Wednesday, 11 January 2017: San Miguel de Allende

We skipped breakfast this morning to get going on checking out of our hotel and into our new flat.  That process took perhaps three hours.  Yes, seriously.  We had to tell the good folks at the hotel to bring the cars ... They couldn't get ours started.  Or rather, it was started but because it didn't make any noise, he didn't know it was started.  All loaded up and getting close to 11am when we're supposed to meet Everesto, Justin and Mike left me with the cars (parked illegally on the side street next to the church) to go get the keys to our new digs.  They came back and then it was Justin's turn to stay with the cars while Mike and I took our turn for the next leg of the chore -- money.  The ATM didn't work, so I went inside to wait for a teller while Mike went back to tell Justin we'd hit a snag.  The teller explained that the ATM at this bank didn't recognize our debit or our credit cards so I had to go to a different bank.  With cash in hand, I went back to find that Justin was still looking for me at the first bank.  This time Mike stayed with the cars while Justin and I went to pay rent.  Everesto drove with us to the parking lot where he negotiated the price for our two cars for the next eight days.  Then we shifted all Mike's stuff to our car so we only had to take one car to the house.  Once Justin was all loaded up, he navigated through all the one way streets while Everesto, Mike and I walked to the flat.  Shifting all our stuff upstairs was the next feat.  Turning on the tv to hear a bit of the confirmation hearings and Trump's first press conference was sort of a bit of comic relief. 

Mike bought a rotisserie chicken for lunch and then we headed to the market to explore.  We bought coffee and milk along with yogurt, granola and fruit for in the morning.  The strawberries are fabulous!  Mike bought an industrial sized juicer and several kilos of oranges and a few grapefruit.  The fresh juice is fabulous and made just a bit better with a healthy slosh of tequila.

I blew a fuse when I tried to plug in a lamp. Literally, al the lights are off. It was dusk so we weren't totally in the dark, but then, isn't that where I live much of the time?  Thankfully Justin is a flashlight kinda guy and we were set.  Our separate suite has electricity as does the kitchen, but no lights in the living room, bathroom or upstairs in Mike's loft and no tv or Internet.  We all headed to bed soon after we got home from dinner.  And, speaking of dinner, I had Marlin fish tacos.  I don't think I'd ever eaten Marlin before.  It was very good, almost sweet.  Now I want to go to the sushi shop to have Marlin sushi too.

Justin still gets notifications from Ramstein so we learned that the roads were Amber today.  We also know that schools were not in session at least one day in Green Bay and at least one day in Tennessee.  We are SO glad to be here.  It is a bit chillier than we'd like, but nothing compared to where we could be.