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Q 1: I hear housing and rental prices are outrageous in San Miguel.
A: When the housing bubble burst in the US, it also affected real estate sales and construction in San Miguel. Retirees who wanted to sell their homes in the
US and buy or build in San Miguel with the proceeds of their house sale had to wait around for US buyers.
Since Mexico is mostly a cash society and most house sales are in cash, there isn't the urgency of amortgage hanging over the heads of those who want to sell their homes. Some are just waiting it out, expecting the market to improve in a few years. They may have house sitters or long-term renters in the meantime, or just have their own plans to move put on hold.
Only those who are desperate to sell fast, such as those hit by illness or family emergency who need to go back north, are lowering their prices drastically. So housing prices are still comparatively high compared to expectations.
Still, there are far more homes for sale below $250,000 USD or even $150,000 in San Miguel than most people think because of our image as an expensive city. And rentals are even cheaper than many expect because someone with a $300,000 house may rent it for $1,200 USD a month, and a $150,000 house may rent for $900 a month. You can find apartments from $250 a month for a small single maybe ten blocks from Centro, to $5,000 a week mansions.
The dream remains of finding a cheap fixer upper in Centro, as Tony Cohan describes so vividly in On Mexican Time. He bought a $60,000 casa with a rentable casita on the property in Centro and wrote at length about the remodeling process, but at the end of the book, finished about 2001, Cohan wrote that even the casita would cost far more than $60,000.
Today you would be talking more than a million dollars for the same spaciousness in Centro. But you still might find a remodel for $80,000-$150,000 close by, and remodeling costs are low because labor costs are low.
You could tear down whatever structures are on a piece of good property and build a nice place for under $200,000, in the 2,000-square-foot range. You can still find move-in quality condos under $200,000 very close to Centro.
Or you can spot what looks like a ruins in Centro and find the land alone is close to a million dollars because some Centro properties run deep and are much bigger than the narrow frontage would lead you to believe. Or you can build outside SMA near nearby villages like Cieneguita or Atotonilco and come up with any price range you want.
As new areas of SMA become gentrified, like San Rafael and Santa Julia and even San Luis Rey, you will find cheaper prices and the same kinds of transitional problems of any area that is undergoing gentrification. You could have a very expensive house next to a shack with a noisy roof dog, loud parties, and teens hanging around at night next door.
Some newcomers to San Miguel want exactly the kind of neighborhood and lifestyle they left in the US, while some come ready to embrace a new way of life and understand and accept different values and customs.
The first will probably not be happy except in a gated gringo community. The second wouldn’t be caught dead in a gated gringo community. It’s up to you.
Real estate prices in San Miguel overall are probably cheaper than in the US for similar homes, but not as cheap as some expect. And we face the same fluctuations as the US.
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Q 2: We're coming to San Miguel next January. Can we expect hot weather?
A. Have to warn you, it gets cold in San Miguel up here at 6,400 feet. December and January are our coldest months and it often does get below freezing a couple of nights a year, and some people lose some tender plants in their gardens. Those who live outside the city can get even colder temps, in the high 20s. Days can still be sunny and warm.
It hit 30 two nights last January and we didn't lose anything, but we're in a sheltered courtyard. But one year our three-story rubber plant had a brown halo around it for a few months until new leaves grew back.
Mexicans are bundled up in sweatshirts, sweatpants and jackets, while tourists still come in shorts but quickly add a jacket. But then Mexican school
uniforms look awfully hot to me for all year long--sweat jackets, wool cardigans and knee socks even in May. Several charities collect sweaters, gloves and socks for the poor for the winter, particularly the aged ones who are seen on the streets begging.
During the day it usually still is in the 70s, often 80s, during the winter, and we wear short-sleeved cotton shirts and pants most days and change to jeans and sweaters as the sun goes down, adding a jacket later.
And a few days or a week in late January often it rains and is gray and cold for a week. SMA rainfall average is 27 inches a year. (Compare that to Phoenix, which averaged 7 inches of rain a year and is in a drought right now that is the worst in more than a century.)
SMA's rainy season is June-October, and usually a heavy shower falls in the late afternoon or early evening, and then it is perfect the rest of the day. You just duck into a restaurant for coffee until it passes if you didn't bring your umbrella.
The rains are so hard that the streets flood and you suddenly realize why the curbs are so high, as you can’t see them as the river washes down the hilly
streets. Flow-through sandals are good!
Mexican building is heavy cement, so walls keep cool, great for summer but not for winter when it is bone-chilling cold. Most places don't have heat, or A/C,
and they do use fireplaces, though I hate to use up wood since Mexico is depleting its trees. Propane conversions are best.
Electricity is comparatively expensive and power lines in the Centro areas weren't built for such heavy loads of all the modern electric appliances, so many apartments' electricity will blow if too many people plug in electric heaters. (Bring an electric blanket or a mattress warmer for your
bed, a great investment, and much cheaper if bought in the US.) The more you use, the higher the rate, the opposite of what it is in the States.
Most gringos who live here in the winter go to propane heaters and have an extra line run from their propane tanks (which are on the roof, next to your water tank, and service your stove and hot water heater). You call for propane delivery and usually they come the same day.
Propane heaters can be very basic for under $200, or you can get fancy ones that look like fireplaces for $600+. Propane usually runs us $50 a month most of the year and $100 a month Nov-Feb. (For comparison, when we owned an old country church with high ceilings that we converted to a home in rural Michigan, our propane heating bill was $425 a month, and that was 20 years ago. Our air conditioning bill in Phoenix for July-August was more than $300 a month.
Many tourists still think our winters are lovely compared to wherever they came from farther north. Many Canadians in particular come here for our winters and bask in our sun while Mexicans are bundled up. And Texans come here in July and August because we're cooler than much of the U.S. South.
Only the beach areas of Mexico are warm year-round, and they can get oppressively hot, muggy and buggy in the summer. So many people think Mexico is all alike, beaches and jungle, while it's as diverse as the U.S., on everything.
April and May are our hottest months and often it hits 100 for a few days, though not every year. After Phoenix's six months of the year over 100, we find it very pleasant even on the hottest days. It all depends on what you were used to when you come to SMA, and what your expectations are.
Overall, San Miguel has the best weather of anyplace in Mexico, we think! It feels the closest to LA of any place we've lived, and LA has absolutely the most perfect weather, though it has gray, cold winter days as well. Tourists showed up in shorts there in January, too, while the rest of us had on jackets.
Many tourists who happened to come to SMA only in a cold spell will tell you they froze to death here, so be forewarned. Dress in layers.
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Q 3: Since you mentioned plants, what zone is SMA in for planting?
A. We don't exactly fit any zone in the U.S. seed catalogs' descriptions because we're at 6,400 feet, which counteracts our location farther south. Those who have checked into such things say SMA is closest to a 10 when you're choosing your garden and landscaping.
Remember, we're technically a desert, with only 27 inches of rain a year. Some people do have lawns, and there are a few golf courses, but most people realize we are a desert and don't plant lawns. There are many kinds of succulent ground cover. Choose plants that don't require much water. Bougainvillea grows beautifully here and is everywhere. In spring when you look out over the city from a view point, the lavender jacaranda trees turn the entire city into a lilac mist. (Note that many residents become allergic to the jacarandas and don’t like spring for that reason.)
Poinsettia plants you put into the ground after Christmas may grow two stories high--we have red blossoms peeking in our windows from November to February.
Candelaria Day, February 2, is actually a religious day for the blessing of the seeds--farmers bring their seeds to church so that the priests can give them a good start on prosperous crops. That week, all of Park Juarez turns into a giant nursery, with maybe 100 stalls selling everything from herbs to fruit trees. Fancy orchids, bonzai trees, silly lawn ornaments, fertilizer, pots of all sizes--it is a photographer's delight as well as gardeners’ heaven.
Locals go into the same planting frenzy, snapping up everything, that we saw in rural Michigan at the nurseries each spring--but in Michigan we began
planting heavily in May, while here it is in February. (In Phoenix we didn't plant much, we mainly used gravel and rocks for xeriscaping.)
At Candelaria we usually buy fresh herb plants for our kitchen window garden and a few new geraniums since our porch plants get leggy during the winter.
Kids borrow wheelbarrows and will approach you the moment you buy your first plant and offer to follow you around with the wheelbarrow as you buy here and
there, and then they'll take your plants to your car or taxi, for a $1 tip or so. It's one of my favorite weeks of the year.
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Q 4: What about the large numbers of foreigners moving into San Miguel. Is the community changing because of it?
A. Just about every place on earth changes, and some Mexicans may regret the changes in their populations just as some U.S. residents regret the changes in
their populations as Mexicans move to their cities. The Irish were resented when they arrived on U.S. shores during the Potato Famine. Europe is dealing with large numbers of Muslim immigrants. Every desirable place on earth faces influxes of new residents, whether with more money, or less money, or a different race or color or religion than the previous community.
Should you stay away from a desirable place to live that suits your needs because you will change the community? Should you not step into a river because you will change it?
I grew up in Detroit which went from around two million population in the early '60s to under a million today. Back in Detroit Wayne State University
downtown did a study in the mid-'60s reporting on the way Detroit was resegregating from all-white areas to all-black.
