More Daily Life in Mexico-Taxi!

For the first time in my adult life, I do not own a car. Since the time I left home at 18, I have always had a car and it has been an integral part of my life for the last 45 years. But owning a car in Mexico is difficult and expensive. While San Miguel is situated at 6500 feet and nestled in a small valley with plenty of challenging hills, our daily walking ritual has whipped me into pretty good shape. 

A roof top bar

I love walking the quaint cobblestone streets as we make our way about the town visiting the various mercados and tiendas where we purchase our daily needs. In the evening we sometimes perambulate to one of the local cantinas or roof top bars where there is plenty of cerveza and tequila for about half the price at our old home.

In addition to walking, taxis are readily available and remarkably cheap. Walk out on the street, and within minutes you are trundling your way anywhere in town for 35 pesos, or about $1.85 at the current exchange rate. The last ride we took in Oregon was to the airport and cost $35.00! The cab drivers are generally courteous and polite, if not frequently amused at my Spanish. Although any kind of suspension is often long gone in these vehicles, and one can only hope that the brakes are working when they careen down one of the steep and narrow callejons (alleys) they use for shortcuts to avoid traffic. However, one usually arrives safely at your destination, and hey, the price is right!

Do I miss my car? I guess so, but I certainly don’t miss the car payment, insurance, gas, or maintenance. Those costs alone add up to more than our rent, or provide for a very comfortable drinking budget!

Tomorrow we will walk down to get our new Mexican based cell phone. The service includes unlimited text and calling in Mexico, the US, and Canada, as well as 3GB of data. For this we will pay the exorbitant fee of about $14.95 a month USD. Cancelling our $150.00 a month plan with Verizon really breaks my heart, but the extra $135.00 a month will come in handy. 

Click any photo to open the gallery!

Day 2-The Beauty and Intrigue of Mineral de Pozos!

As the town of Pozos continues to rise from the ashes, it has a lot going for it. Dramatic mountain vistas, remarkable ruins, charming cobblestone streets, and a growing art community are breathing life back to this once thriving town. Recently, over 30 km of well marked mountain bike trails cut through the cactus and sagebrush surrounding the town and allow bikers to visit the ruins while enjoying the incredible scenery. We were lucky to spend our second day here soaking up the past and the future of Pozos!

After a filling breakfast of eggs (cooked to your liking!), beans, orange juice, and coffee, all included in our modestly priced and beautiful room at the Posada de Las Minas we headed out for another day of exploration.

One of our first stops was a street that houses some of the small artists’ studios, several of which offer a fascinating array of Pre-Hispanic musical instruments. We spent some time with Luis Cruz, whose shop was lined with an incredible selection of drums, flutes, and stringed instruments. Luis was happy to play them for us, and the melodic sounds of instruments long forgotten, individually crafted from local woods and materials including mesquite, cactus, and cow bone, were a joy.  

The growing mountain biking scene in Pozos has blossomed recently, thanks to the completion of over 30 km of well-marked trails. There are trails for all skill levels, and a well equipped bike shop near the trail head offers rentals and other services for visiting mountain bikers. The scenery here is breathtaking, and you can visit some of the abandoned mining sites as you make your way through the rugged countryside on your bike. Part of the trail is even illuminated at night with solar powered lighting! There is a great deal of hiking available as well, but make sure you wear sturdy shoes and watch out for mine shafts!

As we wandered about town the first day, one of the many local dogs that wandered the streets decided we looked good, and followed us around for part of the day. On our second day, we encountered him again, and although he seemed to ignore everyone else that passed by, he wagged his tail with joy when he saw us and once again accompanied us on our walk for awhile. Not sure what the attraction was as we never feed the dogs, but I guess he just sensed we were dog people!

There are spectacular ruins everywhere you go in Pozos, and we covered a lot of ground exploring them. Once again we were struck by the thought of what it must have looked like here during its hay day.

All too soon, it was time to meet our driver for the ride back to San Miguel. We are looking forward to returning to Pozos when the street projects are completed to spend a little more time getting to know this lovely town!

Click on any photo to enter the gallery!

The Cobblestone Diaries gets a lesson...How to make a cobblestone street!

We arrived in the quaint mountain village of Mineral de Pozos a little after 10 am. Our driver finally managed to navigate a series of roadblocks created by workers who are in the process of laying cables and pipes under the cobblestone streets. This is a massive undertaking and is mostly done by hand. While the work meant that we would have to make numerous detours to get around town during our visit, it was extremely fascinating to watch the workers first dismantle, then rebuild the cobblestone streets. I had never thought about the process of building a cobblestone street. I guess I thought of all the streets were old, as they look old immediately even after being rebuilt. I kind of assumed the process might be a bit of a lost art, but it is very much alive and well!

