Going to the Spa and Meeting Chi

Today is healthcare day. We go to our favorite Farmacia and visit Chelo, the pharmacist we have been going to for years. We get Crestor at greatly reduced prices from what we pay at home and some medicine for Johnny who is a bit under the weather. It is nice to see Chelo again and she hasn't aged a day. Must be the climate here!

We spend a little time in the Jardin and it is nice and quiet because it is a weekday and also because it is Siesta time. We enjoy the peace and quiet and of course the church bells!
















We head to the Spa. We have discovered one of the deals of the century at our beloved Spa. It has moved from the Sierra Nevada Hotel to new quarters on Recreo and is offering a 2-hour special for $50 US dollars! This includes hot stone therapy, full body massage and a facial. Such a deal! We got reservations earlier in the week. It is WONDERFUL and hope we can do it again before we leave.

After going to the Spa, we do a little shopping. John is looking for a good Cuban cigar and Mexico is definitely the place to get Cubans because they are legal here. They are expensive at $10 each, so it's maybe a once a week treat. He settles for some $3 Mexican cigars. He gave up cigarettes years ago, but really enjoys a good cigar once in awhile.

We run in and out of several art galleries and shops and end up meeting Chi Kaplan. He is a delightful young artist from Mexico City and has just finished filming an HBO special that will be shown in two months. We fall in love with him and his colorful paintings and are amazed at his English and he tells us he studied at Berkeley. He's listed on the Neustra Promotions website: http://nuestraboutique.com/index.html. We hate to leave him because he is so much fun to talk to, but it's getting dark and we need to head home.

Going to "The Tent" and Tuesday Market

We finally got to one of our favorite eating places we affectionately call "The Tent" and yes, the food was as good as it always was. This is La Palapa and run by a Canadian man. The cover is not a tarp after all, it's a Sol Beer canvas cover and the walls are cyclone fencing with bamboo tied to the inside. Business is steady as many people like this place and it also seems to be a small expat hangout. Lots of expats in San Miguel. We have fried shrimp tacos (the best ever!), chili dog, beef tacos, fried fish tacos and carrot cake. Yum! Yes, we all do love our food...

We visit Mega, the giant supermarket and fill our carts with eggs, ham, cheese, butter, bread, maple syrup, chips and beer. This will go back to our communal kitchen where we prepare one meal a day, usually breakfast, and evening snacks of guacamole and chips. We take turns in the kitchen and everyone has their specialty and contributes what they do best.

Tuesday Market is held on Tuesdays (surprise) and is a GIANT outdoor flea market where you can buy just about anything. Naturally we go to it. We decide we don't need any more bras, Spanish CDs or live rabbits, and go for the good stuff. Namely food. We get 5 kilos (11 lbs) of oranges for 10 pesos (70 cents) that we squeeze fresh into juice each morning. We bought a hand crank juicer in the local hardware store as there wasn't one in the Casa. We get fresh blackberries to make sauce for the French toast. We get a giant papaya, 2 kilos of strawberries for 25 pesos, avocados and bananas. We walk around and munch on fresh fried potato chips, sugared donut sticks and fresh fruit juice. We bypass the snake oil people with all kinds of remedies we didn't even know existed. We do stop and look at the handmade Mexican glassware and decide there's a shape we don't already own and simply MUST have. At $1.50 per glass, we figure this is a pretty good deal, so we fill up our Frida Kahlo mesh bag. We naturally become friends with the proprietor of the glassware table and trade life histories and end up hugging and kissing. We know we'll meet again.

We haul our aching bodies back to La Casa Arriba via taxicab and unpack our goodies. We have a simple dinner on the roofdeck overlooking the city and under the Christmas lights on the roof cover. We put our feet up, chat and rejoice in the opportunity we have to be able to spend the winter in San Miguel. We look at the stars and listen to music on the iPod plgged into the portable speakers. We miss our families and friends, but are glad to have Skype on our laptops and Vonage on the house phone to be able to talk with you. We look forward to visits by some of you and wish you could ALL come and visit. For those of you who will visit, here's a photo of your bedroom in La Casita Escondida.

