Rustica is our Airbnb and aptly named. It has its limitations but the price and location can’t be beat. Just a block from the main plaza. Every Mexican community has a plaza with a church serving as the community hub. Ours is one of five behind an unassuming heavy wooden door near the Lakeside Barber Shop, just passed the cell phone tienda. The door opens into a covered brick walkway between the first two units. The tunnel opens into patios with potted plants, terraced gardens and brickwork in various states of repair. It is charming, the appreciative traveler's name for needing maintenance.
Travel is all about having new experiences, learning about new places and meeting new people. Our new people at the B and B are Rosário and Mari, wonderful women who speak passable English. (thank the travel gods.) After our greetings, we made sure our water heater was turned on, we had an extra pillow and additional blankets. (the product of our experiences)
Our unit was carved and cobbled from the original two hundred year old buildings. The main room, entered through green wooden French doors, has tiled floors with their red glaze worn to a suggestion. The walls are brick covered inside and out with white stucco. The vaulted bovedilla ceiling is made of red brick. Skylights flood the room with light.
The east wall has a small window with a wooden shutter matching the door. A table sits between the window and the passage to the bedroom. I use passage rather than doorway because of the four-inch tall, ten-inch-wide foundation left in the gap carved from the thick walls. The gap has an archway above, backed with plywood, making a door of sorts. It is all painted a matching white. More charm, but a tripping hazard. This time we brought an LED tap light to reduce the nocturnal toe whacking.
The large bedroom has the same floor tiles as the great room. The full-size bed is next to a bookshelf and a wicker chair. Glass doors open to the courtyard. There is another small fireplace tucked into the corner. The closet is made of the same plywood as the bedroom door and covered with a curtain. There is one plug (not three pronged) above a blanket chest next to the bed. (We purchased a small extension cord to meet our needs.) We were pleased to find a new bed, much softer than its predecessor.
This south wall holds the traditional Mexican tiled kitchen with a wall-to-wall counter and no drawers or cupboards. Shelves below and above hold the toaster and mini-coffee maker. A microwave fills most of the space next to the six-burner gas range and oven (not auto light) and a stainless-steel sink with drying rack. (No dishwasher)
The east wall at the end of the kitchen has a window that opens into a six-by-six-foot red brick lined void between the walls. The window provides ventilation if not a view. The rest of the wall holds a fireplace and a freestanding cupboard with dishes above and pots and pans below.
The north wall has a narrow refrigerator (yes, on the opposite wall from the kitchen) and the doorway to the bathroom. The door is even with the bathroom floor, but six inches above the main room through a narrow wood French door. The floor is laid in while tiles, as are the walls to a foot above the vanity top. The bathroom vanity is completely tiled but has doors covering the empty space below. There is an old doorway, next to the toilet, now filled with rough red brick. The end wall has shower separated by glass doors.
More charm. Don’t put toilet paper in the toilet. Any toilet paper. Even soiled toilet paper. It is deposited in the waste basket next to the toilet. It takes some getting used to, but if the waste basket is dumped daily and the toilet paper politely wrapped in clean tissue, it's not too bad. Ready for more charm? Water pressure, there isn’t any to speak of. Yes, the toilet will eventually fill up, be patient and the water will get warm, more patience. Our unit has a tinaco or water tank on our roof because the supply of water to homes in Ajijic is inconsistent.
Yesterday Beth was using the facilities and called out that the toilet was running again. She quickly became more concerned as the sound grew louder. I came to see water pouring in from the small window above her head. I heard Rosário and Mari's frantic voices outside trying to fix the leaking tinaco. Mari spent the afternoon filling the tank with a bucket with water from her outside spigot. More charm, don’t drink the tap water.
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