Whale Watching! - Marge

Eric on our whale watching tour

This morning we went on a whale watching tour! The tour departed from the Marine Terminal, 10 minutes from where we're staying in Puerto Vallarta. Had the best time!

At first the big waves were horrible as the bow of the tiny

Two whales near our tiny inflatable boat

inflatable boat shot upward and then crashed down hard! I slumped over in my seat clutching my stomach at the alarming sensations! Also may have done some groaning. Strangely, everyone else seemed unaffected! The tour person came over and asked if I wanted to be taken back to shore. I wanly said no and suffered in silence (or as much silence as possible) for a little while and then someone gave me gum (I've read it's good for seasickness) and someone else told me to watch the horizon and then, gradually I began to enjoy the ride and in the end I had the most wonderful time! Didn't want it to end! I strongly suggested to Eric that we buy a sailboat and live on it! We could be on the water all the time!

Today was the last whale watching tour of the season! We were warned we might see only one or two whales-or maybe none. The thing is, we saw hundreds (or at least 20)! They were everywhere-spouting, diving, swimming close beneath the surface next to the boat. A couple of them actually leaped completely out of the water! Humpbacks. Also saw dolphins and frigate birds and pelicans and what must have been seagulls! Loved it! Would have been happy even if we saw no marine mammals--very much enjoyed being out on the ocean! Loved the weather too, sunny and warm as usual. I've almost forgotten how being cold feels. Only remember that I don't want to feel it anymore!

Looking for whales

More whales!

Latest news about us! - Marge

This morning Eric and I received our temporary resident visas! We met our lawyer at INM (Instituto Nacional de Migracion) at 9 and left 15 minutes later with our green cards! What a huge milestone! Am so relieved and happy! Our temporary resident visas allow us to stay in Mexico for a year. At the end of a year we'll be eligible for a 3-year temporary resident visa. At the end of that time we'll be eligible to apply for permanent residency.

For people qualifying for temporary residency using retirement income, you must provide proof of Social Security, pension or some other retirement-type income. Possibly assets (for example, owning property in Mexico) reduce or eliminate the income requirement. Don't know. all I know is the path we took--having a regular, monthly retirement income. The amount of income required varies--I believe a couple needs to show at least $1,200 per month each approximately at this time (though possibly one of the two can have a smaller income). This amount varies depending on the dollar/peso exchange rate.

In the next few days we will enroll in Seguro Popular--Mexican Universal Health Care; health insurance the Mexican government offers for citizens and temporary and permanent residents. Because we are both over 60 we will pay nothing! Seguro Popular has no exclusions related to age or preexisting conditions or anything else. Everyone is covered--though hospitals are not always well equipped for everyday-type medical care. We'll use Seguro Popular for catastrophic coverage, anything requiring hospitalization or chronic care, and, since high quality medical care is so inexpensive here, we'll pay for all other care out of pocket.

I've been treated by a pulmonologist at a hospital emergency room here in Puerto Vallarta twice so far (for complications from influenza) and the total bill for each visit was about $200. Yes, you read that right!! We are so thrilled to be living in a country where free (paid for by taxes) and inexpensive medical care is available for all!

Another happy milestone is that my intensive Spanish class started last Monday. Class is 3 hours, 3 days a week (plus at least 3 hours of homework per day) for 3 weeks. Really enjoying the class! Very hard! I should be studying now! Also enjoying meeting others who are learning Spanish.  Very much looking forward to being able to communicate better in Spanish.

There have been many moments of worry as we figure out how to live in Mexico and where to live, and all the rest. I am very happy that we are starting to get these issues resolved. We have figured out how to handle banking, how to learn Spanish, how to get medical care, where to live, and have found a place to live and rented it (huge!!!), have received temporary residency in Mexico (also huge!), have figured out how to buy groceries (yes, there are differences!) and have bought groceries and many other things even with almost no Spanish, have tried a lot of different foods that I've never eaten before at a lot of different restaurants and eaten at lots of taco stands on the street, have driven all over this area and taken long trips to the central highlands (very, very fun!), have learned how to drive in Mexico (very different!!!), Have encountered lizards and possibly a small scorpion (killed it), and have been sick and were able to get care, and a lot more!

We found a house! - Marge

Our House in Ajijic!

The plaza

The path from the malecon to the main street of the town at night

Our street

Dinner at Casa Domenach while listening to folk singing

Seafood paella at Tabarka restaurant--good but the monkfish is even better!

Ajijic at dusk

We have a house!! Spent 11 days in Ajijic deciding that Ajijic was the place we want to live, searching the town and surroundings for neighborhoods we like, and looking at listings and calling agents and walking everywhere and asking people we met and finally finding a wonderful house to rent! It's 3 bedroom/2 bathroom (one off master, with tub!), on a quiet one-lane cobbled street, fully furnished, with a washer and dryer, balcony overlooking the street, a fountain inside, a garden in the front with a place to park the car - with a gate (Otto can be let outside!), and a garden in the back, a cupola, a mirador (seating area on the roof) with a great view of Lake Chapala and of the mountains behind the town, located two blocks from the malecon (the mile long walkway next to the lake), 5 minutes to the plaza and the main streets of the town and 10 minutes to The Lake Chapala Society! Weekly maid service and gardener included in the rent--$800 per month. In a Mexican neighborhood. There are many Mexican shops very close--a tienda (neighborhood grocery store), a butcher (can hardly wait to go there)!, a fruit and vegetable place, a market of small booths on a small square at the corner every Saturday, a bicycle repair shop (maybe I'll get one!), and lots more! Very happy! We signed the lease on our last day in Ajijic-with our car all packed, on our way back to Puerto Vallarta! The manager speaks no English! Fortunately her friend was there who does speak English. Also fortunately I am starting an intensive Spanish course on Monday!

