Our two weeks in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, demonstrate the value of balance between old and new, tried and true.

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For my partner Rebecca, it starts with a firm bed. For me, it’s a suitable place to write in the morning.

When you travel, there’s a built-in tension between old and new. You leave the comfort of your home, routines, bed, and writing room, the tried and true, for the new.

The toe-touching left leg and the free-form right in Urbieta’s En Equilibrium.

In equilibrium.

Too much of either, and you lose

Balance.

It’s not easy, as you can see the powerful grip of both hands and the concentration on the face of Urbieta’s gymnast.

The same is true when we travel.

Our Casita

We are spending January in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. This is my first time south of the American border and Rebecca’s first time in Mexico. We live in a small house, a casita.

Here’s a view from the outside.

The window on the third floor is a bathroom connected to our bedroom. The bedroom opens into a deck with a wood-constructed covering you can see to the left of the bathroom window.

Our neighborhood, in the late afternoon, from the deck.

I won’t show you the bed, but it meets Rebecca’s exacting standards. Our tiny first-floor dining room doubles as my writing place. You can see the galley kitchen in the mirror.

Two stairs connect this floor to a second-floor bathroom and our third-floor bedroom.

Last night, two weeks into our San Miguel time, sitting with Gin & Tonics on the third-floor balcony, watching the sunset over our neighborhood, and thinking about January 2025. Apartments and houses are snatched up a year in advance, so we must decide now.

We love the location of our casita. More on that in a minute. And our Mexican hosts treat us very well. But we’ve made friends who have invited us into their homes, and we can’t reciprocate. Not comfortably. We have no room.

Yesterday afternoon, Rebecca spent four hours online on the third-floor balcony and found a larger home in the neighborhood in our price range that would accommodate our needs.

When she described her discovery, I told myself I had seen that concentrated face somewhere.

The Perfect Location and a Temptation

This is San Miguel de Allende’s central plaza, the Jardín. Presiding in the background is the Parroquia de San Miguel Arcāngel Catholic Church.

It is a seven-minute walk from our casita. We are seven to twenty walking minutes from almost everything we want to do.

Beginning with this street, just outside our front door.

We walk Aldama several times daily because it connects us to the Jardín and Bonanza, a small grocery store, the Biblioteca, San Miguel’s library, and Fábrica La Aurora. It was in this art gallery where I discovered Juan Urbieta’s En Equilibrio.

Notice the narrow sidewalk and cobblestone street. These are typical throughout San Miguel. Each presented a walking challenge. Fortunately, we brought thick-soled shoes and learned to concentrate on every step.

And we learned something else. Most other walkers accommodate. They either step into the street to let you slip by or, more often, tilt their bodies to give you more sidewalk space. Of course, we do the same.

It’s a two-step that works but requires close attention. And reciprocity. And accommodation to the other.

Here’s Rebecca today on our walk to the Járdin. See the subtle shoulder and hip movements by both.

It’s what we love most about San Miguel.

But, of course, there is a temptation at the end of this cobblestone road.

When I took the previous photo of the Járdin, I had my back to a Starbucks. Starbucks is comfort food — like McDonalds. There are also two yellow arches in San Miguel. So far, we’ve stayed away from both. But we’re not so pure and have transgressed, leaning too much toward the toe on the ring.

On two four-month trips to Malta in 2018 and Romania in 2021, Rebecca and I bought hot fudge sundaes and fries at Ronald’s place. We’d had enough of the superior Italian gelato in Malta and European chocolate in Romania. Our systems yearned for McDonald’s mediocre soft serve and fudge. The fries? Well, there’s a reason McDonald’s has long waiting lines in 119 countries.

I’m weaker than Rebecca. Yesterday, I spotted Spaghetti Bolognese on the menu of Hecho en Mexico, a neighborhood restaurant. We were with new friends, so our communication was silent. Her look was enough. I ordered something Mexican.

I need help to stay strong. I spent a month alone in Krakow, Poland, with a Pizza Hut outside my apartment door in 2004.

Hello, my name is Paul, and I’m a comfort food addict.

I remember my first trip outside America, to England, in 1987, with a group of American teachers. Before ordering the first night in a pub, one of our lot said disappointingly, “There’s nothing on the menu I’m used to.”

I’ve regretted that comment for 47 years.

Travel, for me, is an antidote to complacency.

It throws me new, I feint with old, and the tension enriches.

It helps that Rebecca is watching.