Our New Home!

Having left our former home in Oregon after selling our house, our car, and nearly all of our belongings, Kate and I, as well as our traveling partner Mark, finally found ourselves at the airport and headed to Mexico. This was the culmination of a fairly long and strenuous process and we were glad to be on our way. Our flight to Mexico did not leave until 1am, so we arrived early to have time for a bite to eat and a leisurely pass through security. Unbelievably, we had pared our entire life’s belonging to just one suitcase, one carry-on, and one personal item each just like the airline required.

Standing in line, I felt naked, and kept reaching in my pockets for my keys which had been my constant companion since my parents first trusted me with a key to our house. For all of my adult life, I have never been without a full set of keys. House, car, work, bike, storage, post office, the list just seemed to grow and grow. But today, for the first time in decades I reached in my pocket and felt nothing. Not. One. Key. The feeling was scary, amazing, and liberating beyond belief.

The overnight flight to Mexico went smoothly, and we arrived in Leon tired but excited by what lay ahead. After breezing through customs with our shiny new temporary residence cards, we were soon headed to San Miguel to see the house that we had rented over the internet sight unseen. Although the pictures looked pretty good, we were still a little apprehensive though I was looking forward to the comfort of at least one key! After traveling through the lush green countryside, a stark contrast to our previous trip at end of the dry season, we arrived at our new home.

Like many Mexican homes, it was nondescript from the outside. We knocked on the rustic wooden door and were greeted by Irma, the owner’s housekeeper, with a warm smile. “Hola, Buenos Tardes!” she chimed and led us up a tunnel the led to the tile  stairscase to the second floor. We quickly found she did not speak English, but with our crude Spanish and a few hand gestures, she showed us around the house and handed us (thank god!) the keys. As it turned out, the house was really quite nice for the money ($750 USD a month for a 2BED 2BATH fully furnished with all utilities including cable and internet, and split with our roommate Mark!) and we quickly started to settle in for our first night in our new home.

With over 50 festivals a year, many weekends in San Miguel are holiday weekends and our first night was no exception. Although we were exhausted from our travels and the time zone change, we managed to stay up until a fairly normal hour. Once in bed, sleep came quickly in spite of the sound of fireworks and revelers coming from the town. Somewhere in the wee hours of the morning, I awoke to the sound of pounding resonating from the ancient front door. I tried to ignore this, but the knocker persisted and finally started to ring the doorbell. A little disoriented and not knowing what I was dealing with, I slipped on some clothes and padded down the stairs and the hall to the door. Just as I reached for the knob, my brain kicked in and said, “you might not want to answer that at 2am!” I turned tail back up the stairs and decided to peer out the front window which had a good view of the front door. By now the pounding had ceased, and I saw that there was a young man, beer in hand, standing across the street and gazing confusedly at the house. From what I could tell, he had finally realized he was at the wrong casita, and I watched as he stumbled off down the cobblestones. Relieved, I slipped back into bed and attempted to achieve my former state of bliss. Before long however, the neighborhood dogs and roosters, common here in Mexico began their morning ritual and seemed to bark and crow in unison “Welcome to Mexico!”

Click on any photo to enlarge!

Coming up next…Dia de Los Muertos!

Return to San Miguel!

My last post came as we were leaving San Miguel de Allende to return to our home in Oregon and a lot has happened since then. To make a long story short, we came home, sold our house and everything in it, and are now living full time in San Miguel! The long story is much more interesting and will be the subject of another bit of writing, but in the meantime I am going to bring you up to speed with some posts on what it is like to move to and live in Mexico.

First though, a bit about our departure from Mexico, which you might say was a bit crazy. I did not get into it at the time, but on our last day here, Kate took a fall on the cobblestones (a common fate unfortunately and it gave rise to the term "The Fallen Women of San Miguel"!) and ended up in the local hospital with a broken wrist.

This was around 2:30 in the afternoon of the day before we were scheduled to leave, and by 7:00 she was in the operating room of a Mexican hospital. Now while we were curious about the quality of the Mexican Health Care System, we were not all that interested in learning about it first hand! What we learned however, is at least at this hospital, the quality of the care is excellent. Less than five minutes after arriving at the emergency room, Kate was in triage, in less than fifteen minutes she was with a doctor headed for x-rays, and in thirty minutes she was scheduled for surgery!

From the look of it, we already suspected she had broken her wrist, so the diagnosis was no surprise. The doctors gave us the option of heading back to the US for surgery with just a splint bandage, but Kate did not look good to travel, so we decided to proceed.

Our experience so far had been very good. Starting with the Mexican nurse that checked Kate in (who spoke no English) and due to the swelling on Kate’s right arm and the drip needle in her left, could not find a place to put her wrist band but laughed out loud when I suggested her big toe even if she wasn’t “muerto” (dead) quite yet. Then we saw the doctor that examined her (more English, great bedside manner), and finally the anesthesiologist (very good English and very reassuring) who explained how he would administer the anesthetics.

By now, my cell phone was beginning to die and I did not have my charger with me. Afraid to be without a phone through all this, I managed to ask the nurse if anyone had a “cargador de teléfono androide” only to be told they all used iphones, but she would ask around. After a fruitless search I called a woman we had befriended in town to let her know what had happened and ask her about a charger. She let me know she not only had a charger, but a bottle of tequila she would send along as well. Unfortunately, the nurses did find a charger, and the bottle of tequila was not to be! We were escorted to a private room while Kate waited for the surgery to begin, and before long she was wheeled away. By now I was starving, and with little I could do for the next three hours, I managed to get a bite to eat nearby.

