San Blas

This is my last day in San Blas. This morning we will have one more swim out at the hotel. Hotel El Chaco. Pat and I spent the night there Monday and had the entire place to ourselves. In the morning and up until we left at noon, the workers were gone too. The restaurant was closed. It was like Pat and I were the last people on earth. It was very relaxing. 

Last night we went into town for dinner at a small Mexican restaurant. The owner saw me earlier in the evening as I was walking past his place and he came out to say hi and he even remembered my name. How nice to be so warmly welcomed by someone I hadn't seen for three years. I do love San Blas. But I don't love the jejenes. I finally decided not to come back for the winter. I will just come for a few days at a time. That is a good solution for me. In January sometime I will write to Pat and ask her if the hotel is still quiet. Maybe I will even stay out there by myself next time for a few days. 

For now, I am getting homesick for Chico and Olive. My friends have been sending me photos of them lounging around together on the bed. That really makes me homesick. A reader wrote and asked how I managed to get such a great little place for not much rent. It was all because of Ellie, the former maid. She is friends with the owners of the house. She took me there. I wrote on this blog that there are two economies in Ajijic. The Expat and the Mexican economies. Since Ellie is a Mexican, she knew about the house for rent, by her friend, A MEXICAN.... Before I found a place to rent my friends asked me how much rent was I willing to pay. I said, 2500 pesos. They thought I was crazy. Expats consider 400 dollars cheap rent there. But my rent is 2500 pesos.   It is everything I wanted with a little extra thrown in, the noise.   But the noise and talking is also helping me with my Spanish. Whenever I get irritated with all the noise, I remember, 2500 pesos rent, and I relax and accept it. 

When I get back to Ajijic I am going to start swimming again. I swam every day I was here. Because of falling down the stairs and hurting my knee and having to look for a place and move and then unpack, I hadn't been near a pool for two months. That is a long time for me to not exercise. For me, any day that I can swim in the morning is a good day.    

The bus rides are very interesting. People are always getting on and off, selling everything under the sun. Coming here a man got on selling fresh roasted peanuts, another man got on with candy, a man got on with a long talk about some kind of natural pain remedy he was selling in little bottles, a woman got on with her face made up like a clown. She told jokes and sang for money. And after I arrived here my friend said that two days earlier a man had gotten on that same bus line and demanded everyone give them their money or else he would kill them. He got away too. 

Mexico.   The land of adventures......