We have changed the house we'll live in

I know I said there wouldn't be any more posts, but life has few absolutes and I guess this wasn't one of them.

We have grown increasingly dubious about our choice of rental house for next year (see the blog from September 10).  This is the view that so captivated us, despite all the stairs.

As time has passed, the 8 or 10 flights of stairs up and down the hillside have loomed larger, not smaller.  We have become concerned that friends would find visiting us daunting, and that some friends would not physically be able to at all.  Rick says that his enthusiasm ran away with him (I guess I was an enabler ...).

I know we have told you about three or four houses we would be renting next year, but this is absolutely the final choice!

With the help of friends in San Miguel, we have been able to find a different house that is very lovely.  Because it has been listed for sale (the housing problem in the US has spilled over down there, so the owner has decided to rent it out instead) there are 360-degree rotation photos of the house on the realtor's website, and our friends also sent pictures from their visit.  We couldn't be more familiar with how it looks if we had been there ourselves.

For those of you familiar with San Miguel, the house is in the Colonia San Rafael and only six blocks from the Biblioteca and a couple more to the Jardin.  Here are some pictures, which I copied from the realtor's website. First, the living room and beyond it the dining room.

Here's the kitchen, to the left of the living room.

Here is your room when you come to visit.  It's on the first floor and has its own private full bath.

Upstairs, this is the solarium where we'll have our computers and a futon for overflow company.  It has a half bath.

This is our room upstairs, with its own private bath.

And here is the courtyard, with a fountain in the middle.  There is a covered area where we will put a table for eating outside and comfortable patio furniture.

The house has parking inside the walls, a washer and dryer on the rooftop terrace, comes with the services of a maid and a gardener (uncomfortably like the British Raj) and is absolutely huge at 3,000 square feet.  All this for $950 a month.

So we are vastly relieved that we won't have to schlep to the Mountainside Trek House, as our San Miguel friends Harry and Megan call it, and so delighted with the house we have now arranged to rent.

The moving truck comes on Monday, November 29; I am sure the mover is even more relieved about the change of destination than we are!  We will start the drive to San Miguel the following day, with Mela, our dog, and Lila Tov, our cat.

The adventure continues!

The last Mexico blog post

October 3, 2010.

We have been home for five days and are trying to entice our cat, Lila Tov, to come into the house -- she's had her affections alienated for three months by the house-sitter's dog.  Mela the dog was beside herself with joy to find us, as we were to find her.  The moving truck comes on November 29, and our To Do and To Get lists are long, long, long.

It will feel odd living in San Miguel and not writing this blog, but with it you have lived our delighted discovery of San Miguel and our gradual decision to move there permanently.  From now on it will be everyday life, not a new adventure.

Thank you for sharing our San Miguel adventure this summer with us.  I hope you have enjoyed reading the blog even half as much as I've enjoyed writing it for you.  Rick and I will have a guest room and look forward to showing you around our new home town.

Signing off,

Jo

Sept. 25: Benson, AZ

Hello, everyone

We left San Miguel at 4:00 on Thursday afternoon, after finally receiving our "no-immigrante" visas an hour earlier.  We left more possessions in the new house than we are taking back with us:  less to move in December.  The car is working well, even if the air conditioner occasionally leaves something to be desired -- it needs a rest every now and then.  Thank goodness, no tour of the Dodge dealers in Mexico this time!

We took a different route back than the one we took down.  We drove up the center of Mexico, which is very beautiful country.  Last night at dinner Rick took a big bite of a chili pepper they brought to the table -- he's tough, he can take it! -- and discovered that its kick spread throughout his mouth and onto his lips.  Here he is, trying to put out the fire.

Today we were stopped at three military checkpoints in Mexico as we neared the border.  One of them involved a wait of a full hour (in the Sonoran Desert heat), but when we finally got to the head of the line we were waved through.

In Aqua Prieta, the Mexican town across the border from Douglas, AZ, we saw the anti-immigrant fence we've read so much about.  It's enormous:  tall iron bars backed by thick wire, with another imposing line of fencing 20 feet behind that.  Once in Arizona, there was another checkpoint about 30 miles into the state.  The guard took one look at us, asked no questions, and waved us through.  I am sure that we benefited from Arizona's stringent racial profiling, which did not feel good at all.

