Mexico Revisited: 2013-2014

March 9 – 19 2014 

Our flight home to Ottawa was out of Mexico City and San Miguel de Allende is just a 3 ½ hour bus trip from Mexico City. David and Suzanne Andrews have stayed in San Miguel de Allende five times in the last six years. This year they were renting a villa for February and March on Callejon del Quijote, a small side street south of the town center. The timing was perfect. David had reluctantly agreed to make a business trip to Chicago and Toronto for a few days in March so we timed our visit to include the time Suzanne would be alone. We were pleased to share their spacious and very comfortable house with them. It would make a perfect ending to our three month visit to Mexico. They were perfect hosts and we enjoyed ourselves so much that we cancelled our plan to spend the last few days in Mexico City before catching our flight home. There was so much to do in San Miguel that we just extended our visit. Life is tough!

San Miguel, at 1900M (6,200 ft) was called Izcuinapan (place of dogs) by the indigenous peoples. Conquistadores arrived and the town became San Miguel, named after the founder of the city, Father Juan de San Miguel. The name changed again in 1826 to San Miguel de Allende in order to honor Ignacio Allende, a revolutionary who was born there.

The city is now a favourite of expats and Mexican families who make this their vacation, and permanent retirement home. The days are warm, but seldom steamy, and the nights are cool. The historical center is well preserved, surrounded by narrow, cobbled, hilly streets, graceful churches, no high rises, and stuccoed buildings, flush to the streets, painted burnt umber, yellow, rust, soft green, even blue. Carved wooden doors, wrought iron balconies and windows, decorative openings in the walls all add to its charm. The larger houses are hidden behind high walls covered with falls of bougainvillea. An open door affords a glimpse of courtyards awash with flowers. Every street in San Miguel de Allende has at least two or three art galleries or interesting shops to explore. Browsing becomes an art in itself, although it is hard not to be tempted to buy at least one souvenir. Besides the stores, photo opportunities abound. Every corner presents one more interesting architectural feature. Buskers entertaining the tourists in the center of town, children at play and artfully arranged food or goods for sale add to the colour and activity. We even got to appreciate the workout walking the steep, cobblestoned streets of San Miguel. There are still lots of dogs in town but few strays wandering the streets. A Mexican fellow can often be seen near where the Andrews live walking, or riding a bicycle with a brace of dogs on leashes. One day Suzanne and I were returning from town in a taxi when we saw the dog walker jump on his bicycle to get pulled up a steep hill by a team of six large mastiff and husky type dogs. It was a Mexican version of a dog sled race.

What kept us so busy? Well, the first night was a birthday party for a friend who had grown up with the Andrews in Lachine Quebec. In fact there are several couples from Lachine who spend part of the winter in San Miguel and we met most of them. The Andrews and Burnhams reciprocated with a farewell pizza party the night before we left. We went to a concert in the Angela Peralta Theater, originally designed to host opera, inaugurated in 1873. A quartet of three American retired musicians and a younger Mexican fellow entertained us with a selection of blues from the 1930s to the present day. Another afternoon we went to the Pocket Theatre to see a movie. There were two small 23 seat theatres, each showing a different film, ½ hour apart. The $100MX (approx $8.50CAD) ticket price includes a choice of a drink, we each had a Margarita, and a bag of popcorn. Ray went to see Nebraska, which he thoroughly enjoyed. Suzanne and I elected to see The Great Beauty, an Italian film with subtitles set in Rome, a city we had both visited last October. Suzanne and I are still trying to figure out all the nuances of the Fellini style film. Another evening we went to St Paul’s Anglican Church to hear local actors perform the wry and often funny play, The Lyons, by Nicky Silver. The church also hosts Pro Musica concerts, held from October to April for the last ten years.

