Our first day in San Miguel de Allende

We arrived at Leon, Mexico at 6:30 AM right on time.  Our driver picked us up and made the 1 1/2 hour drive seem easy.  It is quite desert like around Leon but as you get close to SMA a lot of irrigation has greened the area up.  Our estate agent met us at the door as promised and showed us around.  Today the maid and the handy man both showed up and puttered about.  The house is 2 1/2 levels with huge tub baths attached to both bedrooms: shhhh, I hear the water running now.  We have a large plasma TV with 88 Spanish channels and a DVD player with 5 dvds.  The floors are all tile and the walls tastefully painted in shades of terra cotta.  Nice collection of art and artifacts make the place quite lived in.  The second floor has a gas fire place in the sitting room and there and enclosed patio with a working fountain.

After our welcome tour we asked for a good place to eat.  Turns our the Monet restaurant is right around the corner from the house.  Beautiful large wood decorations, coffee bar and pastry selection.  We tried the eggs benedict and juevos rancheros with a latte for mom and and black coffee for me.  Just like home.  The place was packed with expats who come in for their morning coffee as well as a few local businessmen.

We did a walking tour of the main get -to-know parts of the city in the afternoon.  Mom has already checked out her first books - from the second largest English Language library in South America - and I have already had my first Victoria beer, an inexpensive product of Modelo and better than any American beer by far.  We walked about the Jardin where all of the expats hang out and then walked over to a theater and booked orchestra seats for an operatic tenor for April 7th. The interesting seating arrangement is each section is open seating and the doors open 10 minutes before the performance.

The town is quite delightful, sits on a collection of hills and offers surprises round ever corner.  Tomorrow we have breakfast with Leda, mom's high school and then go off to a super mercado to get provisions.

Only downside so far; heat wave, temp is the high 80s and low 90s.  The nights are cool however so all is not lost.