Still Settling into SMA

—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!

Thursday, October 27

The outside temperature was only 51 degrees this morning but it was still expected to reach 78 degrees in the afternoon.  This morning I discovered that I only brought along one sweatshirt (or fleece) for the cool mornings--I thought I had packed more.  (What was I thinking?)

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Today, we expected to do more of the same things that we have been doing lately, walking around town with our cameras, stopping at some local markets, etc.  (Maggie will be taking 2 weeks of Spanish classes starting on November 1--so, we must remain in this immediate area for the next two weeks.  After Maggie's classes, we expect to do some local day trips into areas around San Miguel de Allende.)

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I have been working on my photography, learning more about the efficient utilization of my 20mm wide angle lens (which is relatively new to me) by watching some YouTube videos and then trying to apply the professional tips.  However, today I planned to carry my 24-120mm lens and sacrifice image quality for versatility. (Late in the day, I switched to my 20mm wide angle lens.)

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I have been thinking lately about how my life has actually evolved for living aboard my sailboat, kind of like football teams evolve into being competitive with their conference rivals.  When faced with different situations (like different football competition) sometimes things break down.  I'm not sure that my life was designed to live on a sailboat when I get much older.  This thought has plagued me a bit while here in San Miguel de Allende.  Dealing with (my future) advanced aging is tough for me, probably one of the toughest things I have had to deal with.  We had an acquaintance  who died while living on a houseboat (in Baltimore) and we have been around older people living on various types of boats around Annapolis and elsewhere.  Moving our boat further south may be advantageous in terms of avoiding colder weather, but where?

We have friends that gave up boating to live in a condo in Florida, then sold their condo and bought another boat (a trawler) to live on.  (They eventually sold the trawler and purchased a small land-based home near the water in North Carolina--they are in their early/late 70's now.)

I don't know where this line of thought will take us...

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We left our apartment at about 11 AM and stopped by the nearby cafe for coffee and pastry.  At the cafe we met an older man (named John) from Nova Scotia who rented our apartment a long time ago.  He knew a lot about the building and its water leaks during the rainy season.  (Fortunately we won't be here during the rainy season!)  Shortly before noon we finished our coffees and tarts at the Cafe and were on our way toward the nearby market, Tienda de Gil.

The fresh fruit and vegetables are
frequently refreshed in
Tienda de Gil.

We purchased bananas, red plums, brussels sprouts, and two pastries for tomorrow morning, before walking around town a bit.  We decided ahead of time that we were going out for lunch at a restaurant called Chill but to the best of our knowledge, it didn't open until 1 PM.  

We accidentally ran into a bodega having some men's clothes--I found a red sweat shirt there for 50 Mexican pesos ($2.50 USD).  As it turns out the sweatshirt was previously owned but you  couldn't tell.  It was a real bargain and solved the problem of me not having enough warm clothes!

We stopped and sat on a bench behind
this fruit juice stand--they did
a brisk business!

Again, we set out to look for Chill.  We finally found the location but the restaurant was still closed at 1 PM.  Upon closer inspection of the description on TripAdvisor, it wasn't supposed to open until 4 PM.  So, we went back to our apartment and dropped off our purchases.  We ate some light treats, chips and green salsa, pieces of cheese, and cut up pieces of cantaloupe before heading back out to Chill.  While at our apartment, we met our maid, doing her weekly cleaning.

Kali in the hallway before we left for
the second time of the day.

We left our apartment for the second time for the day at 4:15 PM, the latest that we have been out and about town so far.  Wen we got to the restaurant the doors were open!

A small house plant on the second floor
sill at the restaurant.

The hours of operation for Chill was posted
on the inside of the door--not
on the outside!

New condos or townhouses across the
little river (more like a large
drainage ditch) from
our apartment.

Our day ended with us watching the beginning of Thursday Night Football on TV.

Friday, October 28

Another cool morning (51 degrees outside) awaited us today even though it was expected to be warm again in the afternoon.  Today marks the start of our second week in San Miguel de Allende. Considering our past 1-week long vacations, you would think we would be more settled than we currently consider ourselves to be.   Perhaps this was due to the fact that we know we are here for a much longer haul.  

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From the beginning of the day, we had no goals for the day except to get some money from the ATM.  It was one of those days where we make up our goals as the day goes on (or even after the fact).

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We had lunch in our apartment (sautéed salmon and broccoli)!  Sometime after lunch we walked to the organic market to find blueberries--they didn't have any at the time.  We meandered down to Tienda de Gil and bought some blueberries, pastry, and a few odds and ends.

We must have walked along this street
a thousand times already.

Fresh veggies in Tienda de Gil.

Blueberries in bulk.

I'm not sure what these fruits were--they
were about the size of a plum but
had the appearance of an apple.  
Crab apples, maybe?

The inside view of Benny's Place, a bar
owned by a man from Toronto.
We had a drink here on 
our way back.

Saturday, October 29

We decided to go out for breakfast this morning.  After a delicious breakfast (I had chilaquiles) we went for a walk in a different direction than we normally go.  Today's blogpost is heavy on images and short on words.  (I used my Nikon 85mm f1.4D lens this morning, my favorite.)

Kali says goodbye to us
as we leave in the
morning.

Looking back at the entrance to
Cafe de Esquina (translated to
"Corner Cafe") where we had
breakfast.  (We decided
to make going out on
Saturday mornings 
a new habit!)

My latte was the perfect
starter for breakfast.

We found a  mural of smooth
Mexican colors after
leaving the cafe.

A tunnel of apartment entrances down
the street from our apartment.  (Note
the individual electric meters
and gas meters.)

A pretty upstairs window decorated
with house plants, just down the
street from our apartment.

These upstairs windows faced Eastward 
with the translucent awnings shielding
the intense morning sun.

At 11 AM (noon Eastern time), college football started--we watched the Michigan-Michigan State game.  We were rooting for Michigan State and they won by a score of 37 to 33.  (Penn State played Ohio State later in the evening.)

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Maggie purchased some marigolds and a bunch of fiesta flags so that we are in sync with our neighborhood on welcoming back the souls of the dead for Dia de Los Muertos.

Fiesta flags on display
in our kitchen.

In the evening, my Penn State Nittany Lions lost to Ohio State by a score of 33 to 24 but Penn State played well--the defense was outstanding!  If Clifford was 100% and we didn't have the injuries, we would have beat them.  The next opponent is Maryland.

Stay tuned for more of our land adventure...thanks for following our blog!