The pattern was that an all-white area would panic when the first one or two blacks moved in, the first flurry of those most able to move out quickly did so, and then the area settled down to a gradual acceptance of the slow integration of more and more blacks, until the magical number of one-third blacks was reached.
At that point just about every white still left in the old neighborhood who could, up and moved out fast. It happened on my block. Meanwhile, I had moved
further into the inner city. My folks fled to the suburbs.
Before the 1967 riot, Wayne State was predicting that Detroit would be an almost all black city within 20 years, and lo and behold, that happened.
I think that's kind of the way human groups operate. We tend to form our own enclaves, we can accept a few "others" joining us, and suddenly when enough
"others" have joined so that we feel the possibility of being outnumbered, we panic and look for another place where we can feel "comfortable."
"We" does not mean me, or every one, just a kind of general pattern of comfort, and I'm not going to extend the pattern too far or to every instance, just offering it as something to think about. Most of us who move to Mexico probably would not fit that pattern, I think--we tend to be more open-minded and willing to leave our comfort zone.
When some magical number of Mexican immigrants "overloads" a formerly mostly white area of the US, some sort of hackles go up and some people feel threatened and start to react. I think many in the African-American community were less than thrilled when Hispanics became the largest minority in the U.S. Mexicans in an old familiar neighborhood may not be thrilled when expats buy up all the vacancies.
Arizona is a strange state, generally known years ago for the live and let live conservativism of Barry Goldwater and early John McCain, but becoming more and more cosmopolitan every day as retirees from all over the country with broader viewpoints move there.
But along the border where the vigilante movement arose, I think that magical number was reached and somewhere inside many people came the word, "Enough,"
and they started to react. I could feel some of that even in Phoenix when I lived there. And now some in the U.S. are pushing for a giant wall between the
U.S. and Mexico which won't build good feelings between those on both sides.
Change happens. San Miguel would be changing one way or another even if not a single gringo had ever arrived. I'm seeing a few tour groups from China on our
streets now, along with many German and Japanese groups and the U.S., Canadian, and British tourists. Some will undoubtedly move here. (By far the greatest number of tourists to San Miguel, however, are from other parts of Mexico.)
Personally I think the amount of money and jobs we bring compensates for the greater congestion and rising prices in some commodities. I don't expect anyone or anything or any city to stay the same. Other forces for change are at work within Mexico and throughout the world at all times.
My book club read a novel, The Story Teller, on how even being observed discreetly by anthropologists changed the Amazon River tribes forever. The anthropologists argued among themselves whether the old ways of the hidden tribes should be maintained at all costs, even though those old ways included beating women, sending old people off to die, and marrying girls off at puberty, benefiting a few thousand indigeous people, or should modern ways be brought in and millions more benefit as thousands die off? The book didn't address the ecological issues.
Someone in a recent letter to the editor in Atencion noted that development is not a bad thing for Mexico, even though some gringo newcomers may want it to
stay just the way it was when they arrived: "I'm here, now close the door. Not in my backyard."
So many of our charities raise money for college scholarships for local youth, and what do these newly educated young people do when they come back to San
Miguel--herd goats and sell embroidery in the Jardin? How do we keep these young people in San Miguel instead of watching them pay $2,500 to a coyote to
smuggle them into the U.S.?
If you want to keep San Miguel "quaint," remember that "quaint" won't pay the rent for someone ambitious and educated who wants a better life for the future.
It often is synonymous with barefoot and pregnant.
I believe a balance is possible between maintaining San Miguel's historic neighborhoods and cultures, especially since SMA was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site requiring that these areas and traditions be preserved, and reasonable economic development. I hope that balance is maintained.
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Q 5: Does everybody in San Miguel speak English? When I was there I'd say something to a Mexican in Spanish and he'd answer in English.
A: Wouldn't that be nice for some of us who are more language-challenged --but then one of the main advantages of living in a foreign country, seeing
everything from the different perspective a new language brings, would be lost. (You can tell a lot about a culture by number of words or the phrasing about a topic: "The shelf fell"--I had nothing to do with it; even if I overloaded it that was not my responsibility that it fell. Life just happens. God wills it.)
I'd be missing out on double the number of word games and jokes, the teasing around the careful use of the word "huevos," for example. If everyone here spoke only English, I wouldn't be getting into all sorts of situations where I direly need to know Spanish better than I do.
Unfortunately, only those Mexicans aiming specifically at gringo clienteles or those who are from the higher classes and educated abroad, and those who
worked in the States, are likely to actually be able to carry on a lengthy conversation in English.
I'd say less than 10% of those 70,000 Mexicans living inside SMA city limits and almost none of those other 60,000 Mexicans living in the larger region that is also part of San Miguel de Allende can do so.
Lots of Mexicans will attempt to answer you in English but they know only a few words. If I say, "Buenas Tardes" to a guy on the street and he responds, "Hi, how are you?" that may be just about all he knows and he wants to practice that little bit anyplace he can, just as I'm practicing my social pleasantries on him in Spanish. Often a Mexican who hears me rattle off some familiar taxi and restaurant Spanish thinks I'm fluent overall, which I am not.
There seems to be a trashing of San Miguel as totally overrun by gringos, most usually done by people who have only heard the stereotypes or who only visited
or lived in Centro and never got outside into the majority of the city. We're still only 15% of the city population, 8% if you consider the larger SMA
population.
Even in Centro the majority of Mexicans don't know more than a few words of English, though they may fool you by saying what you and everybody else usually needs to hear, a few stock responses to the few most common stock questions.
The "bilingual" waiter will understand if you say you want ice in your tea but he probably won't understand if you ask whether that ice was made from
purified water, or whether there could be nuts in the sauce to which you are deathly allergic. He'll know the menu items in English and Spanish, but don't
try to do a substitution of any complexity, or ask if the pasta is from whole grains or if the broccoli is organic or the salmon is farm-raised or imported
from Alaska.
Sure, you can live in SMA and speak almost no Spanish and deal only with those Mexicans who do speak English and survive, and quite a few expats still do
just that. But you'll certainly be insulated, and you'll be in danger of getting into a crisis at any moment.
Say you're hit by a car and you're trying to deal with police and lawyers and angry relatives of the driver and nurses who don't know what you're trying to
say about your pain and no English-speaking doctor can be found. Say you're doing a simple business transaction but you misunderstand something crucial, like a no-refund policy.
Say you meet somebody you really want, or even need, to know, and you come across as an ignorant fool because you have come to Mexico expecting everyone to speak English for you. Say you've been robbed and you don't even know the word for "Help!"
Say your car breaks down and the only gas station anywhere around has only Spanish speakers, and you can't even communicate enough to find out where there is a phone or a phone directory. You can't tell a cab where you are to come get you because you can't read the directions or understand the guy at the gas station.
Say your dog is lost and the person who finds it and reads your phone number on its collar calls you up and you can't even understand what the finder is
saying so you can get your dog back.
Say you want to eat at restaurants outside of Centro to save some money and they don't just have tacos on the menu. You don’t want to order tripe by mistake and you are stuck always ordering pollo, chicken, the word you recognize, instead of trying something more venturesome.
Say you've just had your credit card snatched by an ATM and the guy who does speak good English is out to lunch and you're in a hurry but the clerks don't
have a clue just exactly what you are saying, and you can't figure out whether they're going to check the ATM right now or you can come back tomorrow or you
should talk to your bank in the US.
I don't know of a single gringo who lives here for very long who still says there is absolutely no need to know any Spanish and all Mexicans here know
English. All the language schools in town wouldn't be doing such a good business on gringos if we didn't realize we must learn Spanish and not all Mexicans are going to speak English for us. (But some gringos pay for their housekeeper to learn English rather than learn Spanish themselves.)
Friends who are fluent say it takes seven years of hard work and constant practice to actually become fluent. Ten weeks at Warren Hardy or four months at the Academia or the Unviresity of Leon or Centro Bilingue won't do it. in fact, the Warren Hardy website says that his four levels should be the beginning before you go into an immersion program.
Out of 140,000 permanent residents of the San Miguel region, only 7,000 are foreign-born permanent residents on resident visas, and they're mostly English-speaking. Of these, I'd guess 10% speak fluent Spanish, 20% can carry on a limited conversation, and another 50% have at least taken a class or two and can do the basics. My estimates only. If my guesses are right, that means "only" about 20% of foreigners know very little or no Spanish. That's 20% too many.
But I still hear those who dislike San Miguel saying that everybody here, foreign and local, speaks only English, and all the prices are in US dollars. No, only a few tourist-oriented shops list prices in dollars, and the expensive art galleries will list prices in both currencies.
Real estate prices aimed at gringos will most always be in dollars--$200,000 USD sounds bad enough, don’t even think of looking at a price that is $2.100.000,00 MXN in pesos.)
Of course very few of the foreign tourists know Spanish, and we have plenty of them. Tourists are only here a short time; they can't be expected to be fluent
before their vacation to any place. That's why tourist industries spring up to service those who do not speak the language in any desirable vacation area.
But remember that most tourists to San Miguel are from other parts of Mexico, not from the US and Canada! This is a historic, beautiful city with lots going on at all times. Mexicans aren't just discovering San Miguel, they've known about this town and loved it for many years.