The process of chiseling out the stones by hand, digging up the channels for the wiring and pipes by shovel, and replacing the stones one by one, is extremely labor intensive, but the amount of progress made during our two day visit was impressive to say the least!  I made a point of checking on the work and was able to photograph the process. The workers came to recognize me and would smile and wave while I took my pictures.

The process itself is relatively simple. First, a bed of concrete is laid onto the soil and tamped into place. Next a crew of workers begins to lay the stones out, carefully checking them for level. Finally a layer of cement is pushed into the cracks between the stones to stabilize the roadbed. A little wash with some water and a sweep with a broom, and viola, a cobblestone street!

The project to put the wiring underground in Pozos is significant. Wiring in Mexico is interesting to say the least, and a number of beautiful views are often spoiled by a rats nest of wires and cables. How an electrician can even decipher some of the connections is beyond me! Burying the wires is part of the progress being made here under the Pueblo Magico program, and will help restore the village to some of its colonial glory. We look forward to visiting in the future to see the results!

Click on any photo to enlarge!

A Visit to Mineral De Pozos...If Only the Walls Could Talk!

We recently traveled to the nearby historic mining town of Mineral de Pozos, or “Pozos” as the locals call it. Located at 7500 feet and about an hour away from San Miguel by auto, we had heard good things about visiting and decided to make an overnight journey of it. I called ahead and arranged lodging with the young lady who answered the phone at the Posada de Las Minas, and although she spoke no English, I managed to muddle my way through it and was only slightly amazed when an email arrived confirming our reservation.

Pozos, has a long and fascinating history, beginning with its founding as a fort to protect shipments of precious metals to Mexico City in 1576. When the Jesuits arrived some time later in an attempt to convert the indigenous Chichimeca Indians, they soon discovered that the area was rich in mineral deposits including vast quantities of gold and silver. They began using European mining techniques to extract the riches and the town flourished. 

When the Jesuits were forcibly removed from the area around 1767, other Europeans eventually moved in and things really started to grow. By 1895 the city was booming and there were over 300 mines and nearly 80,000 residents! Eventually however, the mines started to decline. The Mexican Revolution of 1910, and the subsequent purposeful flooding of the mines by either rebels or the mine owners during the Cristero Rebellion of 1926 was the final death knell for Pozos and the last mine was shuttered in 1927. The city then began a serious decline and by the 1950’s there were only about 200 people living there. As the city fell into ruins, the buildings were looted and stripped of their roof beams for firewood and many of them eventually collapsed or became uninhabitable. 

In 1982, the city was declared a National Historic Monument, and some efforts at restoration began. The town continued to fight its way back to life, and in 2012 was declared a “Pueblo Magico”, a designation that would allow it to receive large scale restoration assistance from the government. Today the town is really starting to show the results of these efforts, and many are comparing it to the San Miguel of thirty or forty years ago. Fortunately however, some of the things that many people consider to be mistakes made in San Miguel may be avoided in Pozos. Rather than allowing Gringo money to dominate the economy, there are groups helping the local population to create businesses and jobs, and there is a focus on fostering a culture of sustainability.  Many of the tourists you will find here are Mexicans from the nearby city of Querértero or as far away as Mexico City. They come to get away from the big city and immerse themselves in the history and culture of the area. Tours of the abandoned mines are popular, and over 30 kilometers of newly constructed trails are creating a haven for mountain bikers. A number of local artisans are recreating and selling some of the pre-Hispanic musical instruments, and a small group of hotels, restaurants, and bars are springing up in the town.

We arrived around 10am, checked into our lovely hotel, and began our walking tour of the town. After a hearty lunch served by a family run Mexican restaurant, we continued our leisurely stroll and sightseeing tour. Walking the quiet streets among a curious mixture of inhabited and ruined buildings, it is sometimes hard to imagine this town as a vibrant city of 80 thousand souls, brimming with life and hundreds of colorful stone buildings. The ghosts are everywhere, but for those living here the city is coming back to life. 

Next...The Cobblestone Diaries gets a lesson!

Click on any photo to enlarge!

Daily life in Mexico…The Garbageman Always Rings Twice!

One of the first things you learn as a newly minted expat in Mexico, is life is different here in more ways than you might have imagined. Sure, most people speak Spanish, and that in itself is a bit of a challenge, but it is adapting to the different way day to day life functions here where your new life really begins!

