Update On Our Trip and An Interesting Turn Of Events

living.boondockingmexico@yahoo.com

I haven't posted for more than a week.  I was waiting for something important I wanted to share and it will come at the end.

A bit more of what we saw and what we did while we were housesitting in San Miguel de Allende.  Every day was something different and the best part it didn't involve being in the city or around people.  The countryside is beautiful and I can understand why Les is hiking so much.  So much to see.  These are just some of the plants and flowers we saw on each hike we took.  The daily rains were welcome although it is always good weather in terms of temperature.  The nights hovered around 14C and the days 24C.   You can't beat that for sleeping and we really don't know anyone in SMA that has air conditioning.  

I thought I had posted this pic of Les, Mike and Terrie Church but I guess not.  We got together for dinner one night.  The restaurant we went to, La Frontera, has very good food and reasonable prices.  I split a burrito and the others ordered the special which was fried chicken.  It seems like the specials are always good.  

I'm sure you remember our housesit from last year (2019-2020).  We took care of Stephanie's house and her two cats.  It was a long sit as Stephanie was in Los Angeles for treatment.  I will openly say that when I put her in the car to take her to the airport that day, I didn't think she would make it back.  Well, a year later here she is, in a beautiful condo with her two cats and healthy as an ox.  We went to Hotel Santa Monica for breakfast.  The event was fun but the food not so good for the price.  But, you have to find out for yourselves and we did.  

We got together a couple of times with Cheryl.  She lives in our neighborhood in San Miguel.  She rents a beautiful three-story house with an excellent roof garden.  The place in the pic below is at Geek's Coffee which is behind the Fabrica Aurora (you enter through the Fabrica parking area).  She has been living in SMA for quite a few years and loves it there.  Never a shortage of people to meet and they all come from different backgrounds.  Cheryl worked in many countries in Africa and other parts of the world before settling down in SMA.

I put these two pictures side by side.  On the left is our current rooftop and on the left is a picture of a garden we took at a community called Zarandero just minutes from town but it wasn't to our liking but the rooftop really caught our eye.   Simple, clean but with some style.  Not this year, but maybe next year as we save up more money or get lucky and sell our house here in Santiago.

Now for the story and it is worth reading.  Our present government made the decision to have a national vote or what we call a consulta popular.  The first in the history of Mexico.  It was meant to determine if the population of Mexico thinks or thought we should judge our ex-presidents and send them to prison for crimes such as corruption and fraud.  

The government of Presidente Dingus spent 26 million dollars on the vote only to have just 7% of the population vote.  The outcome was in his favor but the vote required 41% to make it a law.  It didn't pass.  but why is this important?  It shows that this president is out for vengeance against those who, for over 20 years, wouldn't let him play politics.  The 26 million dollars that were spent could have purchased the following:

1) 58,666 cancer treatments for children.  We have lost over 3000 children only because the government has refused to purchase the medications for the universal healthcare system.

2) 1748 homes for low-income families with a value of 300,000 pesos each.

3)  Over 10,000,000 food hampers for the poor

A complete failure.  In addition, even though Mexico is not a rich country, we sent three ships to Cuba this last week.  1 with "medicines", 1 with food, and one tanker filled with diesel all free to the Cuban government.