20 months and 3 days (611 days)
That is the length of time it took from the Basha’s death until I had a valid and correct Mexican death certificate for him. But it is done! A lot of time and money for something that should have taken only a week. (Mexican law says the death certificate has to be issued within a week of the death.) There were small problems, one after the other, but each one blew up into a tempest (in a teapot!). The first…
Magical Monarchs
The main reason for choosing Michoacán was to visit the monarch butterfly sanctuaries. The season is November to March. I have vivid memories from my childhood of monarch butterflies and their caterpillar larvae feeding on milkweed. I think butterflies are magical, a feeling I shared with the Basha, who was like a gentle child around them. The town of Angangueo is the gateway to two of the sanctuaries. I booked a hotel in a neighboring town, Zitácuaro, that said it…
Basha stories: The Third Pitcher of Sangria
I’ve decided to put some Basha stories here, mostly for me, but occasionally I have referred to them in other posts. Feel free to skip, these are my memories. The year is 1999 and we are on our first big trip together. We knew it was a “make-or-break” test for the relationship. We were backpacking for a month in Spain and Portugal during the summer. We began the trip in Madrid, speaking very little Spanish, and not really having an…