This is just a shout-out to Dorita Loca, who has a blog about San Miguel, too. She writes even less frequently than I do, but I love her take on things SOB.
Her blogs address is: http://dmgb.wordpress.com/
She's funny in person, too!
Friday, February 24, 2012
News on the Housing Front
Our search for a new home seems to be coming to an end, but perhaps we should start with a quick recap of our homes in San Miguel.
Our very first house was arranged over the internet. A florid, organic style house (sort of Gaudi-esque, if you will) in what turned out to be a less-than-wonderful part of town. The pictures were true-to-life and what was said about the house was true - just not the complete story. I remember that we booked it while on vacation in Cabo San Lucas, wired the deposit, and eventually saw it when we visited San Miguel for the first time. [Doesn't everyone make these decisions sight unseen?] We don't count this house among our homes as we didn't actually live there.
We had also arranged to meet and have dinner with two persons who wrote of their experiences in San Miguel on our first visit. I'm afraid part of the meal was spent moaning about how we'd made a terrible mistake over the house, how it wouldn't work for us, how the dogs would plunge off the built-in second floor balcony seats to a horrible death.
By the time we returned to California at the end of the weekend, our new-found friends had located a possible home for us, taken pictures of it and the neighborhood, and put us in contact with the owner. We consider this house to be our first home in SMA. It was lovely, in a working-class neighborhood, but not far from our new friends. Unique in some ways (shaped like a slice of pie), walkable into downtown, and with friendly neighbors, it had been the family home of our landlord who lived nearby in his newly-built house.
We met the owner the next time we were in San Miguel, a few weeks later, gave a deposit, got the keys, and arranged for some painting while we were gone. The lovely yellow walls had all been painted white since the pictures were taken and we needed some accent walls, ya know?
Except for the neighbors on one side who harbored a band (who practiced a lot), it was a nice place to live. However, there was only a very small garden spot inside the walls of the house for the dogs. We spent a lot of time picking up after them - if you get my drift. So when our promised year was up, we began to look for a place with a yard.
Perhaps a word is needed here. Like most homes in Mexico, the house was built out to the limits of the lot line: no front yard, no backyard, no side yards. Windows only at the front and back of the house (and in our case, skylights), not on the sides where one's neighbors also built out to the edges of their lots. Finding a house with an actual yard was a challenge.
We looked at many houses, some with large patios, but not yards. They would still require a lot of "picking up" - not that we don't even with a grassy lawn. What was the norm back NOB, was rare SOB. After a few false starts, we eventually settled on a home across town (further from Centro, but a flatter walk - some day I'll tell you about our hill in Col. San Rafael), made the deposit and started on the work. We were the first people to live in the house, so there was a lot of 'stuff' to do to it: three floors of tile floors needed to be sealed, kitchen and bathroom cabinets built and installed, and rough concrete steps to be tiled in addition to the usual light fixtures, toilet seats, draperies, et cetera to be arranged. We also had to acquire a stove and refrigerator which had been provided with our first home. This took about 3 - 4 months during which time we cooked by microwave and crock-pot, racking up large electricity bills (more on that another time, too).
The house - which had been built to be sold, not rented - still had an unfinished bathroom off the master bedroom. It was to be finished before we moved in - but wasn't. Then it was to be finished when we were out of town for several weeks on vacation - but it wasn't. Then we were going to go half-and-half with the landlord on the bathroom. Then they decided to sell the house and didn't want to invest any more money in it. You guessed it - it's still not finished!
At least the landlord decided to list it for sale once our lease was up and offered to let us rent month-to-month until it was sold. However, we decided that we didn't want to be at the whim of a possible sale (which could have taken a long time in this real estate market) and decided to look for a place that would offer us a longer term lease, perhaps 3 - 4 years. (What I'd love would be a long-term lease with option to renew for the rest of our time here! We're hoping that we've found it.)
