Celebrating One Year in San Miguel

April first, April Fools Day, marked the our one year anniversary of moving to San Miguel. We spent February of 2015 here, and signed a rental lease beginning April One. We flew home filled the Clampett Mobile with as much of our personal belongings as we could, put the rest in storage and drove 3,300 miles to San Miguel de Allende. Dave and Cheryl Leland loaned us their casita for a few days until we could take possession of Umaran #66. The Clampett mobile is a 2001 Mazda Tribute. It has battle scars, but it has only 87,000 miles and runs at 90 mph, hour after hour, across Texas with not a whimper or hesitation.

Because the owner of the Umaran house has the house up for sale, we wanted to make sure we had a house to live in should the new owner want us out, we signed a lease on a new place to live. This time we will be at Huertas #9 and our furniture arrived on March 23rd. This house has a big yard, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a huge kitchen with a Dutch door to the outside and a living room and dining room with ceilings over sixteen feet tall. We awake to the birds singing and Doves that seem to ask, "What, what's with you?" We have a gardner that comes twice a week to water, prune the bushes and mow the lawn. He is paid 100 pesos a month - $6! Huertas is on the east side of the Jardin and close to La Parada, where we love to dine, and Parque Juarez, a beautiful large park where Bev takes Tai Chi.

Looking back on the year what have we learned?

• We learned that our decision to move here was the right one. We love the sunshine, the warmth of the people here, both Mexicans and expats, the violent thunderstorms and rain that fall in the June through August period that last an hour or so, the restaurants, the sunsets, and the walking.
• We shake our head at the cost of living. Property taxes that are less than one tenth of what we were paying in Portland. Car insurance less than a quarter of Portland-$383 for a year. Dental care, a third or more of the states. I had a root canal and a new crown for about $500. Transportation by taxi 40 to 50 pesos. One hundred pesos is right now about $6. Bus transportation to the grocery store five pesos! Last night the Scherbers and the Landfairs dined at a new restaurant to us named Pork Belly. John and I had BBQed ribs and Kristine and Bev had chicken and Salmon. It not only looked delicious, but didn;t disappoint in the taste department. With tip the bill came to 1,300 pesos or about $76. The amount included a bottle of wine, lemonade and  one carrot cake.
• A short forty-five minute drive to Celaya and we have Home Depot, Sams, and Costco. We may be in Mexico, but at Costco we can get HP printer ink for 145 pesos, sharp cheddar cheese, and the same great Costco hot dogs and strawberry sundae. However, if you love Cheetos, they are not available without bacon flavoring.
• We learned that living on Umaran is a great location, close to the Jardin and my favorite ice cream store,  the barbershop, the chicken man, restaurants, the Saturday market where they have great cinnamon rolls, BUT it is noisy with motorcycles and cars and taxis. It reconfirmed to us that when you first move here, renting is our recommendation. It just takes a while to get a feel for the different Colonias.
• We've learned that friends are easy to make here. Our friends are expats. They seem to be adventurous and eager to impart advice to make the transition easier. Every week I learn something new.
• We've learned that this is not the U.S. You need to be flexible and accepting. Those who aren't like a river, have trouble here and tend to complain. Why can't these people,yada, yada, yada.
• I learned that if you want to reinvent yourself, Mexico is the place. I want to be a writer, not just a freelance writer, but a teller of stories either as a novelist or a short story writer. I joined a writer's group. There are six of us. Each is trying to be a better craftsman and each of us trust the feedback we get about our weekly submissions. 

Do we miss the United States?

My first answer is no. Then I think of our friends, my family and Bev's family and we do miss them, but not much about the U.S. do we miss. Someone asked me, "Don't you miss the freedoms in the U.S.?" I thought does he think we don't have freedoms down here? I don't miss the feeling that the U.S. is a big target for all the loonies around the world. Someone said that envy is a big reason for the target on the U.S. I think it's also that the U.S. meddles in the affairs of every country on the planet. I don't miss the feeling of being a target.

There seems to be groups of expats. There are the expats involved in writing or painting or some form of creative arts. Then there are the golfers, the drinkers, the snowbirds who spend a month to six months here every year, the permanent residents divided into the renters and owners.Women seem to outnumber men about eight to one. They complain that all the good men are taken. 

Sometimes the little things get frustrating. If you get a parking ticket the police take your license plate. In order to get in back, you can;t just send a check, you must go into the police station. We made an appointment to have cable installed in the new house. They said they would be here after 12:00, but Monday was a holiday. So they came on Tuesday close to 5:30.

