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.