San Miguel de Allende Great Weather - The Surprise Party Was A Success

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We've been here for almost a week and really haven't accomplished much.  We've been visiting rvers who have flown to Mexico again this year.  Two couples are renting very close to our house, both within a couple of blocks, and that makes getting together very easy.  

The weather has been hotter than usual with daily highs around 30C but nights are cool and the house never seems to get hot.  Morning exercise in the cool air makes for a great workout.  

On our trip down, we stayed at an Airbnb in Matehuala to break up the trip.  I found what I thought was a jewel at a bargain price of 580 pesos.  Well, Airbnb hasn't been doing a good job lately and it is obvious in the pictures below.  What you see and what you get aren't always the same thing.  This unit is very well located, has bus service at the front door, and a garage with a locked garage door.  That was the seller for us.  We could take the bus into centro and leave our car at the Airbnb.  Well, the next set of pictures are a bit disturbing.

For starters, the apartment is for four people with two bedrooms.  The walls are pretty marked up and could use repainting, the beds were okay but the pillows were like Kleenex.  This pic shows the complete set of cutlery.  There are no knives or utensils for food prep.  There are no glasses, napkins, or coffee filters.

I got up the next morning and because the hot water is heated via solar, I thought I should turn on the faucet while I put together my things for shaving and shower.  First off, it turns out there isn't any hot water in the bathroom or kitchen sinks.  I came back and the bathroom was flooding.  The sink was stopped up.  Juan took off the sink stopper and began digging out all the crud in the sink.  What a mess.

I'm glad we had decided early on to go out to Las Palmas for dinner.  I wouldn't cook on this stove.

Because we are good renters, we stopped by Walmart and bought two glasses, napkins, and coffee filters which we left behind for the next guy.  We almost always pick up an inexpensive item that is missing but would be useful and leave it in the Airbnb.

Our dinner out at the Las Palmas Motel and Rv Park.  After dinner, we drove around the back to the rv park and the lot was empty.  Sad.  We use the Hotel Oasis across the street with 30 amps, water, and wifi for 150 pesos.  Works great for an overnighter but this is sad not to see not even one rv at Las Palmas.

The hike we took the other day was really a walk.   Several locals offer tour services, some expensive some for donation only.  We met at the train station.  The group was 90% women and 90% were over 75 years old.  All very nice but not the most exciting bunch to hang out with.  We wanted to introduce our friend to some of the local walking/hiking groups as she will be here for another two months. This was a 2-mile walk to the old San Miguel de Allende chapel built over 400 years ago.   We met here at the train station.  The train station no longer has passenger service but cargo does go by at least once a day.  It was built in the 1800s.  If the current president has his way, he will force rail companies to provide passenger service on all rails. 

The fort below was built by friars when they arrived in the 1600s.  It was a fort to protect those friars living there during the conversion of the Chichimecas to Christianity.  Funny you have to force people to convert.

A maguey field that no longer produces tequila or pulque.  The owner of the ranch keeps it more for show.

The chapel was our final destination.  We're not allowed by the locals to enter without permission and there was no one around that could do that.  I'm not an expert but I do quite a bit of research.  The tour guide, who is bilingual, did a great job but there was some misinformation.  One important point was the floral designs around the doors and windows.  They flowers but they are actually peyote buttons used in rituals.  I think they just liked to get high like many people today.

Last Friday was Juan's birthday.  Number 66 and still quite young.  It's very hard to plan a party when the person is always there with you.  I ordered a cake from a woman who makes cakes.  I posted on a local Facebook group.  I received over 25 different offers and settled on Daniela.  She and her husband have a small restaurant that has a few tables.  She was easy to work with and I liked the work she showed me.  The cake was red velvet with buttercream frosting.  The joke that night was that when I picked up the cake it said "Jose Manuel" not "Juan Manuel".  I told everyone to say Jose that night and he couldn't figure it out until I told him the story.  The name was changed when I picked it up so no one really would have known but it was funny anyway.

We had quite a group, Paula and Jerry, Gail and Bill, Jared, Terri and Mike, Cheryl, Christine, Sarah, and Stephanie.  A great time was had by all!  He was surprised because he thought it was just the two of us for dinner and was not happy about that.  Surprise!!!!