San Miguel de Allende, Immigration and Randy

 

A view from where the rich live

Living in the south, we all know most flights connect thru Atlanta. In Mexico, all flights go thru Mexico City. And so we start our long journey from Guadalajara to Leon via Mexico City and then a hour and a half taxi ride to San Miguel de Allende. This time the Taxi ride took about 45 minutes longer, as our driver forgot a passenger at the airport. All this on the morning of daylight savings, Ole!

Not expected but fortuitous the forgotten passenger, Adrien was from Wales and has been living in San Miguel 6 years with his partner, who is Mexican. A world ambassador for a famous tequila brand, he was well traveled, loads of fun and a wealth of information about San Miguel, it’s people, politics and gossip. He stated his partner was the GM of a boutique hotel in town, featured in Architectural Digest – American version and Mexican version. 

We became bonded by Star Trek when I told him I had been watching Next Generation in Spanish to train my ear. Oh my! By the middle of our trek conversation, I was expecting him to pull out a tricorder or a communication device out of his backpack. He was that into it and a trekkie trivia maven.

I have too many pictures of doors.

Our Casita, in the neighborhood of Guadalupe, is a delight. Basically new reno, our casita is at the back of the property where it is very, very quiet. In San Miguel, most properties are multi storied, with the kitchen on the ground floor, bedrooms on the second story and then the roof top or mirador. Our casita is a 2/2.

We choose this area, because of the quiet and the flatness even though it is outside of the Centro District. San Miguel is a very hilly city with an elevation of around 6000 ft above sea level. Which makes for quite a bit huffing and puffing when you walk around town (Have I mentioned that last week we walked about 38 miles?) Also, when we were in San Miguel in November exploring this neighborhood, we met a really nice man Randy, who had been living here for 3 years and told us of how hard hit the neighborhood had been during covid. How the neighborhood club had helped feed about 160 families for more than a year, things were so bad. As he said, “How can you abandon you neighbors when they are starving?” We liked that vibe for this community. Also he was from Atlanta, so we had the same accent.

There is always a church in the middle of it all

San Miguel is not entirely Mexican, as so, so many expats live here. The main difference from Ajijic, is that the expats are younger – more of your digital nomad types and art types. Yes, it’s an art town and a foodie town and a great place to base ourselves while looking for more of an authentic cultural town.

First order of business, was going to immigration and obtaining our Residency Card. We had already presented to the consulate in Orlando, with our paperwork and the final step (payment) had to happen 30 days on arrival to the country. An appointment had been made and Harvey had attended to all the details. We had even figured out how to pay the fee in Guadalajara prior to leaving there. Just like collage hazing, we were introduced to Mexican society by waiting 6 hours for the process to be completed. At least there was a shade tree in the parking lot next to Immigration where to wait. No bathroom, chairs, food or drink but hey, Welcome to Mexico. The Residency card means we can travel back and forth as many times as we wish, can stay as long as we want, can buy property and insurance. It does not affect our US citizenship and is one of the easiest Residencies to obtain in the world. 

Good things happen to those who wait.

The next day we have a down day, which means I will not insist that we walk our 5-7 miles. After a leisurely coffee, we head out to discover our local tienditas and restaurants’ in particularly a place where Harvey can have breakfast served to him. We find him a great spot and I travel onward to the little gourmet store on the corner to stock up on nibbles. The little services area has 3-4 small lunch places, a liquor store, a bakery and a gay bar. I guess we have everything we need and do not need to venture out into tourist land, if we don’t want to.

For lunch, we decide on Billy’s Chilli and are very pleased of the quality and price of food. While there a gentleman walks in and orders 2 lemon pie slices to go. Of course, we chat. About 1 minute into the conversation with this gentleman and his thick southern drawl, I ask, “Are you from Atlanta.” He eyes me up and down somewhat like he has seen an alien and responds, “Yes.”

“Oh, we met you in November and you’re the reason we’re back.” Of course, it's Randy and it's a very small world.