The Streets of San Miguel

The first week here has passed quickly, with one sunny day blending into another as we've enjoyed exploring parts of the town we never got to last year as well as revisiting many that we did...including some of the terrific restaurants.

The house is great. So nice in fact that it's tough to pull ourselves away from it sometimes to go exploring. Rental of the place includes a full time maid named Maria who comes 5 days a week, and who handles all of the domestic chores associated with the large property, as well as doing laundry, ironing and even cooking the occasional meal if requested. There's also a gardener named Isidro who doubles as a handy man. Neither one speaks any English so my limited Spanish language skills have been getting a workout. They say that the best way to learn a language is to go "full immersion" in it. Well, here I am, and it's proving to be a real sink or swim sort of a thing.


Part of our back yard as seen from the Estancia. Nice place to have lunch on a balmy afternoon. The fountain is lighted at night.

It's always enjoyable to wander about the town. There are pretty views around every corner and always the likelihood of discovering another great place to have lunch or dinner.



Just waiting for the local bus downtown - this is the view across the street.



Lots of pretty street scenes like this one looking up one of the Callejons.



And another while walking up the street towards the Parroquia.



Morning delivery of supplies at one of the restaurantes.




Lots of quiet parks and plazas in the city where you can duck in out of the afternoon sun and relax in the shade for a few minutes. This one is El Chorro, near the spot where the first spring was discovered that initially supplied the city in the 1500's.




There are lots of festivals this time of year. Went to one that featured a local band doing an "homage" to the Beatles. They were really pretty good, although the only English part of the program was the actual singing of the old songs...everything else was in Spanish. Was enjoyable to listen to several sets featuring the songs of Juan, Pablo, Jorge, and Ringo.

When we visited last year the exchange rate was about 12 pesos to the dollar. Now it's between 13.5 and 14 to the dollar, so prices are about 10% cheaper than before which has been a nice surprise.

It's a city of churches which also makes it a city of bells...which announce everything from calls to mass to the beginning of local festivals. We live just up the street from the church of San Juan de Dios, which also has an elementary school. Starting at 0700 sharp the bells start clanging away - apparently the first call to classes for students in the neighborhood, who all go trouping past our front gate on the way to school. The bells continue to blast away at 5 or 10 minute intervals until around 0745, at which time (I guess) the first period has begun. December 8th was the feast of the Immaculate Conception, and the bells started extra early in celebration of the Catholic holy day. As an added treat some people started lighting off firecrackers at 0600 to announce the beginning of the festivities. So much for sleeping in.