Work, work, work on busted up houses

My fingers are very sore, (can't even play my guitar) from working non-stop on my house, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. My former tenants were ass-holes and left little and not so little messes everywhere. They are not getting one penny back! I'm never ever going to be a landlord...it sucks soooo much. I hate it with all the passion i can muster.

how that for a rant!

Getting Back to Normal

After a few days of staying close to home, we are getting back to venturing out from San Miguel. Since Thursday we've been to Guanajato twice and Dolores Hildalgo too. Guanajato is nestled in the mountains just east and north of here. It's a world heritage site and now we now why. We also had fireworks on the hill just across the canyon a few days ago. The town was celebrating Mr. Allende's birthday I think, just glad they didn't set the hillside on fire. The pictures above are all from Guanajato. Hugs to all..p.s. we are feeling great, going off to visit the second largest monolith in the world in Benal about an hour or two away from SM today.

Beautiful weather Mexico

This is the weather the guide books talked about. Clear blue skies, cool nights, warm days. Spending the mornings once the sun hits it, on the patio. We've been cocooning the last two days as Montezuma has taken his rage on the both of us. Oh well, I bet we reached new lows in our weight. No food for 1 and a half days will do that.

Here's the view out to the patio. And a picture or two from our last walk through town. The big church at night. We even attended a folk mass, but too much sermon, and not enough guitar and singing for us. We left early. Went to a "Diva's" comedy show to fill out the evening.

Rant day; Mexico is nice, but...

Ok, you've heard and seen all the cool things about Mexico and our time in San Miguel de Allende, so how about a few words (Rant) about what can grate a traveler here. I'm be brief.

Posted speed limit, just a very vague suggestion.

No passing line in road; only if it's not safe.

All cars needing a working muffler; there expensive you know.

Don't drink the water; very true. They sell the iodine stuff in very big bottles.

Trash along roads; well better to add to this pile than start a new one. Actually we've seen lots of street sweepers here in town. It's very clean here.

Two reasons to look down when walking; cobble stone and dog do-do, it's everywhere cause they've paved everything over in town.

Buying real estate in Mexico; be very very wary; and put away a sizable chunk for lawyers, don't worry we are not considering it.

Dust; pray for rain, it's in the air.

OK, done ranting for now.

Flea markets and Hot Springs San Miguel style

Tuesday (Martes in espanol)is flea market day, but first we have to find it. We are told it's near the Sariane store, so we trudge up the hill and finally ask a gringo in the parking lot if they know where it is, we are close. As we cross the ped bridge we see the scope of it. Hundreds of booths, food and the clothes we discard from the Goodwill at home. But the food, veggies and fruit is dirt cheap. A vegan can eat for nothing here. Which i'm not today, pork taco's at a flea market stall, yum. We see the police round up a hand full of young men, don't know why they are getting frisked, pickpockets? We load up on fruits and veggies, glad it's downhill to our place here.
Wednesday, cloudy and cool, again!, but a few blue sky breaks encourage us to get out. We both have colds, so what better way to spend the day than soaking at a local hot springs. We are off to Escondido hot springs, just 20 minutes out of town. We almost have the place to ourselves. A large lily filled pond leads to the enclosed pools. There are three, each a little warmer. Constance goes in first, and I hang in the vestibule eating a snack before undressing. I hear the rush of water coming, but am dumbstruck when an overhead shower starts pouring water on me (fully dressed in my coat too) and our towels and food! Ok, after a few seconds of being totally startled, I grab our stuff and head outside. Never saw that shower head! Not too wet. The first two pools are ob-round, about 10 ft wide, and 25 ft long. There's a narrow passage way connecting the pools. To get to the third pool, you have to exit the 2nd pool, and walk outside. The third pool is round with a brick dome over it. Every half hour or so new water enters the top pool and channels to the lower ones. On some other schedule the shower kicks in in the first room. Much more fun in a bathing suit than fully dressed. There's skylights, some clear some colored which makes the place even more beautiful. Before we leave we see a bright red bird, nothing we've ever seen before. The pictures are, flea market, new gringo friends James and Tana from Santa Fe, Police shakedown, Hot springs pool, Aztec dance Monday night in Square.

A lovely days in Mexico.

Here's a little tome from my wife on our trip yesterday. I'll add some photo's later today.
We went to a little town yesterday (Pozos) just to get out our our town a bit. Had lunch and walked around. Bought some candles as we light them to help warm our place up. On our way back we decide to take a different route home. I think we were on cow paths at some points. But Navi keep saying that we could get home that way. I was getting nervous as it was getting late and I did not want to be out on this road miles from any where but tinny Mexican villages with a broken down car and neither of us really speaking Spanish and it is dark and oh my what do we do!?!?! We finally got to a dirt road that really looked like a road with an occasional truck on it and I felt better. Then we got a PAVED road. That was great. The only thing was we got home later than we planned so we were driving on narrow roads in the dark with trucks and busses coming towards us and a ditch on our side of the road and no markings on the road and then big vehicles taking up more than half the road. But we made it home in one piece, even did a little grocery shopping on the way home.

Oh and a link to the new Photo of San Miguel

http://picasaweb.google.com/scubarojo/Mexico20103rdSet?feat=email#slideshow/5425158266359561794