A quick flight north in the winter is never very quick. David left the house at 4:30AM on Tuesday morning to fly to Chicago. His flight out of Mexico was delayed by two hours with mechanical problems. Landing in Huston he encountered a huge, slow moving line getting through immigration, causing him to miss his connection. A standby flight did manage to get him to Chicago with just enough time to attend a dinner meeting. After a day of meetings in Chicago, snow storms disrupted flights to Toronto. He finally arrived in Toronto close to midnight and got up at 6 AM to attend meetings all day. Luckily the return flights went well and he was back in San Miguel Friday afternoon safe and sound.

Ray and I took the local bus to the suburb of Soriano to attend the large Tuesday market, held in tents that stretched for several acres. There were the usual fruit and vegetable, meat and fish stalls, tables of traditional herb remedies for every ailment known to man and a large food court with strolling musicians. You could easily get lost there. We bought fresh grouper from a fish monger for our dinner.

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday there are walking tours of the historical center, given my knowledgeable expats, with all proceeds going to a local charity funding medical services for children. Ray and I joined a large group of tourists to spend more than two hours touring the many interesting churches and colonial buildings, each with its own tale to tell. We never tired of revisiting the buildings to explore some aspect we had missed the first time.

We all needed a haircut. Sheila, a friend of the Andrews, recommended a local hair dresser. Ray and I returned from our walking tour to discover Suzanne had gone to the hairdresser that morning to have her hair cut and made an appointment for me at 1 PM. I raced to the hairdresser arriving just in time for my appointment. I left the shop pleased with my haircut and bought a mandarin in a local fruit market for lunch. I stopped on the walk back to the house to take photos of several interesting houses and then found I didn’t recognize the corner that would take me back to the house. I took the wrong one and ended higher up the hills than I should have. I took a road back and ended up almost where I had started. I still couldn’t find the right way back. I figure I passed some of the same houses and streets 2 or 3 times. Just before I was ready to give up and take a taxi, I before encountering a man consulting a map. Most maps of San Miguel center don’t include Callejon del Quijote, but his did. I managed to recognize where I was on the map and got my bearings. I finally made it back to the house, 1 ½ hrs after I should have arrived. Moral: always bring a good map with you in a strange city.

Every Tuesday and Thursday there is an excellent aqua fit class for ladies in the outdoor pool at Hotel Aldama, a short walk from the Andrews house. Suzanne is now a regular for the remainder of her stay in San Miguel. I should get involved back in Ottawa, if I can find the time.

Ray was waiting in the hotel courtyard for us when we finished and suggested we go across the street to see the murals he had enjoyed in the Instituto Allende. The center is in the former 1730s hacienda of the wealthy de la Canal family. In 1951, it was converted into an art institute which offers courses in silverwork, ceramic and Spanish, attracting hundreds of students each year. The dramatic murals focus on the history of San Miguel and their struggle for independence from the Spaniards. The old house is filled with various courtyards, a private chapel with colonial era frescos, a modern art gallery and a restaurant.

Go see the Jardin Botanico for a change of pace if you are in town. We walked from the house up steep streets to a hilltop 1.5km northeast of town to enter the 88-hectare botanic garden. The garden is on land donated by a local and maintained by professionals and volunteers. We wandered the pathways past areas of cacti and native plants, through a greenhouse for more delicate plants and down along a path paralleling a huge reservoir. We walked above a canyon where we spied an aquaduct which once carried the entire water supply for San Miguel from a freshwater spring, the Charco del Ingenio .

Saturday Ray and I returned to the Jardin, across from the beautiful Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel. Despite its appearance, it is a parochial church not a Cathedral. That designation was left to the biggest church in Guanajuato, the capital of the state. This was the start of a three day holiday and the area was filled with tourists, most of whom were Mexican. The Gigantes, worn by buskers, dressed in bride and Groom and a Catarina (an elegantly dressed skeleton lady) were around. A carriage, with tins cans painted green, each with a pink letter spelling JUST MARRIED, drawn by two big matched black Perscheron type horses waited outside the church for the wedding couple whose ceremony was in progress. The door of the church was open for us to see the large number of well dressed guests. A Mariachi band in white outfits and a donkey with saddlebags filled with bottles of tequila waited outside the church. The ceremony over, the bridal couple was serenaded out of the church and took their places in the carriage. They were given little shots of tequila in ceramic shot mugs and posed for photos before starting out of the plaza, followed by the band and several of the guests. Women, all wearing impossibly high heels, were given flip flops for the walk.

