What an incredible roller coaster of two days it has been since my last post from PuertoAngel.

First of all I want to share a personal tribute with you all as February 14th is a special day for me and my family, for that is the day in 1995, my Mum suddenly passed away in her sleep at the age of 75years. She was the most wonderful person I have ever met in my whole life and to have had her as my Mum was a gift of immense proportions. I hope that I possess even a portion of her qualities, bless you Mum!!

I have also to give praise to Mike and Terri Church, who are the joint authors of a book called Mexican Camping. I don’t think there is a person in Mexico driving an RV who does not have their book, the information inside is priceless.

One of the entries is about the park where I am at the moment. It is called Hogar Infantil, just outside the town of Ocozocoautla, in the mountains of Chiapas. Hogar Infantil has a website at www.hogarinfantil.org which I invite you to look at.

To quote from their mission statement “Hogar Infantil is a magical place of the heart that provides food, clothing, shelter, medical care, education and most importantly hope to about 100 destitute, abandoned and abused children”.

It is all of this and much more. How uplifting to spend time here and mingle with these kids and see how loving and loved they are. The facilities for them are wonderful and they all play a part in the running of the Institute. This place really touches you how can it not, these kids come from such dis- advantaged places and here they are so happy and loved!!!!

They provide 4 basic hook ups for Rv travellers and payment is not allowed or expected. I am free to roam through the buildings and mix with the kids and already have had so much joy watching them eat do dishes and other chores and just be KIDS!

It is already another highlight of my journey and I give thanks to the adults who work and live here. If I take my laptop into their TV room I can get Internet connection, which is where I got the news of the earthquake.

My last night in Puerto Angel two nights ago I was woken up by one of my pictures falling down and outside I thought I heard a loud crash and put it down to a coconut falling off one of the many trees. I then drove about 220 miles yesterday through high mountain passes from the State of Oaxaca into the State of Chiapas. It was a long hard drive and around dusk couldn’t find a good place to stay until I went through a small town and asked at one of the muffler shops if I could park at the front of his property for the night and was told I could no problem. So that is where Ramona and I stayed the night.

This morning was a short drive to where I am now. Checking the Internet I learned of the huge earthquake that happened the night before and explains the falling of the picture. The reports state a magnitude of over 6 on the scale but no reports of injury or damage and it was centred at the point that I must have came very close to passing yesterday. I saw no signs of any damage or any urgency and had it not been for the Internet would not have known there had been a quake. Everything here seems normal and no one is talking about it.

Went into the town this afternoon and I am sure not many Gringos’ go there and enjoyed walking around and looking and observing the people. They are of Indian culture and background, very dark skinned and small in stature but friendly.

There are no motorized taxis here but bikes provide that service and I took one back from town it was about one mile journey and the cost was 10 pesos, and my rider got a great tip.

I leave here in the morning for a town only about 30 miles away where I have heard there is an interesting canyon to explore, so will spend a couple of days there. I notice that the temperature in the mountains is quite a bit lower than the coast but still nice and warm and sunny and the evenings are cooler which is great.

Well a long post I know but so much happened in 48 hours. Will try to post again soon and I wish you all a very Happy Valentines day filled with love, peace and happiness.