Very tired, mucho driving today, now about halfway to Camano Island, and all is well.  Goodnight!

September 21

I'm so sorry it's been so long since I last wrote to you!  I've been having too much fun and not doing enough writing about it.  And what's more, I didn't notice a tiny control on my iPhone camera that screwed up most of the photos I thought I was taking, so I don't have enough pictures for you today.  Well, actually, it turns out I was taking video without realizing it:  useless if I wanted still pictures.  A very inadequate performance all around -- deep apologies.

Last Friday night Rick and I attended Kol Nidrei services for the beginning of Yom Kippur.  This is something I essentially can't do in the US without being a member of a synagogue, but here the services were open to all.  The music, which was the reason I wanted to go, was beautiful, and as expected I had trouble with the words.  Talking about God's love for the children of Israel is an obscenity after the Holocaust, in my opinion.  I'm glad I went, but won't feel the need to go again in future years.

Saturday we had friends here for the evening, all of whom we met through house-hunting for next year.  You may recall -- okay, you probably won't -- Liliane (Swiss) and Alfredo (American but living in Mexico for 50 years), who, after they showed us a house they owned which we didn't like, invited us back to their house where we had a wonderful conversation all afternoon.  Not long after that we saw a house owned by their friends Carmen and Abel (Mexican), and I remember writing that I thought these people too would become friends.  Well, it's been hard to schedule but we finally did and the conversation was stimulating, in both English and Spanish.

I continue to be astonished at how easy it is here to have wonderful talks with people, as opposed to the routine social pleasantries (usually, with one or two exceptions) on Camano Island.

Sunday evening Rick wasn't feeling well so I went alone to Gigi and Ken's house -- the house we will be living in next year.  They also invited a friend who will be acting essentially as the local property manager, since the owners live in Hawaii.  Perhaps it was the tail end of Hurricane Karl, but there was a storm going on with lots of brilliant lightning and dramatic thunder.  It was a spectacular sight to see all that spread out before me, for miles and miles.

Yesterday, in addition to my chorus rehearsal, I attended a meeting of the San Miguel Mac Users' Group.  This was the first such meeting I've attended anywhere, and had to laugh at some of the really geeky talk:  You take an SR12X cable and attach it through your router and modem to the Packet8 line next to the ethernet port, and such nonsense.  The session was on how to see movies and TV streamed from your computer but on your TV.  I learned that you can't (legally) get streamed Netflix movies in Mexico, so there are thriving businesses that hide your computer location to make it look like you're in the US.  This group means that I have found a source of technical help for when we move here in December.  It will be hard to replace Peter Dahl, who has been my computer savior since 1996, but we'll have to.

Today for the first time since I've been here I went with Rick to the Tuesday Market, held every Tuesday on the outskirts of town.  Rick has been there multiple times, though, when I've been working or sick or doing something else.  Vendors and merchants come from all over and set up temporary stalls selling everything.  And I do mean everything.  Clothes, produce, chickens (whole, gizzards, feet, and every other part piled up), makeup, rabbits and even an iguana, birds, fish that swim in tanks and fish that are ready to be eaten, tools, furniture, toys, blenders, gas heater parts, bicycle wheels, hair ribbons and barrettes and headbands, shoes, kitchen supplies (we bought a lime squeezer), belts, pet supplies (we bought a harness-type leash for our cat Lila Tov for the trip down here), and honestly, everything else.  Many of the clothing stalls had new clothes but a good number had used clothes piled up in huge heaps with signs that they were 20 or 10 or even 5 pesos apiece.  Many people, gringos and Mexicans, were going through the piles with great determination.  None of the clothes were the traditional Mexican style, but rather the same things one sees in the U.S.  This being Mexico, there were also many stalls that prepared food for people to buy and eat; the tables were always full and it was only 11:30 AM, after breakfast and before the day's main meal in early afternoon.  How can they eat so much?  And the market was HUGE, going on for aisle after aisle after aisle.  I am so sorry that I can't show you pictures of it.  The rabbits were especially cute.

