with her plate of nachos (I am real nice that way!!). We were back to our room by 2:30 AM and soon Caro was asleep. Me? Not so much!
Somewhere around 4:30 AM I sort of faded to a very unsettled sleep. We were up at 9:30 and after a shower we walked down to Enterprise car rental.

I had reserved a Nissan Versa because I knew were going to put a lot of K's on this trip. Unfortunately they only had a big Chrysler 300 which they said we could have at the same cost. We were checking out the car before signing for it when I noticed the car mileage consumption indicator showed the car used 13.2 litres/100 kilometres (yikes!Almost as bad as Lisa's truck). We asked for a few minutes to discuss what we were going to do-we were thinking to go elsewhere. While we were discussing this the car rental guy came to us and stated they would take 15% off the total price to compensate us for the extra gas we would use!  BONUS!!-that worked out to about $90 off our bill!. After that we hit the road and ended up driving to Grand Falls-Windsor (about 4 hours drive). It turns out the car must have been used only in the city because once on the highway the gas consumption dropped to 7.9 litres/ 100 kms!

We found an awesome BnB (highly rated on Trip Advisor) . The house is over 100 years old and we love it!

We went to a recommended bistro for french onion soup and fish and chips. While here in Newfoundland I will be trying various local foods and condiments. I took a photo of a traditional vinegar. UMMM-not too impressed but at least I had some!

We drove the old area of town looking at wonderful old houses and are now winding down for the day.

A great day.

Final day in Mexico City and travel home

Our final day started with me walking a little over a kilometre with Fernando to pick up Fernaditos car from the service center.

The four of us then went downtown to get Caro's set of glasses that had had a special lens coating applied. We parked in a car parkade that was so narrow that only small cars were allowed into it and even then it was tough to navigate through.

After that it was back to Fernando's part of town where we ate an extremely filling meal at a nice restaurant. I would have been happy with just the large bowl of taco soup, however I had ordered a main course as well and this part of the meal was barely touched before I stopped eating-too much food!

In the evening the four of us went to a park nearby just to walk and chat. Shortly thereafter Ruben and Tete came by for a final visit and "good byes".

About 10 PM Fer and Edu dropped us off at terminal 2 and with no problems getting our tickets (including the expected $US30 luggage charge) then going through immigration and security we were in the waiting area for our 1:30 AM flight to Vancouver.

The flight was smooth and while I got a bit more sleep than when we came down, Caro did not. The five hour or so wait for our Edmonton flight passed relatively quickly and soon we were in Edmonton and in our car on our way home.

We were happy/exhausted to be home and we had an enthusiastic welcome from Chelada which was soon tempered when I noticed a message flashing on our answering machine. Turns out Marta passed away about the time we were leaving Vancouver. While we were mentally prepared for this event it was still tough on Caro. Soon she was in touch with most of the family again talking about Marta's passing. I am happy that things worked out for Caro that she was able to see her sister before her passing.

We both slept fantastic in our own beds. Another exhausting trip to Mexico completed!

Wednesday

Fernandito came over this morning so we had a quick visit before he had to get to work.

Tete also came over and the five of us went on a drive; first to see the Roma section of the city (the namesake of the recent Oscar winning movie), followed by a walk in a mall for the rich who mingled among us (definitely not us!). All the high class Italian stores are here. The Ferrari dealership just down the road. I suggested to Caro a choice of either buying a high end purse or going on a European trip. Thankfully she prefers Europe!

After walking to a lovely park dedicated to Abraham Lincoln we drove back to the area of town where Fer and Edu live and we caught up with Fernandito for lunch. I had the most amazing quesadillas with cecina meat. My goodness I loved that meal!!

In late afternoon Caro went to the dentist to get her crown installed and get a new mouthguard ordered. Everything is looking good right now as far as her crown work went. Caro goes back tomorrow for a final dental check and to confirm the new mouthguard is good.

This evening Caro's life long friend Rocio came over and as Fernando has known her all his life as well there is a tremendous amount of catching up on family news etc. (Caro gave me permission to leave!!)

Tonight is our last night in Mexico but we do have a full day tomorrow.