Driving to San Antonio, a 12- to 14-hour tiresome but otherwise unremarkable marathon, takes a grim turn as one nears the Colombia International Bridge over the Rio Grande, the last stretch before entering the U.S. Up to that point, the roads are mostly first-class expressways, particularly Mex 85, north of Monterrey, recently resurfaced though repair crews can't …
Continue reading Sad migration stories from the U.S.-Mexico border and closer to home
Crime in Mexico is a topic expats would rather not talk about, particularly when visiting the U.S."Aren't you afraid to live in Mexico?" we're asked frequently, and annoyingly. Perhaps it's a matter of pride, of not wanting to admit that yes, we're often afraid, or worse, that we sometimes wonder if moving down here was …
Continue reading It's 11 a.m. Do you know where your car went?
Security in Mexico worries expats but we don't even want to talk about it. On March 13 a woman friend was kidnapped in broad daylight in downtown San Miguel. She's still missing. The event was confirmed by the U.S. Consular Agent here, who passed on the news to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. But for several days …
This week did not begin auspiciously. Six weeks ago we had left our motorcycle at the local hole-in-the-wall Suzuki dealer, located next to an auto electrical supply store oddly named "The Mummy," to see if they could sell it.There were no buyers, so Monday morning we picked it up so Félix could drive it back …
Continue reading A Mexico story: Getting rear-ended and screwed on the same day
At approximately eight o'clock on Sunday, as we turned onto the half-mile-long dirt road that goes from a paved but cratered two-lane highway to the gate of our ranch, we froze momentarily at the sight, barely visible in the distance under the moonlight, of twenty or more people and two pickup trucks, one brown the …
Continue reading Mayhem and death on our neighborhood's killer road
In a shocking demonstration of how reality can resemble folklore, a 78-year-old American woman was found murdered in her San Miguel home on October 26, a week before the big Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead. Road to heaven: Locals on the way to the cemetery pick upthe traditional Day of the Dead …
I used to believe, naively, that a "home invasion" was a melodramatic synonym for "burglary" until two weeks ago, when at about ten-thirty at night four punks in their twenties broke into the small ranch of a retired American couple in their late sixties who live a few miles deeper into the countryside than us. …
El Rancho Santa Clara 