This evening, to mark the occasion of our imminent departure from San Miguel -- which fills us both with sadness -- we had dinner with a couple of friends at a Spanish restaurant that featured paella, one of Rick's favorite dishes.  Fortunately, earlier today I figured out why I wasn't able to take pictures at the Tuesday Market, so at least I have one photo for you today.  The man on the left is Louis, who invited us a week ago to his house for the evening.  On the right is Stephen, the brilliant artist-lecturer whose talks on artists we have loved so much every week.

And of course, in the background on the left you'll see the guitarist.

Rick picked up the car today from the mechanic.  It's supposedly fixed, and we will find out soon if it is. Another scheduling hassle is our non-immigrant resident visas (as opposed to tourist visas), which we have applied for and which so far are not ready.  We just learned that because we must pick them up in person they can't be mailed to us, and hope they'll be ready tomorrow or Thursday, the day we planned to leave.  If not, we'll just have to hang around somehow until they are ready.  Well, as our friend Paul Petroff used to say, the important thing in life is to "ride the waves."

And we've chosen a mover.  The costs quoted to me varied enormously, from $5,600 to $15,400.  After checking references, we chose the second-lowest at $6,000.  We now have an official moving date:  November 29!  This move is getting realer and realer every day!

September 16: Happy Mexican Independence!

Well, we're in the count-down now:  we leave San Miguel for Camano Island exactly a week from today, on September 23.  Not a good feeling!  And of course as usual, the car is in the shop.  Since we've been in San Miguel Rick has taken it to the Dodge dealer here in town four times (in addition to three Dodge dealers in towns on the way down), plus a car electrico place, plus now the most highly recommended mechanic in town.  I think the car has lived in repair shops more days than we've had it to use!  We are keeping our fingers crossed that this mechanic can fix the electrical problems that cause the dashboard lights to go out, the air conditioner to flip on and off, and most seriously the car to stall.  One time Rick drove it back from the Dodge dealer and the car stalled when he was driving down a steep hill.  Very scary stuff.

Next I'll let Rick tell you the bad part:  he went to a bullfight today.  I had gone to one in my 20s, so you can be sure I didn't go with him:  one is a lifetime is plenty for me.  But he had never been to one.


Hi from the gallery.  Today I went to the bullfight.  I was invited, otherwise I might have missed it.

First five junior matadors, called banderilleros, go to the five areas where they can hide behind a wooden shield.  Then the bull comes out, already with one pick in his shoulder.  He is grand and fierce and huge, at least 2,500 pounds of excitement and menace.

Then all five banderilleros challenge the bull with their capes, either running behind the barriers or distracting him from a potential victim.  This goes on for maybe ten minutes, tiring the bull and letting the crowd see his greatness.

Then the picadores come out, two of them, on large heavily padded horses.  They are carrying long pikes and when the bull attacks they stick him, drawing blood.  The other banderilleros draw the bull off with their capes if the picadores get in a jam.

After sticking the bull and drawing blood numerous times, two of the banderilleros with double picks show their great courage by further puncturing the bull with two picks that remain in his shoulders.  The bull is now bleeding, confused and tired.  Before the principal matador appeared, it was seven to one against the bull — a betting man's odds for sure.

I would like to be able to tell you how the "featured matador" then demonstrated his cape work and courage before issuing the coup de grâce on this bewildered beast, to the cheers of all the aficionados present, but this lily-livered gringo was long gone by that time.

I understand this event once tested man's courage against the ferocity of the powerful beast, but this had all the drama of the bull being shot by a high-powered rifle from the cheap seats — with none of the mercy that that shot would have given.

I know it's a culture thing, but where is the "sport" in confusing, tiring, and then causing this noble beast to bleed out BEFORE the fight begins?  I guess if I end up doing more writing, I will not be emulating Hemingway, at least in this respect.


Here's Jo back again.

A couple of days ago I went to a lecture at the Biblioteca (60 pesos, about $5!) on the history of Mexican independence, September 15, 1810.  It was a fascinating story.  After the conquest of the Aztecs in 1521, New Spain was inhabited by four classes.  The Spaniards, born in Spain, had the best positions, meaning lucrative and powerful.  Next were the Creoles, people born here to Spanish parents and not permitted to occupy the best positions.  Next were the various "mixed-blood" combinations among Spaniards, Creoles, Indians, and Africans.  Like slavery America, there were specific names for the various combinations and the lecturer showed us pictures of paintings of parents and children that were carefully labeled.  Last of course were the Indians, the indigenous peoples, who were 60% of the population in 1810.

