5C's Que Pasa

My first slot canyon and likely my last. We were so fortunate to have perfect weather for our walk through. The day was October 19th, 2018.  Here is the link to my blog post which has more photos. Hopefully I will get one more opportunity to revisit Antelope Canyon. If you are in the area don’t miss it.

Our May 2021 calendar photo.

Ever since I heard about the the Antelope Canyon and saw photos I wanted to go.  So with us heading South for the Balloon Fiesta it worked out to arrange a trip to the Antelope Canyon.  There are approximately a dozen different companies doing the tour and you need to book as far in advance as you can.  Then you have the choice of doing the regular tour or the photographers tour which costs a lot more but you get two hours in the canyon as opposed to just the one hour plus you get to bring a tripod which is a great help especially late in the year.  As well your guide gives you more attention and helps with some special effects. When I started booking I found prices ranged from $60.00 to $80.00 each for the regular tour.  I simply booked the cheapest. Colin was not at all interested in doing the special photography tour.  Next you have to decide what time you want to go into the canyon.  Between 11:30AM – 1:30PM is the best but I could only get a reservation for a tour at 12:45AM which meant that we were in the canyon between 1 – 2PM which was better than nothing.  I booked it on August 6th for Friday, October 19th.  You also have to check in a full hour ahead of time or your tour would be given to someone just driving in on a whim.

So I came up with a plan.  We left much earlier ( I mean we were just sitting in a Walmart lot ) and drove the car and the RV there separately having looked at the location on Google earth to determine the size of the parking lot.  We backed in the car and then backed the RV up to it and Colin hooked up while I checked us in.  It was 10:45AM and they offered me a tour leaving in 15 minutes.  That was not enough time as Colin was still hooking up and had to eat and I had yet to decide my wardrobe.  The temperatures are 10 – 15 degrees cooler inside the slot canyon.  Then they offered me the 12 noon tour time, sold.  We would be in the canyon between 12:15 and 1:15PM, perfect 😆 So we got to sit in our comfy RV and wait until the actual boarding time check in.  Each group of 12 -14 had their own tour guide and it was group behind group.  There was much pushing and stepping on my toes, why?  Everyone was pushing to be in front of everyone else.  Most everyone was using a smart phone to take photos.  It was not easy to get a photo without someone else in it.  But we survived and have some great photos to share.

It is a 10 -15 minute bumpy ride out to the mouth of the Antelope Canyon.

We were fortunate to have such a perfect day as there are no refunds for inclement weather.  One truck after another followed each other.

The entrance to the Antelope Canyon.  Yes that is a different jacket as my other still stinks of grease.

Remember that all of these photos are hand held.  The majority of these photos are by Colin.

Photo by me, we both were surprised at how well my small camera did.

Colin’s photo showing the crush of people.

Photo by me.

Of course by Colin. I will identify which I took.

A Contessa photo.

Contessa yet again.

Photo taken by me.

There are no words to describe what you see in the Antelope Canyon.

Taken by yours truly.

The back end of the slot canyon. We had a short break here and then walked back in and through to the entrance and out to the truck for our ride back to the RV.   So happy that we were able to view this marvel of nature.

From Antelope Canyon we drove West on HWY 89 towards Kanab. yes we were back in Utah but only for a short while.

More great scenery.

Really red rock.

We crossed back into Arizona about here.

We are staying 14 miles SW of Fredonia at the Kaibab Paiute Tribal Campground which is an Passport America park and is costing us $12.50 per nite so with tax we are paying $112.50 for nine nights.  This will be our home base for the rest of our adventures in the days to come.  Click here for more info and here for more reviews.  So far we love it except for the wind the first night.

Great views in three directions.

We drove 107.9 miles on Friday the 19th.

I thought that before we leave next Tuesday on our trip to Europe that I should finish off with the last trip 😆

We left September 27 and returned last month on April 1st.  We were gone a total of 186 days.  We drove 6,450 miles.  The year prior when we simply drove from here to the Isla and back we drove 5,168.  So for the seven weeks we stayed in the US, we didn’t drive that much further. But we certainly saw some wonderful sights from Arches National Park to the magnificent Alburqueque Balloon Fiesta to the south rim of the Grand Canyon where it snowed and was very cold.  From there we traveled to Page, Arizona where we were amazed at Horseshoe Bend and overwhelmed by the wonders of Antelope Canyon.  Afterwards we were awed by the beauty of the Grand Canyon’s north rim, our favourite of the two.  Somehow without planning it we ended up at both Zion and Bryce Canyon National Park, simply stunning.  There were many other stops in-between including a visit to the Valley of Fire near Las Vegas.  We saw so much and I posted about it all starting with the day we left last September.