I find myself saying no entiendo, I don't understand, a lot to Mexicans. Try to explain to a Mexican woman who doesn't speak English that you are there to pick up the cable box and she's trying to explain you don't need one. You just reconfigure your TV. It's frustrating to be sitting in a dental chair hearing the dentist and assistant converse with no idea what they are saying. It's isolating. I learn a little each day, but I only catch a word or two. If I lived in another city with fewer expats, I would need to learn Spanish faster to lose that isolated feeling.

The common question we get when we've visited the U.S. is, "What do you do all day." We say the same things we did when we were living in the U.S. Except we are warm. We don't lay on the beach all day because we are six to eight hours away from the beach cities. For me I spend a lot of time writing, trolling the internet, emailing, and reading. We walk almost everywhere and that means one to two miles a day walking. For Bev that means three to five miles walking a day.

Road to San Miguel (6)

We arrived in Laredo last night at 9:00pm we lost two hours from time change. The Clampett mobile now has over 2800 miles on it since leaving PDXland. We drove at 80 mph much of the time from El Paso to Laredo. That's the speed limit most of the way! I was tired when we arrived. Bev spelled me for an hour and then another hour negotiating San Antonio. She really helped. I think I nodded off when I was driving for a brief second. It scared me. I said, "Whoa, I need you to take over, babe."

We are staying at La Posada, hotel with a colorful history. Erected in 1916. La Posada has 206 rooms and is the largest hotel in Laredo. It originally was Laredo's first high school, then an elementary school and finally purchased in 1961 for a hotel.

La Posada Hotel in Laredo

Sunday morning we cross the border and head south for over 500 miles.See you there!

Road to San Miguel (5)

We have put on 2,000 miles on the Clampett mobile and are spending the night in El Paso. We left Scottsdale at 10:00 and pulled into El Paso at 5:00. That was probably the most boring drive. You drive along at 75 to 80 MPH, for mile after mile through mostly flat country of desert and cacti. The nice thing was the sun and the temperature.

We are getting homesick for our our new home and fixing the terraces up with plants and hammock. We read the weather is great. Lots of activities scheduled for the festivities of holy week. Both of us are yearning for the new adventure.

Tomorrow we arrive a day early in Laredo and get ready the crossing and looking forward to seeing our San Miguel friends again.

We had a wonderful time at Sandi and Gerry's house. The backyard is a show stopper. A pool and beautiful desert plants, plenty of seating in the sun and shade, palms, tangello and orange trees, and grapefruit larger than two fists growing on the tree. A treat was a shared meal with Donya Wiland. Gerry and Sandi fixed ribs and while Gerry was disappointed, I thought they were very tasty.

We will be in San Miguel on Sunday the 29th. praying all goes well at the border crossing.

Road to San Miguel (4)

We made it to Sedona yesterday afternoon. On the way we stopped at The Grand Canyon. Wow, lots of people all with cameras, even some with long handles so they could take selfies with the canyon as a background. Yes, you need people in your shots at times, but somehow it seems the selfies are all about them, "Look at me, I'm at the Grand Canyon. Don't I look good at the grand canyon?"

We had dinner last night at the Cowboy Club. Bev found a way to have a $24 salmon dinner  for $16. She asked for a salad with the salmon on top. I had a half rack of baby back ribs and they were simply the best I've ever tasted accompanied by home made cole slaw and corn bread.

We have two more nights in Sedona. Tomorrow we will investigate the Vortexes of Sedona.

Road Trip to San Miguel

We arrived back in Portland on March 1st, and spent two weeks in an apartment in Vancouver, WA owned by Cheryl and Dave Leland. From there we attended to our storage unit figuring out what to store and what to take back to San Miguel. Our car was the limiting factor. Just how much could we stuff into the Mazda Tribute. While in PDX we also went to the Apple store for new iPhones, going to the Mexican Consulate to get our visas for Temporary Residente; getting the car ready for the long journey back to Mexico, seeing movies, going to dinner with friends, seeing the old neighborhood, seeing family, and watching the Blazers. Busy, busy!

Our first stop was near Bend for two nights with our friends Connie and Bill Berner. It was especially good to see these two. We all thought our get together in Ashland was a little tense; there were even thoughts of "friendship ending." Bill and Connie were even a little nervous about what this meeting would bring. The minute we arrived and got out of the car, they said all their apprehension disappeared. They said we were different, maybe even lighter; joyous? Was the change the month we spent in San Miguel? Was it the freedom from stuff that lightened us. Was it moving on from the US? No conclusions yet. All I know is that this was the best visit we've had in many years. So profound was the change that Bill committed to visiting us in San Miguel.

We left the Berner house Monday morning for our next stop in Winnemucca. Connie looked sad to see us go.

Spent the night in Winnemucca at the Winnemucca Inn. Tonight we will be in Las Vegas. The whole drive from Burns to Winnemucca was a wonder of snow capped mountains and flat rolling hills covered in sagebrush. I'm going to research the geology of the area.