June 20 – 28th

 For the past 40+ days, Charley has been counting down to her birthday, I can’t believe she’s about to turn 9!  Oh what to do to make this day extra special?  Being away from friends and Covid causing all the lockdowns we are unable to go out and shop for a present or make plans.  So, I posted on Facebook a call to action, for all our family & friends to send a quick birthday video wish, so that on her birthday morning she would have fun opening all her birthday wishes.  Lots of family & friends from all over the world sent sent lovely videos, messages, emails & texts.Tammy, Victor & Prizm put in a special effort by arranging a bbq down at the big house at Casa Raab, complete with pool time, piñata and cake.   

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Tammy was able to borrow Rebecca’s car so we have had a couple of trips into Oaxaca Centro, the older and quaint part of the city with it’s brightly painted buildings and cobblestone streets.  But again due to Covid, the city has been closed for the past 3 months.  Normally a buzzing city, the place is deserted.  Every store front is closed, no markets, restaurants or street vendors. Still we enjoyed wandering around, the cathedral was open so we were able to view the magnificent ornate decorations and say a quiet prayer to Granny.   What cafe’s were open were able to sell coffee at the door, no entry is allowed but thankfully it’s deemed an essential, so transactions were done thru the locked gate.  

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Oaxaca is known for its artisanal crafts, including glass blowing.  We were able to get a private shopping appointment at the tiny store of Xaquixe.  To satisfy my itch for retail therapy I brought a couple of sets of their beautiful hand blown, recycled wine & tequila glasses.  

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June 23rd, this morning our world was literally shaken to the core.  An earthquake measuring 7.5 at 10:30 rattled everything and spooked us all, entered just 30km as the crow flies from Oaxaca.   We were down at Casa Raab at the time, it was both scary and thrilling to feel this silent shaker.  Quite unlike the quakes I experienced so frequently growing up in New Zealand.  There the quakes sound like freight trains, the ground jolts and shakes.  This quake had the house swaying back and forth for a good 25+ seconds.  

Later news reports say it was felt as far south as El Salvador.  Extensive damage has been reported with collapsed buildings, rock slides closed of highways and apparently 4 people have died, counting our lucky stars!

So we’ve been here 3 weeks now, and we’re getting the urge to move on.  The question hangs, to where?  Covid numbers are on the rise exponentially here in Mexico and in the USA.  Canada’s borders are still closed so we’re faced with the decision on where to go.  The dilemma is what do we do, everyone is bored all over the world, the economy everywhere is tanking.  Do we stay in Mexico or head up into the USA and make our way back home to Canada?  Or tour around some of the National Parks then make our way back down the Baja and camp in La Ventana for another kite season, that gives another 8 months for the world to settle down and maybe we will then be able to continue our adventures South.   Oh what to do, decisions decisions…The truck is loaded, we’re thinking of hitting the road tomorrow morning and driving North decisions still not made, but we say our goodbyes to Victor, Tammy & Prizm and roll out on Friday morning.

We spent the night of the 26th at a large busy roadside truck stop East of CDMX o the toll road.  With no time pressures we rolled on at 8:30 the next morning.  We’ve decided to drive all toll roads, not our preference as we know we’re missing out on seeing so much, though I’m not missing all those topes!  Covid is exploding in Mexico, yesterday confirmed case numbers were 6,000+.  As a result there are more restrictions and greater safety concerns.  With the economy being stifled for so long, our secret fears are that crime would be on the rise, us being so conspicuous we could be potential targets.  The driving is smooth, traffic is light and we have no problems.   All along we discuss and debate our decision to head to the USA who is now experiencing their second wave of Corona, in one day they had a staggering 45,000+ cases reported.  This is a direct result of lifting precautions, unmasked election rallies, and peoples desire to return to their previous lives.  Texas, California, Arizona & New York have closed their cities in an effort to get it under control. 

I shoot a What’s App message to a guy who stores overland vehicles close to San Miguel de Allende to see if we can spend the night behind his gates, but by the time he gets back to us we had passed the turn off by 30 mins.  He writes back saying that we were most welcome and that we were missing out on seeing one of Mexico’s most beautiful cities.  We pull over, turn around and reply we’ll be there in 45 mins.