Unlike our first landlord (we don't count that first rental since we didn't live there), who spoke English, our second landlord spoke only Spanish, so we relied heavily on our broker for communication, who was a god-send. (The story of our Spanish classes is for another day.) Now he served as our "renters' broker" as we looked for a new home.
We did find a new home - just a few doors away from our current home (#2), but he had to convince the landlord (Spanish speaking, of course) to 1) accept a lower rent and 2) to allow dogs. And he was successful! The rent was still a little higher than house #2, but workable and we knew the dogs would not be a problem.
But she didn't want to wait until our lease was up at the end of April, she wanted to rent the house to us as of March! It had been vacant for at least a year to our knowledge, but suddenly she was in a hurry! So back to our broker, who needed to get us out of our current lease early. And here was a snag: our current landlord thought our dogs may have 'ruined' the grass in the front yard - meaning, I'm not going to use the deposit towards your last month's rent, but claim it to repair the small patch of lawn. Typically Mexican, I'm afraid to say. Trust me, we know how much it costs to re-sod a lawn down here and it wasn't anywhere near the amount of our deposit! I was not looking forward to our meeting, as I might have gotten a bit huffy about things - and that's seldom to one's advantage.
However, our broker went to bat for us again, and convinced her that she was getting the best of the deal, even if we wanted out of the lease early and wanted to use the deposit for the new last month's rent, as we had invested over $26,000 pesos in improvements to the house that we wouldn't take with us. There was a meeting scheduled between us all, but it fell through at the last moment, and it was settled that we could leave early and not pay any additional rent. Whew!
That helped us afford the rather large deposit on the new house (first, last, and an equal deposit). So tomorrow our broker will meet us at our bank for the deposit on the new home and hopefully deliver keys to us later in the day. Our rental will not actually start until March 1st, so keys may have to wait until then, but the house has been vacant for at least the year that we've been here in house #2, so we're hoping that we will be able to get a head start on moving. Sometimes dealing with Mexican landlords can be a challenge. Even though the house had been vacate for over a year - earning no income - the landlord was very reluctant to lower the rent and it took some bargaining to reach a compromise we both could live with.
Since it's only a couple of doors away, we'll probably be doing a lot of the moving ourselves, saving the washer/dryer, stove, fridge and any larger (read, heavier) items for the movers. We've already contacted our people about extending the gas line to the laundry area for the dryer, working on the front door to the house (which is inside the perimeter street entry), and some other things that the landlord had at first offered to do before we moved in - until she settled for the slightly lesser rent. They're now all our responsibility, which I suppose is best since I know how I want things done....
So we have a list that will eventually get done, some sooner than later: install a gas line to the clothes dryer (luckily the water heater is on the second floor's balcony right above the utility yard), fix the front door's fit, re-tile the kitchen counters, get a newer hot water heater, replace the master bedroom's bathtub (we may surprise her and have a walk-in shower installed...), all in addition to a dog door, some interior accent walls (the house is very light and bright and white now), additional drapery rods constructed, and the usual light fixtures, toilet seats, et cetera. Luckily our chandeliers will work in the new house and so be moved from house #2 to house #3 (a job for our handyman from the first house whom we trust for electrical work). We also plan on having a pantry built for the kitchen and some storage cabinets for the maid's room (which will become our storage bodega as our maid commutes from her home).
Michael had thought he'd be moving house while I was in the mid-west for 6 weeks helping my sister and her husband rework their home in our old home town, but we better be moved and outta here before then. I'm itching to start work right now!
The library is packed and waiting to go; the guest room is next on the list (primarily furniture). Timing the switch over of our telephone/internet service will depend on when we move the office, but it needs to happen on the same day as the cable installation (our television cable service also provides our telephone and internet service). We can only have the service turned on at one place at a time, so the switch-over must be timed carefully. Once the office is up and running, we'll effectively have moved, even though there may still be rooms to transport to the new house, because we rely on the internet so much.
