Found a house

Apparently, the search is over for the casa. We have made a deal with a Mexican owner in San Antonio Tlayacapan to rent his home. His name is Cruz and his English is better than my Spanish, but I still took a Mexican friend I made named Manny to referee the negotiations.

Manny is a dentist (hence the good English) in Guadalajara that we met at the park in Ajijic last Friday afternoon. Cruz has agreed to paint the entire inside of the home by August 31 in order for us to move in on September 1. We will see how the manana/manana goes on this one. Manny has lived in San Antonio T. his whole life and says we can trust Cruz.

The home is pretty big and partially furnished, so we are on the look-out for any used stuff we can find. Yard sales are called bazaars here and there is no rhyme or reason to when or where they occur. Just have to get out and look for them. San Antonio T is a quiet, small town and I think all our neighbors are Mexican. All the town roads are cobblestone or dirt, but they have high speed internet that works 3/4 of the time. Go figure. We heard a rooster crowing from the "yard" next door when we were looking at the place.

In the neighborhood there are the standard mini-store, Abarrotes, that sells chips, drinks, 1 can of this, 1 can of that. There is a carniceria (butcher) a block away and numerous little shops in that area. Two blocks away is the town Plaza that has a grocery store with most things we will need, although it is about 1/2 the size of an American 7-11. The Plaza is peaceful and fills up in the late afternoon and evening with people eating outdoors, kids playing, an ice cream shop and numerous vendors selling food/trinkets/clothes or whatever they have that day.

The kids love to go to the plaza and play with the other kids. Hopefully, they can start talking to them pretty soon, although a lack of understanding English has not slowed Alex down from yapping the whole time she plays with the Mexican girls. The house is also a block from the lake, but no pier or malecon (boardwalk). The only thing we saw when we went to the lake on the street was a guy with a small fishing boat tying it up for the evening.

Alex has been in school 3 days now, and has not been loving it. She has cried when I drop her off, but the teachers say she had done well once I am gone. If we can make it through the next few weeks, things should go very well. I keep thinking what a gift it would be for her to speak Spanish.

We took our lives in our hands again and went to Guadalajara to visit the Sam's Club. It was really similar to the states. Just like everywhere, anything plastic or imported from China is expensive, but everything else is about the same. Think we will stick to the local grocer and the market.

Photos above are of a picture of a donkey one of the locals rode in to town on to eat at the restaurant that can be seen in the picture (zoom in on the picture and look for the guy in the hat sitting at one of the tables), Alex and Alan eating treats at the plaza in Ajijic, and tree pictures of the weekly market in Ajijic.