Because Spain used New Spain exclusively to enrich its coffers for the monarchy and to fight futile wars, people here were bled dry financially and negative feelings rose high.  The insurrection in 1810 was led by the Creole class, supposedly because they were miffed at being excluded from the perks the native-born Spaniards enjoyed.  I haven't done any reading about it, but I suspect it was also the pattern we've seen in other revolutions where someone with education, i.e. a higher class, identifies with those lower down and is in a position to lead a movement.  That was true in America, true in Russia, true in France, and probably other places I don't know as much about.  But it was wonderful to know all this just before the celebration yesterday.

And what a celebration that was!  The insurrection of 1810, when New Spain forced Spain to agree to its independence, plus the revolution of 1910 (which gets short shrift in comparison) is celebrated in every town square in Mexico.  I had read in the local paper that we could expect 10,000 people in the Jardin and the four streets surrounding it.  That's not a big area but there had to be at least that number of people.  I'll try to describe what I saw.

Trees in the Jardin impeccably trimmed for the occasion.
People with little Mexican flags painted on their faces:  old and young, Mexican and American.
People waving Mexican flags of all sizes, from tiny to HUGE.
People wearing clothes in red, white and green, and wigs ditto.  I especially loved the little girls dressed in flouncy white dresses trimmed in red and green.
Everyone making noise!  Horns, groggers (like we have at Hanukkah), whistles, plus lots of yelling and whistling.  Mexicans love noise.
People with glue-on Sancho Panza black handlebar mustaches.
A teenage couple passionately and obliviously making out in the middle of the crowd.
Men with exaggeratedly big sombreros.
Babies gurgling, staring, crying, or sleeping.

And of course, entertainment up on the stage from 8 PM on.  There was Mexican rock music with deafening bass from the speakers set up everywhere.  There were folk dancers.  There was a drum corps that circled the square, accompanied by people holding flaming torches.  Of course at 9 PM there was a showing of the sound and light show on the Parroquia, the second time we've seen/heard that.

Rick had managed to snag a seat on a bench in front of the Parroquia, facing the stage, and he and I took turns sitting there.  That was prime real estate!  There were so many people in front of me that after a while the lines of people wanting to go left or go right were barely able to move, and I sat down in order to have some breathing space in front of my face, created by the distance from my knees to my body.  Eventually the bench got too uncomfortable and with much difficulty we pushed our way to another part of the square.

At around 10:30 the drum corps, torch-bearers, and people dressed up as the poor, badly dressed insurgents of 1810 accompanied the mayor, a woman named Lucy Nunez, to the Casa de Allende (Miguel Allende, one of the leaders of the movement) at one of the corners of the square for the "ceremonio del grito," the ceremony of the shout, at 11 PM.  The grito commemorates the beginning of the insurrection, when Father Hidaldo in the nearby town of Dolores issued a call to arms and people responded in droves.  The reading of the grito happens all over Mexico at 11 PM on the 15th and this is what it is.  After each phrase, imagine thousands upon thousands of people yelling "Viva!"  Yours truly included.

Long live the heroes that gave us our Fatherland!
Long live Hidalgo!
Long live Moreles!
Long live Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez!
Long live Allende! (that got an especially big response)
Long live Aldama and Matamoros!
Long live national independence!
Long live the independence bicentennial! (for this year only)
Long live the centennial of the revolution (ditto)
Long live Mexico!
Long live Mexico!
Long live Mexico!

With all the Vivas! after each phrase, it felt just like Dayenu at a Passover seder, when the leader says each thing God did for us when he led us out of Egypt and everyone enthusiastically responds "Dayenu!" — it would have been enough.

And the crowd was simply astonishing.  Here are only a few of them.  The stick in front had a big flag; you can see another in the center farther back.

Screaming, yelling, singing, blowing horns, waving flags, all in utter joy.  People with means had rented hotel rooms on the square and from their balconies had a great view of the pandemonium.

