Over the last couple years, our friends Carla and Phil Meaux introduced us to San Miguel de Allende, opening their lovely hillside vacation home to us and acting as our personal tour guides and exceptional hosts. So, naturally, we fell in love with the place, living in their lap of exceptional luxury! And now this three week trip over the holidays was intended to validate our fantasy of retiring to this beautiful city. After all, Conde Nast can't be all wrong!
So, for the last 6 months, we had became pretty committed to the idea that we were going to retire to San Miguel, as soon as we are able to sell our house in Austin. And it has been a powerful dream. We put all the wheels in motion; listing our house, studying Spanish almost daily (I still suck at it), looking on-line at properties, reading a half dozen books written by Expats living in San Miguel, and examining our finances to ensure we can afford to turn the dream into reality without putting us in the poorhouse. In coming blog entries, I will share what we learned about this magical city and the good times we had. But first, I want to share our discovery of something more important that will now shape our future.
We spent the first week settling in, walking and rediscovering the city. What make this place special? I think a big part of it is the light and the weather. You have to see it to believe it; or at least you cannot capture it using a smartphone! But while we love the sincere and friendly people, the fantastic churches, the amazing history, the awesome restaurants, the somewhat raw beauty of the town, not to mention the low cost of living, we struggled to find peace in our little patch of heaven.
- We had serious issues with our rental houses, the first of which was practically uninhabitable. It reeked of natural gas and mildew. It was cold and dark. It was loud, with incessant hammering from the adjacent excavation.
- After the first week, I came down with a bad case of La Tourista, and Lynne soon succumbed, rendering us unable to dine or drink in a city known as the culinary capital of Mexico. Hey, at least we can lose a few pounds, right?
- Living in centro meant having to walk poor little Zorro 3-4 times a day on dusty, narrow sidewalks along streets full of traffic, noise, and diesel busses. And with no grass anywhere in the city, the poor guy had to do his "bidness" on the sidewalks and streets, looking up at us afterwards as if to apologize for making a mess. He became a very dusty puppy!
- Then on Thursday, I awoke with intense bursitis in my heel. I could barely walk. "But walking is what you DO in San Miguel!", I screamed at nobody in particular. You walk everywhere, all along the cobblestone streets and alleys looking for art galleries, bars, and restaurants! (I mentioned we couldn't eat, right?)
Ok, perhaps the Universe was trying to tell us something. Is it possible it was screaming back, "GO HOME!"
Not being one to argue with the cosmos, we decided to cut our trip short by a few days, packed up the Audi and drove home on New Years Eve day. On the way to Austin, we had lots of time to talk, as traffic jams and my mistakes crossing the border turned the trip into a marathon. Lynne was being strong, and started talking about other areas where we should explore for retirement options, turning our attention to the future. New England, the Pacific NW, the SE Coast, Asheville North Carolina, and Knoxville Tennessee all came up as attractive options. All are nice. But like San Miguel, none are perfect.
Then it hit us both. We don't have to find perfection. We just need a nice place to live, in a nice part of the country with good people, food, and... Wait a minute!
NONE of these places are nicer than Austin! Its one of America's most fabulous cities, especially if you can get out of town during Cedar Fever Season, and escape the heat in the Summer. We can do that! Skiing in the winter, scuba in the summer. Colorado any time we want! Our goal was right in front of us all the time. We can stay in Austin! We can find a small place near town, like South Congress or S. Lamar, fix it up, and stay here! And we can visit San Miguel any time we want; it's only a 2 hour flight from Houston!
So, this is not about deciding we don't love San Miguel. Its about accepting that we don't have to live there to enjoy it, or anywhere else in the world for that matter. I was afraid we would feel sad if we decided not to move to San Miguel, but we don't. We feel relief and contentment.
Now, on to that American steak Lynne bought in the new HEB store and a great bottle of California Cab to celebrate. Happy New Year!!
