Final countdown before leaving for Mexico

5, 4, 3, 2, 1... and 1 again...

We were planning to leave tomorrow morning but the last couple of days have been too full already. Looks like we'll leave on Friday. We are seeing glimpses of relief ahead!

We're thinking about going south from Arizona, via Mazatlan, for some warmth and some beach time before going to Bernal. Haven't decided.

Back to the grind!

It's cold, here and there!

The high today is supposed to be about 24 degrees F here in Colorado, as we work through our last few hectic days before departure. The low tonight, 5 degrees. It's due to be about the same till we leave, hopefully four days from now. And this is predicted by NOAA to be a relatively warm winter in this part of Colorado. Still, glad I'm heading for warmer climes!

But maybe not quite so balmy as my friends here in Colorado imagine. The University of Guanajuato is predicting the coldest winter in 10 years for the general region where we live in Mexico. We've already heard reports of freezing or near-freezing weather in San Miguel de Allende and Guadalajara. Kelly suggests some lower-elevation expeditions in Cando.

This may be my last post till we are back in Bernal. Boxes to pack, things to arrange for our business, it just about never ends! But our to-d0 lists ARE getting shorter. Our dog Larry is coming with us, our two cats here can stay in this house that we sold till we come back to Crestone, most of our possessions are in storage. My advice to anyone else going through this: don't underestimate how long this sort of stuff will take you!

The last hectic days before leaving for Mexico

A Windows crash has me reinstalling programs on my computer. I wasn't counting on that. But actually it's a good thing as my computer is running more smoothly now and I have a pretty good idea how to do it if I should need to again. Kelly and I sometimes say that we have "good bad luck" -- that is, we have bad luck like anyone does, but usually there is something in it that turns out well.

I'm glad to still be in Crestone around now, actually. There's a wonderful local nonprofit called Neighbors Helping Neighbors, and on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, they put on a free Thanksgiving-style potluck for the whole community. It's one of the social high points of the year, with hundreds of people coming over the afternoon. I greatly enjoyed telling people that we are buying some land here. And that will be a done deal tomorrow!

This weekend, along with eating with friends on Thursday, we'll enjoy the annual Winterfest, with crafts and all sorts of things for sale in several venues around town. Our target is to leave by December 1st but it's okay if we run over by a few days.

Great news in the cat department, both here and in Mexico -- our two cats here, sister and brother Midnight and Moonlight, can stay in our house till we come back. We don't really want to take them to Mexico as there are so many feral cats in the neighborhood. And our Mexican cat, Misty, has had several visits from an American friend of ours there, and he reports she is a bit timid but quite playful and friendly too.

Packing is pretty much in hand now. It's more the work stuff that is grueling. Temperatures are in the teens every night lately -- an incentive to go south!

Mexican friendliness to a young American in LA

A friend of mine has a relative living near Los Angeles, a young woman I'll call Amy since I didn't get her permission to use her name. Amy is very pregnant with her second child, and her first one, a boy, has been going to the local public school. It's a rather rough area and Amy and her husband have had some hard times with things their son has gone through at school.

But a bright spot has been the friendships that Amy has made with two or three other young mothers, Mexicans whose children go to the same school. They speak little English and Amy little or no Spanish, but they all have managed to communicate.

The other day, one of the Mexican women indicated to Amy that she wanted to take her out for coffee the next morning after they dropped their kids off at school. Amy happily agreed. But the next day, when the two of them set off to have their visit, the Mexican woman realized with some embarrassment that she had forgotten her purse. She indicated it wouldn't be far out of their way to go by her house to get it, so that's what they did.

When they got to her house, she invited Amy in. They went in the tiny house... and it was filled to the brim with women and young children. Surprise! Sorpresa! It was a baby shower for Amy. No matter the language problems -- everyone had a great time.

Once Amy crossed her legs and one of the older women immediately came over and uncrossed them, speaking rapidly in Spanish. Amy didn't get quite why, but in the last month of pregnancy, Mexican women don't cross their legs!