Again a very rough estimate: I'd say the 10% or so of SMA Mexicans who have many business dealings with foreigners are totally fluent in English, maybe 5% of the others who have lived in the U.S. or who have been educated there can speak excellent English, and only a few of the rest of the Mexican population can say more than bare basics in English. Certainly the 60,000 Mexicans who live on the outskirts and the poorer Indians inside the city limits speak almost no English, though they may still say, "Hello" and "Okay."
If you want to do nothing more than just go to gringo-owned businesses and associate only with gringos, yes, you can get by with very little Spanish. But
who'd want to do that?
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Q 6: Isn't SMA a quiet town of older retirees without much happening?
I don't know where that statement comes from but I hear it a lot, mostly from people who have never been here. This is the party town of all party towns for
the Mexican population, fiestas and parades going on every time you turn around, and the gringo population is far more active than any group over 50 I've ever experienced.
This town rocks! Every day there are far more activities than any one person could get to, with live music and/or dancing going on each night in a dozen
places for the nights when there aren't art openings, concerts and plays. I'd guess there are at least 75 classes going on each week someplace, and always
somebody is leading a tour to someplace else in Mexico. And friends drop in all the time, and call you up when they're cooking a good meal. Often we have
three party invitations a week.
But you wouldn't know it living out of Centro in one of those wealthier developments going up on the outskirts. Those who say there is nothing to do never venture out their doors or make a phone call. They'd probably say there was nothing to do in New York City.
Those who want to gripe and be miserable will gripe and be miserable no matter where they live. You bring your baggage with you when you come.
And there are a whole lot of younger gringos moving here as well, most with little money but a great attitude of openness and a willingness to join in and
have fun, too. Yes, we have 80-year-olds still working and playing, but people find their own kinds of friends at whatever age level (or class, nationality,
sexual orientation, politics) they prefer.
I probably should add that straight single gringas over 50 far outnumber straight single gringos in that age group. This is not Alaska. And so many Mexican men go north to work that there can be a shortage of eligible Mexican men, too, for both Mexican women and interested gringas.
But I see little of that desperate searching for a man, any man--there's so much to do here that you have only yourself to blame if you're bored or lonely.
Women who decide to pick up and move to another country are usually courageous, open, multi-faceted fascinating people with great stories to tell!
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Q 7: Any RV parks in San Miguel?
The Hotel La Siesta has an acre or two behind the hotel for RVs. It's on Salida a Celaya #82 (the extension of Ancha San Antonio when it leaves Centro, near the El Pipila glorieta--that's the roundabout with the statue of the guy with a slab of rock on his back), phone 152-0207.
The newest RV park is tucked into the same property as Weber’s tennis courts, at Callejon de San Antonio #12. They have about 12 RV spaces, not for the most
huge motor homes, and the property seems very safe and secluded. Be prepared for tennis ball sounds, though.
Old directories will still have KDA listed (the D painted to look as much like the O in KOA as possible, but they were not a KOA camp). That one was out by
Los Frailes but has closed.
We have friends who RV in Mexico, and they recommend that you take items like lawn chairs inside when you are gone or at night. Obviously you will not be
able to drive an oversized vehicle of any kind through San Miguel's narrow streets, though the bus drivers seem to have it down pat. You can get a cab (25 pesos, or under $2 USD) or bus (five pesos) fairly easily from La Siesta into town, and the Weber campground is an easy walk to almost anyplace.
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Q 8: Isn't walking hard in SMA, especially with all the hills?
A: San Miguel is built on a hillside. Some streets are really bad, others are flat for a mile.
When you check rental ads notice if they say something like "a flat walk to the Jardin." If you're in the northern half of the city, you'll find it's mostly flat easy walking. On the south side, which is actually the higher side, get up to Atascadero or Balcones, two of the richest areas, or the luxury homes south of Park Juarez, and you're likely to hit steep streets. If an ad says, "Great view," that tells you you'll be up a hill.
The hills aren't the only problem for walkers, the cobblestones and irregular sidewalks make it hard to walk. People call SMA, "The city of fallen women."
Wear comfortable shoes and watch where you walk always. I twisted my knee the first day I arrived; many do. You also have to watch out for window ledges
jutting out at forehead height, while you’re looking down for holes and ridges in the cobblestones.
But the more you walk, and walking is actually great fun here, the easier you will be able to walk and the healthier you'll be. In Phoenix I barely walked
from home to car to store in 100+ heat six months of the year, but in SMA I walk at least 2 miles a day with no problems any more (though I took a few yeas off when my knees became arthritic and I had them both replaced and returned to being a walking fool).
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Q 9: A related question, Isn't walking on cobblestones hazardous to your health?
A: It's official: SMA cobblestones make you healthier.
From my 14 falls in 7 years on San Miguel's infamous if beautiful cobblestones, I wouldn't have said so, but here's the link and a few paragraphs from a new study about the health benefits of walking regularly on cobblestones.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/12/AR2005071200278.html
Study: Walking on Cobblestones Is Healthy
By WILLIAM McCALL
The Associated Press
>PORTLAND, Ore. -- The path to better health and lower blood pressure may be paved with cobblestones. When people over 60 walked on smooth, rounded
cobblestones for just a half-hour a day over four months, they significantly lowered their blood pressure and improved their balance, a study showed.
Behavioral researchers from the Oregon Research Institute investigated the health effects of cobblestones after observing people exercising and walking back and forth over traditional stone paths in China.... The results surprised Fisher and his fellow researchers, who expected to see some general improvement in health but also saw blood pressure drop measurably among the volunteers during the 16-week study.... Nearly all the 108 volunteers in the study said they felt better after the exercise. But only the half who walked the cobblestones showed significant improvement in balance, measures of mobility and blood pressure, Fisher said. He said the cobblestone walking paths are common in China, where traditional medicine teaches that the uneven surface of the stones stimulate "acupoints" on the soles of the feet. The theory is much like acupuncture, suggesting that distant and unrelated areas of the body are linked together at certain points and can be stimulated to improve physical and mental health....>
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Q 10: How do I meet someone with my particular interests, say in yoga? Is there one central gathering spot like the Lake Chapala Society?
A: We've got at least 6,000 permanent gringo retiree residents here, too many for any one organization! (The other 1,000 or so permanent gringo residents are younger or still working. I'm just guessing at the numbers but they're somewhere near the mark. And another 5,000 or more live here at least part of the year.
Buy an Atencion as soon as you get here and see all the activities going on and note which groups interest you. Ahead of time you can check the calendar at www.atencionsnmiguel.org and at http://www.portalsanmiguel.com. There are a couple of yoga classes where you can meet like-minded people, and other related kinds of groups like the Meditation Center. I've seen many notices for yoga classes. Check out the activities on this website. Put a personal ad on our website forums or at www.atencionsanmiguel.org classifieds.
There's always the Social Club which meets weekly at different people's homes. Go to the Unitarians meeting Sunday morning at HotelPosada de la Aldea and in the announcements time say that you're looking for people to talk to, or other retirees in general, and over breakfast you'll meet a bunch. The Episcopalians at St. Paul's are very friendly to newcomers as well and have many activities there.
At La Conexion mailing service on Aldama a block south of the Jardin, you can find out about a social group that meets at different restaurants every Wednesday for lunch.
Where would people you want to meet likely hang out? Go there.
Just sit around in the Jardin and talk to people you think might be your kind of folks. It won't take long, you'll have plenty of new friends. Hope you enjoy San Miguel!
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Q 11: Would you recommend San Miguel to someone with a disability?
I would have to say no if the disability is one involving mobility. Most of Mexico is about where the U.S. was in the '50s on so many social issues, including awareness of disability rights.
Recent mayors have made sure that there are sidewalk cuts in Centro remodeling projects, but so many sidewalks are barely wide enough for one person, and doorway steps may halve even that narrow walkway. So many doorways have steps going up or even down from the sidewalk--my first day in San Miguel I fell down a stairwell into a small shop when I didn't see the drop in the sidewalk.
The sidewalks and cobblestones are so irregular, and stairs rarely have steps of the same height, one step being four inches high and the next a foot. I don't see how even a very well trained seeing eye dog could warn of changes in height along a sidewalk every few inches.
Sometimes a construction hole will be left in a sidewalk or street with only a few larger rocks to mark the hazards. Maybe one rock will be painted orange, maybe not. I see occasional people with walkers or in wheelchairs, or with white canes, but I think life here would be extremely frustrating and limited for someone with a mobility problem. But it is their own decision—is living in such a great city worth the extra effort? We do know people who have moved here with seeing eye dogs and they have done great.
We are at 6,400 feet altitude, which means some people with breathing problems like severe emphysema do not do well here. It seems that most people adjust to the higher altitude within a few days but it is best to take it easy the first few days here until you adjust. Friends have had to leave for lower land when their emphysema became severe.
If a person's disability requires very specialized medical care and supplies, they may be hard to come by in Mexico outside of Mexico City and Guadalajara. Those who are HIV+ need to have a very clear cut, reliable way to get their meds on their schedule, no delays allowed. You can do without a phone or electricity for a few days when there is a problem, but some conditions are not that forgiving in requiring continued treatments and medicines.
