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living.boondockingmexico@yahoo.com
Cañada de la Virgin San Miguel de Allende
My little brother (I guess I should say "youngest"), arrived last Monday and we have been on the go since then. We toured the city of Monterrey, Santiago, and then we took a trip to San Miguel de Allende for five days to show him the colonial side of the country and a bit of history. That trip included Dolores Hidalgo, Atotonilco and other sites in between.
We had the opportunity to visit with our friend Barbara and have dinner out one night.
Visited the pyramids outside San Miguel de Allende and enjoyed a wonderful tour.
On the list of activities was a formal tour of the botanical gardens. As often as we have stayed there, walked the gardens and lake, we had never taken a tour. It was great and my brother truly enjoyed it. One thing we learned is that there is a fight for the land by developers. The wall in front of the parking where I have parked the trailer in the past was torn down by the city claiming it was violating the passage of vehicles. We have now lost that boondocking spot. I know that progress comes at a price, however, this is coming at a cost to the environment as well as the community. Many homes between 3 and 5 million pesos that make it impossible for Mexicans, especially locals, to purchase.
We spent a few hours at the thermal water, La Gruta. It has now become the gringo tourist center and prices have really shot up. There has to be another more economical and less crowded place.
Philip left on Wednesday and we hope he enjoyed his stay and will come back soon.
On another note, we were trying to get some things done before his visit. The rains were heavy for more than three weeks. People couldn't make it, couldn't do the work or something. One of the things we wanted to remedy was our showers. Both had old plumbing and it required opening the tile and concrete walls. It didn't happen.
Now that he's gone, the plumber found the time and did an incredible job. We had saved a few pieces of tile just for this type of event and it came in handy. Before there was little pressure and it took forever to get hot water. We don't take long showers. In fact, we pretty much follow the boondocking method of getting wet, soap up and then rinse turning the water off in between. At the gym, I never use hot water. If I won't waste my own, I won't waste someone else's, doesn't matter if we are paying for it or not. Water is a valuable resource. The faucets were changed out for a mono-faucet. We had to wait until today to use it. Full force water stream (water saver showerhead), and instant hot water. Total cost of materials and labor, 1500 pesos ($80 U.S.).
Such a great price for materials and labor. What did the plumber have to do to get you "instant hot water," just replacement with new plumbing? This house was built in 1974, and it takes forever to get hot water back to the bedrooms/bathrooms area.
ReplyDeleteWe have a water on demand water heater. It too is on the other side of the house but takes less than a minute to get to the shower now. He opened the wall and removed the old faucets and plumbing. I've never had a shower in this house with such pressure. Amazing. I think we paid less than $150 for the water on demand and I installed it myself. I change out the D cell batteries every year. Uses little to no LP or natural gas. It runs a total of about 15 minutes a day at the most for dishes and showers. We never use hot water for the washing machine. We don't own a dishwasher, I've never had one.
DeleteThank you, Chris. I think I need to go shopping for a "water on demand" hot water heater. it will most likely take up less space in the closet at the opposite end of the house from two bathrooms. The current heater is large, also runs on gas, and has automatic ignition for heating water. Beach has put it on a timer for using only at the time of day when we actually use a lot of hot water.
Delete"There has to be another more economical and less crowded place."
ReplyDeleteAnywhere outside of San Miguel de Allende...
For full or part time living I agree. We like Dolores Hidalgo. We use San Miguel when we have visitors or summer/winter boondocking but it looks like that is less of a viable option now. I don't care for San Ramon and we don't fit in Webers. Not sure where rving is going for us in the future. We just can`t make up our minds.
DeleteThere are lots of other places to RV in Mexico!
DeleteYep, there sure are. We don't have the luxury of traveling months at a time. Pensions are coming but until then, it's work. I would prefer not to have a house but that's not the Mexican culture. I'd love to goto Oaxaca for a couple of months and mosey down the coast. But for a two or three week trip I can´t justify almost $800 U.S. in gas for such a short whirlwind trip. San Miguel is great because people like my brother, who have never been to Mexico, get to see different landscapes, a colonial city, and a place that is protected to ensure it stays that way. He was only here for nine days. I won't go to some of the places we used to visit. Enough said on that line. Hopefully, December will prove all this to be wrong and we will hit the road.
DeleteTrue, you need at least two months to make it worthwhile, even from your home base.
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ReplyDelete