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THERE IS ALWAYS A PARTY GOING ON!!!

June 19, 2018

San Miguel is a town always ready for a good time! Festivals, parades, fireworks and “bombs” going off at all hours of the night and day. With warm weather, plenty of places to eat outside and good friends it is hard not to be in a celebration of life mood.

May 27th was the first big parade we made it to since we moved down to San Miguel. It was close to the end of a huge indigenous celebration (Fiesta de la Santa Cruz del Valle del Maize) that went on for a week with festivities and fireworks. We have a great view from our upstairs terrace and could see all across to the Valle de Maize area where those celebrations were being held. We went to bed nightly watching their fireworks display from our bed. We would have liked to see more of the festival but somehow something always got in the way.

We are getting more settled in and will have to make sure we go into town a bit more at night and on the weekends. The weekends get really crowded in Centro with a large number of people coming in from Mexico City so we tend to avoid it a bit then. We will have to rectify that.  Continue Reading…

All of Mexico, San Miguel de Allende

FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD!!!

June 9, 2018

OMG!! San Miguel is foodie central for Mexico!! We have such a great choice in restaurants and styles of cuisine that we never get bored. We have enjoyed pizza at La Grotto, Italian food at Antigua Trattoria Romana, pastries at Petit Four, great breakfasts at Lavanda Cafe, Maria Xoconostle, Cafe Monet and others. We love the grilled meats at Ten Ten Pie al Carbon (right around the corner from us) even though the service is less than stellar. They also have some nice crepes suzettes done table side. Cafe Rama has some good lunch options, especially sandwiches and cakes in a funky interior. And friends told us about Grille Torres a nice little place for seafood, especially shrimp. It goes on and on. There are a lot of comida corridas where for a fixed price you get a ton of food buffet style. But those are sort of lost on me since I don’t really eat enough. But at sometimes 60 pesos or about $3 for a meal I shouldn’t worry about it. Everyone seems to make it to Hecho en Mexico on Ancha San Antonio at one time or another. It is a great place to hang out and relax on the shaded patio. Reasonably priced with a variety of foods on the menu it is an easy place to go on our way home from Centro. Even the bibliotheca has a nice quiet little cafe. There are so many options for outdoor dining, which we love as they are very relaxing and great to go to year round.  Continue Reading…

All of Mexico, Glenn, Ria

CELEBRATIONS IN GUANAJUATO

May 31, 2018

It was our first anniversary on the 12th of May and Glenn’s birthday on the 16th so we decided to do a short trip up to Guanajuato to celebrate. We had to stay close to San Miguel as we had some appointments/classes coming up that we didn’t want to miss and we were also waiting to hear when we would need to go to Immigration to complete our next step, fingerprints. We didn’t want to go too far, and Guanajuato, being slightly over an hour and a half away by first class ETN bus was the perfect destination for us. We had visited in 2005 when Glenn had lived in San Miguel for a year and I had joined him numerous times. We were interested to see if Guanajuato had changed and came away with the feeling of not that much, at least in the historic center. It was still colorful, relaxed yet vibrant and full of steps and narrow streets.  Continue Reading…

All of Mexico, San Miguel de Allende

FINDING VICKI AND HOW TO FIGURE OUT THE WAY TO DO THINGS

May 4, 2018

We are having to learn new ways of doing things, which are not always that easy or simple. But that is exactly what we wanted when we moved from Oakland. Since I started traveling I have always wanted to live somewhere other than the USA and Glenn has lived in a few other countries, including Mexico and San Miguel for awhile. Both Glenn and I love exploring other cultures and different ways of living life. For us the US  was getting boring and cruel, and we longed for more color, sunshine and a simpler way of life. We no longer wanted to spend hours on a freeway getting from place to place. Or eating in the same style of place all the time. Or paying so much for for everything. Or only seeing friends once in awhile since everyone was so busy. Or divisive politics making everyone so crazy. Or… you get the idea. We know San Miguel isn’t the answer for everything, but it sure feels that way for now. 

