San Miguel Part Tres

Working our way thru the Mercado de las Artesanillas.

The little town continues to beguile us with its myriad charms. Probably doesn't hurt that the weather seems to be perfect every day. Our average day starts with a relatively early wakeup, a short walk in the crisp morning air down the street to Parque Juarez where Rita runs and I walk for about 30 minutes, then breakfast and out the door for several hours of mindless rambling around the town. We usually wind up back at the Jardin around 3 PM (ie after lunch) where we sit and people-watch for an hour or so, have an ice cream, and generally behave in as slothful a manner as possible before heading back to the house. After a shower we have a glass of wine up on the rooftop terrace watching the sun go down. I swear - this place really is where stress goes to die.

Celebrated Valentine's Day with the locals by spending a couple of hours wandering around the Mercado. Thought the street vendor in the photo below was going to float away like Mr. Fredrickson in Up.






Walked up the steep hill just behind the house to the Mirador where we stumbled upon a nice Italian restaurant with a sweeping panoramic view over the town. Had a great lunch in true Italian fashion...lingering for a couple of hours and just being mesmerized by the view.

It was good that the walk back to the house was all downhill. After a couple of glasses of wine and a stomach full of Italian food we were practically somnambulant all the way home.

On the way up the hill we happened upon a little church - a chapel really - and noticed a small crowd of locals forming up for what we assumed was mass. We followed them in only to realize after a few minutes that it was a Quinseanero for one of the local girls and that everyone else in the church was somehow related to her. It's essentially a "coming out" party for a Mexican girl when she turns 15. I had read about the ceremony but never expected to see one (or be in one for that matter). It was really quite charming. After the mass was over the priest "introduced" the girl to the community, and she then stood and delivered a little speech in which (as near as my limited Spanish would permit me to translate) she thanked her parents and family for their love and support while she was growing up. Really very touching.




Lots and lots of Bougainvilla blooming all over town make every walk seem like a parade



Seems as though there's a church every block or so, and all of them ancient - tracing their founding back to the 17th or 18th century. Also looked like the church doors were original issue, with intricate allegorical carvings from the time when hardly any of the congregation was literate.


The courtyard in the Instituto Allende, a famous local college with specialized courses in Art and in the Spanish language. It's open to the public and has a lot of little shaded nooks to take a break during the heat of the day.



Another courtyard. Even has a pretty good restaurant and a small cafe.



This is the view from the back terrace of the Institute. As you've probably figured out by now everything here is centered on the Parroquia.

Signed up for a "Discover San Miguel" tour one day thru the Biblioteca and it was really pretty good. Saw a few things around town that we wouldn't have found on our own anyway. Part of the tour was a drive out to Allende Viejo, or old San Miguel - the site of the original settlement dating from 1542. Guess the original village was overrun and virtually annihilated during an Indian attack a few years after its founding, after which it was decided to re-establish the town in the more defensible position it presently occupies. This little church dates from the 1540's and was "refurbished" in 1680. Might have been the site of the "last stand" back in the 1550's - thought I could make out a few bullet holes in the facade.






The other day we did a tour to Teotihuacan near Mexico City - the site of the largest pre-Columbian ruins in Mexico dating from about 200 BC. Wanted to be sure I got my money's worth so I made it a point to climb to the top of both of the major pyramids - the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon, which are the views you see in the photos below. The broad avenue stretches for about 2 miles and is the Avenue of the Dead...all of the large and small structures you see are burial sites. At the peak of its power around the year 750 AD this was a city of 250,000 people...making it the 3rd largest city on earth at that time.





We timed it right by doing it in the middle of the week and this time of year. Minimal crowds and not too much hassle from the ever-present street vendors that infest the place. Was afraid it was going to be unmercifully hot but it turned out to be pretty pleasant all day. It's located at 7,500 ft elevation which helped keep the temps down I guess - had read that it can be a real gridiron up here some days.

Made for an interesting, but tiring, day. Was great to finally get dropped off back at the house that evening.