Later that evening, David, Ray and I returned for the evening performance of a Cuban musical group who had been in town for a week-long festival. Toller Cranston, the ex-Canadian figure skater, turned artist lives on the route to town. He owns 2.5 acres of gardens and houses that are listed for sale. Part of his home is a gallery of his art, shown by appointment only. Suzanne had visited the compound during a House and Garden tour a few years ago. Just as we approached, Toller opened the door to let a friend leave. He looked at us inquiringly so I said we were fellow Canadians who were interested in the fact he lived there, but no we were not in the market for such a large property. We chatted and left without asking ourselves in. Strangely, Toller was wearing a turtle neck sweater inside out and back to front. The next time we are back in San Miguel we will have to request a visit to the Art Gallery, and if we are lucky, the compound. 

There was already a good crowd seated in front of the Cuban Festival stage when we arrived. It was impossible to get 3 seats together so we stood on the raised plaza in front of the church. David suggested we stand along the side of the dance floor between the seats and the stage. The performance began. There were about twelve Cubans in the group; two women vocalists, drummers, guitarists and brass players. It was a lively show and the audience got up to dance; families with very young children, couples and trios. The Mexicans love to dance and they do it very well. We stayed until after 10 PM and then got a taxi home.

Sunday Ray and I went for a walk up Calle Ojo de Agua (waterhole street), near the Andrews house. Looking up the street the incline surprised us, but up we went. It was an area of large homes and there were several new houses being built in the first sections. Towards the top there were a few empty lots from which we had a good view towards the parochial church and the center of town. The street ended in a cross road in what was originally a typical Mexican village. We looked at the map decided to take a main road into town and then turn off on Calle Chorro, another small road heading steeply downhill. The road ended in stairs that continued on to an old church, Santa Cruz Del Chorro Chapel, with two bell towers. Just below and next to the church was the Casa de la Cultura, where art exhibits, classes and Spanish lessons are given. The building was once a water storage building, fed by springs that supplied the town with fresh water. A sign said that the church was the oldest in San Miguel and that the area was first settled by Franciscan Friar Juan de San Miguel in 1542. A garrison was established in 1555 to provide protection for traders on the new Silver Route between Zacatecas and Mexico City. As a result, San Miguel eventually became rich providing banking services for the silver, shortening the trip to Mexico City.

At the bottom of El Chorro was the Lavaderos Públicos, twenty old fashioned red concrete laundry tubs.  We had passed them several times on our way to the center, once stopping to photograph local women washing their clothes the original way in the tubs. Today there was a group of tourist who had arrived by tourist trolley to listen to their guide giving the history of the area. We continued across the street to the large Parque Benito Juárez, a large area created out of the fruit orchards of the wealthy Colonial Spanish residents. Sunday many Mexican artists display their work in the park. Some of it was quite good. We walked around the paths past several non-functioning fountains and some carved wooden statues. A children’s play area and basketball hoops had been installed in one end but the park is mainly for strolling.

Monday was our last chance to visit the huge Fábrica la Aurora, housed in a former cotton mill. We had been to the large traditional market and Artisan market in the center of the town, but this market was a cut above. It is a cornucopia of large studios where accomplished artists sell their paintings, sculptures, furniture and textiles. We spent a few hours touring some but not all of the studios, tempted but not buying anything.

San Miguel’s charms had rubbed off on us. There is so much to do and see in the city and surrounding area. We are contemplating renting a villa for our next visit, potentially in 2015, and combining a month in San Miguel with a month or more at one of our favourite beaches.