Lasting thoughts from San Miguel de Allende

They do things differently here. This morning, about 9:15, the Internet where we are staying went out. I did all the normal things you do ... unplug the modem, reset the router ... but nothing worked. Then, about an hour later, I heard a clamour outside our front door. There was a guy from Tele-Cable tangled up in the mess of wires above the house. I said, "Oh good, you're fixing our Internet." He said, "Oh no, I'm now disconnecting your cable because you didn't pay your bill." All of this in Spanish, of course. We called the property manager, who called the maid who ran down to the cable office, paid the bill. And two hours later, the same guy who disconnected our cable returned, found the wire he unplugged earlier and restored TV and Internet. Here, if you are one day late on your cable, phone, or electric bill, it WILL be shut off first thing the next morning ... no warning or past due statements. The good thing ... if they do shut it off, then you pay, they'll come right back out and reconnect it.

Our last day here and we decided it was time to explore beyond the 2-3 mile circumference from the house that we have already covered extensively on foot. And while I'm normally not big on these things, we bought tickets for an open air trolley tour of San Miguel. The tour was predictable ... but I was able to get a few pictures that I really like that kind of capture the feel of this town.

Bread lady and the town's first Pemex station when gas was 7 cents a gallon (that's 7 cents US). Now it's $2.79.

The town horse and boys horsing

around with the town's girls.

"Hey Taxi"

"Centro" The view from above

We also spent our last day doing what I hinted we might do in a previous blog. We spent more money on art. Now, a friend of ours in Puerto Vallarta lives by the following: Don't not buy art just because you can't think of a place to put it. If you like it, buy it, and it will find its place.
With that in mind, we bought a wrought iron wall sculpture with eight small holders for candles. I think it will go on the patio. We bought three other matching iron wall sculptures. I think they'll go in the master bathroom. And we bought an eight foot "tower" painted in bright colors that you put in a base and set somewhere on the floor. I've got no idea where that's going to go. But something tells me that tomorrow morning when we pack up the car to head back to Puerto Vallarta, we once again will look like we did when we first drove to Mexico, with luggage strapped to the top of the car and the cargo area loaded ... can you say "Beverly Hillbillies."

For our final dinner here tonight, we returned to "The Restaurant." It's a fantastic place where the dining area is in an open air garden courtyard in an old mansion in the cneter of town ... with plenty of those patio heaters you buy at Home Depot. The dinner we had there three nights ago was one of the best we have had, not just in Mexico, but anywhere. Tonight wasn't quite as good. Salmon and risotto were excellent ... beef shanks were tough and a bit tasteless. Hey, you gotta be honest. There are dozens of what you would consider really excellent restaurants here (more than in Puerto Vallarta). I'm just a little concerned about stepping on the scales when we returned to PV Sunday. And ... it's back to the gym on Monday. Hasta luego.