We're truly hoping this will be the last move for quite a while - years, actually - or ever, hopefully. Most of our friends here own their homes, but that's not an option we'll elect. Our other best friends have a 5-year lease on their home. It's getting so everyone at our Wednesday morning koffee klatsch automatically asks about the house search. Enough, already!
Let's hope it's done for a long while!
Our very first house was arranged over the internet. A florid, organic style house (sort of Gaudi-esque, if you will) in what turned out to be a less-than-wonderful part of town. The pictures were true-to-life and what was said about the house was true - just not the complete story. I remember that we booked it while on vacation in Cabo San Lucas, wired the deposit, and eventually saw it when we visited San Miguel for the first time. [Doesn't everyone make these decisions sight unseen?] We don't count this house among our homes as we didn't actually live there.
We had also arranged to meet and have dinner with two persons who wrote of their experiences in San Miguel on our first visit. I'm afraid part of the meal was spent moaning about how we'd made a terrible mistake over the house, how it wouldn't work for us, how the dogs would plunge off the built-in second floor balcony seats to a horrible death.
By the time we returned to California at the end of the weekend, our new-found friends had located a possible home for us, taken pictures of it and the neighborhood, and put us in contact with the owner. We consider this house to be our first home in SMA. It was lovely, in a working-class neighborhood, but not far from our new friends. Unique in some ways (shaped like a slice of pie), walkable into downtown, and with friendly neighbors, it had been the family home of our landlord who lived nearby in his newly-built house.
We met the owner the next time we were in San Miguel, a few weeks later, gave a deposit, got the keys, and arranged for some painting while we were gone. The lovely yellow walls had all been painted white since the pictures were taken and we needed some accent walls, ya know?
Except for the neighbors on one side who harbored a band (who practiced a lot), it was a nice place to live. However, there was only a very small garden spot inside the walls of the house for the dogs. We spent a lot of time picking up after them - if you get my drift. So when our promised year was up, we began to look for a place with a yard.
Perhaps a word is needed here. Like most homes in Mexico, the house was built out to the limits of the lot line: no front yard, no backyard, no side yards. Windows only at the front and back of the house (and in our case, skylights), not on the sides where one's neighbors also built out to the edges of their lots. Finding a house with an actual yard was a challenge.
We looked at many houses, some with large patios, but not yards. They would still require a lot of "picking up" - not that we don't even with a grassy lawn. What was the norm back NOB, was rare SOB. After a few false starts, we eventually settled on a home across town (further from Centro, but a flatter walk - some day I'll tell you about our hill in Col. San Rafael), made the deposit and started on the work. We were the first people to live in the house, so there was a lot of 'stuff' to do to it: three floors of tile floors needed to be sealed, kitchen and bathroom cabinets built and installed, and rough concrete steps to be tiled in addition to the usual light fixtures, toilet seats, draperies, et cetera to be arranged. We also had to acquire a stove and refrigerator which had been provided with our first home. This took about 3 - 4 months during which time we cooked by microwave and crock-pot, racking up large electricity bills (more on that another time, too).
The house - which had been built to be sold, not rented - still had an unfinished bathroom off the master bedroom. It was to be finished before we moved in - but wasn't. Then it was to be finished when we were out of town for several weeks on vacation - but it wasn't. Then we were going to go half-and-half with the landlord on the bathroom. Then they decided to sell the house and didn't want to invest any more money in it. You guessed it - it's still not finished!
At least the landlord decided to list it for sale once our lease was up and offered to let us rent month-to-month until it was sold. However, we decided that we didn't want to be at the whim of a possible sale (which could have taken a long time in this real estate market) and decided to look for a place that would offer us a longer term lease, perhaps 3 - 4 years. (What I'd love would be a long-term lease with option to renew for the rest of our time here! We're hoping that we've found it.)
