Charlie turns three

Bryn, Auntie Erin, Charlie and Grant at the Casa

We left Mexico on January 22nd and spent two weeks or so in Denver.  Our AirBNB apartment was nice this time, and we stayed very busy. 

Charlie's family birthday was sweet--at home; and then his official party was at Casa Bonita, a Denver landmark.  Kind of  like Chucky Cheese on steroids.  It was loud and crazy,  and Larry got sick from the food. 

The cake:  ribbons, balloons and candles

Charlie and buddies loved it, of course, especially the guy in the gorilla suit.  We bought them "light sabers" which were sold there and they ran around bopping one another.  When the saber came home it was totally obnoxious, but thankfully broke within 24 hours.

Our own Star Wars hero

We flew into Denver with a huge snow storm, had an instrument landing which was perfect (on an ice encrusted tarmac).  It was scary, but it was amazing.  While there we had two more, very pretty snow storms. Both were beautiful and both melted within about 48 hours in bright sunshine.  

In between the snow storms, we had some lovely, almost spring like weather with temps in the 60's--but that's the way the weather is in Denver.

Larry, Bryn and  Grant went skiing one day while Sue and Erin kept Charlie.  With Erin along for the Birthday weekend, we had a nice family reunion.

Sue and Carole outside her new apartment

We flew back to Mexico City on February 6th and stayed there one day, visiting with our friend Carole, who just moved into a really great new place.  Her previous apartment, though very strategically situated, was dark and chilly; her new place is very sunny and charming.

Our return bus trip to San Miguel was peaceful and quiet, just the way we like it.

Larry and Carole inside her new apartment

Now that we are back, we are still teaching our English class at the library.  Mart and Bob (bless them!) did it for us while we were gone.  Getting back we had to prepare lessons again and that takes a while.  The class meets every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 4:00 pm for an hour.  We have about nine students who have stuck with it.  

The class make-up shifted quite a lot over the weeks we have been here, but settled into the nine who seem to make it regularly.  We have four young people and five adults. All are so sweet that the class is a lot of fun.  We think they are learning, but it is hard to tell. We've certainly learned a healthy respect for teachers--which we aren't.

We've been back in San Miguel for awhile now and have been trying to settle in here.  Here's one big difference:  in Denver we had to stock the apartment for a couple weeks and it cost over $300.  Here we did the same (although we did have some staples already) and it cost about $100 counting booze.  It is tempting to live here. 

But San Miguel isn't the real world.  Full of "retirees" like us, some have described it as an extended spring break weekend for seniors.  You are as likely to hear English as Spanish in some areas.  There is so much to see and do, sometimes we can't decide and sometimes we just have to stay home and rest.  It's inexpensive for us, but for the average Mexican, it can be very expensive. 

Most of the restaurants, and there a lot of them, are full of expats, because your average Mexican probably can't afford it and would not be interested in Thai, Indian or Italian food anyway. But you are still in Mexico, with all its charms and idiosyncrasies. The streets need repair; the paint on many buildings could be refreshed.  Beggars are to be found on most every block, but most Mexicans are working hard to make ends meet. Good paying jobs are hard to come, but the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well as exemplified by the number of food trucks and carts and many small stores and stalls.

Selling cascarones

This past weekend was the lead up to Lent.  A large number of people make "cascarones" and puppets and sell them in the Jardin. The cascarones are dyed like our Easter eggs, but they are hollowed out and the egg is replaced with confetti, then sealed with tape and tissue paper.  

You can buy 10 shells for five pesos (65 cents), and seemingly every child in San Miguel (and many an adult) buys a bag or two and chases friends and strangers around the plaza trying to crack an egg on someone else's head, while avoiding having it done to you.  

Using cascarones

It makes for a pretty riotous time, with lots of laughter and shrieks.  It is all really quite harmless, but fun to watch.  According to some Mexican friends, this seems to be the only place in Mexico that they celebrate Carneval like this.

We have had some fairly unusual weather these last couple of weeks, with a big rain storm last Thursday and then a chilly and gray weekend.  It is not supposed to rain this time of the year, but no one seems to have told Mother Nature.  But now finally, the sky has cleared and it is a bright and beautiful cloudless blue, and the temperature has warmed to near 80.  We are hoping that this means that Spring is here to stay. Hoping you are staying warm, and that Spring is not foo far away for you.