Settling in to San Miguel de Allende

—Blogpost written by Bob 

In this blogpost, we continue our 6-month winter excursion to San Miguel de Allende (SMA).  We arrived by car on October 15, traveling from near Annapolis, Maryland where we live on our sailboat.  This has been quite a change in our life style!

Tuesday, October 19

Our cats seem to be fully adjusted to San Miguel de Allende but, for a change, it seems like we are taking longer to adjust.  Particularly for me.  It is now clear to me that during my prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment over the past year, I had become quite sedentary.  Now, we must walk almost everywhere we go--it is a healthy change for me but somewhat tiring.  (Plus the two pairs of shoes that I purchased and packed for this trip did not work out as planned--I've been wearing my boat shoes which probably aren't ideal for cobblestone streets but they are the most comfortable shoes I have with me.)

During our travels on Saturday to the Ignacio Ramirez Market, I ran across a familiar face--one from when we were here ten years ago.

This is a photograph that I took here in San Miguel
de Allende 10 years ago.  The man in this photo
was playing his guitar on the same street on 
Saturday.  (He has more gray hair now.)

We haven't been around town enough yet to determine most of what has changed during the past ten years, but the supermarket, LaComer, is new and I'm sure there are some new, more expensive restaurants downtown.  I understand that rents are now much higher.

We have seen BIMBO bread trucks all over
Mexico in the past.  We purchased a loaf
of whole wheat BIMBO bread at the
supermarket on Sunday morning.
(Linaza translates to flaxseed.)

Last night I made some adjustments to the MAPS on my iPhone to get a compass readout.  As a sailor, I have felt lost here without a reference to a northerly direction. (In most places I have been, my internal compass has worked exceptionally well--but here in San Miguel de Allende it hasn't worked at all.)  The street in front of our apartment runs roughly north and south and I have had the directions reversed 180 degrees until now.  This could have had something to do with our inability to find our way around our neighborhood over the past couple days.

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The following images were taken on our walk around the neighborhood this morning:

The internal corridor and door to our
apartment.  (The steep stairway
to the left of our door leads
to the roof terrace.)

We stopped by a nearby cafe
for lattes this morning.

Maggie's latte.

The nearby street sign.

Beautiful bougainvilla on the second
floor of a nearby casita.

By far the most common car we've seen
in San Miguel de Allende was the
Volkswagen Beetle.  (They
are everywhere. I think
this one was an early
70's vintage.)

Wednesday, October 20

It was surprising to me how cool the mornings are here.  The outside temperature was only 56 degrees at nearly 10 AM and yet it was expected to reach 80 degrees in the afternoon.  We waited for a much warmer temperature before venturing outside, deciding to go out around lunchtime.

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I got an email from our boatyard this morning regarding repairs underway on s/v Rainy Days while we are in Mexico--I called back for more detail.  One set of engine mounts are faulty and have to be replaced.  Also, the repair to the foredeck after running into a piling at the boatyard was reportedly complicated by a wet core, the repair of which would exceed $5,000.  I gave them the "go ahead" to continue with both repairs but also reminded the yard manager that our boat is old (1983 vintage) and I am old (almost 75 now) and we can't expect everything to be in perfect condition.  I have concluded that there is an acceptable condition best described as "just good enough."

For lunch we went to Habierta Santa Cocina de Sur
again.  Fiesta flags decorate the road
leading to the restaurant.

My lunch consisted of a large piece of pork (called
pork belly) with a green mole sauce--it
was absolutely delicious!

This is a hardware store along one of the
streets where we walked today.

La Parroquia de San Miguel.

An older man was playing chess with a younger
man in the courtyard behind Starbucks.
(I posted this photo on Flickr.)

We walked a lot today, probably 2 miles and we took a taxi back to our apartment.  Little by little, I felt like my stamina was returning but I still felt old and decrepit.  The outside temperature reached 80 degrees this afternoon,

Thursday, October 21

The outside temperature was in the high-50’s to low-60’s at mid-morning when we contemplated our second excursion to Ignacio Ramirez Market.  The maid was working in the apartment below ours and we wanted to wait for her to come into our apartment, somewhat in fear of what our cats might do.  (They would probably just run and hide but there was a chance that they would run out an open door like Lola did once before.)  We talked to the site manager about our concerns about the maid accidentally letting our cats out the door and then we left on our day's excursion.

We headed out to the Ignacio Ramirez Mercado but walked by an interesting restaurant, Clasico San Miguel, and we thought we would try it out for lunch.

Clásico San Miguel Restaurante
had a very interesting layout.

Muy picante!  Chips were accompanied by
pickled jalapenos and a very hot
sauce before our meal--this
was special!

For lunch, I had "Enchiladas Huastecas"
which was thin strips of steak over
cheese enchiladas--it was OK
but I wouldn't order it again.

Our next stop, the Ignacio Ramirez Mercado, has much better fruits and produce than the supermarket, LaComer.  We bought peaches, broccoli, guava fruits, and a cucumber.

One stall at the mercado had packages
of corn husks used in making tamales.

We got back to our apartment at about 2:30 PM by taxi--we got tired of walking in circles again!

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Today was another frustrating day for us but we tried some new things.  Until next blogpost...stay tuned...

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