Expecting the Unexpected

Dutifully, we read a lot online before we came down here: different riffs on the obligatory "What to Expect in Mexico" and a variety of articles listing "Ten Things that are Hard To Get Used to " The writers almost all list the same things: you have to ask for the check at restaurants, no one has change for any bills larger than $20, the noise in the 'hood is sometimes deafening (cohetes, bandas, geese, roosters and dogs), and Mexicans hate to disappoint you by telling you they are out of a certain item.  

No deal breakers, but interesting to see that most travel writers focus on the same ten items-and we've found them all to be true.  I've also had some weird personal challenges:

1.     I feel guilty my new adopted kitty, with a couple of deft swats, has installed herself firmly at the top of the pecking order.  She only gives eye contact if she feels like it.  We all live to serve the kitty.

2.     I've been a gardener all my life, but now I'm self-conscious planting seeds in front of Tony (the real gardener) as if I’m not doing it to his standard.  I tend to do scatter shot, he likes neat rows.  Lettuce and spinach are coming up in neat rows...

3.     When I have a piece of trash in my hand, I anxiously go to the chart on the fridge to try to figure out where to put it.  Does the bacon plastic go in my container of used condoms and syringes or the container with my used Kleenexes or the container that holds the fish heads with little crosses where his little eyes used to be?  I’m so confused!  Last week, the trash men  REJECTED my trash because it wasn't sorted correctly.  Tony (the real gardener) went through the trash to fix our mistakes. Ugh!

That said, the delights of Mexico are myriad.  There is lots of unexpected grace and there have been many kindnesses shown to us. Our Mexican neighbors are delightful and we've found our tiny town has embraced us. 


Natural beauty is everywhere inside my four walls.

Hilde surveying her yard:

I can’t complain that the flocks of colorful birds and hummers eschew sugar water and seed (offered on crystal plates!) in favor of the natural bounty in the yard.  And the weather! Oh, man! 

“Excellent weather at affordable prices”, Evdad likes to say.