Unlike our first landlord (we don't count that first rental since we didn't live there), who spoke English, our second landlord spoke only Spanish, so we relied heavily on our broker for communication, who was a god-send. (The story of our Spanish classes is for another day.) Now he served as our "renters' broker" as we looked for a new home.
We did find a new home - just a few doors away from our current home (#2), but he had to convince the landlord (Spanish speaking, of course) to 1) accept a lower rent and 2) to allow dogs. And he was successful! The rent was still a little higher than house #2, but workable and we knew the dogs would not be a problem.
But she didn't want to wait until our lease was up at the end of April, she wanted to rent the house to us as of March! It had been vacant for at least a year to our knowledge, but suddenly she was in a hurry! So back to our broker, who needed to get us out of our current lease early. And here was a snag: our current landlord thought our dogs may have 'ruined' the grass in the front yard - meaning, I'm not going to use the deposit towards your last month's rent, but claim it to repair the small patch of lawn. Typically Mexican, I'm afraid to say. Trust me, we know how much it costs to re-sod a lawn down here and it wasn't anywhere near the amount of our deposit! I was not looking forward to our meeting, as I might have gotten a bit huffy about things - and that's seldom to one's advantage.
However, our broker went to bat for us again, and convinced her that she was getting the best of the deal, even if we wanted out of the lease early and wanted to use the deposit for the new last month's rent, as we had invested over $26,000 pesos in improvements to the house that we wouldn't take with us. There was a meeting scheduled between us all, but it fell through at the last moment, and it was settled that we could leave early and not pay any additional rent. Whew!
That helped us afford the rather large deposit on the new house (first, last, and an equal deposit). So tomorrow our broker will meet us at our bank for the deposit on the new home and hopefully deliver keys to us later in the day. Our rental will not actually start until March 1st, so keys may have to wait until then, but the house has been vacant for at least the year that we've been here in house #2, so we're hoping that we will be able to get a head start on moving. Sometimes dealing with Mexican landlords can be a challenge. Even though the house had been vacate for over a year - earning no income - the landlord was very reluctant to lower the rent and it took some bargaining to reach a compromise we both could live with.
Since it's only a couple of doors away, we'll probably be doing a lot of the moving ourselves, saving the washer/dryer, stove, fridge and any larger (read, heavier) items for the movers. We've already contacted our people about extending the gas line to the laundry area for the dryer, working on the front door to the house (which is inside the perimeter street entry), and some other things that the landlord had at first offered to do before we moved in - until she settled for the slightly lesser rent. They're now all our responsibility, which I suppose is best since I know how I want things done....
So we have a list that will eventually get done, some sooner than later: install a gas line to the clothes dryer (luckily the water heater is on the second floor's balcony right above the utility yard), fix the front door's fit, re-tile the kitchen counters, get a newer hot water heater, replace the master bedroom's bathtub (we may surprise her and have a walk-in shower installed...), all in addition to a dog door, some interior accent walls (the house is very light and bright and white now), additional drapery rods constructed, and the usual light fixtures, toilet seats, et cetera. Luckily our chandeliers will work in the new house and so be moved from house #2 to house #3 (a job for our handyman from the first house whom we trust for electrical work). We also plan on having a pantry built for the kitchen and some storage cabinets for the maid's room (which will become our storage bodega as our maid commutes from her home).
Michael had thought he'd be moving house while I was in the mid-west for 6 weeks helping my sister and her husband rework their home in our old home town, but we better be moved and outta here before then. I'm itching to start work right now!
The library is packed and waiting to go; the guest room is next on the list (primarily furniture). Timing the switch over of our telephone/internet service will depend on when we move the office, but it needs to happen on the same day as the cable installation (our television cable service also provides our telephone and internet service). We can only have the service turned on at one place at a time, so the switch-over must be timed carefully. Once the office is up and running, we'll effectively have moved, even though there may still be rooms to transport to the new house, because we rely on the internet so much.
