A big disappointment but plans continue to evolve. Family on the horizon

Feb 6

The saga continues. This weekend we attended a performance of Mini Musicals, a delightful entertainment with six vignettes of 15-minute musicals, each telling a different story. This is a yearly event and we always try to go if we are in town. John Oules is the producer and a long-time friend. I saw him when I picked up our tickets at will call. He and his partner live in San Miguel de Allende. I told John we would be there in March and he looked at me and said ‘we’re moving, probably to Santa Fe’. I was stunned for a moment then I asked ‘is it because of the cartels?’ He said yes. This pretty much convinced me that our dream of living there is not going to happen. We have already booked a studio apartment for a month and it has a no cancel clause for the first 30 days. We will go there but not bother to look for a place to live. Needless to say, this a huge disappointment. I have written to two others who live there who said ‘It isn’t a problem; the cartels are not in the ex-pat part of town.’ Apparently, this has changed since I last wrote to them. I have been checking real estate agency sites. When we were there last February, there were two houses for sale in the neighborhood where we wanted to live. Now there are two pages of listings at greatly reduced prices.

We now need to expand our search for our next home. Our current plan is to visit Ajijic in Guadalajara state then go to San Miguel and come home. In the spring we will visit family in Wyoming and then family on the east coast; NY, RI, and SC. In the fall we will take a trip to three places on Ron’s bucket list; Spain, Portugal and Morocco. At some point, we want to revisit Cuenca, Ecuador. We were there in Oct 2018 and liked it a lot and it does have an ex-pat community but not as large as SMA and the ex-pat community is much newer than the SMA ex-pat community which started in the late 1930s. Cuenca appears to meet many of our criteria.

Before leaving for Mexico we are catching up with friends, Jim and Barbara, whom we haven’t seen in a while. Monday, the four of us ate at a fabulous Italian restaurant in NE Portland near where we first lived in Portland in the late 80’s to the mid-’90s. Barbara and Jim now live in Bend and love it. They were our neighbors, across the hall from our condo in Portland. Tonight we are having dinner at a So. American restaurant with friends who live in SE Portland. Saturday night is a reunion of friends whom we have not seen in years at the home of mutual friends in Vancouver and Sunday I am having lunch with a friend in Milwaukie and Sunday night another meal in a different Italian restaurant in Vancouver with friends from Portland. A busy week with very little cooking to do at home. Nice.

I continue to try to learn about cartel activity in places we are considering and frankly it is scary. The Mexican cartels do $1 billion of business in the US alone and they are active in 51 countries, including Ecuador and Costa Rica. Yikes!

Feb 10

It was a whirlwind week with all the social activity and house doings. Now it is Monday and it is getting down to the wire regarding finishing the apartment. Today the plumber, whom we like a lot, came here. He is a mature worker, responsible and shows up when he says he will be here. Today he promised us he would have us ready in time. We can only hope the rest of the crew does the same. Our electrician is due on Wednesday. IF he comes AND if he does all the needful things then there may be hope.

I am driving to Beaverton each Monday morning for acupuncture treatments for my neck. I love my doc who is Chinese and whom I have used in the past. He is a gentle soul. Afterward, I went to my new favorite grocery store and shopped for the week. I am trying out some new recipes that require items I don’t normally use…like tamarind concentrate. I am now on the search for it in a local store.

After lunch, we headed out to the gym, finally and both of us had a good workout on the weight machines and on the floor doing some stretches and floor exercises. We only got to the gym once last week and I much prefer three times a week if not more. So, we are off to a good start for this week. Today the sun is blindingly bright and the sky is brilliantly blue. What a treat! Life is good.