As my time in Tequis came to a close, I was able to look at some real estate and rental listings on line.

Because I liked the area so much, the town was so pretty and the weather was perfect, I was tempted to stay and get a long term rental in the area when I saw some that I could afford.  

I’ve never gotten a long term (which here means 6 months to years) in Mexico and some ads say they want a legal policy from a tenant upon renting. I think this means an insurance policy in case you do not pay the rent.  An alternative I’ve heard of is that they might want a co-signer who owns property in the area. But they must own their property free and clear and be willing to co-sign my rental agreement. 

How am I going to find someone like that?? So the legal policy sounds more doable. I have met people here though, that obtained a rental without either, and just paid a security deposit.

I tried to imaging life here in the long term. A quiet village life. The winters get cold I understand, but not snowy cold.

But, I’m not ready to settle down yet! There is more I want to see! And, this might sound weird, but there’s a certain geography I’m hoping to find. I really like this kind of high desert, semi arid climate. I love it! But I miss trees, and there are other parts of Mexico I want to check out.

So, I wasn’t planning on going to the state of Mexico next. I was planning to go to Hidalgo. But I was looking for an airbnb in the area and the website showed me a house outside of Hidalgo that looked interesting. 

It was a big house in the trees of the state of Mexico. Maybe 70km from Mexico city.  About a 2 hour drive from the middle of the city. The trees looked like the oaks I’ve been missing! Is that a strange reason to go to a new town? Because of the trees?  

This particular house was in a half empty development outside a pueblo magico I had never heard of: Villa del Carbon.  I looked on google earth and it looked like another charming small town in Mexico with lovely churches etc.. 

Things came together, as they sometimes do, when I got an offer from a different house owner on airbnb. I had asked her if it was ok to bring my two dogs (I always confirm before I book). When you make an inquiry on airbnb they can see what dates you’ve been looking at online, so she knew I was thinking about staying a whole month there. For many of these houses that stay empty for months at a time, getting a month long booking is something they really want!

She confirmed the house was dog friendly, however I had decided the price was too high. It’s a very nice big house, but I’m just one person and I can’t justify paying that much per month. I think it was about $1200 plus airbnb fees and taxes.  So I told her that, and apologized for taking her time.

She immediately wrote back and made an offer that I couldn’t refuse! $700 for 4 weeks. That’s when I decided to go to Villa del Carbon.  

The benefit of longer term stays is sometimes you can find a better financial deal than paying $3-400 per week in various places.  I had decided after staying near the center of towns for the last month, that we needed a really comfortable house that would allow some walks in the countryside. For both the dogs’ sake and my own. We had that nice garden in SMA, but walking the dogs has been challenging ever since we moved from the Chapala area.

Imagine going out of the gate with your two dogs on leashes, and you are immediately surrounded by loud traffic, pedestrians, street dogs running around unpredictably, and also dogs under every fence and gate, and on rooftops barking at you. This is what we’ve been dealing with for the last month. It’s doable, but not that fun for the dogs.

So I wanted to stay a while in a place that we could do some countryside walks, and this looks like a place we can do that. With the big trees! It’s also near a Nacional Park we can check out.

So I had my last dinner in beautiful Tequis at a restaurant down the street. I don’t know if you can tell by my videos but I don’t go out to eat very often. It was a well reviewed restaurant and I had been craving a hamburger! I almost turned away when I saw the army of young employees in black waiting for me to walk in the door, but I went in and asked for a table for one.

It was a lovely restaurant and the service was great. I had my hamburger and it was good too.

Then it was time to leave the lovely Tequis and hit the road for Villa del Carbon. The land around Tequis is pretty farm and ranch land, and soon we were passing through the town of San Juan del Rio. That town has everything, from Office Depot to Home Depot. 

Then we set off into parts of Mexico i had never seen before. A very broad flat valley with mountains in the distance. Soon enough we were into those mountains and the roads were good and the scenery lovely.

At some point I missed a turn off and had to circle back. This added time to our trip, which google had said would be 2.5 hours.

Everything was so green and the number and varieties of trees got to be more than the high desert we had gotten used to.

The last stretch of road was a smaller street, sometimes one lane, with a lot of Topes! When I looked on the map I saw all these deep grooves to the north of Villa de Carbon, it looked like water had flooded down for millions of years. What this looked like in person was deep canyons with beautiful views. The drive was spectacular and I wish I could have gotten better video to show it.  It explained the Sunday drivers and groups of motorcycles I encountered. It was a lovely drive!

Villa del Carbon sits at about 6500 feet.  Northwest of Mexico City with About 10k people.

The first thing I noticed in the area was all the big tall trees. Villa del Carbon has a wonderful municipal park near the zocalo and it felt like being in a manicured forest!

The architecture here is a little different from other places we’ve been. they use the heavy wood that is abundant in this area.  Most of the houses and other buildings in this town have red and white facades with pitched roofs covered in Spanish-style clay tile.

