After six weeks in Weber’s campground in San Miguel, it’s the middle of March and most of the campers have headed north. For now, there’s just three other campers here: the MAN overlander, pictured above, and our neighbors to the right of us from Canada in a beautiful Leisure Unity; and the folks from Montana:
Steve and his wife Bing have been staying here for several months. He introduced himself the first day we arrived. He is a level 5 Spanish student studying Spanish language at Academia Hispano Americana, the same school Jackie and I attended back in June and July of 2010. He spent five years in Cuba, speaks fluent Spanish, of course, and has a very cute Louie-like dog named Fidel.
When a camper first enters the Weber’s campground, they are immediately met by a rough cobblestone and brick driveway. In the background of the photograph below, just behind the tall, spire-like trees, sits one of the three beautiful clay tennis courts.
Below, one of the clay tennis courts getting some doubles action:
Along the east side of the compound, are three small departamentos. They are rarely occupied. Notice the fairly intricate brick jali walls. As the winter sun sets, the intense sunlight shines directly on the walls. I’ve come to learn that Mexican masons are very skilled craftsman. The genius of this kind of construction is in its simplicity: The cool evening breezes can flow naturally through the perforated brick wall, while at the same time blocking out the sun.
The entrances to the departmentos below are a typical example of Mexican gardening and landscape design.—a wonderful combination of stone, brick, desert plants, colorful bougainvillea, and shrubbery.
The driveway leads to a kind of bricked, circular turning area. Rocinante can be seen to the left. Off to the right is another driveway leading to another exit, entrance to the campground.
Pictured below is a little covered patio, game room, and a library of donated books, many in German and French. I actually found a copy of Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purple and Cervantes Don Quixote in Spanish in the little library. At many of the campgrounds we’ve stayed, I’ve found little “take one, leave one” libraries. Sometimes it’s just one shelf of books.
The library here has a couple hundred books. During late afternoon, when the sun gets intense, and the temperatures hit 85 deg F., the patio offers some respite from the heat. In the foreground are two unoccupied camp sites.
To the left, my camper’s sewer, water, and electricity hookups. Like many campgrounds in Mexico, electrical service at Weber’s is just barely adequate. The circuit breakers are 15 amp, so I have to be aware of appliance wattage use, otherwise, I could trip the breakers. Which happens often.
Also, there’s not enough water pressure to hook up directly to the camper’s plumbing system. I’ve had to fill and refill the fresh water tanks and run the 12 volt water pump. But again, we’re in Mexico and that’s the way it is.
Below is a picture of our “backyard.” On the extreme left side of the photo, you can see the clay color of the tennis court behind the fence. Leaning up against the electric jack stand is the wet bath shower sliding door, which I had to remove because one of the slides failed. Bearings fell out all over the floor. On the ground is a five gallon bottle of agua puro. We go through one of those bottles every three days. Can’t make a Margarita without ice. Javier, one of the workers in the compound, will bring one of these bottles to me whenever we need it. We’ve used the brown camping mat at every campsite in Mexico.
We don’t need to stretch out clothes lines here. Someone picks up our laundry every Monday and Friday morning, washes, dries, and folds everything, and brings it back the same day. Average cost is 180 Pesos or about $7.50 USD for what would normally be about three loads wash, three dry.
One morning I was awakened by the odd sound of loud, rushing air. Looked out the back door and saw this low-flying hot air balloon. I read a recent article in the Atención about these balloons. Tourists love them, as you can well imagine. I’m sure they offer incredible, heart-stopping views of this beautiful city. However, they’ve become so popular that residents are starting to complain about them: there are too many of them; they make too much noise; they fly (float?) so low that it’s dangerous; hell, they might explode over the backyard pool.
As I conclude this blog entry, I’m noticing out my window that Steve looks like he’s getting his rig ready to move on. They’re heading north, way north to Canada.
And our new friends across from us, Marshall, Bonny, and Griffin, are leaving for Helena, Mont., tomorrow morning. It’s currently 25 F. there; here, it is 75 F.
In Warrenton, OR, it’s not too bad: clear skies; high of 56 F; low of 41 F. In any case, we’re here for another sixteen days. We plan to savor every minute of it before we have to move on.
Call and Response 