Author: yvettefrancino

We arrived at our Home Exchange in San Miguel de Allende at about 8pm after a 4 hours bus-ride from Mexico City.

This was the first experience using Home Exchange for both Chris and me (in fact, I didn’t even have an account yet) and we really hit the jackpot!

Julie and George were extremely friendly and personable! That first night, Julie had our room beautifully prepared, welcoming us with a bouquet of fresh, red roses. Since it was already pretty late and Chris had to get some work done, she brought over some food from her kitchen so we could prepare our own dinner without having to go into town.

Our casita felt like a historic art museum with beautiful skylights and brick ceiling.

There was a cute, private patio for us to enjoy, sometimes with their friendly cats greeting us with meows and rubbing up against our legs.

The casita was at the top of a a big cobblestone street that led right into downtown San Miguel de Allende. There were bright purply-pink bougainvillea, one of my favorite flowering plants everywhere!

The weather, scenery, and casita couldn’t have been more beautiful! I’d recently watched Disney’s Encanto and even though that’s supposed to have taken place in Colombia, it absolutely reminded me of colorful San Miguel de Allende.

But, once again, the real treasure was getting to know George and Julie. Our casita was just one part of their massive home. They invited us over to chat the morning after we arrived, and, as it turned out, that was Julie’s birthday!

We bought some little cakes and invited them to watch the moon set that night. (They have this awesome rooftop and moonsets are one of Chris’s passions.)

They rushed home from their dinner with young friends. Unfortunately, we just missed the moonset, but, instead we all had a little party in their beautiful home.

George and Julie are world-travelers with so much knowledge and intellectual curiosity. They talked to us about some of their experiences and gave us some recommendations about where to eat and what to do in town.

I’ve kept in touch with Julie over Whatsapp and she’s passed along the contact information about two Boulder women who stayed with them. And who knows? Maybe some day George and Julie will be my guests and we’ll all have another party in my Boulder-area home!

Full set of Microadventures in Mexico City / San Miguel de Allende:

Before heading to Mexico, Chris introduced me via Whatsapp to a couple of his friends, Seth and Nik, he’d known from his Men’s group in Bali who were now living in Mexico City.

Seth was able to meet us the first night, right after arriving in Mexico. The restaurant he’d picked out, GinGin, was just a few short blocks from our Condesa hotel.

Seth was very easy to talk to and I took an immediate liking to him. First of all, he actually knew all about Agile coaching (my profession). It’s pretty rare for people to have even heard of the profession and Seth could actually explain Agile coaching even better than I could! Impressive!

Secondly, Seth was willing to put up with my yenta-like questions about his love life. He’s a cute, recently single guy looking for a smart, independent red-head. I took it on as a personal goal to find him a match. I am VERY serious about my goals, and I really did look for a match for him for the rest of the week.

The closest I got was a red-haired older chiropractor — I did ask him if he had any red-haired daughters, but he said they were half-Peruvian and wouldn’t fit the bill.

When I reported back to Seth at the end of the week, he was not discouraged. He had complete faith in me. I told him I’d keep looking. (Plan B is to dye my hair red and find a good plastic surgeon who can make me look 15 years younger.)

On our final day, we were back in Mexico City, and this time Nik was able to join us, as well. Me and 3 cute guys? Absolutely, a super-fun microadventure for me!

Nik is a life-coach with a popular podcast, LifeAthletics, which is all about using a training framework to find success in life. I’m very interested in coaching and the health and wellness industry, so I immediately subscribed.

Nik and Seth had been to a story-telling event the night before and shared the experience with us. At first, I’d felt a little envious, wishing I could have gone to the event, but was very happy that they shared their stories so it’s like I got a private viewing! It was really fun to get to know these guys more personally than I ever would have been able to at a story-telling event.

Like Seth (and Chris), Nik is very articulate, smart, and confident. He talked about the Men’s group that they were all a part of and it sounded so interesting that I wished I could be part of it, too. Of course, there are lots of women’s groups, but I think being a fly on a wall of a men’s group would be much more interesting… probably because men typically act differently when women are around.

I feel really lucky that I was able to have a little peek into “that world” as I watched the banter between Seth, Nik, and Chris. They had this great intellectual energy. I love debates and discussions, and, again these men all were masters of communication.

When I meet people traveling, I’m always a little sad if I think I might never see them again. In this case, though, I know I’ll be able to hear Nik on his podcast. And Seth? Well.. he promised to invite me to his wedding once I find his next girlfriend, so.. yeah, I’ll definitely see him then!

Full set of Microadventures in Mexico City / San Miguel de Allende:

Microadventure #41: Practicing Spanish

One of the most fun things about going on an international trip for me is trying to speak in a different language.

Chris is probably the most worldly-wise friend I have. He’s lived in a bunch of different countries and knows Spanish (as well as Japanese, Indonesian, French, and, of course, English) fluently. He has a work-from-anywhere job as a translator in the Japanese financial industry.

Though he didn’t have to work much, I thought it was super-cool that he had the flexibility to even work from the charming Home Exchange Casita we stayed at in SMA.