By now the crowd was at its thickest.  Everyone was jammed up against everyone else.  If you wanted to go somewhere else there was absolutely no way to do it:  picture a totally gridlocked traffic jam.  In fact, if you lost your balance you could not fall.  You grinned at people pushing into you because they were being pushed themselves.  Only once in my life have I been in a crowd like that:  when I was 17 at Times Square on New Year's Eve.  Unlike that evening, here in San Miguel I felt (and was) utterly safe and surrounded by happy people of good will.

Immediately after the grito was called out and all the Vivas! were yelled, there was an enormous fireworks display, accompanied by the frenzied clanging of church bells.  Mexicans must be the world leader in fireworks.

Not only were there fireworks right above our heads — it was really hard to turn in the crush to see them! — but two fireworks towers had been built in front of the Parroquia.  They were lit in sections, so that the impetus created by the momentum of burning powder caused lit-up wheels to turn and circles and spirals to spin.  The grand finale was "1810 - 2010" and "Viva Mexico!" in fireworks at the top of the two towers.

It was a spectacle I will remember for the rest of my life.

September 13

On Saturday we went to the weekly Mercado Organico in Parque Juarez, a nearby and very beautiful park.  (And damn, I forgot my iPhone at home so I couldn't take pictures for you.)  There were many booths of gorgeous produce, including huge yellow squash blossoms.  When we had dinner last week at Natalie's house, she made squash blossom soup:  wonderful!  There were booths selling all sorts of vegetables and fruits, baked goods, cheese, coffee, and honey and jams, as well as clothing and ceramic things.  One thing that impressed me was a terracotta container -- picture a bulbous bottom maybe 6" in diameter and a tall neck.  You plant it up to the neck in soil, say in a large planter, and plant your flowers or strawberries or whatever around it.  Then you fill the terracotta container with water, which seeps out slowly over a few days to keep your plants moist.  Is that not ingenious?  And as always, happy people in a beautiful setting.

I have an update on the awful news I gave you a month or so ago from an article I read in the local paper, about the six young and uneducated women who were in prison from 19 to 25 years for abortions or in one case a miscarriage.  I am happy to tell you that all six have been released.  I'm sure the publicity is what did the trick.  But what about all the others about whom there is no publicity?

Other good news is that on Saturday really for the first time I've been here I was able to walk smoothly and with no pain in my hips.  Maybe it was all the time I was flat on my back when I was sick?  I don't know what the difference was, but it felt like I was flying!

Saturday evening were invited to the house of a friend of Rick's from his writing group, a man named Louis.  I mentioned him before -- he's the man who manages to live here on $595 a month, including two trips to the Boston VA hospital every year for medical services.  He has a wonderful house!  Four stories, including the rooftop garden that most houses here have, of small but perfect rooms.  Lots of art and many beautiful things.  We sat on his patio and happily talked for over four hours.  I honestly don't think that we had any conversations as stimulating as this at any time in the almost five years we lived on Camano Island, and here we've had a number of them.  This is a magical place.

Yesterday we saw something special in the early evening in the Jardin.  A small orchestra was playing dance music in the gazebo in the middle of the Jardin, and all sorts of couples -- old and young, Mexican and expats -- were dancing to the music.  There were just four couples dancing a tango, some of them quite good, too, and many more couples dancing a salsa.  The area around where they were dancing was thronged with onlookers like us.

We were on our way to a restaurant that was highly recommended on the San Miguel listserv for a traditional Mexican dish we learned about at the Erev Roshashah dinner we went to last week (I think I forgot to tell you about that -- about 50 people there!) called chiles en nogado.  I looked up "nogado" and couldn't find a translation -- does anyone out there know what "nogado" means?  An amazing dish!  Roasted sweet bell peppers stuffed with a mixture of chopped beef, nuts, fruits, and seasoning, baked, and topped with a creamed walnut sauce and pomegranate seeds.  Very patriotic and often eaten on Independence Day:  green chiles, white sauce, and red pomegranate seeds!  So delicious!  The restaurant, of course, is all decked out for the bicentennial and like many, is in the courtyard of a colonial building a couple of hundred years old.

