The Good Life Continues

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Relaxing days in San Miguel

So, here we are, 3 months into our Mexico adventure and life is getting better each day. The weather in San Miguel remains perfect day after day. We still get light rain showers most afternoons, but it doesn’t last long, and keeps the place from drying out. We love the loud, earth shaking thunderstorms that keep us glued to the window in amazement, bringing that fresh, rain scented breeze into the house. Since the last journal blog, we’ve finished Spanish school, had a visit from Craig (fellow Oregonian / world traveler) and have had a change in our future travel plans. We have found life here to be very simple and if you look in the right places, you can find just about everything you need.

One of the things we had put off was acquiring a copy of MS Office for our new laptop. We bought the laptop for our one-way “trip around the world” but were too cheap to buy MS Office, thinking we could install it from someone else’s computer. Well, that didn’t happen so we got to Mexico, still with no decent word program. We stopped into a small computer service store in town and they loaded the English version of Office for 250 pesos (about $25). Sure it’s a 2003 version but who cares! Gotta love Mexico!

One day after roaming the town for the morning we decided to have lunch at home. We stopped at a chicken rotisserie place (there are quite a few around town) bought a chicken for $5, it included bread or tortillas and pickled carrots & peppers. I decided it was a good place for chicken after noticing the line of people coming out the door (95% Mexicans and 5% gringo). Joy! They have charcoal rotisserie! (thus the line) Then stopped at the vegetable market and picked up some tomatoes, avocadoes and an onion. Went home, pulled out the salsa from the fridge, went out back to pick some limes off the tree, tore up the chicken with our hands and had a lovely meal making our own tacos.

Central Mexico is wonderful in that there are lots of artisan items available. Lot’s of pottery, tiles, woven goods, metal sculpture large and small, on and on but none of the stores or vendors give you a hard sale. The pushiest are the vendors on the street and in the Jardin (main plaza) and even then, they only catch your eye and raise their wares for your perusal. A simple negative shake of the head or a “no gracias” is sufficient. People here (all the people) are extremely polite and respectful.

You never know what you are going to find in the Jardin (translates to garden but in reality the main plaza in the center of town). We came in for a nice lunch at an Italian place called Mama Mia’s (they have salsa dancing there at night). As we came out of the restaurant we heard loud drums so strolled up the street to see what was happening. The local regional Indians (Pueblo Indians) were having a music and dance demonstration in full costume. The traditional clothing was just like the Indians we have in the western US, not much difference. The traditional instruments were fascinating, drums, seed pod rattles, conch shells, flutes and something that sounded like a xylophone. It’s like this all the time, you never know what you’re going to find.

Well, as far as the “change of plans”; it seems we will be staying in San Miguel through next spring. Yes, originally we had planned to head to Argentina in October, then end up in Guatemala for several months, but we told ourselves that we would remain flexible on this trip, and keep all our options opened. So, at dinner with some friends one night, they mentioned a women that owned a large home, here in San Miguel, and that she was looking for someone to watch the place while she was back in New York. It’s not for from downtown and comes with 2 dogs. Since we always wanted to house-sit, and love animals… it was too good to pass up. Once spring rolls around, we’ll head to Peru and continue our travels around the world.

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Photos

San Miguel Street
One of many colorful streets; this one has one of our favorite restaurants.

Police on horseback
Around the center of town, police can be seen on patrol via horse.

Kathy and Craig
Getting some breads during Craig's visit.

Library Courtyard
One of our favorite places in San Miguel; it's wonderful public library.

Early morning in the Jardin
First thing in the morning, and not much happening in the Jardin.

Flowers in the Market
One of several markets through-out the city.

Mike and Rafael
Our number one Produce guy in SM.

Market
Another shot of the market.

Comments

[Rich]

Must be nice
You guys living life to its fullest!!! Nice work (Actually no work)

[kelly]

such a terrible place you are in
LOL, i see you all have it ruff, am so glad i am taking it easy here working everyday for pennies...... glad all is well, live it up and enjoy it for sure. i am glad you are finally really having some fun now.