Dancing in the Jardin

Sunday is another magnificent day so we pussyfoot down the cobblestoned alleys to the flatter part of town. La Casa Arriba is located high up the hill on the Salida a Queretero, so it's a bit of a hike downtown and we always watch the ground so as not to trip and fall. If you'd like to see the place we're renting, go to www.vrbo.com/130492.

We decide to go to the Posada Carmina Hotel for brunch where we can sit outside in the ancient courtyard. There are massive stone walls covered with flowering vines and a lovely central fountain. This hotel is an old restored 18th century Hacienda. Some of the tables have umbrellas made of cotton with a beautiful crocheted trim and set amongst the orange trees. The waiters are very formal and the service is wonderful. We love this place.

After brunch we continue on to the Instituto Allende where there's an Arts and Crafts fair. The Instituto is a college where you can study art and Spanish and is set on a magnificent piece of property. They offer BFA and Master of Fine Arts programs as well as art workshops. Today it is taken over by dozens of vendors of silver jewelry, rugs from Oaxaca, art of all types, textiles, semi-precious gem jewelry, and hundreds of people. We join the throngs of folks and pick out a few special little gifts.

As we're strolling back to the Jardin, we see a sign outside La Fragua announcing Happy Hour with 2 for 1 Margaritas. Live music is playing. Gee, how can we resist? After spending an hour or so here, we finally get to the Jardin and the Sunday festivities.

Oh my, the party is REALLY happening on Sunday night! The Jardin is PACKED. People are dancing, live music in the central bandstand, balloon and toy vendors, food stands, the ice cream horse, people are everywhere laughing, hugging, chatting and having a grand time. The place is amazing and we are swept up into another joyous and magical encounter in San Miguel. Are we never going to tire of this place?

Around Town on Saturday

The weekend has arrived! There is so much to do, it's actually hard to make choices and fit everything in. The weather is balmy at about 75 degrees, so it's short sleeves with a lightweight jacket in the backpack as the evenings are cool. Think layering. Because San Miguel is a hill town with cobblestone streets, we wear very sensible shoes with "grippy" rubber soles.

We decide to start our day with an open house in the Historic District that we saw advertised before we left home. The house is magnificent, listed at $699K and sold. We have lots of fun admiring the cantera stone fireplaces, the hand carved stone lintels and window surrounds, magnificent bathrooms with to die for tilework, the outdoor room, the courtyard, blah, blah, blah. I could go on and on! The homes in San Miguel are legend.

We then head to the Chili Cook Off and Best Margarita Contest at the Real de Minas Hotel in the San Antonio district. We are not disappointed- the place is packed and we have a fabulous time. The chili is great and there is even a "Mix the Margarita in the mouth" sponsored by Harry's Restaurant (who else). We all know who tried this trick! There are cowgirls in the bull ring riding beautiful horses, but we do not stay for the show as there are more things we want to do.

We trek to the Jardin for the evening festivities, but Doris and I are sidetracked by a bakery that we pass by. We escape with a carrot cake and a fresh strawberry cake, both melt in your mouth delicious. We check out one of our favorite spots to eat called La Palapa and it is still there although closed for the evening. La Palapa is not like any palapa we've ever seen before. It's a plastic tarp draped over some concrete walls and you eat outside on plastic furniture. The place is very primitive, dirt cheap prices and the best shrimp tacos and carrot cake you'll find anywhere.

We spend a little time in the Jardin, enjoying the music and the lively atmosphere, captivated by the sight of the Parroquia at dusk. We chat, people watch and gaze with amazement as a clown creates incredible animals out of balloons. We are relaxed and happy. We are tired from all the walking with our "out of shape" bodies and with an elevation of 6500 feet, we decide to not push ourselves too much. We call it an early night and go find a taxi and head for "home". Tomorrow is another day!

