Nesting in the treehouse

This month we’ve taken ourself off the road and into the trees, renting the top floor of a cabin in San Cristóbal de las Casas. It is at one of our favorite campgrounds, Rancho San Nicolás, where we have stayed several times in the past few months.

We love this campground because it’s relatively quiet, in the woods, yet a pleasant walk to the city center. I need trees. Milo needs space to run, and Juan needs Internet. Well…two out of three ain’t bad. We’ve got hot water, a two-burner portable stove in the kitchen area, and a bathroom. It is the ultimate definition of luxury at basically the same price as camping for the same amount of time. This is the view outside of the bedroom window.

And this is the view on the walk into town.

The campground is a nice mix of travelers and longer-term residents. There are always people around to talk to, and the management is on top of things without being obtrusive. (Bonnie and Dave–they changed the shower curtains per your suggestion the day you left!)

Juan had to outfit the stairs to make them Milo-friendly. His little paws went right through the iron steps.

There’s no heat, so we had to go on a wood-seeking mission. It was kind of ridiculous since we are surrounded by wood, but nothing thick enough to burn for very long. The temperatures have been freezing at night, so the fireplace has been critical.

We don’t have a refrigerator, so on the plus side, the freezing temperatures mean that our ice has kept for days. But even though it’s cold and cozy at night, it’s warm and sunny during the day.

I even have a perch of my own, the glass corner where I have my tripod-desk set up. Of course, this doesn’t mean I’m getting a lot of work done. But at least I’m getting some sun while I’m at it.

To celebrate our month of luxury, we went on a big trip to one of the large Walmart-like supermarkets in town and bought things like boxed tissues, a 7-kg bag of dog food, and liquids: milk, juice, wine, vinegar…all the things we don’t normally have space for in the van.

It’s amazing how good it feels to not go anywhere for a while. We’ve been traveling at such a leisurely pace the last few weeks (10 days in Puerto Escondido, 8 days in Oaxaca de Juárez) that it’s not quite right to say we’ve got travel fatigue…but maybe a sense of vertigo is more like it, like you can’t even tell that you’re moving anymore until you stop.

Next week we hit our six-month mark in Mexico.