I love languages and when I was young I imagined how cool it would be to have a job where I could travel the world and be fluent in multiple languages. Even though that didn’t happen for me (yet!) it’s fun for me to live vicariously through Chris by witnessing him in action.

Chris was such a supportive mentor and coach as I muddled through my own attempts at Spanish. Even though his Spanish language skills are far superior to mine, he was always encouraging me to practice.

Microadventure #42: El Charco de Ingenio

Another one of my favorite things about Chris is that he’s quite nerdy! He gets excited about the Moonset and Moonrise calendar, converting Celsius to Fahrenheit, Acre to Hectare, and finding a defect in this interesting Sundial contraption (Observatario Solar) at El Charco del Ingenio Botanical Gardens.

I wish I’d gotten a picture of Chris cupping the light in his hand at the Solar Observatory structure that’s behind him in this picture. The sunlight coming through a hole is supposed to tell you the date and time by it’s placement, as long as it was +/- 3 hours from midday.

However, Chris was able to determine that the description was not quite accurate. We were within the appropriate timeframe, yet the all important sun-dot was not yet hitting the floor.

Having spent time in quality assurance, I wished I could have politely noted the inaccurate description with a sticky note for other patrons. Chris used his Spanish skills to make a young intern aware of the errant description, who undoubtedly will get it corrected immediately. At least let’s hope so!

Since I come from a big engineering family, I am most comfortable around smart people who love to calculate, problem-solve, and question. I love it when Chris “talks nerdy to me.”

But, as someone who spent too much of her childhood in libraries, I had the most fun playing on the slide at El Charco.

Microadventure #43: Swimming at La Gruta

La Gruta Hot Springs was another outing recommended to us while in San Miguel de Allende adventure. We thought it would be interesting to experience a Temazcal Ceremony which was one of the services advertised on their Website.

Unfortunately, maybe because of Covid, neither the Temazcal Ceremony nor massages were available, but there still were relaxing, warm-water pools, including one that ran through a tunnel into an enclosed pool.

Even though the closures were a bit of a let down, I still loved swimming in the warm pools. My swimming skills are a definite “growth opportunity” and it turns out that swimming is another one of Chris’s many talents!

I took the opportunity to get some tips from him on how I could improve and I’m already seeing a little difference. I’ll be ready to hit the pool all summer!

So Spanish, Science, and Swimming are all skills that Chris helped me improve on this San Miguel soirée!

Full set of Microadventures in Mexico City / San Miguel de Allende:

Though I have lots of pretty pictures of colorful San Miguel de Allende, this is not a “travel blog” post. There were many scenes that I savored, especially the iconic La Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel, viewing in varying lights during sunset from a rooftop bar.

OK, I’ll include just one of my photos of that gorgeous church, with the recognition that none of my photographs (nor even those of the professionals) can capture the feeling of awe it inspires.

The moment that was the most special to me in the presence of this pink masterpiece, was with Chris on our final night in SMA. We had just enjoyed a delicious seafood dinner at Hanks, a memorable “New Orleans”-style restaurant, recommended by Kathy and Vic, an Australian couple we’d met earlier that day.

Chris was in a particularly smiley and satisfied mood. When we left the restaurant and were strolling through El Jardin, he spontaneously grabbed my hand and twirled me around to the music of the mariachi players.

It was just a little dance move, but I love dancing, and the sweetness of that spin in such a romantic setting was a fairy-tale moment.

Full set of Microadventures in Mexico City / San Miguel de Allende:

I have to admit, I haven’t been blogging as much about my “Microadventures” since I’ve been back home in Colorado. To be honest, I’ve been kind of moody. My winter in Florida was full of sunshine, new adventures with unlimited time to explore.

Since I’ve been home, I’ve been dealing with the responsibilities of home maintenance and chores. And it was colder in May than it was all winter in Florida! I also had some work (I taught a class and had a writing assignment) and had some goodbyes since my son and daughter-in-law moved to North Carolina.

We’ve had so many sad events going on in the world. Somehow I’d imagined that once Covid was no longer a threat, things would feel “normal” again. But now two of my three kids have moved from Colorado. Many of the friends I used to hang out with regularly have ‘moved on.’ I’ve been seriously thinking of selling my Colorado home and following Matt and Stella to North Carolina.

Then I went to the Boulder Creek Festival with my good long-time friends, Adam and Cathy, and remembered how much I loved Boulder and being able to spend time with friends who know me well.

The weather has finally warmed up and the festival is full of music and dancing. Boulder is so eclectic with people of all ages unabashedly being themselves. I’ve always been grateful that the culture here has always seemed to me to be one of acceptance.

I told Adam and Cathy how I was considering moving and how conflicted I felt about it. Adam (who is good with quotes) recited one of his favorites:

“If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.“

I like the quote and it’s a reminder that things do change. Unfortunately, even with change, we can’t get back to the way things were. I know I’m mourning the loss of connectedness I used to feel with family all around. I’m mourning the loss of my home before I’ve even moved, because I know it’s not the same.

But as I was sitting listening to music, taking in all the sites of the Boulder Creek Festival, and enjoying the company of good friends, I savored the familiar feeling of being ‘home.’ Just like in life, knowing that my time here is limited, makes me more determined than ever not to take a minute of it for granted.