Our Casita

For the month of March we are living in a beautiful and somewhat isolated place (www.simplechoicefarm.com) about 12 miles outside of San Miguel de Allende. We are reading, writing, scribing, and doing art in a very comfortable, well-appointed, light filled casita.  It is extremely quiet and peaceful, with warm, sunny days and cool, cloudy nights.

Down the road

Down the driveway we can hail a local bus into town that comes four or five times a day on a somewhat unpredictable schedule. We haven’t spent much time in San Miguel but it is beautiful charming, quaint, artsy, and full of gringos. There is a lot to do there but we are not in a hurry to explore the city because we are planning to move into town for the month of April. It strikes us a combination of Northampton and – well, Mexico. It is very touristy but also very Mexican.

Purim at the JCCC

We moved here on Sunday, March 1, but we arrived in San Miguel on the previous Friday, checked into a wonderful BnB, and went to services at the synagogue – the San Miguel de Allende Jewish Cultural and Community Center (www.shalomsanmiguel.org) – Shabbat eve and morning. We were warmly welcomed – I would say embraced – by the community of mostly American ex-pats and winter residents. We received numerous offers of hospitality, and w

Special challah

e feel we will make some real friendships here. We also attended the morning service and megillah reading on Purim, and we made for the community a sombrero-shaped challah with the Hebrew words "chag purim sameach" (Happy Purim). We are already lined up to do a Bread and Torah program at the end of the month.

New church being built near our house

In San Miguel de Allende

Within a good walk from where we live there are a number of small villages that we have only begun to explore, and we are excited to do so. The villages and the countryside are gringo-less and tourist-less, filled with warm local residents, some of whom we have met, as well as roosters, pigs, horses, cows, turkeys, pigs, goats, sheep and, of course, burros. When we go into town we feel as if we are moving between worlds.

We feel very privileged, lucky, fortunate, blessed to be able to wake up each morning and look out over the mountains, and to have so much beauty, culture, and adventure so close at hand.

Trail behind our casita