5 Almada: our new home away from home (the green and orange house on the left)

Our time in San Miguel is almost over. It's been wonderful so far and the time does not seem to be passing too quickly. We have now switched houses and are feeling like poor little church mice after the other house we were staying in. The owner is coming home today, so we are now in the house we had originally booked to stay in but had sold. It's kind of bare bones since the old owners moved all their nice things out and the new owners are starting to remodel it. So we have a few paint cans and ladders around, and it does not look like the house we booked anymore. But, it's nice enough and it's only for one day and a half. Plus, the location is great -- only a few blocks away from the Jardin and the Parroquia with no uphill steep climb. (The town of San Miguel is very hilly.)

I am sitting outside on the enclosed courtyard patio right now being serenaded (or scolded, I don't know which) by a boat-tailed grackle. He's noisy. A little while ago he made a convincing sound like a doorbell and Rick's mom went to answer the door only to find no one there. The bird sure had her fooled! He sounds kind of like a parrot and has quite the range of melodic chatter.

Tonight we are going to a Peruvian restaurant and my goal is to drink a Pisco sour and eat ceviché. We've had great authentic Mexican food (not to be confused with American Tex-Mex). Last night we ate a great restaurant that seemed to be mostly occupied with the local ex-pat crew on the rooftop with a great view of the town. We drank Tamarind Margaritas, the restaurant's signature drink. It was frozen and took us our entire meal to drink it as it slowly melted. Very yummy. Our meal was delicious as well and the wait staff were fun.

Our upload speed for photos is very slow here so I will wait until we get home to bombard you with more photos. I will try to blog tomorrow before our departure on Friday morning back to rainy New Jersey. Ugh.

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Don't hate me, but this is the view from our outside patio looking out over the beautiful center of San Miguel. We spend a lot of time out here. I'll be sharing more views later on.

The house is enormous and at first I thought I was going to need a map just to navigate around it. As is typical with these types of houses, they look like nothing at all from the front, but when the door opens a whole other world is revealed. The house is beautifully decorated, so beautifully that it's almost like being in a museum. I'm kind of afraid to sit in some of the rooms. We tend to spend most of our time in the library, where I am now, the kitchen and outside soaking up the spectacular view. Some of the rooms can only be accessed by the outside, also typical. Not so good in rainy weather though, which thankfully we have not really had. It was stormy when we arrived on Saturday afternoon but it soon cleared up by dinner time.

And then there's Skipper, the resident bassett hound.

Or pretzel dog as I have begun to call him. I guess he's so long that he can get himself into odd positions. He's a super sweet dog and he attached himself to us right away. So much so that I think we are spoiling him a little. He follows us around and wants to be in whatever space we are in. Last night I could not stand the sad, soulful eyes looking in the door at bedtime, so we let him in and he happily hopped up the stairs and laid down at the foot of our bed. Sometime in the wee hours of the morning he got me up and I followed him downstairs to let him out. He disappeared for only a few mintues, only to reappear at the door and it was obvious he did't want to spend the rest of the night outside (where they told us he usually sleeps). But we are cutting him some slack since his buddy Gracie went to dog heaven a few short weeks ago. We did correspond with the owner to make sure it was okay and he was thrilled that we were looking after him so well.

We've been eating out since we got here except for this morning when Jaunita made us huevos rancheros -- oh so good! Plus fresh papaya, apple slices and bananas. The owner told us that she makes a mean American breakfast but when we got here and first met her we told her we did not want "American" breakfast. She just grinned from ear to ear. She doesn't speak much English but she understands it just fine and so far we've managed to communicate.

We've been doing lots of walking and a lot of it is up and down hills on the knobby cobblestone streets. We're having a great time! More soon, I don't want to overload you with photos!

In the last photo you can see all the plants where people have rooftop patios.

We got word this morning that we will be staying at the realtor's house to start, and then move to our orginal house on Wednesday for the last two days of our stay. We'll be keeping company with Juanita the maid, Hugo the gardner and Skipper the bassett hound. If I understood correctly, Juanita is a very good cook and will be making us breakfast and lunch if we so choose. On Sunday neither the gardner nor the maid come in so we will take on the feeding and care of Skipper that day.

I have to prepare myself to be immersed in the colors of San Miguel. Everything is literally drenched in vibrant color. I don't think it will be much of a burden.

I thought I'd share just a few photos from our last trip.

Mexico here we come! I will be blogging, so stay tuned!

Our trip to Mexico has been a challenge from the start. We had to postpone it last year because Alex was sick and we didn't know if we'd be able to  make it or not, so we made the choice to cancel and the people that owned the house were kind enough to say we could re-schedule with no loss of deposit. Same with our airfare. We rebooked the same house and forged ahead with our plans.

Until last night. Last night we got a phone call from the realtor of the agency we are renting the house in San Miguel from. Uh oh. The people got a buyer for their house and the new owners have cancelled all pending rental contracts. Eeeek! It never fails. We knew there was a chance that the house could be sold since they've had it on the market for a couple of years, but really, two days before we leave? He's scrambling to find us another house which he promises will be even nicer than the one we were going to rent. In fact, if push comes to shove and he can't find another house, he has offered his own house to us since he is in California right now.

One of the first questions he asked us was if we liked dogs or not. Rick, said "uhm, yes, we have dogs ourselves, why?" It turns out that their bassett hound is in residence but the house staff will take care of everything to do with him and the only thing we'd have to do was pet him if he asks. I guess the house is extremely nice (with a pool) and usually rents out for three times the price per week of the one we were going to stay in. 

So, we don't know exactly where we'll be staying and I guess wherever the driver takes us is where we belong! Nothing like a little shake-up right before departure. At first I was very upset but now I've come around to the idea of a house that is fully staffed and I don't have to lift a finger that  comes complete with a dog to pet when I am missing my own. As my sweet husband tells me, just go with the flow.

Photo: Doesn't the above photo look like a face to you? the windows are the eyes, the tree with the hole is its mouth and nose, some moss that serves as a toupee and it even has a hat on!

We picked up our T@B (which we have now named Lady Bug) on Thursday, April 10th. There is a new entry on the T@B site about our first backyard "camp-out" that is now up and ready for reading. My sister was visiting and got to go with us to pick her up, so she got a little bit attached to her cute personality and suggested the name Lady Bug. She also sent us a card and included this sketch that she drew of her. I just love it! She's so talented -- I can't draw at all. I need to buy some archival tape of some kind so I can affix the sketch to her travel log book.

At first we had Lady Bug parked in front of the house in the driveway for loading her up with things we had purchased for her and things that we took from the house. Friday we hooked her up to Johnny (yes, she is that light!) and towed her down in the backyard and parked her on the gravel pad. She's safe and secure back there and we think it's the perfect place to park her when she's not in use. Plus, we get to play in her easily. The awning arrived late Friday afternoon after we had already set up the dog area. It really extends the living space.

Come and take a look! Welcome!