Mexican Dirt Dwellers

—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!

Friday, December 3

(A Day-long Guided Tour of Santiago de Quaretaro)

Our tour guide picked us up at Fabrica Aurora right at 10 AM.  We were the only two that signed up for the tour for today--so, we were driven in the tour guide's car.

Corridor en el templo y ex-convento de
la Santa Cruz de los Milagros
in Queretaro, Mexico.

Our very personalized tour began on the drive to Queretaro.  We drove right along the aqueduct that Queretaro was known for--the aqueduct was originally built to transfer water from the mountain springs in La Canada to the city in the late 17th century.  The arches that support the water trough are huge and there are 74 of them.

Driving along the aqueduct
entering Queretaro.

The first stop on our tour was at el temple y ex-convento de la Santa Cruz de los Milagros.  At this site we were given a tour by the staff in Spanish which wasn't all that useful for us but our tour guide interpreted things he thought would interest us.  

Inside the Temple of Santa Cruz
in Queretaro, an active church.

We then walked through the Centro section of Queretaro which was very similar to that of Guanajuato or Leon.  (I should point out here that Queretaro is the third largest, and probably second richest, city in Mexico.)

We ate lunch outdoors at El Meson de Chucho
el Roto while a guitar player entertained us.

We had a delicious lunch at a hotel/restaurant called El Meson de Chucho el Roto. (Maggie and I both had chicken and cheese enchiladas.)  Our tour continued during lunch in that we learned a lot more about a typical Mexican's life.  For example, we learned that the new President of Mexico increased the minimum wage from $5 USD per day to $10 USD per day.

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I also learned about a situation that has intrigued me since coming to Mexico: why all the security measures?  Our tour guide (who lived in the U.S. for a while) pointed out that the government does very little to protect ordinary citizens (unlike the U.S.) and therefore it is easier and less expensive to invest time and money in razor wire, etc. than it is to compensate for stolen items.  Consequently, burglary crimes seem to be very low.

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While we were walking around downtown after lunch, Maggie fell over a small step in the pavement that was poorly marked and sustained a bruise on her knee--this ended our day's tour.  However, we were both beat and ready to go home anyway...

Saturday, December 4

Today was a day reserved for watching college football conference championship games--there were three of them today.  I watched the first of three (Baylor vs. Oklahoma State) on my iPad (FuboTV) while using my VPN app with a Washington DC server location.  We were able to watch the last of the three championship games (Big Ten Championship) on TV but I couldn't stay awake until the end of the game.  Michigan beat Iowa for the Big Ten Championship.

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I thought I would spend a little time here describing bathroom habits that are unique to Mexico and other Latin American countries.  It is customary here in Mexico to not flush toilet paper down the toilet.  Supposedly, the reason for this is inadequate sewage piping (and since I haven't seen it I can't confirm it).  However, generally speaking, there is a waste basket in every toilet stall, including those at home.  (I'll spell it out for those unfamiliar with the situation, you wipe your butt with a minimum of toilet paper and then deposit the soiled toilet paper in the nearby waste basket.)  It was rather easy, for me at least, to adopt this custom.  (Only one time have I found a toilet without a nearby waste basket and that was in a fancy hotel with high-pressure flushing and that was in the city of Leon.)  In many public places, attendants take care of distributing toilet paper and cleaning out the waste baskets.  (It is not as primitive as it may sound.)

Somewhat related to the above, only purified water is used in personal consumption in Mexico, even by native Mexicans.  (I think that the ground water is negatively impacted by sewage, though no one admitted this problem.)

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My first two shipments (my new lens and our forwarded mail) thru La Conexion arrived in San Miguel de Allende--they will be ready for pickup on Monday morning at 9 AM.  For this service we use an address in Laredo TX and La Conexion handles the transfer thru customs and gets them to an office a block away from our apartment.  

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I didn't even leave our apartment today...

Sunday, December 5

Sunday was another day of relaxation.  I did a lot of research ahead of our upcoming trip to Mazatlan, mostly on YouTube but some on TripAdvisor.  I am really getting anxious for this trip and being near the ocean!  (Yes, I really miss the water!)

For lunch we had delicious pork chops and
sweet potato casserole (a leftover from
Thanksgiving) and a salad!

We watched some NFL football games during the afternoon, nothing memorable though.

Lola sleeping beside my
laptop in the afternoon.

Another shipment arrived for me today--this time, decaf tea bags (something that is very difficult to get here in Mexico, except for green tea).  (I still can't pick up the shipments until 9 AM tomorrow.)

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We weren't able to receive ABC, NBC, or CBS stations on our TV today--I'm not sure what the issue was but the three blanks screens offered no clues.  

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I didn't leave our apartment again today...

Monday, December 6

A nice hot shower was the first thing on my agenda in the morning--the second thing was picking up my incoming packages at La Conexion, our local package service from the U.S.  Our packages were delivered to a different office here in San Miguel--so, we had to take a taxi to the Almada Street office downtown.  We had four packages waiting for us. (There are a couple more still in the pipeline.)

My new 35-70mm f2.8
camera lens arrived!

Our goodies from Amazon which came in
two separate packages arrived as well.
(This image was captured using
my new camera lens.)

Of course, our fourth package was our mail which was forwarded from Green Cove Springs FL.

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We decided to go out for lunch at Cafe Santa Ana located in the bibleotecha---it's one of our favorite lunch spots!  I took my camera long with my new lens to give it a try.  We got as far as the restaurant next door (Gambos) and changed our mind and had salads there.

After lunch we walked to La Tienda de Gil to pick up milk and a few other small items.

Well stocked shelves at 

la Tienda de Gil.

A native girl cleaning the thorns and skin
from cactus leaves outside Tienda de Gil.
(We bought one to try--we intend to 
sauté it with olive oil and sea salt.)

Buying a vase from a street vendor for
200 Mexican pesos ($10 USD)

An electrician working on cables
outside a colonial home.

We got back to our apartment before 2 PM, all warm up by the early afternoon sun.  (The last four images in this blogpost were captured using my new camera lens--I think it's a keeper!)

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