Dear friends:
Although we were concerned we'd be delayed because of the big snow storm in Detroit this morning, we're now in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. For those of you who might not know, San Miguel is in the mountains, between Mexico City and Guadalajara. We flew into a town called Leon and everything seemed to go like clockwork until we realized that both my bags had arrived...and neither of Rick's had. Luckily he packed a change of clothing in his carryon, and we've been told that his things should come with the next flight from Dallas and be delivered in the morning. He's being a trooper about this...much more than I would have been under the circumstances. Please keep your fingers crossed that they arrive safely and intact. I'll keep you posted.
Antonio, a driver prearranged by our rental agent, met us at the airport. He helped us find where we (along with a number of others on our flight) needed to file a claim for lost luggage. The 3 of us then set out on the 90 minute ride from Leon to San Miguel.
Antonio was a sweetie, and patiently listened (and helped us out) while we did our best to communicate in Spanish. It was obvious that he was enjoying himself, and we all laughed a lot. He told us that not all tourists are willing to even try to speak Spanish, which surprised me. He complimented me on the volume of words I know and said he could tell I've been a Spanish student for quite some time. I'm confident that by the time we leave here, Rick and I both will notice a HUGE difference in our ability to effectively speak the language, as well as in our confidence level.
The casa we rented is multi-leveled and cute, in a Mexican, thick-cement-walls, stone-floors, brightly colored sort of way. Rick says he thinks there's 5 levels, but I'm counting 6. Some of those levels, like the foyer, the 1/2 bath off the living room, and the living room itself are nothing more then one room on that level. But there's literally stairs leading everywhere.
I'm sitting at a desk in the living room right now. The level several steps down lead to the large dining room and charming kitchen. And several steps down from that is a good sized foyer coming through the front door. Outside the kitchen and dining room is a washer/dryer combo in a closet with outdoor stairs that lead up to a level with a covered patio and a guest bedroom suite. Then a winding staircase goes up to the top floor - a rooftop patio overlooking the town - and our bedroom suite. This is a place we could easily get lost not because it's so big, but because of all the floors. I certainly hope neither of us sleepwalk while we're here.
This evening we walked several blocks to a 4-table corner Mexican corner cafe where we had authentic Enchiladas Verdes. They were extremely spicy (our mouths burned for quite some time afterwards), but SOOOOO yummy. Rick had a couple of Veronica (?) beers, and I had a hand-squeezed lemonade and a bottle of water. The middle-aged Mexican lady who waited on us was sweet, the menu simple, and the food prepared to order. We will definitely go back there again. I want to try everything on the menu (all of about 8 things).
Afterwards we checked out a beautiful old church (there are a ton of Catholic churches in this town), as well as the "jardin" (town square). It's a ritual in Mexican towns for people of all ages from old to young to gather in this traditional area on Friday and Saturday nights, just to "hang out". Although our driver had strongly encouraged us to go to a bullfight being held tonight (apparently the torreador is famous, the ring is only a few blocks away, and it was an opportunity that doesn't come along often), we decided that we couldn't stomach the thought of watching a bull - much less 4 or 5 of them - being tormented and slain. So we didn't go and don't regret our decision.
The jardin, like all jardins in Mexico, is the center of town. Since this is a mountainous area, the road back to our casa (and all the roads leading from the jardin) are up VERY steep hills. We certainly got our exercise walking home this evening. Between the stairs in the casa and the steep hills we're necessarily going to have to walk, I expect that we'll have "quads of steel" by the time we come home.
Oh...the weather. Simply beautiful. When we arrived about 4 p.m., I was slightly warm in my light sweater and lightweight long pants. It was probably 80-ish. But by the time we finished dinner and walked down to the town square however, there was a definite chill in the air and I wished I had a light vest or jacket on as well. I'm told the evenings, at least right now, get down to about 50 degrees.
So now we're back at our place. It's 8:40 p.m. (9:40 in Michigan), and we've been up since 4 a.m. It's been a looooooong day. Rick's up in bed reading already, and I need to wind down and call it a night. Will write more tomorrow.
Love, Judhit (pronounced "who-deet", which is Judith in Spanish)
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