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Published: March 9th 2008
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Day of the Dead
Food, Candy and small gifts are left for family members to enjoy on their day back. Closing in on One Year
Hi everybody. It’s been awhile since we checked in. What can I say? Life is so relaxing and beautiful down here we couldn’t drag ourselves to the computer to give you an update. We have been here for 8 months now and it’s been absolutely great. San Miguel has carved itself into our list of favorites. Now it reads, favorite city: Paris, favorite country: Thailand, favorite place to live: San Miguel de Allende. Between the culture, the weather and the friends we have made, this place is very hard to leave and some of our friends have been scheming to keep us here. Our initial plan was just to be here for a couple of months and then go to Argentina. Then we were introduced to a very sweet house sitting opportunity, too good to pass up. House sitting is something we wanted to try and this one included a gorgeous big house and 2 dogs, the only drawback was that it was for 7 months. But that’s the beauty of not having a schedule. So we have stayed much longer than our initial 3 months. After we got to know the city better we
Wood Angel
Carvings of all types can be found in Guanajauto. realized it was also a great place for investment. We came to this conclusion about the same time we realized the US market was losing value. Hmmmm good timing. San Miguel is such a great place and we know it will always be a popular destination for both gringos and Mexicans alike.
Our timing couldn't have been better, since the down trend in the US real estate market has had a secondary effect on the San Miguel market (which was over inflated). We started looking around at houses just to see what was out there when we found the perfect place (that wasn’t on the active market) thanks to a friend and the boyfriend of our Realtor. Everything seemed to come together perfectly, reinforcing that this house should belong to us. It’s over 200 years old and located in the historical center of town. When previous remodeling was done it was accomplished keeping as much of the original architecture as possible; retaining is 2 foot thick walls. It started life as a house for the gardener of the bishop of San Miguel now it’s a 2 bedroom, 2 bath vacation rental catering to snowbirds who come to SMA every
Our new investment
The Jardin (courtyard) of our house in San Miguel. All rooms open to the Jardin which has a large limon (lime) tree. year. We did a bit of fixing up, put an advertisement on www.vrbo.com/164600 (vacation rental by owner) and now we’re landlords! It’s a fantastic location close to the main plaza, the markets and all the language schools. Since we found a property manager here we also don’t have to deal with any of the details of running the place. You know a psychic once read our palms on Venice Beach and told us we would move to another country and do something like a B&B. Of course, we scoffed. Oh ye of little faith. Let that be a lesson to all you non believers. This house doesn’t mean we are moving here permanently but it definitely guarantees we’ll coming back on a regular basis.
We haven’t traveled much due to the fact we have the care of 2 dogs who require walking a few times a day, so no overnight trips for us. You could say the dogs are ensuring our free rent status so we make sure they get plenty of attention. We have made up for it with a great social life among the wonderful people in this community. Between theater, lectures, independent films, dinner parties, Spanish
Day of the Dead
Hours were spent walking through the cemeteries. classes and giving talks on our experience in Iraq, our calendar is pretty full. Our only trips have been a quick one to Las Vegas (an excuse to renew our tourist visas) and the most recent to Belize for 3 weeks. After being exposed to all the tourists in Las Vegas we were happy to get back to the tranquility of San Miguel. We used to enjoy Las Vegas (we would go every few years to check out the new hotels and shows) but now our preference lies south of the border. Life is much easier down here. You’ll read about our Belize trip on the next blog.
Our future plans are still to head to Peru and Macchu Piccu in May but nothing is for sure. And we still don’t know where we’ll end up permanently but the bar has been set pretty high by San Miguel. Be looking for our travelblog entry on Belize in the next few days.
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Amber
non-member comment
beautiful house!
I love the pictures of your investment :) Beautiful!!!! I'm glad you have become quite cozy there.