Day Six

DAY SIX

Daisy attends her first birthday party today – a real Mexican fiesta for Thomas Elliot, the son of the man who owns the apartment we’re renting. He’s one year old, so doesn’t pay much attention to the huge party held in his honour, but the rest of us have fun.



Thomas’ Dad (also called Thomas) is Swiss German, and his Mum is Mexican. They have a huge house not far from our apartments, with a long garden, and hold a barbecue, with obligatory piñata.

Piñatas are a big thing out here, and you can buy them in all shapes and sizes. Shrek seems particularly popular at the moment. They may be traditional, but they are a health and safety nightmare, as children are blindfolded and hit the piñata with sticks until it breaks and sweets fall down.

We eat popcorn with the Dutch couple who are living next door to us at the moment. He is oddly frightened of eating butter, because of some survey that shows that it does terrible things to the insides of Italians (presumably not just Italians, but that is where the study was done).

We leave the party early to look at a house we could rent, owned by the somewhat hippy-like owner of Madre Tierra, a local restaurant. The house used to be the women’s prison. It’s gorgeous, and has that much-prized treat almost unknown in Mexico, a bath.

However gorgeous it may be, it would be very cold once winter comes in earnest, and even the most mendacious estate agent would struggle to use the word ‘cosy’ about it. Certainly it is not suitable for Daisy. We decide to leave it and stay where we are for the next few months.

The apartment we’re renting is rare in Mexican terms, because it is so very comfortable. The builders here prepare only for warm weather, despite the fact San Cristobal gets very cold, and most buildings have lots of windows and no heating at all.

Our apartment has a fire in the living room, a chimenea in the bedroom and a lovely kitchen with lots of space to eat. It already feels like home, so I am glad we’ve decided to stay. For much less than half what it would cost to rent a place in a suburb of London, we are right in the city centre with a cleaner who comes in every day, as well as all bills paid.


We also have lovely comfy sofas and cable television, though we haven’t watched it much yet, and the owner is promising to get wireless, which will make communication with the outside world much easier. Now we’ve made the decision to stay, we can begin to unpack!