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Mes de la Patria 2026
Preparing for the September national celebrations.
It's been months since we were in San Miguel de Allende. We take a lot of precautions to make sure the house is secure. We clean before leaving, change the linens, take any food from the fridge home with us in a cooler, and set timers around the house.
We had a great trip coming down; in fact, it was record time. Great weather, no major construction glitches, and we weren't stopped or interrogated at any checkpoints. There are many false checkpoints now, or they are official but have organized crime members working with the officials.
Getting to the house all looked well. We opened the door to the first of a series of issues. Although we had taken precautions to prevent water damage, water made its way under the corner of the front door. San Miguel de Allende has had many torrential rains since our last visit. Our 45-year-old Chinese wool carpet had been soaked, and carpet moths made their way in and literally ate it up.
Our Samsung refrigerator was DOA. Fortunately, we had little to nothing in terms of perishables, and cleanup was easy. We attempted the 24-hour reset, and no go. There have been excessive power failures and power surges in the last year. I have mentioned the state-owned power grid and the lack of foreign investment since the last administration. We are seeing the results now.
Okay, we're limping along now, two down, what else? We decided to wait until the next day to do the cleanup, and I laid down for a nap after the long drive. I couldn't sleep and jumped up and got to work. We cleaned out the fridge, took the carpet out, and cleaned up the mess. The next morning, we turned on the water heater, and it was kaput. That was an easy fix, and our plumber came right away and fixed it.
As of today, a week later, we are still living out of an ice chest. No biggie, we like camping and boondocking, so we're not that affected. Less opportunity for me to rummage around during the day, or what we call in Spanish, "gusgeando".
Warning to anyone living in Mexico. Do not buy appliances with inverters. Why? Technicians are not prepared or trained to fix them. This is not a warning just based on my personal experience. I've asked around, and we have found no one who will even touch the inverter products. We had three repairmen come out, and no go. My nephew is an HVAC installer and repairman, and he said the same. Once they are affected, they are difficult to repair. We are now waiting for Samsung to send a qualified repairman to diagnose (hahaha) and recommend a solution.
The purpose of this trip is to tile our rooftop and prepare it for a palapa. We've ordered and have all the materials and the tile. We're looking to check this off our list of things to do. It's been a few years coming. The installers promise a one-week job, so we'll plan on two.
In the meantime, at least for the next week, we will be tied to the house while the trapse up and down the staircase. It can't be avoided, and all the material, such as the sand, is in costales or heavy flour-type bags, and those same bags will be used to bring down any residual materials and scrap tile pieces. We thought about scaffolding, and it is relatively inexpensive. But we are waiting to see what the workers say today. I'm now just thinking about a winch to use as a hoist. All the homes in this neighborhood are townhouse style, so there are no side aisles.
Nothing like taking your duck for a walk in the main square! Since the Mundial and the appearance of Merlin the Duck, everyone wants one now!
Not sure what happened to Spider-Man, and I hope he is okay. It must have been one hell of a fight. Do superheroes regenerate limbs? I found his leg, and maybe this was a memorial to Spider!
We've done the usual SMA kind of things: Sunday market, daily exercise walks taking us to about 12,000 steps a day, and seeing all the changes that are taking place. Quite interesting how a city that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Conde Nast's number one destination is allowing so much construction in the "protected" part of the city.
Now on to my favorite topic, Mexican politics. As of today, these are the number of politicians by party who have had their U.S. visas revoked:
Morena 51 (ruling party)
PRI 3
PAN 0
I think that sums it up!
The cellphone registration debacle continues. Each month now more lines are being canceled. We're at 50%, and as the months tick by, so will the number of cancellations. They have Mexicans by the balls because most Mexicans now use their cellphones for mobile banking and other work apps. Lose your line, and you are disconnected from everything. As we all knew from the get-go, the extortion has not been reduced but has actually increased. With the cancellations, many of those lines are being intercepted and renewed using fake identification but still tied to the original owner's name. If an extortion attempt is identified, the original owner will be the one to go to the bote (jail). What a shit show.
The state of Sinaloa and the cartel war in Culiacan go on, taking more than 3000 lives, 2000 in the city of Culiacan, and 3600 missing persons presumed dead but not added to the homicide rate. This turf war has made its way to Mazatlan, and yesterday 6000 troops were sent to provide assistance. We keep hearing about the lower homicide rates and all of the other statistics, but reality is definitely something else.
