During the past five weeks two Americans, or maybe three, were found murdered in San Miguel, adding to the smog of bad news and publicity already enveloping the town. In an American or Canadian city of comparable size, two or three homicides coming so close together would have raised public questions or perhaps just one: …
Tag: mexico
Loving animals in a foreign land
In a blog last August I talked about Chupitos, a hard-luck mutt that had shown up when we were building the house and which our gardener Félix had adopted, along with her two puppies. His kind gesture saved the three of them from certain death. We had the trio spayed, dewormed and vaccinated, and accordingly …
Merry Christmas, Toto
Even after five years in Mexico, I regularly get that "we're not in Kansas anymore" feeling of awe about living here. It's particularly so around Christmas time. A week ago we went to the market to get some vegetables and had to walk several blocks through the center of town, working our way through a …
Two weeks away
With the universal warning from friends still resonating in our heads--"be sure to check on the construction every day"--we came back to San Miguel from a two-week trip feeling a bit apprehensive, almost expecting to find some disaster. There were three surprises. During our absence the architect had fired the maestro Bonifacio and his entire …
A Day's Hard Work
According to a newswire story just a few days ago, Mexico's unemployment rate had "spiked" to 5 percent in January 2009. That is still almost three percentage points lower than the latest national jobless figures for the United States. Indeed, in some specific U.S. markets like Oregon, unemployment approaches 10 percent. More incredibly, two years …
Off the ground
It looked and felt like an apparition. After almost three years of watching our house plans stumble over endless obstacles and delays--architects, legal problems, squabbling neighbors, plus the occasional waffling and changes of mind on our part--on February 10 we actually broke ground. We showed up at the land early in the morning and a …
It's Not Easy, or Inexpensive, Being Green
Building in the country will force us to revisit assumptions and calculations about how much we are willing to pay for a so-called green or sustainable home. Hey man, using photovoltaic cells or wind turbines to generate your own electricity sounds awesomely cool and progressive, doesn't it? Maybe so, but when you get an estimate …
Architectural Plans Take Shape
Voila. The sudden appearance of architectural drawings might suggest this project is leaping forward. Well, hardly. Or at least it doesn't seem that way to us. It has taken over six months, and a change of architects, to get where we are. We're delighted with the results, though. Friends keep telling us this is the …
Fast forward to 2009
When the deal to buy the land in Taboada fell through in late 2006, our home building project went into hibernation for nearly 18 months. We were as exhausted as we were frustrated. Then in the summer of 2007 a friend who already lived in the country mentioned there was land for sale nearby. We …
A Home of Our Own
As long as we have been together--37 years and counting--Stew and I have fantasized about building our own house. But while waiting for that to come true, our lives often seemed like an endless series of remodeling projects.Our bookshelves clearly revealed our passions: Magazines about architecture, interior design and gardening (lots of those), along with …
El Rancho Santa Clara 