The last days in San Miguel

Marina & Ernesto, our host parents.

An agave that inspires me to plant a cactus garden.

Perrin and the puppy "Dora".

Balin and the kids at the Barbeque on Saturday.

Perrin posing for the camera.

The kids and I walking in the botanical gardens....actually does Perrin ever walk?

The Spa where I spent the afternoon on Wednesday, for $50. :)

Fauna at the botanical gardens in San Miguel.

Sunday we were lent a car by the daughter of our host parents. (The people are incredibly generous here) We took full advantage of the car and headed up to the botanical gardens that are located at the top of a rather large hill. On the way up to the gardens we passed multiple homes that were comparable to some of the mansions in California. Next to these McMansions were small homes of the local mexicans, it was quite a study in contrast.
The local fauna of San Miguel reminds me of Arizona; dry. There are many trees, cactus and other fauna that when appreciated for the semi-arid area they grown in are pretty amazing. Because it is winter most trees don't have leaves on them and the grasses of the fields are brown, much like in Prescott. But from what I understand come summer the fields are as green as Ireland. Of course that also implies that it rains a lot in the summer. In fact they say you can pretty much set your clock to the 5pm rainstorms that blow in.
The botanical gardens were beautiful in that they were acres and acres of land set apart to be used as an example of local flora and fauna. The kids enjoyed running and running along paths while we strolled along behind them. At the end of one path, we found a beautiful conservatory (greenhouse) that held a large variety of gorgeous cacti. It was very professional and from what I could tell it was a pet project of an expat american. It encouraged me to set apart a piece of my growing garden for cacti and agaves.
On our way down from the gardens we spotted some fellow students walking to the gardens. In true Mexican style, we stopped and offered them a ride. In America we probably would have not offered due to the lack of seat belts but here - no one uses seatbelts. We all squeezed in and headed back up the big ole' hill. Patti (who's in our spanish class) and her husband drove their VW Westfalia down from Chicago and are camping in San Miguel as they continue their studies. She is a retired music professor and he is a retired sociology professor. Wonderful people and very interesting to talk to. I am hoping I can convince them to stop by Arizona on their way back up to Chicago.
From the gardens we headed to one of the hot springs they have in the area. The particular one we went to was a water slide park. The kids had a great time as part of the park was made just for small, young children. I was so impressed with Balin as he got us there with directions in Spanish and he didn't even get lost. Impressive. After a couple of hours at the park, it was time to return for lunch at our host parents house. It was a good thing we didn't miss lunch as it turned out to be something of a fiesta. Juan, one of the families son's, was leaving the next day for New York City where he would be working in the tourist industry as he finished his MBA. Marina, our host mom, is an amazing cook and she continued to wow us with an amazing barbeque. I seriously don't think we'll ever be able to eat in a mexican restaurant again as there is no way it could compare with her cooking. Marina shared a recipe with me of an amazing carrot cake but it was all in grams and spanish. Hmmm...I think I'll let that cake remain a wonder in our memories.

Monday and Tuesday were back to our regular schedule; school, naps, walk/treat in town, dinner and bed. We got together with our classmates in town for drinks as Monday was the one year anniversary of our friend Maria's husbands death. Tuesday after lunch, while Balin worked, the kids and I went with Marina and Kim (a student from Hong Kong) to Delores Hildago. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures, but I'll try to describe it. The town itself is much like San Miguel in that it has a main square with a church and a park. The town radiates around the center and has many shops and restaurants. The thing that was different about D.H was that I did not see another north american while I was there. In San Miguel you can't walk two blocks without seeing another N.American. The other thing that struck me was that even though it was 3 pm there were a TON of people in the streets. There were people walking in the park, hanging out on the corners, boys with cowboy hats on walking down the street. The open air market was full of vendors and there were carts and carts of icecream, tacos and fresh fruit. I don't know how many shops I passed but I swear half of them were shoe shops, Mexicans seem to love their shoes. In discussing the amount of people on the streets, I was told that most Mexicans go into the streets to socialize, hang out and do their business. This is because their houses don't have much in them and most people don't have much to do there. Interesting contrast to my life - I could stay home for days with lots of things to do. :)

Best go as Balin is hovering over the computer again. Will write more tomorrow.