November Dirt Dwellers in SMA

—Blogpost written by Bob 

In this blogpost, we continue our 6-month winter excursion in San Miguel de Allende (SMA), Mexico.  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!

Wednesday, November 3

We woke up to an outside temperature in the mid 40's.  We had the window on the overhead skylight in our bedroom open for the last several days and nights.  We sleep under two warm blankets most nights.  When getting up in the middle of the night, the tile floor is cold and unappealing.  Every little sound echos off the tile floor and concrete walls and ceilings.

One of the three skylights
in our apartment.

Maybe not so obvious from the above photo, the concrete roof is about a foot thick. Even though we have no windows, the three overhead skylights allow a lot of sunlight into our apartment.  (The glass block in the floor of our hallway, shown in the photo below, allows sunlight from our hallway into the downstairs apartment.)

If we were lucky, the sunlight woke us up in the morning.  If we were not as lucky, Kali woke us up before sunrise (she's hungry and wants to be fed).

A view from our living room looking into
the hallway in early morning.

We usually have a major goal for the day--we develop other (smaller) goals around our major goal.  However, today was a little different.  Our major goal was going out for dinner at Mario's Mariscos Frescos by taxi (this is a top-rated restaurant we have tried to find twice and failed).  Because Maggie's conversational Spanish classes were late in the afternoon this week, we couldn't work other (smaller) goals around our dinner plans.  Instead, we decided to visit a nearby art gallery of a local painter in the morning but, again, we couldn't find it.  (It turns out that it was in the Fabrica de Aurora--not where it was shown on our map!  We didn't go to the Fabrica de Aurora to find it.) 

---------- 

We tried a new spot for lunch today, Cafe Media Naranja, which turned out to be quite a find.  We passed by it many times on our way to other places in the area.  It was located above a pharmacy on the corner of Calle Hildalgo and Czda de la Luz.  ("Czda" is an abbreviation for "calzada" which is like a main street or boulevard.)  The tall windows on the second floor containing lots of potted plants looked very alluring to me.

The stairs from street level to
the second floor cafe.

Cafe Media Naranja was on the second floor
above a pharmacy.  We had an
excellent lunch here!

For lunch I had two chicken burritos which were quite different than I've ever had in the U.S.  The tasty warm contents (lettuce, rice, beans, salsa, and chicken) were wrapped in a large thin soft tortilla.  Several hours later I still felt full to the gills and was no longer interested in going out for dinner--we postponed it until tomorrow.

A colorful mural on a wall separating a
parking garage from the street.

On our way back to our apartment we picked up a few items (avocados, oatmeal, and a couple pastries for tomorrow's breakfast) at Tienda de Gil, our now favorite neighborhood store.

Thursday, November 4

The expected range of temperatures today was 42 degrees in the early morning to 75 degrees in the afternoon.  I took a shower this morning and changed into fresh jeans, a lightweight t-shirt, and a light sweatshirt.  We made oatmeal for breakfast this morning for a change in pace--we made it using half milk and half water--it was absolutely delicious.

We picked up Quaker Oats yesterday at Tienda 
de Gil--of course, the instructions on
the box were in Spanish.

We decided that we would go out for lunch today at the seafood restaurant that we haven't been able to find yet.  We were sure that a taxi could find the top-rated restaurant.  We walked over to the busiest nearby street, Calle Aurora, to find a taxi.  Since our maid was already in our apartment cleaning at 10:15 AM, we left early hoping to explore the area, Guadiana, that was new to us.  (We had considered renting an apartment in this area before we rented ours in Guadalupe.)

Mario's Mariscos Frescos from the
outside--this was right along
Route 51. (I don't know
why we couldn't find
it previously.)

Mario's on the inside is
very colorful too.

The dining room is very "busy" with blowfish
mounted from the ceiling, large mirrors,
and assorted nautical paraphernalia.  
We were the only ones there
at noon today.

A decal on the window of
Mario's restaurant.

For lunch, I had octopus (pulpa) cooked in butter-
-it was very good!  (Maggie had a fish filet 
(marlin, I believe) covered in "diabla" 
(which translates to "she devil")
sauce which tasted
outstanding!)

Almost every restaurant we've visited as well as
some other businesses have had these mats
for use upon entering the business.
(I think they are simply
for cleanliness.)

While we were out and about today we found a local vet practice to take Kali for her neutering operation in a couple weeks--the practice was called the Pet Care Center of San Miguel de Allende.  I was able to talk to the vet in English.  They are located near La Comer, which was a 2-minute walk from Mario's.

It may seem like most of our adventures involve meals but we still do a lot of sight-seeing in between. 

Friday, November 5

Our goal for the day was to visit the Fabrica de Aurora, a textile mill converted to art studios.  It is located only a few blocks away from our apartment and we combed it with a lunch out.  The following images were taken during our day's excursion:

A fountain in the courtyard at the
entrance to Fabrica de Aurora.

A doorway leading away
from the courtyard.

A plant in a barred window.

The extreme contrast in light
from outside to inside.

Textile machinery still in
place in spots.

Looking up at a catrina's face.  The catrina's
costume was on display in one
of the hallways.

I wasn't allowed to take photographs of any exhibited artwork--that's why the above photographs are mostly of the surrounding area.

Before leaving, we had lunch right at the Fabrica de Aurora, specifically at the Food Factory.  We didn't realize that there were two separate restaurants in the front of the Fabrica de Aurora--the Food Factory and Grandpa & Son Burgers--since they share a dining area.  (We thought at first that it was all one big restaurant.)

My lunch consisted of an excellent hamburger and fries plus a very tasty and not-overly-sweet flan for dessert.  The hamburger bun was really special.  (Maggie had an equally tasty tuna fish sandwich and some type of fruit pie for dessert.)  Today, we just wanted some comfort food from back home.  

Saturday, November 6

Since we have elected to have breakfasts out on Saturday mornings, we strolled over a couple doors to the corner cafe (Cafe de la Esquina) for breakfast.  The following images are from our breakfast this morning:

Inside the courtyard at
Cafe de Esquina.

Maggie's cup of coffee
at the cafe.

My breakfast consisted of an omelet, a small serving
of mole, an artistically sliced avocado, and fried
potatoes--it was absolutely delicious!
(Mole and avocados seem to be
part of every Mexican
meal.)

Remnants of a very
tasty tarta.

Beside our table, a black string held the
bamboo blinds together.  (This image
was an exercise in perspective
and composition.)

After breakfast, Maggie walked downtown to the ATM while I walked back to our apartment.

The Penn State-Maryland football game was high on our agenda for the day--the start time was  1:30 PM local time (3:30 PM Eastern Daylight Savings Time).  However, other Big10 football games started at 10:00 AM local time--I watched Ohio State vs. Nebraska, two teams I hate.  I was rooting for Nebraska to upset Ohio State but Ohio State held on to win.

Lola sits on the interior window sill between
the living room and the hallway
of our apartment.

Fiesta flags in our kitchen--image taken
through a mirror in the hallway.

Kali is really growing into a very personable cat--she loves to be "held like a baby."  She is at the same age that Lola was when we brought her home (six months old).  Kali's tail is fluffy and full and her feet look large compared to her body size.

Later in the afternoon Penn State beat
Maryland by a score of 31 to 14!

The VPN (Express VPN) hasn't been very useful until today--it allowed me to connect to a server in Washington DC where the football game was available for viewing on a streaming service.

Thanks for following our blog!