Along with all the comfort we have with a beautiful house to stay in, great restaurants, stunning architecture and the color of it all with the amazing sunlight they have here, come some challenges.  Continue Reading…

All of Mexico, Retirement Days, San Miguel de Allende, The Paperwork

THE ROAD TO GAINING TEMPORARY RESIDENCY

April 27, 2018

We decided to get our Temporary Resident Cards for Mexico pretty much right after we made the decision to move here. Before when Glenn lived in San Miguel he would do the 6 month tourist visa run (you leave every 6 months and come right back for another 6) but we didn’t think that practical and we knew we wanted to stay here permanently. So we started looking up the visa requirements and found that every Mexican Consulate had different financial requirements and different reviews. We were closer to San Francisco’s but heard how hectic and unhelpful they were so we decided to go to Sacramento and were glad we did. You can read about that part of the adventure in our blog post Visas for Sunshine and Sangrias in Our Hot Little Hands.  Continue Reading…

San Miguel de Allende

ZANDUNGA, LETTING IT LOOSE IN THE DESERT WITH GIL GUTIERREZ!!!

April 18, 2018

Last Thursday Glenn was doing his tai chi in Parque Juarez and I was sitting on a bench nearby. There was a couple from Berkeley sitting two benches over talking to their son on the phone. After the conversation ended they apologized if they were too loud. At which I mentioned that the son had a decision to make and I hoped it worked out. We all laughed at that and struck up a conversation as you do in San Miguel. During the conversation they mentioned that the past Sunday they had just seen a fabulous concert out in the desert at a place called Zandunga. And that we really should make it out on the coming Sunday because that was the last concert until July. We are so glad that they told us about this and where to get tickets as it was a wonderful experience!! And one we will do again when they return.  Continue Reading…

San Miguel de Allende

DID WE MENTION OUR FABULOUS HOUSE?

April 17, 2018

When we put our notice on the Yahoo Groups San Miguel Renter’s Forum, Sher and Garry Davidson were the first people who contacted us right away. We are now so happy that they did. Sher sent over the link to their AirBnb listing so we could get an idea of what the house looked like and we immediately loved it. BUT, we were a bit unsure of it because of the location which we felt was a little further west than we wanted and we really couldn’t find it on Google Maps. Sher explained to us where it was and eased our concerns and we got sold on it. It helped that it was very much within our budget and included all utilities.  Continue Reading…

San Miguel de Allende

THE SAGA OF THE SURGE PROTECTOR

April 17, 2018

A few days ago, right after our move here, we needed to find a surge protector as there are not many outlets in the house and we have all of our gadgets, computers, etc. 

As we were walking back home towards Ancha de San Antonio on Zacateros we found a store that sells just about everything. Low and behold there were 2 new surge protectors in a locked case near the front of the store. Score! It looked like the price was $13USD which we thought was expensive but we needed it, so oh well. Now we just had to buy it. And boy did that start a long, weird, exhausting process.  Continue Reading…

All of Mexico, Retirement Days, San Miguel de Allende

WE LOVE SAN MIGUEL, OR SHOULD I SAY THE SOUTHERN BERKELEY

April 13, 2018

We have been here 4 days and are already saying to ourselves why didn’t we do this years ago!! We absolutely love the house, it is especially nice to have our morning coffee on the back patio looking at all the hummingbirds and listening to the fountain. We see hummingbirds when we first wake up in the morning as you can see them flitting about from our bed which looks on to the upper terrace. We are both sleeping great and are waking up when the sun shines through the semi-sheer curtains. It is a natural way to begin the day, and we love it. I am no longer waking up in the morning and having coffee then going back to bed for a couple more hours. I feel healthier here. The house is bright and sunny with big windows in just about every room. We leave the doors open whenever we are home until the evening starts and then we close them because of possible mosquitos. Glenn has found the two patios at home are great places to start the day with his tai chi practice. We have also returned to our favorite park of the past, Parque Juarez, which is another place so conducive to his tai chi. It is so mellow with all the birds, plants, walkways and fountains. We have never been this relaxed. Continue Reading…