The Beauty of San Miguel

Ah, the beauty and romance of San Miguel! We are all happily settled in our casitas at La Casa Arriba and enjoying the beauty of this magical town. We have a lovely rooftop terrace with a magnificent view of town. We are renting a three casita complex for two months. Doris and Johnny are in La Casita Terraza and John and I are in La Casita Alhambra. La Casita Escondida is for our family and friends who visit.

After the long and grueling bus trip we napped, got refreshed and started our exploring around town. Everything looks much the same with a few new additions. There is now a Starbuck's on one of the corners of the Jardin! We visited our favorite homemade ice cream shop and a few of our favorite restaurants.

The Jardin is the center of activity in town and truly comes alive on the weekends. The Parroquia is the magnificent Catholic (of course) church that is the centerpiece. It is truly a breathtaking structure IMHO. The Mariachis come sing and play music in the evenings and lovers of all ages stroll the pathways of the Jardin. There are families, young people, old people, Mexicans, North Americans and people from around the world who come to visit.

This town has captivated us for 25 years and is always such a delight to come and visit. It refreshes and fills us with total peace and joy because it is such a happy place. It always feels like we've "come home again".

Border Crossing

What a border crossing it was! We diddled around Laredo on Wednesday and arrived at the bus terminal with time to kill. The bus people loaded all our suitcases into the bottom storage compartment underneath the seating area of the bus while Doris and I sat inside the waiting room and John and Johnny guarded our luggage outside. We then climbed aboard the Autobuses Americanos first class bus at 5:00PM and headed to Mexico! Five minutes into the ride the Mexican border crossing guys get on the bus and want to see passports. There are maybe eight Americans on the bus, so we all get off the bus and head into the little house. There's a guy sitting at a little desk writing out tourist visas and getting the information off our passports. We each get a piece of paper that we are to take to the bank in San Miguel and pay for.

Back on the bus and we go for maybe five more minutes and the bus pulls off into a side area. Everybody off the bus with our carryon stuff and all our luggage is unloaded from underneath. We gather all our bags and stuff and trudge into a customs building where we pile everything on a conveyor belt and it all goes through the X-ray machine. The German Shepherd is in a cage in the corner. At this point we wish our Spanish was a little more than "Dos Margaritas" because everyone is yelling in Spanish and we're asking a co-rider for translations. We get all our stuff off the belt and drag it through a checkpoint where you push the button on the random search light. If it's green, you pass through and if it flashes red, you get searched. No one got the red light, so we all get back on the bus and head deeper into Mexico.

We settle into our seats and they don't recline quite enough and there's only a tiny little footrest. The ride is bumpy and the road is a washboard and we have Dale Earnhardt for a driver. The movie starts on the tiny TVs and the speakers are shrill and tinny and blast a Spanish movie over the load speakers. They are not Bose. This bus is NOT up to the standards of many first class Mexican buses and now we know why our ticket was only $50.

We stop in Monterrey and we all get off to take a bathroom break. The boy is sitting at the restroom entrance to collect the 30 peso fee for using the facility, and of course we have no pesos, so scramble around to get some. If you missed the roll of toilet paper OUTSIDE the rest room and didn't grab some, you're out of luck inside unless you happen to have a roll stashed in your backpack. Ah, sometimes we forget how spoiled we've become as Americans.

We make several more stops on the bus throughout the night to gas up, pay tolls and use more wonderful restroom facilities. Our bus driver is passing EVERYONE on the road. We have never seen so many 18-wheelers, cement trucks, flatbed trucks and huge buses. There are very few "normal" cars. The traffic starts to thin a bit the further south we go, and eventually we get on a two lane road and our driver is still going for the checkered flag.