But every person is different. I have known people with disabilities who would tackle every obstacle just for the challenge, and who would be able to handle anything San Miguel put in front of them. They would relish the opportunity to feel the spirit, the mood, of the town and to bask in the feelings, sounds and smells of a fiesta. In no way would I want to limit someone who really wanted to experience San Miguel, just so they knew what challenges would be involved.
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Q 12: Is San Miguel accepting of gay and lesbian lifestyles?
Mexico City and the state of Coahuila have legalized same-sex marriage and several other states have it under consideration, but the state of Guanjuato, in which SMA is located, is considered one of the more conservative states. San Miguel de Allende is its own island, full of free thinkers who accept everybody, though we have a few expats who bring more judgmental attitudes from the States. We are totally accepted here and I have not run into a single word of negativity from Mexicans in SMA, less than I experienced in the gay ghettos of Los Angeles! Lots of gays and lesbians and a few bi's live here and some I think may consider themselves transgendered, though I haven't met them personally yet.
It isn't like LA where we immediately sought out the gay and lesbian communities and were fairly segregated within them. There was one gay SMA bar that was only open late Saturday nights, 100 Angeles, and then it was closed for a couple of years. It briefly reopened as Proud, which then changed its name to El Rincon del Alebrijes. It was mainly frequented by Mexican gay men after midnight Saturday nights, after the nightspot had a glorious very integrated reopening. It's a straight young Mexican club at this moment.
And there's an upscale club called Z Club out by the Immigration office, which had the slogan, "South Beach Meets San Miguel" for its grand opening. The Mayor attended along with many gays and lesbians and the most prominent members of both the Mexican and expat communities. (We weren't invited.) For very late Friday and Saturday evenings, it's still the closest SMA has to a gay bar today.
La Cucaracha and El Gato Negro are two bars that are considered fairly wild and gays do go there. La Cucaracha has a reputation going back to the time of the Beats, who occasionally came to SMA. Neal Cassidy was found dead of exposure alongside the railroad tracks just outside of town after having left La Cucaracha drunk.
We miss having a lesbian bar in town, but there are other places to enjoy dancing. We are the first on the dance floor at Cerveza de San Miguel just outside of town.
Lesbians have no problems dancing in public--but then women dancing together are more accepted anyplace. Back in rural Michigan the men rarely danced so it was normal for only women to be on the dance floor at patries and wedding. Gay men don't feel quite that open, though there are numerous gringo benefits and parties where they do.
We often have dinner parties and sometimes we'll look around and realize that we've invited only straight couples besides ourselves! Other times we've very deliberately set up a dinner party to try to match up some single lesbians new to town. We're totally integrated--be careful what you ask for!
One of our first experiences in San Miguel, on Virgin of Guadelupe Day, we happened across a Mexican rock band playing on the steps of the Parroquia, the main church in Centro, and about a dozen young gringos who looked like U.S. hippies of the '60s were dancing their hearts out. A blonde 50-ish woman I think was straight was dancing up a storm alone, occasionally convincing another woman or man, gringo or Mexican, of any age, to join her on the floor. We joined right in and not a glare did we see. Fireworks exploded overhead in the cool night and I was in heaven. Have to say I've danced more here than I did in Phoenix!
My gay male friends say that there is a section of the beach at Puerto Vallerta that is almost totally gay and they love it, they go there every winter. Mazatlan has one of the largest Carnival/MardiGras celebrations in the world, another winter destination for many SMA gays. The Zona Rosa area of Mexico City has many gay establishments and residents. The Lonely Planet Mexico guides give the locations of gay bars in many Mexican cities and say that we're more accepted than you might expect.
Of course the official Catholic line in this Catholic country is very much anti-gay, but the fiestas which have strong pre-Hispanic Indian roots often have men and women cross-dressing. Day of the Locos in June features a parade that has some elements that look like a gay pride march! Part of that is just the shock value of the day, everyone is trying to be outrageous as they can, they're not doing it to be transvestites, they're just having fun. But we can blend right into that, if you enjoy that.
Mexican Catholicism is not like U.S. Catholicism--I've heard it said that it's both the most Catholic and the least Catholic country in the world. Pagan roots run deep. Some of the lecturers in town have claimed that Catholicism did not overpower paganism and swallow it up, paganism just took the parts of Catholicism which fit into paganism and ignored the rest.
I am sure there must be considerable hostility on the part of traditional Mexicans who find their young men and women caught up in the gay scene in one way or another, and I bet some gay bashing does occur. Pedophiles of any orientation will be dealt with very harshly, often secretly. A gay man here might get roughed up just as in the States in the wrong place at the wrong time. A few who have picked up young Mexican men in some bars have been beaten and robbed when they took the guys home, same as happens with any rough bar scene--remember "Looking for Mr. Goodbar."
And not all gays and lesbians here are as out as I am--many still don't want to chance any discrimination, or are in positions where they think being open will hurt them professionally or whatever. They whisper the G and L words. Just like in any U.S. city.
Do gay and lesbian Mexicans mix much with expat gays and lesbians? Some do, some don't. My lesbianism is a small part of the total of who I am, and I make friends usually on the basis of that totality. A Mexican lesbian and I who had nothing else in common but our sexuality would have no reason to be friends, even if my Spanish were better. The straight Mexican man in my art class who is my age, who paints in a similar style, who can give me help when I can't seem to get the perspective right and I can help him point out where there needs to be more contrast, who enjoys the same music, who laughs at the same things, just might turn into a friend even if I'm looking up words on my pocket translator to communicate.
I am sure that there are still gays being killed in Mexico because of their sexuality, just as still happens in the States, though it is much worse in most of the world. There is plenty of very-closeted gay life here, my gaydar tells me that, and my gringo friends who do have gay and lesbian Mexican friends tell me that.
Mexican lesbians do not feel all that safe, far as I can tell, and a seminal book around 1985, "This Bridge Called My Back," about lesbians of color and edited by two Mexican-American Latinas, was full of information about how they came out of a culture which was highly homophobic.
The gay acceptance many of us open U.S. gays and lesbians feel is in some ways real, some ways an illusion, the polite front gringos often get when we are doing something outrageous or incomprehensible in Mexicans' eyes.
I personally have not had a single nasty look, much less any comments, from any Mexicans here, just the usual trash from a few uptight Americans who bring their bigotry with them. The worst anti-lesbian comment we ever heard came from a gay male gringo.
But I know of at least one gay gringo who moved to Mexico and then left partly because he felt the antagonism when two guys walked down the street with their arms around each other or holding hands. But he'd get that in most of the States as well. I know other gay gringos and Mexicans who live in San Miguel and who are very open, even outrageously so, and love it here.
Few straight people knew anything about how lesbians and gays were discriminated against in the U.S. before Stonewall in 1969 brought about our equality movement and our publishing explosion to go with it, telling our stories that we had never dared tell before. Before, we were "The love that dare not speak its name." Now we've been called, "The love that will not shut up." I don't think Mexico has reached that point yet!
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Q 13: How are the swimming and fishing? Are the beaches white sand?
A. So many people think everything in Mexico is on the beach! San Miguel is right about in the center of Mexico, hundreds of miles from either the Atlantic or the Pacific. We have a lake but you wouldn't want to go swimming or fishing in it. It photographs beautifully at sunset, though.
We do have excellent swimming because of the thermal (hot tubs!) area nearby, and hotel swimming pools in town that allow public access for a fee or to guests. On the road to Dolores Hidalgo, maybe five miles out of SMA, are my two favorite public pools, La Gruta (the cave) and La Taboada.
La Gruta has a series of three caves, getting hotter and darker as you go farther in through narrow tunnels between the caves. I like the cave atmosphere, though it makes Norma claustrophobic. La Gruta can be rented at night, 6 pm to midnight, for private parties. Las I checked, the cost is 2000 pesos (around $175 US) for up to 10 people. No food or drinks can be brought in--if you want refreshments you can have the resort cater the party. But I can see a birthday party or something at a restaurant moving out to La Gruta to end the night. You can even swim nude. Reservations through Sra Flor de Maria Perez, 185-2099.
For real swimming, Taboada (also called Agua Magica) has a thermal Olympic-sized pool with laps, a big hot tub and a children's pool, with a picnic area and light refreshments. At various times groups of women have organized aerobics swimming lessons there, but these groups come and go. Several hotels on the same road, including near the Pemex station at Atotonilco, advertise their spas and various luxury services. I think the daily use fee is around $9 at these spots. There are buses out to that area, which will require an additional lengthy walk, or you can take a cab--negotiate a price first. You'd have to call a cab from the pool for the return trip, and telephoning for a cab means the fare will be double. You catch the bus to La Gruta from Calzada de la Luz near Loreto--the bus sign will say Atotonilco or Santuario. You can ask the driver to let you off at La Gruta, and then note the bus stop on the other side of the street for when you want the bus back to SMA.
Santa Domingo Sports Club, in the condo complex past Las Casas school on Santo Domingo, has a 25-meter covered and heated pool, open for lap swimming 8-2 and 7-8. You can pay by the month, around $45, or $4 a day, last I heard, though the prices probably have gone up, and you can also pay for swimming lessons the other hours. Sometimes there are water aerobics classes there, too.
