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Melanie and Eric Maycotte, newlyweds, as they leave the chapel on their wedding day in San Miguel de Allende. September 2, 2006.

For the last month or so, I was in San Miguel de Allende, and during the trip I was happy to accept an invitation to the wedding of some friends – Eric and Melanie Maycotte at the family ranch. I was fortunate enough to see the transformation of the part of the ranch used for the wedding from a barn and storage area into a wonderful space. The wedding service and the transformation of the area was, and is, a personal family project and it shows a great deal about the family passions.

The family ranch has a history in San Miguel and it is very much Eric’s vision to do bring back some of that history in modern forms. Eric is an architect and his plans are by some measures grand, but he is accomplishing much of what he has outlined at an early point in development. San Miguel is a small town in transition. It has been noted in many travel, art and “second home” magazines as an up and coming destination for people in the US. There is construction going on everywhere. A couple of new “supermarkets” are being built by the largest chains in Mexico in commercial plazas usually only seen in cities two or three times larger than San Miguel. Fast food and international hotel chains are joining the growing list of rental homes and bed and breakfasts available in the town. What Eric and his family are planning is a larger vision of what the city could become and I hope it begins to point the way to a sustainable future for San Miguel.

The inside of the Maycotte Bodega de Vinos before the guests arrive for the evening.

The wedding ceremony the couple chose was very personal and touching. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the chapel. The bodega and the surrounding areas that were set up for the wedding worked beautifully and brought a magical quality to the event. Somehow during the rainy season, it was a calm, dry day without more than a few picturesque clouds. The season produces a profusion of wild flowers in green fields, a sight not many people expect in the highlands of central Mexico. In every way it was a joyous event.

I was fortunate enough to sit at a table with several artists from San Miguel I had not had the chance to meet before. The evening swam by with conversation, a paella dinner and music from two bands, Latin jazz and rock and roll for dancing. I have put the pictures I took in a my gallery along with some of the details of the evening. Enjoy.

Peter Leventhal, the San Miguel-based artist who provided several of the pieces used in the bodega, dances with characteristic abandon.

Survivor

Survivor, looking over the edge of his box in the laundry room. “Where’s my supper? When are we going to play?” he asks.

When I returned from San Miguel de Allende on Sunday this week, I got quite a surprise. “Survivor” had changed considerably since I left and is now a healthy and very active little puppy. He is still mainly black and white, but now he has tan markings above his eyes and around the edges of his face. His ears have taken on the “Yoda” quality of Chihuahuas and his eyes are large and round.

He is starting to eat solid food. He likes to play and to be with us more than we have time for. He is always aware when we are in the house and active, making sure we know he is there and wants to be around us. He loves to explore whenever we give him the chance, which means when we do, we have to be careful because he is likely to be underfoot.

I have already heard from family and friends wanting to see how he looks today, so this entry will have to do for now. I will take more fotos when I can and continue to update his page in my foto gallery so you can see how he is doing as time goes on.

Survivor

New puppies come to our house in Sacramento – July 28, 2006. It was a tragic story in some ways, but it has a happy ending.

No, this is not a post about the TV show. Last month, we had a bit of drama in the house in Sacramento. I had returned from Mexico and because of some problems in the area where they were living, some of Rey’s family came to stay with us for a few weeks while they looked for a new place. With them came the family dog, who was very pregnant and could not be left alone. She was a small Chihuahua and very near term.

After being at the house a few days, it was obvious the mother to be was in distress. We took her to the vet, but there was nothing that was apparently wrong and the costs of additional tests was prohibitive. So, she came back home. A couple days later, we found her in the morning – she had passed, but the puppies inside her were still moving. I will leave the description of the heroic acts that followed with Abel and Reyes working to save the puppies, but in fact the four puppies were saved.

Survivor sleeps in a box in the laundry room on some fresh tshirts with a couple of tightly-rolled socks for company. Later we put him a larger box with a stuffed rabbit toy which he accepted as a mother to lay against.

The miracle was short-lived however. Over the next few days, they died, one by one, having trouble handling the formula and coping. Only one made it. A male we have called “Survivor” for now, and maybe always. He is small, but he has survived more than a month now and it is clear he is strong and has past serious problems a newborn puppy faces. It has been a challenge. Just like a child, he had to be fed every three hours initially and the formula is expensive. But he steadily ate more and more and continued to thrive so the time was well spent.

I have had to travel to San Miguel de Allende for a month, but I am looking forward to seeing our little survivor again soon and posting some fotos for everyone to see. In the meantime, there are a few more pictures on the bottom row of this page in my gallery.

Survivor sleeping on a towel just after having his bottle. He is about the size of my hand at a couple of weeks old. He loves to cuddle in your hand after eating and just enjoy the warmth and closeness of the moment.