After all of that it was time to head further south to Mexico and Isla de la Piedra / Stone Island or simply the Isla as I call it.  It was so wonderful to be back in our winter home.  Now that we have been back in Canada for almost six weeks, it is time to leave again but that story will be told beginning next week.

Fuel cost us return trip, $1901.61 USD and 13,907 Pesos for an approximate total of $2650.00USD. This is only for the RV, we don’t keep track of fuel for the Jeep.  The Mexican peso ranged between 20.96 to 22.47 per litre while the lowest we paid in the US was 2.859 to 3.61 per gallon.  We only spent a total of $62.87 for propane the entire trip and that was to run our furnace.  When parked, both the fridge and the water heater are on electric.

We spent 56 nites in the US including some boondocking for which we paid a total of $1556.97USD with an average of $27.80 per night,  The lowest was $16.93 per night versus one night at $49.89.  We paid $2445.00USD for 129 nights in Mexico with an average of $18.95 per night.  While in Mexico at Tres Amigos RV Park we have metered electricity at 15 cents per kWh.  Our cost was $185.00USD or $1.43 per day.  Pretty good price considering we mostly used electric within the RV including our induction cooktop, as well as having at least a thousand fairy lights on at night.

The following are costs only related to our time in Mexico. I won’t go into all the categories but having our laundry done for us every week cost us 2092 pesos or approximately $110.00 USD for over 4 months.  What a treat not having to do laundry.  By the way since most of the costs are already in USD I am staying with USD for everything else.  We only drove into Mazatlan once to get plants for my garden. The rest of the time we took the lancha across and always used pulmonias to or from the embarcadero for a cost of 2595 MXN / $136.00USD.  We ate out as much as we wanted to ( which is much less than some folks ), a few times per week, for a total cost of 17,388 MXN / $915.00 USD. I had fourteen 90 minute massages ( wish it had been more ) while on the Isla at a cost of $33.00 USD each.

RV repairs were our biggest expense and we were only 1800 pesos / $95.00USD  over my estimated budget.  I had not even budgeted for the RV painting but as we were under budget for everything else it more or less slithered in.  My cell phone with some data which I seldom used as we have great free wifi at Tres Amigos only cost 1000 pesos / $52.50USD for the entire winter.  I am not including toll costs as so many were not being charged due to political / local take overs.

Overall it was a wonderful trip.  It all started by wanting to attend the Balloon Fiesta, something we have wanted to see for many years and the rest fell into place. It certainly won’t be an annual event but it is up there as one of our very special trips.  I mean I even hiked with poles  😎   A first for me.

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Yesterday was a mixed bag.  We headed in early in the morning to pick up my camera.  Apparently it was full of dust as in a lot of dust.  That could have happened in the Antelope Canyon, so much dust in the air there.  My camera hasn’t been cleaned for two years and the dust only started to show up in the last month so I have no complaints.  The cost to take the camera apart, clean it and check it and lubricate whatever was needed was only 300 pesos/$19.55CAD/$14.70USD.  I know of nowhere in Canada that I can get this camera fixed like this.

That large orange barrel is getting pushed further into the hole.

A freighter heading out to possibly Japan or ??

Safe travels.

We picked up two large garrafons of water and dropped off the laundry.  I noticed this sweet dog just sitting there.

It didn’t move its head nor appear to blink.  It looked so sad.

We discovered a new street that had been paved since last spring.  Getting much easier to get around the Isla.

I hope that you had a wonderful Saturday as well.  One of my highlights was to see the tiny green shoots of my kale and Swiss chard poking through the soil.  Only five days since seeding 😎

So last night there was a party, a wedding or possibly a quinceanera, just up the beach from us.  The band played and played and finally stopped at 2AM.  I slept until 8:30 this morning.