The Malanquin golf club has a pool but I've heard the charge is something like $20 a day if you're not a member. The luxury Hotel Mission de Los Angeles at the entrance to Los Frailes neighborhood just outside of town charges $7 a day, $25 a month for its large pool, last I heard. Hotel La Aldea on Ancha de San Antonio is cheaper, around $4 a day last I heard. I have also heard that Villa Santa Monica adjoining Parque Juarez and Real de Minas on Ancho de San Antonio at Stirling Dickinson will allow luncheon guests to swim for free that day. I haven't used any of these pools, I love La Taboada and La Gruta. And now we have friends who live in El Encanto, one of the many gated communities which have pools open to guests as well as residents.
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Q 14: What are the most popular colonias, or neighborhoods, in SMA?
Here's an on-line map that shows the colonias, if not very clearly: http://www.selectrealestate.com.mx/images/lgcoloniamap.gif. There are two good maps in the back of Juarde, the expat phone book, and you can get downloadable and printable copies from www.abrahamcadena.com real estate.
Not every map lists the colonias or even anything outside of Centro, though the more expensive ones do. Pick up the free booklet "The Map: Guide to Promoting San Miguel de Allende," from a realtor when you visit SMA, even if you're not interested in real estate, to see where the various colonias are. "Su Casa" is another free real estate quarterly brochure with a good map of the colonias. Of course a realtor brochure will be pushing the most expensive areas with the biggest realtor profit. Atencion on April 30, 2004, had an article on the colonias, ranked by realtors as to desirability. Here's my summary of that article:
Centro, of course, is five star, and that includes El Chorro, near Juarez Park. These are the most expensive areas and contain many million-dollar-plus homes. But Centro also has the most noise and traffic.
Four stars are Los Balcones and Atascadero up in the hills, considered wealthier gringo enclaves;
Arcos de San Miguel, an area started by rich families from Mexico City;
Guadiana, flat, still some homes in the upper-medium range;
Mesa de Malanquin, the golf club resort, very expensive;
Ojo de Agua, expensive, out a ways;
Villa de Los Frailes, farther out, too; a totally residential neighborhood by the lake, some interesting castle-like homes are being built there.
Three stars are Allende, medium prices, farther out than Guadiana;
Guadalupe, some fixer uppers, traditionally Mexican area;
La Lejona, where the new Mega supermarket is located, is booming with El Encanto, El Secreto, and other new condo developments. I bet this one is higher ranked now;
Obraje, medium priced, walking distance to Centro;
Residencial la Luz, farther away than Gigante and in that area, a complete Mexican town with lower prices;
Independencia, probably higher ranked today, very popular, some homes with great views;
San Antonio, rising most rapidly in prices, walking distance from Centro.
The Atencion article rated everything else two stars or less. But of those, I see many foreigners starting to move to San Rafael, a long walk to Centro. It has had a reputation for crime but you can check with poeple living in a block whether they have had any crime experiences. San Rafael has a new Neighborhood Watch program that is a model for the city.
Santa Julia, high in the hills, has some very poor homes but some friends found a house for $50,000 and put another $50,000 into it and now it is gorgeous, and they have six expats on their block. Like San Rafael, it was once considered a high crime area but that seems to be lessening now. Once you feel more familiar with the city and know you have some local street smarts, and as you become more fluent, you may consider colonias farther out that you wouldn't have thought of when you first arrived. We moved from Centro to San Rafael after seven years. Friends who bought a house in La Lejona before Mega supermarket opened thought they were far out of town, and now so much is right around them as that colonia gentrifies.
You can always look at the amount of gang graffiti and whether there are valuable cars parked on the streets and items like laundry and toys left unattended to give you a feel whether a particular block experiences more crime. You will often find a very expensive home next to a ruins in the same block throughout the city.
San Juan Dios is a small barrio by the San Juan Dios major produce market and other small Mexican shops. I'm starting to see some foreigners moving there, tearing down homes and starting over.
Five miles or more out of SMA are La Cieneguita and the Taboada area, around Atotonilco, where many buyers find they have hot springs on their property.
Not to give any one real estate office a plug, we don't endorse anyone, but Select Realty operates a trolley that tours all the colonias and gives current real estate market information, and the $10 USD cost goes to benefit a Mexican medical charity.
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Q 15: Can you recommend any kids' activities?
First check out http://www.portalsanmiguel.com/things-to-do/kids-activities.html.
In addition to those listed, I'd recommend taking kids who are in the playground age to Parque Juarez, which has a brand new playground with all kinds of playing and climbing and swinging and sliding stuff. Older kids might want to watch local kids playing soccer or basketball, and if they throw back an out-of-bounds ball and think they're pretty good, and they know enough game rules and enough Spanish to at least say "Gracias" and their name and how to ask others their names, they might even join in one of the informal games. Some of the games are structured teams, however. There is equipment for the very young as well. Often children are playing in the Jardin, too, maybe playing baseball with only a rubber ball and a plastic bottle as a bat, and adventuresome expat kids can sometimes join in.
I think kids of all ages would enjoy swimming in the hot tubs nearby. La Gruta has three cave-like pools ever deeper into the earth, the last one quite hot and lit by skylight. See my SMA FAQ on swimming SMA for more spots.
Teatro Santa Ana often has a kids' movie on Saturday, and the eight theaters in MM Cinemas at La Luciernega mall often have children's films, but check whether the films are in English with Spanish subtitles or just dubbed into Spanish. If dubbed, they will say "doblada." Children's films are, unfortunately, mostly dubbed, because kids can't read subtitles, but sometimes movies that appeal to both kids and adults are also presented with "subtitulos." Some artsy films at the Villa Jacaranda at night might be to their interests.
Several places will be listed in Atencion ads for horseback riding, and you could rent a 4-wheeler ATV and take a mature enough child on the back for an off-road experience. Kids might appreciate the Botanical Gardens.
If you see burros carrying firewood or dirt for sale, make sure to tip the owner a couple of dollars to let your kids pet the burrows and have their pictures taken with them. I think some of the burro owners make more money from picture-taking than they do selling their goods.
You can also take a ride a short ways out of town and see many more burros, often tied close enough to the road to chew the lushest grass that you could get out and get some shots there, too, for free, but make sure the burro can't get close to your kids and make some sudden move that might scare them or make them dart backwards into the street.
The Biblioteca has art and computer classes that are mostly for Mexicans but an expat child might want to join. Watch Atencion for things like puppet shows and classes in making puppets, ceramics, and jewelry. Joan Goldberg has ceramics classes for children, Lisa Simms sometimes has paper mache mask making classes for children, and Mano a Mano bead shop on Hernandez Macias will teach children of any age to string simple necklaces for little more than the cost of materials. Casa Crayola hosts summer camps for children, fairly expensive, but probably not as expensive as a Science Camp in the US. Centro Bilingue has summer Spanish classes for kids on summer vacation.
Kids of all ages would probably like to go to Tuesday Market, and to Ramirez and San Juan Dios mercados to see typical Mexican stores and get them out of Cntro, and to Artisans Alley, and to Fabrica Aurora art galleries, especially when all the studios and shops are open on Thursdays.
Go out to Patsy's Place for Sunday brunch and let the kids see another side of San Miguel. A little longer trip, maybe an hour by car or a driver, could be to Dolores Hidalgo, where they will enjoy choosing from 20 weird varieties of ice cream cones in the jardin and be able to brag to friends back home that they had prune, vodka, avocado or shrimp ice cream.
They'll want to have an ice cream cone from the red wagon in the Jardin weekends, and have their photo taken with Nacho, the giant draft horse that brings the wagon in to town. Don't let them get too close to Nacho, though--he doesn't like me and always tries to nip. The tourist police on horseback, wearing sky blue colonial uniforms, are welcoming to photo ops with children.
Some of the regular concerts, plays, and live music nights at many restaurants will be suitable for older children as well.
With any luck there will be fireworks visible from the roof of where you are staying and you can wake your kids up to see the sight.
The cobblestones and rough sidewalks in much of town could be hard for some younger children, though--hold their hands tight! Do your own homework on Mexico's history and culture so that you can answer their questions, and be prepared perhaps for some tough questions on poverty when they see beggars or kids their age selling gum on the street. Visiting San Miguel de Allende can be a tremendous opportunity for cultural and social enrichment for your children, as well as a whole lot of fun.
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Q 16: What was it like to have a knee replacement in nearby Queretaro?
Since health care issues are the number one worry of potential expats, I'll go into detail about exactly what it was like to be in a small Mexican hospital for my first knee replacement surgery August 14, 2007.
(Personally--I came through fine, was kept in the hospital until Tuesday because the doctor knew I had 21 steps to maneuver to get into our casa, and am walking around already just as good as before the surgery. I'll need rehabilitation therapy here in SMA to finish the straightening, since for years apparently I have been favoring my right leg, and that may be one reason I have fallen so often on the cobblestones here while Norma has not.)
I processed this decision for months, just as any expat who doesn't have the money for excellent full medical coverage does. Dr. Michael Schmidt does orthopedic surgeries out of Munich, the US, Hospital Angeles in Queretaro, and Clinica Queretaro, a small clinic above the offices of about ten medical specialists.
