TRAVEL SNAPSHOT: 77 Days In 2020

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Strangest Year In Our Lifetime!

Unfortunately, not many 'Adventure Days' for us this travel season. Many folks worldwide are in much more uncomfortable circumstances than we are ... we're all just trying to make the best of it.

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We began the year with  8+ weeks on Cozumel Island MEXICO. The  first 5 weeks at the north and south ends and then the final 3 weeks near San Miguel where we met up with some members of CANUSUKair. 

A few weeks into our stay on Cozumel, the covid-19 virus was reported by world news Jan 10 and was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Mar 11. We arrived in Mexico Jan 17. After several weeks, many nations (including Canada) began issuing travel advisories encouraging their citizens to return home or risk the potential of being stranded in other countries. We were fortunate to be able to leave Mexico, on schedule, without having to modify our travel plans. There were no reported cases of the virus on Cozumel Island, our flight experienced a minor delay, we landed in Toronto without incident and self isolated for the required 2 week period. Other travellers were not as fortunate as us getting home. Many countries began closing their marine ports, airports and land crossings to international travel. We arrived home Mar 15 and at that time there were several hundred thousand Canadians left in other countries trying to make alternate arrangements to get home.

After nearly 6 months at home, we've come to the conclusion, (not being 'winter folks'), that we needed to escape, if only for a short trip. The unpleasant scenario of spending the winter months cooped-up for long periods of time, was beginning to stress us out. Soooo ... LOAF came out of storage. We've been fortunate to get some reservation campsite bookings but don't really have a solid itinerary in mind ... only that we'll wander around Ontario for a month or so and search out the Autumn colours. 

Update #1: Well that 'road tripping' plan didn't go well. Our first 4 days in Algonquin PP were rainy with nighttime/daytime temperatures of 4/11C. We recently had a major solar upgrade completed on our rig; we added 160 watts of solar panel (nearly tripling our energy capability) and added a 3000 watt inverter. By day 4 our solar batteries were no longer holding a charge, our 12v system only functioned with the truck running and we couldn't even run our furnace fan. Diagnosis: Our original AGM batteries have died, we've headed home and will have the problem sorted out be the RV shop that completed the solar upgrade. We've replaced the AGM batteries and suspect that our inverter has been fried. 

Update#2: We've discovered that our drained AGM batteries were incorrectly replaced with deep cycle marine batteries, not AGM as we specified to both the service manager and the mechanic that did the work. I've been in touch with the shop, they've admitted their mistake, will credit us and make arrangements to ship the batteries back to Sudbury.

We resumed our road trip a few weeks later that included some late Fall hiking in Algonquin PP. 

What's Next? ... Depends on covid-19?

The map below is interactive. To view our route in detail you will need to begin by clicking on [  ] (top right corner) for full screen. Use the hand to pan and +/- to zoom and reduce, as needed. 

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This travel snapshot includes Trips 150 - 151 (from our TRIPS Index) and covers the calendar period noted below. 

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                                      PERIOD                         Duration              Adventure Days

                              Jan 17 - Nov 01                      289 days                            77

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STATISTICS

1 - Injury

Helen - Broken wrist, fell while hiking

1 - Museum Visited
MEXICO - Museo de la Isla de Cozumel

1 - National Park Visited

MEXICO - Arrecifes de Cozumel (The Reefs of Cozumel), QR 

1 - Pandemic Experienced
Covid-19

1 - Rig Repair

(2) New AGM batteries

1 day 1 hr 12 min - Spent Underwater

2 - Airplane Flights
Toronto CANADA to Cozumel Island MEXICO (return)

2 - Countries Flown Into
MEXICO  CANADA

2 - PADI Specialty Certifications

Underwater Naturalist, Cozumel Reef Conservation

Cleaning the coral farm

2 - Provincial Parks Visited

ON: Algonquin PP, Presqu'ile PP

Presqu'ile PP

2 - Rig Upgrades

(1) 160 watt solar panel, (1) 3kw inverter

9 - Nights Dry Camping 

25 - kms Hiked 

Presqu'ile PP

13 - Travel Companions / Friends Connected With 
MEXICO - Israel, Paulina, Leon, Julian, Miguel, Peggy, Cathy, Bob, Mark, Janet, Andy, Cathy, Fred

                                                 Cathy      Peggy                                                                                Bob

26 - Open Water Dives
MEXICO - @ Iberoster Hotel: Palancar Bricks, Santa Rosa, Cedral Pass, La Francesca, Punta Delila, Palancar Horseshoe, Palancar Caves
@ Hotel Cozumel: Palancar Horseshoe, El Cedral, Santa Rosa Wall, Paradise Reef, La Francesca, Cedral Pass, San Francisco, San Clemente, Palancar Bricks, Cedral Pass
@ Sandollar Marina: Playa Blanca

Diving with SCUBA Tony

77 - Adventure Days

1248 - Kilometres LOAFin Around

5346 - Total Airplane Travel (kms)

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If you're still following along, watch this website's Planning FUTURE Adventures on the right sidebar, for our on-going travel plans. 

 Waiting for the dive boats ... Cozumel, MEXICO

We had a blast once again ... thanks for everyone's interest and comments. See you soon!

Wry & Crusty ...  Travel Safe!