We're truly hoping this will be the last move for quite a while - years, actually - or ever, hopefully. Most of our friends here own their homes, but that's not an option we'll elect. Our other best friends have a 5-year lease on their home. It's getting so everyone at our Wednesday morning koffee klatsch automatically asks about the house search. Enough, already!
Let's hope it's done for a long while!
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Rain, rain, go away - or not!
For those of you considering that burning question: 'What's the weather like in San Miguel, now?' here's the answer: It's definitely winter-ish - cold and damp.
We thought we had escaped most of the wet weather when it rained here while we were in Cabo at the end of January, but it was only a few days of wet. Then the rain had moved on to DF (Mexico City) on the day we returned from Cabo (made the traffic a little more icky than usual in one of the world's largest cities).
But, lo and behold, the rain returned. After the brief showers in January (four days of rain totaling 0.62 inches) February has managed to accumulate 2.76 inches over 10 days - and it's only the 15th of the month.
The weather took a break for Valentine's Day. It looked like thundershowers with many, many large, dark clouds moving across the sky from the north, but nary a drop. On the other hand, we just had a shower at 2:30 in the morning today, so it looks like we're not through yet. And thunderstorms/showers have been common.
January and February usually average about half-an-inch of rain, combined. This year isn't as bad as 2010 (we first visited SMA in late February/March 2010) when the torrents of rain threatened homes alongside the streams through town. But it's way over the average. Not that we don't need it: the Presa (the large reservoir on the west side of town) is quite low. Some people have reported that they noticed an increased depth to the Presa, but I'm not sure how much of that is just wishful thinking.
It would be nice if the church steeple on the southern end of the reservoir returned to its underwater status. As challenging as the rain can be here in the central highlands of Mexico, we certainly need it!
We thought we had escaped most of the wet weather when it rained here while we were in Cabo at the end of January, but it was only a few days of wet. Then the rain had moved on to DF (Mexico City) on the day we returned from Cabo (made the traffic a little more icky than usual in one of the world's largest cities).
But, lo and behold, the rain returned. After the brief showers in January (four days of rain totaling 0.62 inches) February has managed to accumulate 2.76 inches over 10 days - and it's only the 15th of the month.
The weather took a break for Valentine's Day. It looked like thundershowers with many, many large, dark clouds moving across the sky from the north, but nary a drop. On the other hand, we just had a shower at 2:30 in the morning today, so it looks like we're not through yet. And thunderstorms/showers have been common.
January and February usually average about half-an-inch of rain, combined. This year isn't as bad as 2010 (we first visited SMA in late February/March 2010) when the torrents of rain threatened homes alongside the streams through town. But it's way over the average. Not that we don't need it: the Presa (the large reservoir on the west side of town) is quite low. Some people have reported that they noticed an increased depth to the Presa, but I'm not sure how much of that is just wishful thinking.
It would be nice if the church steeple on the southern end of the reservoir returned to its underwater status. As challenging as the rain can be here in the central highlands of Mexico, we certainly need it!
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
A Vacation from Retirement
Okay; we've finally recovered from our recent vacation in Cabo San Lucas. Ya know, vacations can be rough. Not that our time in Cabo was actually 'rough,' but it took an effort.
Probably the worst part was the travel to and from Cabo. Living in the central highlands of Mexico has a price. Where we used to have a choice of two close airports and two more distant airports in Los Angeles, our closest airport now is over an hour away - and the best prices are usually from Mexico City, which is 3-1/2 hours away. And, in this case, we needed to travel from Mexico City in order to catch a nonstop flight to Cabo. The nearer airport routed you through Tijuana and then to Cabo, costing twice as much.
So our first challenge was getting a cab to take us to the bus station at 5:30 in the morning. Luckily we had purchased our bus tickets the day earlier, so we just needed to wait for the bus to arrive and accept passengers. Now, bus travel in Mexico has moved far beyond that visual of folks sitting on a used school bus with chickens flopping around. We took the luxury bus with only 3 seats in each row, dim lights, movies, restrooms, coffee, and thick seats that reclined with a leg rest that turned them into Barcaloungers.