To have a knee replacement in the US would have cost about $40,000 USD plus all the travel, hotel, restaurant meals and living expenses of staying in the States at least three weeks for final clearance. At Hospital Angeles, affiliated with Houston Memorial, it would have been about $20,000, and at Clinica Queretaro it was about $6,400 USD. And my research found that it is actually better to have something specialized done at a clinic specializing in the procedure, since all the staff and facilities will be geared to the procedure and they will have handled hundreds of cases.
Dr. Schmidt's reputation is excellent, I know many people in San Miguel who have been operated on by him, and we could stay at home and not board our pets and have all the travel hassles of a US trip. We calculated the total costs of going back and forth to the US and all the hotels, etc., and it could easily have reached $6,400 USD not paid for by any Medicare and Medigap insurance plan. No brainer decision.
Clinica Queretaro has only six patient rooms that I saw, plus two operating suites and recovery area. A lumbering elevator to the second floor requires a staff member with a key. Usually you take the stairs. The first room we were to be in for the Aug. 4 scheduled operation was fairly small and the sofa on which Norma would sleep for the duration was a typical hard-as-rocks Mexican furniture.
But that room did get BBC on the TV set. For some reason our next room a few doors away didn't get BBC, though we watched some pretty sappy movies in English with Spanish subtitles on the Hallmark channel Sunday and Monday.
Yes, I know, I need to spend much more time watching Mexican TV so that I can work more on my pronunciation and understanding of spoken Spanish. But I just wasn't in the mood both before and after the surgery.
We checked in at 8 pm Friday night with a small suitcase mostly of clothes for Norma, our robes and slippers, and plush towels, our own pillows tucked under our arms. We also brought a cooler of Diet Pepsi and snacks on ice for Norma, and she walked to a nearby Gigante and restaurants to replenish her little fridge. She even found a Lebanese restaurant and brought me back baba ganouche and hummus my last day.
The hospital food wasn't spectacular--yes, I have had fantastic meals in hospitals, mainly private ones in LA. These were boring even by most US hospital standards, though. Norma could have had the staff bring her a tray at each meal same as I was getting, but she preferred her own.
For me, every meal after the surgery included a cup of fresh fruit such as a thinly sliced apple or pear, a cup of Jell-o or yogurt, a glass of juice, and either hot chocolate or a cup of hot water, usually minus a tea bag. Breakfast or late meal would include a cup of corn flakes and milk, and the other meals included plain quesadillas, a fried mystery meat with a tomato sauce, or an egg and veggie frittata.
I joked once that at least I'd confused the words hombre, hombro and hambre only in Spanish classes--from what I'd said you couldn't tell if I was saying I needed a man, a shoulder, or I was hungry. I figured out a nurse was telling me that a workman was coming into the room to fix the hot water. (We were told later by the workman that the hot water came out of the cold tap, why didn't we see that, what was the problem?)
So I indicated to the nurse that I understood, a man was coming into my room, and I should put on my robe. But I realized as soon as the sounds came out of my mouth that I'd said hambre, not hombre, and another tray of corn flakes appeared instantly on my table.
Some days I feel pretty good about my Spanish, other days I'm still in Spanglish. I had moments of both during my stay. A nurse would ask me something too quickly and I'd do the standard, Repete, por favor, mas despachio, and she'd have already given up on me, asked if I were from San Miguel, used some sort of sign language to convey her message, and left the room fast.
But other nurses hung in there with me and we did communicate. One saw me hobbling with my walker the first time after my surgery and called me Speedy Gonzales. I said no, more like un caracol (a snail). So I was the snail.
We had the spacious room looking like a college dorm within minutes after arrival. Usually very well organized Norma had brought various computer games and programs to use while I was in surgery or asleep, knowing we wouldn't have wireless internet--and then she forgot the cable for the electrical outlet plug-in. She had only two hours battery usage of the laptop. Next time that cable is packed down her blouse or something so she absolutely will not forget it.
We'd brought a complete set of toiletries, not expecting to get a welcome packet of soap, shampoo, toothbrush, toothpaste and slippers in a Mexican hospital, but here one was. But here it did not come in your very own take-home bedpan and washing tub. We always had plenty of big plastic tubs around our house through the years, but I'd always thrown away the bedpans once I left the hospital in the past. Here, I felt squeamish using the same bedpan many others had used before me, but hey, I never think about unisex toilets on planes.
In Mexican hospitals it is expected that someone will be with you who will do the little things like fluffing pillows and bringing slippers, and that person is expected to sleep on the couch or a cot. We didn't want friends stopping in while I was in the hospital, but we've had wonderful offers of help from many people, including a male friend who was ready to get me up those stairs one way or another. (I was thinking about having to call the fire department or the Red Cross if I had trouble.)
I never felt the nurses were unattentive, they did check on me frequently and certainly were prompt with the shots and pills. I had to dial 111 on the phone to get a nurse between visits, but one always came much more quickly than when I pushed the help button in US hospitals.
I wasn't automatically given a sleeping pill at 9 pm the way US hospitals usually did, even if I had to be awakened to get that routine sleeping pill. So we were up until our usual 2 am watching TV or reading, the nurses not quite understanding that. Dr. Schmidt, by the way, is definitely an early bird, alert and confident at 7 am for his first surgery of the day. And he checked in all day long.
Another English-speaking doctor was in the operating room, a Doctor Kitty, if you can believe, who helped with the tools and such. The rest of the six or eight people in the operating room didn't speak any English and I tried my best to understand word one. Probably just as well I couldn't. I had only a spinal and so could have been awake for the whole procedure. I chose to keep my eyes closed and dozed. Yeah, I could sense the sawing and hammering. That's why I forced myself to sleep.
Though the doctors and nurses followed standard hand-washing and sterilization procedures same as a good US hospital, I did notice little things. One of the china cups in which my hot water arrived each meal had a chip out of the rim, right where you would drink from. One nurse trying to find a spot for my second IV just gave up on the rubber gloves.
And I doubt if the thick blankets were washed after every patient. I was so surprised the first time I spent a night in a Mexican hospital, at De La Fe in San Miguel, where I was given the warmest, thickest, fur-like blanket I could imagine and I luxuriated in it--until I thought about all the dust that could linger in the pile. The thin smooth blankets you get at a US hospital have definitely been washed and sterilized between patients, and often are even heated for you.
The room had one of those stand-up cylindrical fans that we'd always ignored when we saw them advertised on TV or at Sharper Image shops. But this one was wonderful for moving the summer air and getting some circulation into the room. Of course there was no air conditioning, but the fan was sufficient.
I think this account gives you the feeling of what it is like to be a surgery patient in a Mexican hospital, or at least one person's experience at one hospital. Since I've been home I've seen two TV segments on US citizens coming to Mexico for health care, for example combining a beach vacation with intensive dental reconstruction so that the entire "vacation" plus dental work cost half what the dental work alone would have cost in the US.
Now if only the US government would realize how much they could save on Medicare costs alone if they allowed even a few select hospitals in Mexico to accept Medicare payments. Would we see an influx of expats into Mexico then! But that's not likely to happen in our lifetimes.
I was actually on the operating table Aug. 4 when Dr. Schmidt got the results of my final bloodwork and said the surgery had to be postponed, my blood coagulants were too low, and he got me off of Advil. I've heard since from others who were not told, who were not checked, and who nearly bled to death when their blood would not clot during surgery. Those cases were all in wonderful USA hospitals.
All the NSAIDs such as aspirin, Advil and Aleve thin the blood, as does Vitamin C and gingko biloba, and some allergy pills, etc. One woman was given a list of 50 medications, both prescription and over the counter, to come off of before her surgery. Another woman wrote to me and said I may have saved her life because she had no idea some of her meds were duplicating the blood thinning effects and she was anticipating surgery. Her US doctor had never said a word.
So I was walking around our three-bedroom level-floor apartment with ease jsut a few days later, not even using the walker except when I feel tired or am going a long ways (or what passes as a long ways in an apartment).
Two years later, I still feel great, and am very positive about the whole experience. I'm back to walking a couple of miles a day within San Miguel as often as possible, and I háven't had any pain since I finished physical therapy, twice a week for two months after each surgery, $300 pesos an hour.
I hope my sharing it in detail helps someone out there who has health care issues about moving to Mexico. Could I have had a medical disaster here? Certainly, just as we have relatives who died from medical mistakes at US hospitals. Health care is still a crap shoot.
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Q 17: Are there any book clubs in San Miguel? How do you get books to read in English?
El Tecolote on Jesus 11 is an excellent book store considering SMA's size and diversity, with most books in English, including a nice children's section. They will order books for you but you will pay more for shipping and duty both in-store and on orders. Still, the convenience and the desire to support local businesses mean we shop there often.
The Biblioteca gift shop also has many books in English (both places carry our book, too!) The Biblioteca has more than 25,000 loan books in English, including a new books section that doesn't match my favorite libraries in the US but they try. Lagundi at Umaran 17 is mostly art supplies and framing but they have many curent paperbacks, and an excellent US magazine section, at the higher prices yóu'd expect for imported publications. El Colibri on Sollano 10 is another store that includes many English-language books, especially recent paperbacks. You'll see occasional books n English at other shops, and the garage sales at charities like ALMA are loaded with used titles. Garrison & Garrison bookstore in the courtyard of the Hotel Sautto has new and used books and you can bring in your own used books for store credit.
