July brought down our first visitors, or as we liked to call them, the “tester guests” to celebrate both my (Ria) 60th birthday and our friend Jerffrey’s 50th. We had planned to have a entire group down here but as with things planned way ahead, stuff happened and we ended up a much smaller group. But it was still a grand time and we look forward to more visits from the northern troups.

Jeffrey actually arrived on the 30th of June after tackling the bus logistics from Mexico City and stayed until July 8th. Nai, David, and their kids Chance and Roxie came in on the 3rd till the 5th of July. It was definitely a full house and only possible because the kids are still young and could share a full size air mattress in the second bedroom. Jeffrey took the futon in the “office”. 

Unfortunately Nai had a bit of a stomach issue before she came in to San Miguel and Chance seemed to have caught it. So he was kind of down for the count for his stay here. We have heard since they returned that Chance is going to have none of Mexico for the foreseeable future. We spent their one full afternoon here in the hospital having Chance and Nai checked out. That was really too bad since we really wanted to present our wonderful new home town to them and they only got a small taste of it. Promises were made though that Nai and David will return sans kids to get the true feel of San Miguel at another time. Even without the grand tour we had a really nice time and they are so much fun to hang out with.  Continue Reading…

It is surprising how easy it is for us to make friends in San Miguel.  Especially since we have our Instagram and Blog. As we mentioned in a past post, we “met” several people through emails before we even left the States due to the notice we put on the San Miguel’s Renters Forum looking for a house. We have now met them all and then some, some have worked out beautifully and some we just didn’t fit with. But we have been having a wonderful time with get togethers.

The first week we were here we met a fabulous couple at the Zandunga concert, Merril Weber and Bob Bartelt. We only knew them for a couple of weeks before they had to head home to Pennsylvania but we are looking forward to their return later this year.  She is a great artist and business woman and we love watching for her new pieces on Instagram. They have really good senses of humor and we would love to be able to figure out a way to have them travel with us one of these days. Continue Reading…

It was Sunday morning as we ventured out beyond San Miguel de Allende to the countryside. Our goal was to visit the Galeria Atotonilco for it’s end of the month open house, held the last weekend of almost every month. And it was spectacular!! A vision of color assaulted us as we entered and we didn’t know which way to look. There are so many fabulous pieces of folk art from all over Mexico, Guatemala and other countries. We definitely saw what love and attention Mayer Schacter and his wife Susan Page have put into the gallery. We have friends in Berkeley, CA where they are from and when Beany found out we were moving to San Miguel she told us to make sure we stopped by, see the Galeria and meet Susan and Mayer. They are absolutely a delightful and energetic couple and we are so glad that we are able to start a new friendship.   Continue Reading…

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…

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…

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…