We arrive in San Miguel almost 2 hours EARLY at 5:10AM. There are naturally no taxi cabs at the bus terminal. We call our hosts at La Casa Arriba in San Miguel and roust them out of bed to tell them we have arrived. They are of course delighted we have arrived so early! We are very happy to have arrived safe and sound and glad our latest adventure is behind us.

Laredo, Texas

Wow, what an eventful day! We covered lots of ground today. We left Lafayette after a great breakfast and managed to get through Houston before lunchtime. "Jack" is our trusty navigator (he's our motorcycle GPS) and we stick him to the dash when we use him in the car. He chose a different route than we'd mapped using Google and actually shaved an hour off our trip, so we elevated him to family status. As a result, we got to see lots of Texas towns we never knew existed. We even passed by the LBJ Ranch. Stopped for lunch in Victoria and had, naturally, Mexican food! John had the biggest burrito I've ever seen in my life and he said it was delicious.

We pulled into Laredo about 4 o'clock and went immediately to the bus terminal where we bought our bus tickets for Mexico at Autobuses Americanos. They cost us $50 each for one way tickets. Guess I'm not sure if we're coming back! Our bus leaves tomorrow at 4:55PM and 14 hours later we'll arrive in San Miguel.

We checked into our Holiday Inn at the Civic Center and were delighted with tenth floor panoramic views. After dinner the hotel manager said we could park our car in the gated hotel garage for two months for FREE! That's right, free. We were stunned. He also gave us a late checkout and will give us shuttle service to the bus station. Whatever did we do to get such incredible luck?!! So now we have a day free to do whatever, go to the pool, the spa, go shopping, lay about... wow, life is good!

Monday- Departure Day

What a magnificent sunrise on the day of our departure! We left home at 8:30 Monday morning with our friends Johnny and Doris and headed south. We stopped in Tuscaloosa for a quick break, then later for lunch in Meridian, Mississippi. Not a lot happening in Mississippi, but the roads are good. We continued on to Lafayette, Louisiana and checked into our hotel, a Drury Inn, courtesy of Hotwire. Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE Hotwire?!!! Our main object on Monday night was to be all snuggled down and ready to watch 24 when it came on. Carolyn fell asleep before it was over (what else is new) so got nothing posted. It was a good day and we all had fun chatting and getting caught up on the news in our lives.

Almost Ready to Go!

Ah, we have finally managed to cram everything we own into two suitcases and a roll-aboard. Of course there are the various assorted "other things" like the Frida Kahlo mesh bag with the straw hats, the backpack with the laptop and Carolyn's jewelry, and the yet to be packed bag of food. Gotta have food. We'll be two days in the car, so naturally will have to munch all the way to Texas.

We're leaving tomorrow morning at 8:30 and our destination is Lafayette, Louisiana, a mere 550 miles from home. Next day will get us to Laredo, Texas, another 550 miles. After a restful night in Laredo, we'll hop aboard the Autobuses Americanos at 4:55PM on Wednesday and head south to San Miguel where we'll spend the next two months. Yippee, isn't this what retirement is all about?!!!

Today is a very special day. On this day 43 years ago a very special baby boy was born. Yes, that would be Jim, my charismatic oldest son who has grown up to be super-smart, witty and wonderful. I am so proud of him. He is a marvelous father to Eddie and Ryan, a great husband to Julie and an inspiration to his students. He is probably the most motivated person on earth and his charm and positive attitude inspires all of us. Happy Birthday, Jim!!! We love you so very much!

Still More Packing...

We're still at it and almost finished! We leave on Monday morning, so plenty of time to fit in lots more STUFF. We gotta have all those tee shirts, compliments of Harley-Davidson and Chico's...

Packing Up

We are now two days away from leaving for San Miguel de Allende and our house is a mess. This trip will be our zillionth to Mexico and we are eagerly looking forward to the mountains of central Mexico and the ambiance of San Miguel de Allende, our favorite town south of the border! We're still deciding what to take, is it REALLY necessary, and oh shucks, that doesn't fit anymore!!!