As for book clubs in SMA, I've been in a book club here whose roots go back more than six years, and we're always full, around 12-14 people, enough to fit comfortably in most members' living rooms. (That's our criteria for determining when we are full.)
We solve the problem of finding enough copies of a book by choosing our books six months to a year in advance and rotating the books among members. Five years ago the club only read books by and about Latin America, and often we still do, but we've branched out. We were on a Middle Eastern book kick for many months, and right now we've discovered Swedish mysteries and novels set in India.
We pick mostly paperbacks that have been out awhile so that used copies can be ordered from Amazon or Powells.com for only a few cents or dollars, if there aren't at least two copies among members already. Certainly you'll find enough copies around of Aztec, Hummingbird's Daughter, Rain of Gold, A Hundred Years of Solitude, Caramelo and other books that are favorites for local book clubs.
The person suggesting a book first checks out if there are any copies in the Biblioteca and if members own any copies that we can circulate during the six months to a year lead time.
We buy new copies at Tecolote, of course (wonderful bookstore for a town this size and diversity), and some of the books can be found at the Biblioteca gift shop.
Sometimes we make it easier by saying any book by a certain author, or any British historical novel, or any recent memoir by a young American to discuss how youth culture has changed, or any book on deep faith, or any Nobel prize-winnhing novel, or any book about the '60s-'70s, or any mystery...the possible categories for good discussions are endless.
And sometimes when we simply can't get a book circulated to everyone in time we just discuss our favorite recent reads, or our favorite novel of all time, etc.
We meet once a month rotating among members' homes, and the host that month prepares snacks.
The sexist stereotype of book clubs is that middle class women get together mainly to outdo each other on refreshments and never actually read or get around to discussing the book, but this book club doesn't fit that stereotype. (Oh, sometimes our snacks could be a meal--we usually skip dinner that day: cheese, crackers, dips, salads, fruits, desserts, wine, soft drinks.)
We're all real book lovers who thoroughly enjoy rousing discussions of ideas and writing techniques and styles and what novels say about real life. Some are conservative, most are liberal, so we don't all agree.
And sometimes we are also a support system for each other if a member is going through a divorce or other crisis.
One thing we've found important is to have someone who likes to keep track of things write down the schedule and all the upcoming books and note who has offered to host which meeting. Email this updated list to every member a week or two before each meeting.
Include the current roster with emails and phone numbers, too. Anyone who wants to contact the whole group just has to hit "Reply to all" on any of the posts.
Can you guess I'm the one who does that for our group? I often include a meaty book review of the upcoming selection in the mailings to get people thinking ahead of time.
At Christmas we have a party in which we bring at least one favorite book we're willing to send on to a new loving home, and as many other books we want to exchange, and we draw numbers to pick the first round of choices.
After we've each presented our favorite book to the group and talked briefly about the others we've brought, we pick numbers to decide who gets which first pick.
After we've all had our first pick, it's open season on swapping the rest of the books. I usually come home with six or ten new books to read. Norma starts out the day thrilled I've cleaned off a book shelf and groans when I fill it back up again after the party.
There are also specific book exchange groups that meet once a quarter or so to share a pot luck and draw numbers for the order in which to select a new five books from the five books each members have brought. One such group has added a separate drawing for other media--CDs, DVDs, audio books, software, etc. You'll soon find friends with similar book taste who will exchange books with you.
If you can't get a dozen or so members for a book club here, put a classified in Atencion or on our forums with a phone number or email contact. This town is full of readers!
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Q 18: How bad is the H1N1 flu in San Miguel de Allende?
The city closed down almost completely in May, 2009, when the news of the flu first was announced, and everybody was wearing face masks, putting on alcohol hand gel, and washing their hands constantly. Schools closed for two weeks more than Easter vacation, and in some regions of Mexico schools were closed still another week. Norma was suffering allergies that week and was sniffling and sneezing--we didn't dare leave the house, she got so many glares when she coughed. One woman about 36 who was already bedridden with chronic kiney and heart disease died of the flu early on, and a child died in July. San Miguel de Allende has had about 54 cases confirmed of H1N1 between April and August, with the two deaths. The health department visited thousands of homes and put up advisory notices on what to look for and precautions to take, and these warnings are still up in just about every restaurant bathroom and market in town. Employees at Mega will greet you at the door and swab down the handle of your shopping cart before givng it to you, for example.
There are actually far more cases in the US right now than in Mexico--more than a million confirmed cases have been reported in the US so far, compared to thousands in Mexico, which is a third the population. Everyone worldwide is concerned about what will happen during regular flu season this fall, and wondering whether there will be sufficient flu vaccines for both types of flu, whatever one is most likely to hit as usual, plus H1N1. There will be Tamiflu and other retroviral medications, we have been told, though in May when the news first hit everyone who could afford a regimen bought out all the local pharmacies' supplies, as well as all face masks. We ended up in painters' masks, much thicker and hotter, when a taxi driver heard Norma cough in the back seat and stopped immediately and bought all three of us the heavy construction masks. The next week when we left them off, one of our cats chewed them up. So we expect we'll be scrambling for new masks when either H1N1 and/or the regular flu season hits again around November. We're not particularly worried--the number of flu deaths every winter is fairly high in the US as in Mexico, though mainly it is the frail elderly, infants, and those with auto-immune disorders who are hit the hardest with regular flu. H1N1 is supposed to hit younger, healthier people. May we be too young for serious effects of the regular flu and too old for H1N1!
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Q 19: I understand that the health department sometimes sprays overhead to kill mosquitoes because of dengue fever. Is this chemical spraying dangerous?
It is true that worldwide there is a resurgence of dengue fever this year and many countries are taking precautions. No cases of dengue fever have been reported in San Miguel de Allende, but there have been cases as close as Leon, about 75 miles away. This summer about every home and business in San Miguel was visited by health department employees, firemen, and every other qualified volunteer they could find, to inspect yards for standing water, stagnant fountains and pools, tires that could hold breeding grounds for mosquitoes, etc. There have been flyovers in some areas spraying for mosquitoes, which are more frequent during the SMA rainy season, June-October. Dengue is also callwd breakbone fever, and it can be very serious. When we lived in LA we were sprayed every night sometimes by helicopters reminiscent of scenes of helicopter attacks in Vietnam. The helicopters then were spraying malathion to control fruit flies, which could attack California's agriculture industry. We were part of the protests one night and the next morning when we began giving our dog a flea bath, we read that we were using malathionourselves and had been doing so for decades. We didn't go to the next demonstration.
For your personal mosquito protection, the best solution is those little plug-ins, like air fresheners, that have blue replaceable tablets that last 12 hours. Baygon is the best, and least smelly, we think, but there are several other brands that have a heavier smell and work just as well, just smell heavier. Look in the grocery stores, even littler ones like Bonanza and Espino's, but Mega and Soriana would probably have the most selection. They're in the same section as the other Raid products and other pest controls. The initial package will be about 49 pesos, about $4 USD, and will include the plug-in unit and around 30 tablets. Then you can just buy the replacement tablets. Each tablet lasts 12 hours and so we plug one in near the TV late at night and then move it into the bedroom for the last 8 hours. Moving air from a fan also discourages mosquitoes.
Marigolds also are supposed to repel mosquitos. A variety of marigolds is used in many Mexican celebrations, particularly for the Day of the Dead.
If you are also bothered by flies in the summer, one Mexican tradition is to hang a plastic bag of water in doorways. Supposedly flies see their image magnified in the bag and are repelled by it. Worth trying for a non-chemical approach.
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Q 20: While we're at it, what about scorpions?
Homes nearer to open fields and to construction sites are more likely to get scorpions, which are almost never fatal if they do sting you. People who have been stung sometimes say it is no worse than a bad bee sting, while someone described it as having childbirth in her finger, where she was stung.
Here are some solutions:
The best would be a professional exterminator. One is Azteca Home Pest Control, Priv. de Pila Seca 65A, 154-9657, or cel 044 415 153 5099, memije1@yahoo.com. Another is Exter, 154-6191, 044 415-111 1927, Roberto Alvarez, fumigaciones@exter.mitmx.net
Second is to buy "Cinoff" or "Cynoff" at a hardware store, put a bottle in a liter of water, shake it, spray it in all cracks, tiles, indoors and outdoors, and wait two days before mopping.
Third is to use Expel, Ajax con expel, 4 capfuls in your mop water. It is supposed to be harmless to pets and people. Mega and other grocery stores and hardwares usually have it.
Fourth, get a cat, lizards, maybe even chickens, which are all natural predators.
Note that the reddish brown ones that are very common here are not deadly--their sting is more likely to feel like a bad bee sting, and maybe you'll also have some tingling in your mouth. You can always go to the hospital for the antivenom but I hear that hurts worse than the bite.
If you are allergic to bees you may be allergic to scorpions and should keep an epi-pen handy for either. Here the white or transparent scorpions are more dangerous. (In Phoenix it was the reverse--the small dark ones were bark scorpions and were more dangerous, while the big white and transparent ones were no worse than a bee.)