Garbage collection

Let’s start with a few of the easy things. At “home”, garbage service was usually just a matter of either ordering up service and dragging the cans out to the curb each week, or taking your trash down to the dumpster in your building. Here things are a bit different, and it took us a little time to figure it all out. While the garbage service here is somewhat less sophisticated it is, if nothing else, frequent. After moving in, we discovered that a garbage truck comes down our street on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday merrily ringing a bell that alerts you to their presence a block or so ahead of their arrival. There are however no garbage cans, you simply take your bags out and place them at the curb, or hand them directly to the garbage collectors, who in this case is a family of Mexicans ranging in age from Grandma to the older children. We wondered about recycling, as we did not see how we might accomplish that, only to find that once received, the family members quickly sort your bag out and remove the glass, plastic bottles, cans and anything else that looks interesting. This apparently is how they make their money as the garbage trucks are privately owned and operated under some kind of system that seems to work very well, but which we may never fully understand!

Checking the gas

Next there is the gas. Nearly every home here runs primarily on propane, and there is a large tank located somewhere on the property. These are filled on demand, and once we figured out how to read the gauge (climb up a steel ladder on the side of the house, flip open a cover and see what’s left) our housekeeper would order a filling for us. The truck usually appears out of nowhere fairly quickly, a couple of good natured gas guys jump out and fill the tank in short order, and smile as you pay them with a large wad of cash. Very simple, efficient, and a far cry from paying an online bill with PG&E!

Fortunately our current home includes most of our utilities as most residents pay their bills in cash (no online option yet), at the various offics at the end of the month. This can result in some rather long lines at both the bank and the utilities as the end of the month is also pay day for most residents. The long suffering Mexicans take this all in stride, and don’t really seem to mind the long lines and the wait. I think it is a bit of a social occasion for them rather than the nuisance we gringos would perceive. 

La Tienda

Most people are familiar with the admonishment “don’t drink the water” in Mexico, and while this is generally true, much of the water in San Miguel is considered “safe” with many homes having a filtration system installed. We do use bottled water for cooking and drinking, but tap water for everything else. I have been brushing my teeth daily with tap water and have had no deleterious effects. Bottled water is readily available, and we have been buying it from the little “tienda” across the street. The little woman there stocks an amazing array of fruits, vegetables, beer, and Mexican packaged sweets (very popular here), and she has taken a liking to the crazy gringos.

Don’t get me wrong, the quirky little things are half the fun, and living outside your normal routine is both challenging and stimulating. Daily life in Mexico takes a little getting used to, but like anywhere once you figure it out it, life goes on!

Click on any photo to enlarge!

Dia de Los Muertos in San Miguel..the Land of the Living Dead!

One of the most significant cultural holidays in San Miguel and Mexico in general, is the celebration of Dia de Los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, and the town comes alive to honor the dead! Many gringos think the day is a Mexican version of our Halloween and in some ways this is true, but to really understand the significance of this holiday, one must delve deeper into the fundamental beliefs of the Mexican people. 

Many Mexicans are people of deep religious beliefs, and although the 16^th century Catholic Spaniards tried to suppress the celebration due to its pagan roots, the tradition has survived and was eventually embraced by the government and declared a national holiday. Originally celebrated in the ninth month of the Aztec calendar, it began in early August and lasted most of the month. Over time it morphed into a celebration that coincided with the Catholic observance of All Saints Day. While many cultures including our own celebrate a similar event, what sets the day apart from Halloween for instance is the deeply held belief that their dead relatives are still here and have simply moved on to a different stage or plane of life. 

In their homes, throughout the town, and in the cemeteries, the families construct shrines to honor and remember the dead. The shrines are often elaborate and include photos and mementos, as well as offerings of food and drink. The families gather at the shrines and celebrate the lives, not the deaths of the loved ones as if they were still with them. Some of the graves even have tubes built in to them where these offerings can be given directly to the deceased. In some of the more remote villages, the families go as far as to disinter the deceased, replace their garments, and after a toast, return them to their next life.

Although it is called the Day of the Dead, the celebration actually stretches out over several days with November 1^st being focused on the dead children and the 2^nd for the adults. In addition to the graveside visits and shrines, there are fireworks, parades, and religious ceremonies going on around the clock. The Mexican people love a good fiesta, and Dia de Los Muertos is no exception!

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the graveyard, a stroll through the shrines spread strategically around the square, a raucous fireworks display, and culminating in a vibrant and colorful parade. In the early evening, a large thunderstorm and brilliant lightning display descended upon the festivities threatening to dampen the crowd’s enthusiasm, but they would not be dissuaded from celebration. After a brief but violent storm that did its best to wash away the elaborate shrines, the storm subsided and the people continued to celebrate well into the wee hours.

If you plan to visit San Miguel in the future, timing it with Dia de Los Muertos is a beautiful way to celebrate the joy of life!

Click on any photo to enlarge!

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!