We are very happy to have a home! Very much looking forward to starting our new life in Ajijic! Looking forward to unpacking all our boxes! The house is ours as of May 1st. We'll drive up to Ajijic from Puerto Vallarta with all our stuff on about May 8. Really happy about this! :)!!!

Moving to Ajijic! - Marge

We are now in Ajijic, our future home! Loving it here! Beautiful town, beautiful lake, beautiful high hills all around; has The Lake Chapala Society, a wonderful organization for expats which offers support, information, the largest English language library in Mexico, free yoga and other exercise classes, Spanish language classes, and much more; great climate--cool in the morning and warm in the afternoon, and brightly painted walls and doors and window frames and everything painted that can be painted--turquoise, salmon, fuschia, lime green, lemon yellow, lavendar, violet, azure, pink, orange and purple--and every other color; with palm trees growing up behind the walls, and trees with giant, yellow blossoms and trees with purple foliage and climbing vines with the brightest red flowers and cobbled streets where horses frequently go clopping by.

Have been here a week so far, looking for a long term rental Love it! Especially the lake-largest in Mexico, which stretches all the way from the edge of town to the horizon-with reeds growing by the shore and a backdrop of mountains. There are horses grazing picturesquely next to the water, and snowy egrets standing in the shallows like aquatic versions of those flamingo lawn ornaments. Also, white pelicans with their long bills, that soar along low above the water and scoters or coots or whatever they're called – little black ducks, swimming together by the shore. The sky over the lake is huge, with great pink and orange sunsets. Yesterday, there were clouds, and in between the clouds, stunningly beautiful shafts of sunshine shooting down! And the malecon, a mile long walkway next to the lake, with palm trees planted all along the way and cast iron benches. Yesterday when we walked along the malecon there was a man playing an instrument--a flute? A clarinet? by the water and, further on, two couples slow dancing to a song in Spanish.

San Miguel, so popular no one will go there - Eric

Ah, San Miguel de Allende, you may have been done in by your awesomeness.
Yogi Berra used to talk about a place so popular no one goes there anymore. For now, crowds are flooding into San Miguel, especially during the high season. That's one of our problems with it. Just too crowded. With too many people, one man's 15th Century World Historic Site with ancient architecture, churches and central plaza just becomes another's 21st Century tourist trap.
Butt our main problem is pollution, especially from bus exhaust. With Marge's health concerns, that's a no-go. Also, San Miguel is way up in the high desert country. It's 6,000 foot elevation is twice as high as Snoqualmie Pass. Also hard on Marge's health.
It wasn't Yogi who said you never get a second chance to make a first impression. But our drive into San Miguel made us feel we had been transported into the most rural area of eastern Washington. The directions were like "Go 18 kilometers past Othello, turn left 20 kilometers to Washtucna and then left 10 kilometers to Dusty." All of a sudden, in the middle of nowhere appears a city of 85,000 people with nasty speed bumps and jammed narrow streets. Not quite the quaint little village promoted by retirees who moved here and reinvented themselves as authors or artists.
After all the research, we had high hopes for San Miguel. Trouble is when searching for the Land of Milk and Honey, once you arrive the milk might be nonfat when you wanted whole.

Why we are not moving to San Miguel de Allende after all - Marge

Here we are in San Miguel de Allende. We left Puerto Vallarta and the broken stove and various issues in our dust and drove up here to the central highlands a couple of days ago.

We are not moving to San Miguel after all. Had been so sure we would! All the wonderful descriptions! And the stories of people arriving for a vacation and buying a house here after a few days! All the art! The culture! The beautiful streets and the wonderful plaza-the jardin-where people sit in the morning drinking coffee. We pictured ourselves drinking coffee there too! Not sure what happened but the town we read about is not the town we found! First of all, the air is bad, the exhaust from the many buses is so bad you don't want to inhale. It's astonishingly bad! Nearly unbearable. Also, there were fires outside the town when we arrived, with flames right up to the road in places, and I believe they're still burning. There's an air inversion, trapping the smoke from the fires and the bus exhaust and the car exhaust and all the rest in place above San Miguel. The sky is hazy. There's no horizon!

The strangest thing, never mentioned in all I read about San Miguel, is that the town is all alone! It's in the middle of the most enormous, arid wasteland! Like the driest parts of eastern Washington, with no towns nearby (except Guanajuato 30 miles away) and no villages or settlements only the high plains stretching as far as the eye can see, as you drive, all a kind of beige with blackish vegetation and a few different kinds of cacti to add interest. I had no idea how isolated the town is! You have to really want to go there! And the altitude--over a mile high. The air is thin and you have to be conscious of breathing (either the bad respiratory effects of my recent influenza or the altitude--or possibly just nervousness about the altitude).

Also, there are too many people! The sidewalks are narrow and crowded and every few steps you have to step down into the street to let someone go by. Everywhere there are crowds to push through, while trying not to breathe deeply. The streets are crowded too. You can leave your car at home but even in a taxi or a bus, getting anywhere takes a long time. There is too much traffic and no place to park. There are expensive shops full of expensive goods for expats, and galleries with expensive art. There are classes to take (some that sounded very interesting to me!) but many are priced in dollars, and cost way too much for people living on Social Security and a pension! There are charming restaurants where you want to take a picture of your food and post it to Facebook, but we haven't gone to them--too hard to get there. We have just been eating at local restaurants or at our Airbnb rental. Both of us had influenza and neither of us is completely well. That doesn't help, of course.

Since we have decided not to live here we are cutting our stay in San Miguel short. Leaving soon for Ajijic. Maybe we will live there? I hope so!