After some anxious time spent watching soap operas on Mexican TV, the phone in the room finally rang and I was informed the doctor “would like to talk to me”. This did not sound all that good and I headed downstairs with a great deal of apprehension. Outside the OR, I could see that the doctors and nurses were clearly cleaning up post-op, but Kate was nowhere to be seen. This went on for what seemed like forever, and I was starting to fear the worst! Finally after enduring this agony for what seemed like forever, the doctor emerged from the OR and told me the operation had been a great success. 

Moments later to my great relief they wheeled Kate out and took her in for another x-ray. When it was finished, the doctor asked me to join him and a small group of other doctors and technicians to examine the x-rays. From the jist of the conversation in his broken English and my massacred Spanish, I realized he was actually just showing off his fine work! The titanium plate he had inserted was perfectly aligned, and the crack in the bones was barely distinguishable. After a couple pats on the back from me and the other doctors, he wandered down the hall beaming!

Up in her room, Kate was clearly in need of some sleep, and with us scheduled to leave for the airport in the morning, I had some packing to do! With assurances from the doctor she would be good to travel in the morning, I headed back to our casita, packed our bags, and got some restless sleep.

The morning came quickly, and I was soon on my way back to the hospital with credit card in hand. As our insurance was no good in Mexico, everything must be paid before leaving, and I was happy that our credit card was in good enough shape to take the hit! In the end, the whole operation complete with ER room, x-rays, surgery, and private room came to just over $500.00 more than our deductible would have been in the US. 

We scrambled back to the casita just in time for our shuttle, and in just over 20 hours since Kate took her fall, were headed back to the US for my mothers 90^th birthday in Albuquerque. All in all, a thoroughly relaxing way to end our vacation.

Coming up next...life in Mexico!

All Good Things Must End...We Say Hasta Luego to San Miguel!

Our last few days in San Miguel were a bittersweet mixture of happiness and melancholy! Our love for this unique oasis in the desert had grown with every day of our visit. Our return to the US was timed with the celebration of my Mother's 90th birthday in Albuquerque, a day of great joy for my family, but we were not looking forward to leaving what may at some point in the not too distant future become our new home!

There are so many things to like about San Miguel it is hard to know where to start in listing them. The near perfect weather, picture postcard beauty, festivals and parades, restaurants and cantinas, cathedrals and museums, all these things are certainly a big part of what makes the city so special. But it is the people, the charming and gracious people of Mexico who really make it special and we will never forget.

I remember one day, as we were walking about the streets of Dolores Hildago and looking for a good place to grab a beer. We had stopped to look in the doors of a small cantina when we were approached by a small Mexican man, obviously a local, who told us with a big grin "there is a much better place right around the corner" and taking his advice we discovered he was right! I can't remember the last time a complete stranger gave us such sage advice on the streets of the US. Hell, most of the time you are lucky if they will even give you good directions!

Everywhere we went, this was the rule and not the exception. Our morning walks into town were always punctuated with a dozen "hola's" and "buenos dias" from everyone. The little old lady headed to market, the kids headed off to school, or the gardener tending to one of the the lush and beautiful gardens that adorn the town. People helped us when we looked lost, chuckled at our broken Spanish, gave us the correct change when we paid them the wrong amount, and generally did everything they could to make us feel welcome.

We did spend a little bit of our last days looking at real estate, as we are definitely contemplating a return here in the fall. There are lots of things up in the air right now in our lives, so we shall see. We have done a great deal of research that led up to this point, and we urge anyone who is even thinking of becoming an expat to do the same. For every expat that stays where they choose to go, there are generally two or three that don't make it. It is not for everyone, and only you can decide if you think it is for you, and you may still be wrong. Eyes wide open is the best approach!

With this post and our return "home", we will pause this blog for the time being. We will however keep you up to date and post from time to time as we consider our future! Thank you for joining us on our adventure. Please stay tuned and hasta luego for now!

The Doors of San Miguel..and How About Them Knockers!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, San Miguel is a city of spectacular doors. As virtually every home in the historic core of the city is situated behind a wall that faces the street, they all have doors, and the citizens take great pride in having a beautiful one! Houses in San Miguel are "inside-out" compared to our homes. The yards are contained within the walled compound and the house is usually built around a central courtyard. It is a much more private and appealing way to live and many of the courtyards are nothing short of jaw-droppingly beautiful. So behind the thousands of doors lies thousands of magical gardens. Here are just a few of the magnificent doors we found on our wanderings. Click on any picture to open the gallery!

And of course..how about them knockers!

Colonial Mexico...The Beauty and Architecture of San Miguel!

San Miguel is one of the most well-preserved Colonial cities in Mexico, and its roots go back almost 500 years. Declared a National Monument by Mexico in 1926, which preserved the cities architecture, and a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2008, it had fallen into disrepair by the early 20th century and its population had declined significantly. In danger of becoming a ghost town, the city began to be revitalized by the arrival of American Stirling Dickinson in 1938 who established the art institute Instituto Allende and the city began to attract artists from all over the world. Today, San Miguel is a thriving city, and the core area surrounding the square is alive with shops, restaurants, cantinas, and mercados.

It is also where many of the cities most beautiful homes and gardens can be found. Virtually all the homes are hidden behind walls, and there is said to be over 2000 doors that face the cobblestone streets. Sometimes as you are walking by, you will catch a glimpse through an open door of one of the many lush courtyard gardens that lie within. Combined with the rooftop gardens that adorn many of the homes, it is a city of staggering beauty and charm. There are no parking meters, and no stop lights or signs.

A deeply Catholic city in a deeply Catholic state, San Miguel is also home to dozens of churches and majestic cathedrals including the centerpiece of the town La Parroquia.

There is so much to see and do in San Miguel that both my head and my camera exploded! Here are just a few of the hundreds of photos I have taken during our visit.

Click on any photo to view the complete gallery.