First my amiga and one of my favorite Bloggers Billie broke a bone in her ankle (leg?) over the weekend. Of course we all wish her a speedy and complete recovery. She completes her injury Blog entry with a warning about the need to be very careful about walking around San Miguel.

Mexico is different when it comes to walking about. I have written extensively about the pot holes and rough surfaces on the highways and streets of Mexico. Walking has similar hazards as the sidewalks and foot paths quite simply do not have the physical or legal protections that you find in the United States.

It has been said over and over that America is a law suit crazed territory; people suing for hot coffee spills and criminals suing from falling through a skylight in a place they were robbing; and other crazy suits. The good news from all that nonsense is people are extremely cautious towards not contributing to a dangerous situation – like a sidewalk with cracks or sudden unexpected changes in height of a walk way.

Recently we had a community water supply issue here in the Hood. On the west side of Vicente’s casa the sidewalk was dug up to a depth of about three feet and that wide and perhaps slightly longer – we are talking a darn big hole in the sidewalk. We have but a few street lights here in the Hood; at night it is pretty dark and yet there were no barriers setup or any other cautionary methods to keep people from falling in that hole in the dark or daylight for that matter; you know this would never fly in the U.S.

We had a power problem in our neighborhood in Prescott, AZ. A hole was dug where a cable was exposed. This was on a vacant lot right next door. They posted a 24 hour guard until that hole was filled – a very different scenario from Ursulo Galvan.

Walking down any sidewalk in our tri-city area (Xalapa-Coatepec-Xico) can be dangerous resulting in injuries like Billie’s. Believe me when I report that suing someone that might own the property or trying to recover costs and more from a governmental entity for an injury simply does not happen here.

Coming to Mexico? – Proceed with caution!

Wayne the Gringo in Paradise living in the Isla of Mujeres off the coast of Cancun is organizing a Mexican Bloggers junta scheduled for mid April. We unfortunately will miss it – but read about it here.

John Woods who writes a terrific Blog is vacationing in Argentina from San Miguel where he lives full time. An excellent read that. Today it seems he likes it so much in South America that he has fantasies of a still greater escape – you can read about that here. His is a must read Blog with terrific photos and great commentary.

Also news from San Miguel: Internet friend and author of the Blog “San Miguel Photos” fame Jon has decided to go back to the United States. Jon has been managing a wonderful photo journal of wife and his life on a rancho in the San Miguel area. Jon reports that they are moving back to the San Francisco Bay area where he will take on a full time job.

This comes as quite a surprise. I hope to learn more about it. I encouraged Jon by way of a comment on his Blog entry to let us know how this all plays out. Here on my Blog I have barely addressed the fact that some people don’t find what they were looking for from Mexico for some reason.

There was the couple that emailed with us for six months before meeting up with Anita and I in Brownsville and then caravaning down to Xico. Their intention was to stay here six weeks to two months to checkout the area and find a property. They holed up in our next door neighbor’s house for 8 days playing cards and eating – then packed up and went home never to be heard from again?

You long time readers might remember Lou from Canada who picked up and moved to Xalapa and then Mexico City. She had a harrowing time with a notorious landlady and she was robbed in the Puebla bus terminal. Lou packed up and high tailed it back to Canada within about 6 weeks.

Then there are Jim and Mindy who lived virtually in Mexico through my personal emails with them and then the Blog. Jim and I had been email friends for a number of years with a common interest in alternative building and environmental issues. They sold their environmental strawbale house (or so they thought – another story there), bought an older Air Stream trailer and headed out here having never set foot in the area – and they are sill in the area two years later.

I recently wrote about a Blog that had a guest commentary by someone that has been reading gringo Mexican Forums to help decide on an area to possibly live in Mexico – you can read about that on Viva Veracruz Forum. She had complimentary comments about our Forum by the way.

Needless to say Mexico is not for everyone. Life can throw some curves into any plan, even the well thought-out ones. A lot of credit has been given (written) to the expat Mexico Blogging community. I think you can get an idea of life in Mexico from reading about the every day lives of we that have escaped here.

I am going to try and find out more about what is going on with Jon. In the meantime the weather here is and has been spectacular – we are heading up to Rancho del Cielo for a few days – ‘talk’ to you from up there. Stay Tuned!