One first aid tip if you are stung is to rub raw garlic on it. If you are not allergic to bees, just sit for 20 minutes or so and see how you feel then before making any decision about going to the hospital. My ex-husband was stung once in the desert and just decided to take Advil and go to sleep as usual, and he was fine when he woke up. The pain may take 24-48 hours, like a bad bee sting.
Wear shoes if you have been seeing scorpions in your house, and when you go to put on your shoes in the morning shake them out. If you are really concerned, shake out your bed linens at night before you crawl in, too, and especially look around on the floor in the bathroom rather than just plodding in barefoot in the dark.
You can always put the legs of your bed frame into glass containers of water so that the scorpions can't get to the legs of the bed.
Put weatherstripping around your doors and windows, including the garage if you have one. Plug holes with steel wool or nylon scouring pad. Caulk.
Scorpions love to eat cockroaches and other insects--they're not all bad.They like warm dark places like a bathroom. Leave the doors and/or window open to your bathroom as one prevention. If you keep down the bug population in your home the scorpions will have nothing to eat.
They seem to be worse when the rains start and all sorts of critters come in to avoid the rain. If possible clean up the terrain near you--firewood, debris, rocks.
If you live by open land or have a big garden or there is construction nearby kicking up terrain, you're probably more likely to see them than in Centro--though we have seen four dead ones in seven years in Centro on the second floor. The cats were playing with the dead bodies in three cases. The other time we just spotted the other body on our rooftop near the door.
Durango, Mexico has some dangerous varieties and that is the state considered the worst in Mexico for scorpions.
There are more tips at http://www.desertusa.com/oct96/scorpion_prevention_extermination.html including info from the University of Arizona on scorpions.
As a comparison, when we lived near Phoenix in a seniors RV park, we saw scorpions more frequently, some people did die from their stings every year, but there were also Africanized bees which caused several deaths each year, and we saw rattlesnakes, the occasional Gila monster poisonous lizard, fleas, javalenas (herds of wild tusked pigs), black widow spiders, coyotes and hawks that killed small pets, and even black bears during droughts that would come down from the Superstition Mountains and drink from people's swimming pools and try to get into their houses. The most common pest threat was from termites, who could destroy a house in a few months before you noticed the piles of dust in the corner. Eveyrbody had to have their wood frame house fumigated several times a year, and stakes inserted into the ground to release more poison inbetween fumigations. We were surrounded by poisons to keep away the insects and predators.
So sleeping with Baygon tablets or seeing helicopters flying overhead spraying for mosquitoes doesn't faze us a bit.
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Q 21: Are there a lot of allergens in San Miguel de Allende?
It usually takes a few years for new allergies to develop for a newcomer to SMA. Norma has allergies, too, and they don't show themselves in a new place for a few years. What SMA does have is jacarandas, beautiful lavender-flowered trees each spring that set off half the town into sneezing and runny noses.
And the construction dust and polvo, general dust, in the air can be bad for others, especially if you live near a current construction site or on a dirt road. And out in the campos there is goldenrod in the fall--beautiful to drive by, unless yóu're allergic. Sorry to say, your allergies will come with you, even if they don't show for a few years.
Norma is miserable each spring. She's also allergic to perfumes, perfumed after shaves, deodorants and soaps and candles, etc., and so she uses the Arm & Hammer non-scented laundry soap, most deodorants have a non-scented variety, there are plenty of unscented candles from the church stores, etc. Friends are asked to please not wear scented products when we'll be together.
She finds if she carries a package of Hall's blue menthol cough drops, they help. She also carries a small jar of Vick's Vaporub sometimes and discreetly rubs some on her neck to clear her sinuses. People notice the smell but what can you do?
She did use Zyrtec someone brougnt down from the US but the side effects were too bad. There are many other allergy meds on sale here, some the high-priced ones from the US.
What she still uses sometimes at night is Benadryl, or the generic equivalent, at night. It has the same ingredient as the OTC sleep medications and I used to use it, too, to get to sleep some nights, but it also causes rapid heart beat so I don't do that anymore.
Bring Benadryl in large bottles when you come down--you can't find it here, apparently because it is one of the drugs that can be used to make meth.
Most of us who live in San Miguel de Allende consider it paradise, but it does have its usual share of problems, including allergens taht affect some people. Norma had worse allergy problems in rural Michigan and in Phoenix, however. Phoenix was once considered allergen-free until newcomers brought with them mulberry trees, lawns, and other plants that often cause allergies, and more and more construction dust kicked up irritants.
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Q 22: The big fear of many prospective tourists and residents is crime. How bad is it?
Here is a good article written about crime in San Miguel de Allende which just about covers it all:
http://www.sanmiguelmagazine.com/crimestory.html
There is crime in San Miguel as in every tourist town where there is a lot of transiency, where people put down their guard and common sense while on vacation, and where there is a high contrast between the very poor and the better off.
You are far more likely to fall on a cobblestone than to have your purse snatched, and the chances of an expat getting involved in anything serious here are far less than in most of the big US cities from which they came.
If you stay away from drugs and aren't in law enforcement, the likelihood you will ever come close to anything like those horrible sensational beheadings that are all over the US media are practically zilch--far less likely than you might find yourself in the middle of a shootout at a US bank or convenience store that is being robbed.
Take common sense street and home precautions, and notice the kinds of security in your neighbors' homes. Get a security consultant to analyze your home and make suggestions if you feel at all insecure.
The most likely crime on the street anyplace in the world is the mustard scam, where someone squirts you with mustard, salsa, even water, and then points out the bird mess and "helps" you clean up, while lifting your wallet from your pocket or purse.
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Q 23: Do you ever order anything over the internet and have it shipped to Mexico? How much are the duties and shipping costs?
If you're not going up to the US regularly with an address there, you make an individual decision on buying any item that isn't easily available here, based on cost and convenience.
Is it available in Celaya or Querétaro if not San Miguel? Will it cost a whole lot more to buy it in Mexico than the shipping and handling costs to our mailing service in Laredo, including the duty of probably 17% plus the handling cost of our mailing service?
(Find out the rates to receive a package at the various SMA mailing services, including www.solutionssma.com, www.bordercrossingsma.com, and www.laconexion.com.mx.)
Also take into account the exchange rate--things that seem cheaper priced by the dollar may actually be cheaper when the peso:dollar rate is 13.5 to 1, or especially when it ws briefly 15.4 to 1, compared to when it is 12:1 or 10:1.
Do we need it now, or within two weeks, or can we wait six weeks? If we can wait longer and especially if the package will be very heavy, we use Mark Bartell or Leo Chow (contact info on the Recommendations page of this website). We order the item shipped to their TX address, and wait for their next trip NOB to pick it up and bring it down to SMA in their trucks. Their rates often end up being less than the mailing services, especially for heavy and bulky items.
Is it something light and small that someone coming to SMA who asks us if we need anything NOB won't mind tucking into their suitcase? (Or in the case of a very heavy and bulky Weber BBQ, do they really understand what they are getting themselves into when they volunteer to bring one down for you in their SUV?)
For example, when the new flat screen TVs were still very expensive down here but coming down in price in the US, we used Tiger Direct, usually about the cheapest for anything electronic, and had one on sale shipped to Mark Bartell's TX address. It took a few weeks until his next trip but it was much cheaper than anything we could find here at the time.
Then we decided to add a small TV in the bedroom and found one on sale at Celaya Costco that ended up being cheaper than having one sent to Mark again.
On computer monitors, Norma was pricing them every which way she could when we happened to be in Celaya and Norma said, le't just go in Wal-Mart and see what they have. We'd been very much against buying from Wal-Mart in the US, but what could it hurt to look? There was a 19-inch flat screen ProView, one of the top of the line screens, on sale for $200 less than any other way Norma had been able to determine costs. We bought it at Wal-Mart and ever since have been justifying to ourselves why it really isn't all that bad to occasionally shop at Wal-Mart. For $200 savings, we bit the bullet. No shipping or duty or handling costs, and we had it that day.
Is the item something you definitely have to see or try on? Most years we do a trip NOB in late August or September (not this year) to pick up clothes and shoes at the discount stores when they are having their close-outs on summer clothes that are still going to be very wearable in Mexico yeaer-round. We've gotten khaki capris for $2 a pair sometimes and we load up when we come across big sales. Mexican women are smaller and shorter and if we do find something the right size the item's waistline falls in the middle of our bustline and the long sleeves are 3/4 length.
Shoes are another item we buy online a lot, when we know the brand and style and how it will fit. We've owned enough Tiva sandals in our lives to know which models fit us best and have no qualms ordering them online on sale and having them shipped to La Conexion.
Some model we're not familiar with, like a dressy pump that we buy once every ten years, we'll get NOB next year where we can try it on. Mexican women's shoes end at size 8 1/2 US.
When we know we're going NOB to see my aunt, we buy a year's worth of printer cartridges, much cheaper in the US, as another example of how you have to plan ahead.
Shopping for some items isn't as easy in the US, where you could drive to the nearest mall or specialty shop and just pick it up. Living in San Miguel de Allende, you have to do a bit more calculating. Not a bad trade-off--it keeps your mind active and alert!
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