So I headed up to San Miguel, all excited for a mecca of art. Unfortunately, in this situation "artistic" just meant "rich". It´s a bit like what I imagine a country club to be like. So I looped on back to Tepoztlan. I had made a handy giant list of cheap apartments, casitas, and bungalows. After five nights of sleeping in various hotels, I decided that I was done with that and would just find an apartment that day. I stashed my bag at the bus station, and started calling the places on my list. I was a bit confused about the pay phones. When you dial, they make either a long beep, and short beep, or an esoteric message. So I went to a coffee place to check their bulletin board for new postings, and ask how the phones work. After that I had much better success on reaching people. I contacted one close by who said I could go look at the place right then. I went down to look at it. It was a pretty cute little teeny houselit. I told him I´d think about it, and called and visited a couple other places. I went down to Quinta Piedra to visit Jack and see if he knew of any leads, and visit Anne. The little casita was the best option, so I calld back and said I´d take it. The same guy met me there, gave me keys, and I paid him. I was sitting in my new living room, talking to Anne, about an hour later, when someone peered through my door. Assuming he was the resident of the casita next door, I said "Hi! I´m your new neighbor!"
He looked puzzled. "Who rented this place to you?" He asked.
"Um..Fernando?" I said. He now looked furious.
"He has no right to rent this place! He´s not the owner!"
"Oh, who´s the owner?" I asked.
"I am." He said "And I have someone coming for it tomorrow!"

So I went over to his casita so we could call Fernando. I gave him the number, and he yelled at him a bit and then hung up. I asked if I could call him also, and he said sure. Fernando said he was coming right over. I relayed the message to the owner, and he said I would have to speak to him from the other side of the gate, as he hates Fernando. I was beginning to get worried about the money I had paid for the place, as well as where I would stay that night. Fernando arrived with someone else, and the other person talked to the owner while I talked to Fernando outside on the issue of giving my money back. He did give it back to me, and Anne and I said we were leaving. We went around the corner, being bemused for a few minutes until Fernando and the other guy left. I headed back to the bungalow, and the owner asked if I had anywhere to stay that night. When I told him no, he said I could stay there. He said I was very nice and admired my Paulo Coehlo book on the table. He said "Well I have someone looking at the place tomorrow. You´ll have to take out all your things then. But you can put them in my place and maybe..."

I slept fretfully, and packed my bag in the morning. I brought it over, and spoke with the owner, who is an artist, for a bit. He told me that if the other person didn´t rent it, he would rent it to me. I spent the morning frantically calling and finding other places, a couple of which were viable, but much more expensive. I went back in the afternoon (getting lost on my way), and was tentatively excited to see that he had put my backpack in the vacant casita. He told me that the other guy was trying living somewhere else, so he would rent it to me! He had put in a pot and a pan and a plate and made the bed. The attached picture is of the little living and dining rooms. The neighborhood is also quite nice, in all my walking I discovered lot of little tiendas and fruit vendors, as well as many doors pronouncing art classes within. After a couple days of not calling anyone or walking anywhere, I´ll go check those out.