So, I'm exhausted! We're in San Miguel taking care of a few things to get the house (and us) ready for the move south. When we wrote to our friends in SMA telling them of our plans for the week, their response was, How ambitious! Remember, this is Mexico - where things happen at a different pace, appointments are not kept, and things take longer to accomplish, generally speaking.
Our to-do list, however, was taken care of in record time. On Friday, we made contact with everyone after we arrived in town; all Saturday appointments but one were honored. We were even able to open our local bank account on a tourist visa (don't ask about the proof of address; more about this later) instead of a more permanent visa. And the painter has been to the house to paint daubs on the walls and selections have been made. He presents his bid for the work this morning. Once accepted, the work will be done before we move to San Miguel: it's simpler for him without a household of furniture in place and dogs 'assisting' in the work!
When we dined with 6 local ex-pats one evening, they were surprised that our schedule was on track. There were plenty of stories about difficulties to share around the table. By Tuesday night we had knocked off contacting the painter and setting up a day for doing daubs in the house, established our cable TV/internet/telephone account and installation of all three had taken place, started the opening of a local bank account, bringing the utilities up-to-date so we could prove residency to the bank (this will also come in handy when we apply for a more permanent visa, too), paid our rent for the next two months, and had the gas tank filled (San Miguel uses propane, not natural gas).
Since Tuesday night we've selected the accent colors for the house; changed the locks on the house (the key to the garage door wouldn't work for love-or-money); purchased glass-and-steel computer furniture, had it delivered, and set it up in the room that will be our office; finalized the bank account including an extremely secure system for on-line banking; visited the local high-end hardware store; shopped for light fixtures; visited a favorite restaurant from our first visit; tried some new restaurants; found a new favorite roof-top bar/restaurant; had dinner at friends; dealt with the local utilities (primarily in our broken Spanish); scoped out the local Sorianno (a grocery store) for future use; taken a House and Garden Tour sponsored by the Biblioteca; and walked about a thousand miles!
Hence, the exhaustion! SMA is not a huge town, and we haven't explored the whole town yet, but our B&B is on one side (nearly at the top of a big hill) and our new home is on the other side of town (nearly at the top of a more modest hill). And the popular modes of transportation is walking, taxis, and busses with walking taking the lead. Haven't worked up the courage to try the bus system yet, but we sure do walk a lot. Now, in Los Angeles we walk from the house to the car and from the car to the store we're visiting. Here there is no car and so we walk, walk, walk. At least down hill! After the first few attempts, we began taking taxis up the big hill when returning to the B&B - or when we're in a hurry (like the morning we woke up at 7:25 and needed to be at the new house by 8:00; made it, too!
And have I mentioned the cobblestone streets and flagstone sidewalks? The narrow, little, broken-up-by-utility-poles and house steps sidewalks? Which is why we frequently find ourselves walking on the cobblestones, set in the time-approved style (by hand on a earthen bed) which harbors twisted ankles, stumbles, and falls. There is a reason one of the blogs about SMA is titled: Falling...in Love with San Miguel. 'The city of fallen women.' With no traffic signals it is not an infrequent occurrance to find ourselves dashing across streets between cars. Luckily, no falls have occurred and no ankles have been twisted, unlike our experiences in Cabo....
Well, to bed before the sun rises on our last full day in San Miguel. Time to do a few last shopping errands. Although most of the furniture for the house is being moved from the states (our house here is larger than our house in LA, so there's been some serious shopping taking place in LA to then be moved), there are some things that simply must be local: pierced tin light fixtures (I'll tell you about the need for light fixtures another time), tin-framed mirrors, talevera pottery, and other typically local products.
It's nearly 7 a.m. so there's a slight lightening on the patio and the local bells will soon start signaling the time. (At least it's not like Monday, when church bells not only rang throughout the day, but there were fireworks exploding from before dawn until late in the night. San Miguel is big on festivities.) The two Westies will soon be in for their morning tummy-rub, too. Another day in Paradise!
