Tag Archives: city

San Miguel de Allende – House and School Hunting to Car Robbery

Mexico Here We Are, ,
Hot air balloons are in the sky most mornings
Hot air balloons are in the sky most mornings

Phew, it’s been a busy first week in San Miguel de Allende.  The biggest items to talk about are that we’ve chosen San Miguel de Allende as the place to spend the next few months, found a place to live and a school for Geneveve, and just a couple nights ago had our car broken into, lots more details on all of that to follow.

We arrived in San Miguel de Allende on Día de la Independencia, but that didn’t seem to make traffic or anything worse, although the steep, narrow, and bumpy cobblestone streets don’t make getting around the city center very fast.  After a brief mixup about the address of our house rental, we quickly found it and unpacked.  We found the place for pretty cheap on Airbnb at $300 a week, and it had an amazing view.  The views of this city will quickly win you over with its beautiful churches, dazzling sunsets, hot air balloons floating through the air and lakes and mountains in the distance.  And since it was independence day we were treated to some fireworks on our first night there.  Unfortunately we were also treated to some fireworks before dawn on our first morning, and randomly for the next few days too.

Continue reading San Miguel de Allende – House and School Hunting to Car Robbery →

Guadalajara

Mexico Here We Are, ,
Hanging out in Parque Expiatorio
Hanging out in Parque Expiatorio

After leaving the hot and muggy Pacific coast of Mexico we drove inland to Mexico’s 2nd biggest metro area of Guadalajara.  This is another place we’re considering to spend the winter, and by the end of our stay it’s a definite maybe.  We like the weather and the number of things you can do that come with being in a big city.  However, we’re not really big city people, at least with kids, and traffic here is kind of intense.  Traffic is intense all over Mexico in it’s own way if you’re not used to it, but here things like 4+ lane roundabouts, constant traffic slow downs and busy, frequently merging multi-lane what you might call highways take it to a whole new level for us.  I’m sure this has nothing on Mexico City from what I’ve heard, but it was stressful enough for us.

We decided to stay a little ways outside the center of the city at the Crowne Plaza hotel near the Plaza del Sol, partly because it was hard to find dog friendly places and this one was, partly because it had a pool which has been a savior of a feature for us to wear the kids out for bed, and partly because it looked like it was closer to some neighborhoods that I’d read might be quieter and better for long term living.  This put us farther away from city center than I expected, but that didn’t seem to matter a lot since it seems to take at least 15-20 minutes to get from any point in the city to any other.  Even when things looked fairly close together on the map, it would end up taking us 20 minutes to get from point to point when you take into account traffic and parking. Continue reading Guadalajara →

Salt Lake City

Mexico Here We Come, ,
Taken just as Geneveve started screaming because she was itchy
Taken just as Geneveve started screaming because she was itchy

Our first stop in Utah was the Great Salt Lake.  Unfortunately it was a bit of a disaster.  We went to antelope island since it was recommended as a good place to try swimming in the salty, smelly lake.  Geneveve was psyched to try swimming in water this salty since we told her she’d float better than anywhere else she’s ever been.  We drove to the coast and saw the beach was probably over 1/4 mile out since so much of the lake is evaporated at this point in the summer.  So we hiked through the sand and across the somewhat smelly dried up shore out to where the water was.  We got sunblock on and walked through the clouds of flies that line the beach and finally we got in the water…  And then Geneveve started screaming bloody murder that she was itchy all over.  It seems she has extra sensitive skin and the salt water irritated it.  So I carried her on my shoulders screaming most of the way the 1/4 mile back through the sand to where there were shower facilities and rinsed her off while she screamed about being cold.  Phew. Continue reading Salt Lake City →