Home Again; How we found our first Semi-Permanent home in Mexico

Not sure what you call a post script at the beginning, but this PS is to inform you it was written 3 nights ago but just released because in the interim the computer broke. Another entry will be written tonight.

Sheila and I left Spokane on November 19^th, headed to Mexico. The plan is to stay south of the border until mid to late April. When we left we knew we had a room booked in San Miguel de Allende Mexico for 9 days. We also knew that we need to find a place to live until at least February, and that there would be some stress associated with that. We had booked the 9 days in order to find the semi permanent residence once we arrived. We did not want to take a chance on booking some place that we had not seen and would be stuck in for 2-3 months having a bad experience.

We are currently approaching the holiday season and that means rentals are more difficult to find and can be more expensive. As of this morning we had 5 days to find our new home. Now, we have found it. Tomorrow we move and that means we sacrifice about $250 dollars, and that is just fine. No more stress regarding living conditions.

The path to finding the new home away from home began yesterday. I had been invited to attend an intensive Spanish class yesterday morning. I am in the habit of asking just about everyone I meet if they had house hunting advice. Someone in the class suggested the bulletin board at the entrance, but it did not help. I then decided to ask the head of the school, Jorge, who had invited me to class. He gave me the name of a lady with a complex of apartments a 5 minute walk away. We tried but misconnected yesterday, so we agreed to meet this morning.

The result was us agreeing on a beautiful apartment to rent. We are near the center of town but far away enough to not have much noise. For those who are not familiar with Mexico, for the most part, the water is a danger to gringos. The entire complex we are in has state of the art filtration and maintenance that allows us to drink, wash produce and brush our teeth without fear of getting sick. The complex is multi-tiered and scrupulously clean and well kept with multiple patios and lots of plants. Pictures are forthcoming soon. We also benefit from having lots of space for clothes and for work.

We ended up paying more than we had budgeted, but feel that the location, community and amenities of the rental make it worth the extra cash. Additionally, Jonathan and Paula, our new landlords are a wealth of information about the city. We spent about 90 minutes with them, inspecting the site, talking about the city, and hammering out an agreement on price (we received a wonderful discount) while sitting on one of the patios.

I am looking back on the last two days now, after eating a home cooked meal and drinking wine. As I write this I realize that this is what we decided to embrace, uncertainty with some anxiety, but also the exhilarating thrills of accomplishment in the face of uncertainty. A chiropractic mentor of mine was quite fond of saying, “All growth happens outside the comfort zone.” And anytime you find that growth, it means you have moved closer to displacing cynicism with faith in something bigger than yourself. The more this happens the greater trust and growth become. We decided we did not need to be so comfortable. We decided we need to grow. So here we are building trust in the universe, set a course and sail knowing that the details will be taken care of as long as we are moving toward our selected destination. It can only get better, even through the challenges.

Pictures of the new home at Pied-à-terre at Casitas Aparicio in El Centro, 25 Aparicio, San Miguel de Allende, GTO, MX, 37700 to come tomorrow or the next day.