The main church of the town is called the Temple of Nuestra Señora de la Peña de Francia. It was constructed starting in 1700. 

Across from the church is the main town plaza called Plaza Hidalgo, The kiosk in the center was the site of the town’s fountain, which used to provide potable water for the community. Unlike many zocalos there are many giant trees here in the square, it’s surrounded by interesting shops and nice looking restaurants. Upon taking a look at a few menus, it seems like red meat is the specialty here, with many cuts on the menu, and Barbacoa is very popular.

I walk around and see no (apparent) foreigners, no gringos. And only Spanish being spoken.  After I get a better look at the town I realize there’s more to it than I thought. It does get tourists, Mexican tourists. Being near to Mexico City, I’m thinking people come here for the clean air and skies, and this lovely colonial town. There are many shops surrounding the zocalo and clearly the specialty of the area is leather crafting.

 Much of the territory consists of rugged hills and mountains, with the high point being Cerro de la Bufa, at 3,600 meters above sea level.  These mountains here are known as the Sierra de Monte Alto. These mountains are covered in conifer forests.

The environment creates a climate that I was surprised by! This is my first time in this part of Mexico and when we got here it was spring like weather at about 70 degrees F and lovely sunshine in a clear sky.  It seemed that many of the residents here were wearing warm clothes, hoodies and puffer jackets, and I wondered why, when it was so comfortable.  I soon found out what they already knew! The climate here is like San Francisco in summer! Frequent fog in the morning and temps that rarely get about 70 degrees in July!  It wasn’t long before I had my own warm clothes out.  There are frequent afternoon and evening thunderstorms keeping everything so green.

So what’s it like living far away from the tourist trail?  For one thing, no one I have met speaks english. Not that I would expect they did, but in many other parts of Mexico english is spoken by many locals.  Good! More Practice for me.

There are cultural differences here that are delightful surprises! On Sunday the hard working little town came alive like a party!  Many people in the market and zocalo, shopping, eating, playing music.  It was very lively.  I wish I had a friend here to ask if this was a special occasion? Or is it like this every Sunday?  I guess I’ll see next week. 

The church was packed, but then I saw them carry a casket in so maybe it wasn’t just a normal service.  

There were people of all ages! Teenager flirting, families strolling together, very old people joining in, and children running around. They had set up extra parking and the market was three times the size as it is on a weekday.  Even some of my neighbors set pop up kitchens and had lots of customers, selling whole meals and snacks and drinks.

I was offered fried insects to eat, which I declined. I’m not a very adventurous eater. 

In the afternoon, the dogs and I were at home. Our place is a lovely apartment above some shops on a main street. It’s not unusual to hear firecrackers on a Sunday in Mexico, but we were surprised to hear them go off right under us on our street. I looked out the window and saw maybe 40 people in a procession, clergy and congregation, carrying religious statues and other colorful items, and singing. They came back going the other way about an hour later. I don’t know what the procession was in honor of.

So, as you can see, I have a lot of questions and not a lot of answers!  The people here are friendly and welcoming, and don’t seem surprised to see me, a foreign tourist who can’t speak much Spanish. But my lack of language skills are a definite negative when it comes to learning about local customs and traditions.

Shopping is what gets me out and interacting with locals more than anything else. I always start with buenos dias, lo siento, no hablo mucho Espaniol. Then try to communicate the best I can.  The Mexicans I have met this way have almost always been kind and patient.

I went to the tortillaria on our street where I had seen the women making blue corn tortillas.  It smelled really good. It was a tiny shop with the ladies cooking the tortillas right there, and a man in the corner grinding the corn.  

In Spanish, I asked for 10 tortillas. She said they sell by the kilo. I said, anyway, can I have 10?  She said yes and then gave me a fresh tortilla right off the grill with rock salt to try it. Yum! 

She asked where I was from, and I told her. Meanwhile she was packaging my tortillas. I said I’m here trying to learn Spanish. They were all smiles when she said something like “you all come here to learn Spanish and we go there to learn English”.  She then said something I couldn’t catch and they all laughed and looked at me. I just smiled along.  I got a picture with permission, but the lady didn’t want to be in it.

That’s what I love about a Mexican neighborhood. Right out your door you have little businesses supplying what you need for daily life. Within three blocks of our house here there are three tiendas, a carniceria, a bakery, fruit and veg markets and multiple restaurants. There’s even a vet and two farmacias. Everything within walking distance and run by sweet people. If I was to settle here long-term I’d be making relationships everyday this way.

So, I guess, the biggest challenge in traveling through a foreign country, especially if they haven’t seen a lot of tourists, and especially if you don’t speak the language very well, is the willingness to look like a fool. The willingness to be uncomfortable.  Keeping an open heart and a curious attitude in the face of any situation is sometimes hard. You don’t know if you’ll be in a hostile environment, or if the people you’re interacting with will face you with scorn or impatience when you try to communicate, and you don’t know all their ways of doing things. 

Luckily for me, Mexicans are known for their kindness.