We have learned the trick of eating out here.  We split an appetizer -- imagine, last night it was cold cream of avocado soup! -- and the main course.  Even with drinks and a tip the entire wonderful dinner came to $22 and it's easily possible to have dinner for less.  This town must have a thousand restaurants:  eating is a big-deal pastime here, and many of the restaurants are very, very good. Of course, many visitors to San Miguel have plenty of money and go from one restaurant to the next.  I have rarely had to resort to tortilla food, thank goodness.

This week San Miguel is THE place to be in the entire country.  The Bicentennial of independence from Spain started here in San Miguel and in a town about 15 miles away, Dolores Hidalgo, on September 15 and 16, 1810, by two men whose names, you will not be surprised to learn, were Allende and Hidalgo.  I have read that Felipe Calderon, the president of Mexico, will be in Dolores to commemorate it.  An American told me that our Barack Obama will also be here, but I don't know if that's true.  Rick just called me to tell me that a regiment of dozens of men on horseback were parading around the Jardin in full costumed regalia to cries of "Viva Mexico!" from the crowd.

Moving here is starting to take on a new reality:  I am calling movers.  I have learned that unlike the US where moving costs are tightly regulated and there's basically no cost variation, there's plenty of cost variation here.  So we're comparison shopping.  I'll tell you more about this as I learn more.  It's exciting!

BIG NEWS! (September 10)

As many of you know, Rick and I came here with a careful decision-making plan about whether to move here.  We very much wanted to avoid any decision that we would regret:  67 is just too old for a big mistake like that.  The first part of our plan has been to live here this summer, and if we liked it to live here for an entire year before making a final decision (well, to the extent that any such decision can be final:  the best-laid plans, and so forth).  The summer is almost up -- we'll be leaving two weeks from yesterday -- and have rented a house for next year.  So far, all is according to plan.

This week we realized that there is honestly no point in putting off the decision any longer.  If you have been reading this blog even just occasionally, you will know how much we love it here.  Rick had no hesitation whatsoever, but I did and had to think it through.  We have agreed we each have veto power on all major decisions, the only fair way to go about it, I think.

A couple of considerations entered into my thinking.  As you may know, we have rented a wonderful house with a spectacular view over San Miguel.  The downside is that the "street" consists of stairs up the hillside.  It is possible that we will find that the stairs are just too hard (most likely it would be I and not Rick who would), in which case we would have to find another house to rent on a real street.  Moving again would cost money and hassle, but it's do-able.  We were at the house this morning, and here's a photo of the front of the house, with Rick and the landlady.

They are standing on the bottom (garden) terrace.  Above them you can see the terrace off the two top bedrooms.  Above that, not visible here, is the rooftop terrace.  I wish I could have gotten a photo of the full width of the house, more than 40 feet wide, but I would have had to back up so much the garden would have gotten in the way.  The round purple thing is a sculpture, by the way -- the owners had a gallery here in San Miguel.  And look at the masonry!  Do you remember I posted a photo of masonry in that style in July?  I think it's so beautiful.

The second consideration was harder.  I have been sick quite a bit this summer, which is very unlike me. I had some kind of flu-type thing and later parasites.  Each lasted quite a while.  Although I suspect the illnesses were coincidental, I thought about whether I would want to live here if I am not as healthy as I normally am back home.  I gave it a lot of thought.  I finally decided that the life here is so wonderful that I would rather be well part-time in San Miguel than well full-time back home.  Although frankly I think it's unlikely that I'll be sick as much here in the future, it's best to take a worst-case scenario as the basis for a big decision.

You are probably thinking about health care.  We have Medicare in the US, of course.  We will maintain our Medicare supplement insurance and will go to the US for any big procedure that is foreseeable.  For routine and emergency care, both of which are available at high quality here, we will pay out of pocket (and it's cheaper here).  Of course it's emergency care that's the issue.  We're aware that it's a gamble but it's one we're willing to take in exchange for the benefits of living here.

So we are in the process of changing our tourist visa to a "long-term, non-immigrant" visa, called an FM3.  Instead of our previous plan to pack up all our furniture and store it in the garage to rent out the house, we will hire a mover and move it all here in December, and rent out the house.  The FM3 will allow us to bring in household possessions tax-free one time, so it's best to do it all at once.

We are very excited and very happy to be moving here for good.  Now you have an even BIGGER reason to come visit us here!