Add that there were only three of us on the bus and it was like a private excursion. Did I mention the tasty, tho' dry ham and cheese sandwich? I did eventually find the jalapeno relish, but only after I'd finished the sandwich!
Then it was off the bus at the northern bus terminal in Mexico City, a mad taxi ride across town to the aeropuerto, and a thankfully short line at the ticket counter to check our bags. Then more waiting for our gate to be announced, then waiting at the gate for the plane to be readied. The plane did leave a few minutes early and the flight was fine. Have I told you that on Mexican airlines the drinks are free? And that includes soft drinks, beers, and hard drinks. It makes for a jolly trip!
Eventually we were deposited at the aeropuerto in Los Cabos, fought our way past the timeshare salesmen, found our shuttle folks, and departed for Cabo San Lucas.
Our time at the resort was wonderful, of course. We actually own there (Legacy units beginning in 2018), but in the meanwhile my brother and his wife own six weeks in the third-floor penthouse right on the beach -- and they're kind enough to invite down each year.
This year we decided to help out with meals, so arrived armed with recipes and shopping lists that had been vetted for my sister-in-law's eating issues. After the first night, we moved to our own 1-bedroom unit while my sister and her husband took our place in the 2-bedroom, 6,000 square foot penthouse. We'd start the day off on the beach, then graduate to one of the pools, and eventually whip up dinner and take it upstairs to the penthouse. We did manage three dinners and several lunches, eating out (or on the beach) for the other meals. It was great having the Boyer kids together again!
One day we drove (read: Charles drove) up to Todos Santos - or 'Tostados,' as we called it. There is an excellent restaurant there where we enjoyed a fine luncheon. Then we wandered around town (the art gallery seems to have moved) and eventually drove back down to Cabo. The road was undergoing major work as they converted it into a 4-lane highway adding bridges to span the frequent arroyos. Once finished, it will be a fine road for the trip. Until then, it's a bit challenging. Luckily, Chuck was driving and we were sightseeing!
Like all good things, our time there did come to an end and we started our 12-hour odyssey back home. Luckily the dogs were not being returned from the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm until the next day. Don't think having them delivered when we eventually reached home would have been a good thing!
It had rained a bit in San Miguel while we were gone, basking on the beach in Cabo. The rain had left town, but Mexico City was rainy, causing our return trip to be about half-an-hour longer than usual. But it was good to be home again.
And now it's been rainy again for a few days; rain is expected for the rest of the week, but it's brief and helps turn everything green - a good thing.
Monday was Constitution Day (the one from 1917) which was signed in a town about an hour from here. Never seen so many tourists: Mexico City isn't too far for folks to drive up for the long weekend. Tons of people, restaurants turning diners away, people and cars everywhere. Lots of entertainment in the Jardin. Shortly after returning home, I suffered a boo-boo on my knee, so I wasn't downtown for much of the festivities, but Michael reported them all to me. Sorry I missed them, but crowds aren't really my thing....
Now we have about six weeks in town before leaving on our next 'vacation from retirement' which involves travelling to Mexico City, flying to Orlando, Florida, cruising the Western Carribean, time at Walt Disney World both before and after the maiden voyage cruise of Disney's newest ship, and finally returning to SMA in April. We'll visit with my former boss in the Superior Court's training academy, who will be at WDW at an overlapping time. It will be good to see her and her husband again.
Until then - unless something interesting occurs - nos vamos!
Probably the worst part was the travel to and from Cabo. Living in the central highlands of Mexico has a price. Where we used to have a choice of two close airports and two more distant airports in Los Angeles, our closest airport now is over an hour away - and the best prices are usually from Mexico City, which is 3-1/2 hours away. And, in this case, we needed to travel from Mexico City in order to catch a nonstop flight to Cabo. The nearer airport routed you through Tijuana and then to Cabo, costing twice as much.
