Change of Plans

On Jan 19th we have one way tickets to Ecuador out of Austin, TX.  We had been planning to head further south in Mexico towards San Miguel de Allende, and then on to Yucatan or Costa Rica. When things looked dicey in Mexico for getting gasoline we found a great deal on tickets to Ecuador – a place both of us have been wanting to go to.  Subsequent to buying the one-way tickets, we decided to head to Mexico anyway and stay close enough to the U.S. border to get back with the gas we had. As you know if you’ve read previous blogs, we waited it out in Casas Grandes for awhile and now things seem back to normal.  We’ve had no problems at all getting fuel and well… we really love Mexico.

Add to that the fact that it turns out to be the rainy season in Ecuador which doesn’t mean what we thought it meant.  In other places we’ve visited and lived, rainy season means different things.  In Seattle, rainy season meant drizzle and gray skies for days on end, usually adding up to months on end.  In Hong Kong and Bangkok, rainy season meant high humidity and what we called rocket rain that would cause the occasional flood, but it usually was over pretty quickly and the air was fresh afterwards.  In Flagstaff and Prescott, AZ, the summer rains were daily, but they cooled things off and cleared quickly every afternoon to make for a really pleasant evening and morning and it was exciting to watch the clouds build quickly in the sky and explode with dramatic lightening.

All that to say, I’m not a big fan of rain, but if it’s going to happen, I prefer it to be over in relatively short order and then let me enjoy the rest of the day outside.  That’s what I thought rainy season would be like in Ecuador – silly me.  Upon further research it turns out that rainy season in Ecuador sounds like all day rain like Seattle, and throw in some rocket rain like Hong Kong & Bangkok, and I don’t know if there’s lots of exciting lightening, but it boils down to the fact that I’m just still not a fan of rain.  That’s why we lived happily in Phoenix for 15 years!

We were/are having such a great time in Mexico and two nights ago when I said to Ky, “You know…, we could keep going south rather than going to Ecuador if we wanted to”, he looked as if a light bulb had come on in his head. After deciding to sleep on the idea, we both woke the next morning feeling extremely happy with our new “plan.”

So, here we are tonight in San Luis Potosi, in the state of San Luis Potosi. On the way, part of it looked as though we were passing through Joshua Tree National Park in California.

Sorry for the lack of details, but it’s been a long day.  On the way in the town of Matehuala, in the state of San Luis Potosi’ here is what we found.

Woo Hoo! We drove south of the Tropic of Cancer today!  And we took this not so great photo to prove it 😉

And here in San Luis Potosi here is what we found on a quick stroll around our latest new home. It is called Mexico’s City of Light and we’ll have more to share after a good night’s sleep!

We have joked that we need our own reality show called “Spontaneous Travelers.”  The producers could send us anywhere on a whim or have us change destinations at the drop of a hat and we would love it!

The best part about being flexible is the wonderful opportunities it brings.  Now get this!  About 24 hours after my comment to Ky about changing plans, at 6:45 pm, I got an email from dear friends who live in Canada.  We haven’t seen them in a couple of years.  They have a trip planned to San Miguel de Allende over the time period that we will now be there! How cool is that.  If we had gone to Ecuador, we would not have had the opportunity to get together with them.

We really miss family and friends when we’re traveling, so if anyone else wants to join us along the way on any of our journeys, just let us know.  The more the merrier!

Hugs!