We're buying a little land in Colorado

It's under three weeks till we plan to leave Colorado and go back to living in Mexico. Along with all the pre-departure things to do, we've been looking at our real estate options around Crestone, since after nine years here we really don't want to give up being part of this community, part time as it will be.

Since it's so delicious to be completely debt-free and with a nest egg, we've been looking at lower priced possibilities that would leave enough of our savings intact that we can do something in Mexico too if we wish and still have savings beyond that! There's a part of the Baca Grande development called Casita Park, which is mostly if not entirely populated by people in mobile homes/ modulars/ manufactured houses... I don't have the distinctions between these things clear in my mind. We looked at a few of these dwellings that were for sale, and as we have several friends who live in Casita Park, we've been inside several others. Often people add on large rooms. Some of them are very nice indeed.

We also learned how people are bringing in these movable homes, buying quite nice used ones for very good prices. And it looks like that is what we will do, sometime in the future. Unless we come up with some other plan!

For now we are buying a couple of small lots on the northeast edge of Casita Park. We just found out last night that our offer was accepted. I'm looking forward to living with this view:



Some friends here who know Kelly's work in sustainable architecture have been surprised that we would consider a mobile home type of thing. We often buy clothing and furniture at thrift stores, several of our dogs have been rescues... buying a used manufactured home fits our lifestyle. It's another form of recycling. We would add a passive solar greenhouse on the south, extra insulation of some sort on the north side, and other sustainability features. And in fact, we're not going to decide any of this now. We might also build something ourselves.

So soon we'll be off to Mexico. And it's a very good feeling to be maintaining a foothold in a community where we love so many people!

No ropa?

Last night we had dinner with our friends here in Crestone, Bill and Chinle, and mutual friends Bruce and Tass, who were visiting from out of town. (I've linked before to Bruce's account of their bicycling trip through Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, and Greece -- a fascinating read so I'm linking again.)

The four of them are all rock climbers, and Chinle told the story of climbing in Mexico a few years ago. Chinle speaks very little Spanish. They were climbing there when she noticed some Mexican boys climbing in an area where they should have had ropes on.

So she called out to them, "No ropa! No ropa!"

In Spanish, ropa does not mean rope, as she thought. It means clothing. The mother of one of the boys thought this was hilarious, and laughed and laughed.

That led me to tell the story of the earnest young American man who told his Mexican friends how embarrassed he was by American foreign policies. Embarasada in Spanish means pregnant!

Mexico and the US, Bernal and Crestone

"Aren't you excited?" people have been asking me as our time set to go live in Mexico has been drawing closer.

Actually, no, I have not been excited.

I'm still overwhelmed by everything to get done for both our business and our move out of the house. But even beyond that, it's been a rough time. I have not been sleeping well. I've had spells of depression uncharacteristic of me. I've felt a lot of grief at leaving this amazing rural Colorado community full of people interested in alternatives to the mainstream ways of living, people I've known for as much as nine years.

Yesterday Kelly and I finally became clear, through a sort of prayer/meditation process that we do:

We are not going to give up Crestone completely.

We're going to see about having our cake and eating it too! Exactly how this will play out, we don't know and we don't intend to pin it down. It will have to unfold. We had been wanting to simplify our lives, and having a home base in the US and one in Mexico doesn't seem simple. But this will be our path, at least for the near future.

I am happier this morning than I have been in months. There are things we love about life in each country, and we both feel how our decision to keep some sort of home in Crestone and our rented house in Bernal allows us to experience and savor each country and town more fully for what it is.

One thing I've noticed already is that if I am going to have time here in Crestone, Colorado, where I have so many English-speaking friends, then I am quite happy to live in Bernal, Queretaro, Mexico, a town I love where few people speak English fluently. So much the better for our improving our Spanish!

There may be times when one of us is here in Crestone and the other one is in Mexico. We have a very close marriage and that will be a challenge, but it also has its appeal.

As for just what living arrangements we will create in Crestone, we have some ideas but nothing is firm yet.

So it will be the bi-location lifestyle for us!