So our first challenge was getting a cab to take us to the bus station at 5:30 in the morning. Luckily we had purchased our bus tickets the day earlier, so we just needed to wait for the bus to arrive and accept passengers. Now, bus travel in Mexico has moved far beyond that visual of folks sitting on a used school bus with chickens flopping around. We took the luxury bus with only 3 seats in each row, dim lights, movies, restrooms, coffee, and thick seats that reclined with a leg rest that turned them into Barcaloungers.
Add that there were only three of us on the bus and it was like a private excursion. Did I mention the tasty, tho' dry ham and cheese sandwich? I did eventually find the jalapeno relish, but only after I'd finished the sandwich!
Then it was off the bus at the northern bus terminal in Mexico City, a mad taxi ride across town to the aeropuerto, and a thankfully short line at the ticket counter to check our bags. Then more waiting for our gate to be announced, then waiting at the gate for the plane to be readied. The plane did leave a few minutes early and the flight was fine. Have I told you that on Mexican airlines the drinks are free? And that includes soft drinks, beers, and hard drinks. It makes for a jolly trip!
Eventually we were deposited at the aeropuerto in Los Cabos, fought our way past the timeshare salesmen, found our shuttle folks, and departed for Cabo San Lucas.
Our time at the resort was wonderful, of course. We actually own there (Legacy units beginning in 2018), but in the meanwhile my brother and his wife own six weeks in the third-floor penthouse right on the beach -- and they're kind enough to invite down each year.
This year we decided to help out with meals, so arrived armed with recipes and shopping lists that had been vetted for my sister-in-law's eating issues. After the first night, we moved to our own 1-bedroom unit while my sister and her husband took our place in the 2-bedroom, 6,000 square foot penthouse. We'd start the day off on the beach, then graduate to one of the pools, and eventually whip up dinner and take it upstairs to the penthouse. We did manage three dinners and several lunches, eating out (or on the beach) for the other meals. It was great having the Boyer kids together again!
One day we drove (read: Charles drove) up to Todos Santos - or 'Tostados,' as we called it. There is an excellent restaurant there where we enjoyed a fine luncheon. Then we wandered around town (the art gallery seems to have moved) and eventually drove back down to Cabo. The road was undergoing major work as they converted it into a 4-lane highway adding bridges to span the frequent arroyos. Once finished, it will be a fine road for the trip. Until then, it's a bit challenging. Luckily, Chuck was driving and we were sightseeing!
Like all good things, our time there did come to an end and we started our 12-hour odyssey back home. Luckily the dogs were not being returned from the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm until the next day. Don't think having them delivered when we eventually reached home would have been a good thing!
It had rained a bit in San Miguel while we were gone, basking on the beach in Cabo. The rain had left town, but Mexico City was rainy, causing our return trip to be about half-an-hour longer than usual. But it was good to be home again.
And now it's been rainy again for a few days; rain is expected for the rest of the week, but it's brief and helps turn everything green - a good thing.
Monday was Constitution Day (the one from 1917) which was signed in a town about an hour from here. Never seen so many tourists: Mexico City isn't too far for folks to drive up for the long weekend. Tons of people, restaurants turning diners away, people and cars everywhere. Lots of entertainment in the Jardin. Shortly after returning home, I suffered a boo-boo on my knee, so I wasn't downtown for much of the festivities, but Michael reported them all to me. Sorry I missed them, but crowds aren't really my thing....
Now we have about six weeks in town before leaving on our next 'vacation from retirement' which involves travelling to Mexico City, flying to Orlando, Florida, cruising the Western Carribean, time at Walt Disney World both before and after the maiden voyage cruise of Disney's newest ship, and finally returning to SMA in April. We'll visit with my former boss in the Superior Court's training academy, who will be at WDW at an overlapping time. It will be good to see her and her husband again.
Until then - unless something interesting occurs - nos vamos!
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