The San Miguel Shoe

Several shoe stores in San Miguel de Allende are now selling the San Miguel shoe.

Sorry these aren't great photos, taken through the window behind the security bars, but you get the idea. These shoes have extra support around the ankle and are flexible for wearing on cobbled streets. As you can see, they come in a wide range of colours and a few styles. they cost around $35, which isn't too bad.
They would have been very useful when I lived in Taggia in Italy - how many heels did I lose by getting them trapped down between the cobbles? I supported the bootmaker's family I'm sure.

Farewell to San Miguel!

Hey that rhymes!

Well, today I wandered the streets of San Miguel for the last time on this holiday. I'll miss the great door handles.

And the colourful homes

I enjoyed visiting the Santa Teresa Apothecary with its antique jars

And seeing local buses, or donkeys, trundle down the narrow streets

For the last time, I watched the bus that brought me home to El Rancho, make its bone-crunching way back along the dirt road sending a shower of dust on both sides.

I've said goodbye to the dogs, and I've managed to pack all my souvenirs into my suitcase AND close it with relative ease - I didn't have to sit on it!

For now, it's back to Playa and the beautiful Caribbean Sea. I've missed the beach, and although it's been a fun trip, there is nowhere like home. See you on the usual blog soon!

Canada de la Virgen

First, let me make it clear - this archeological site has absolutely nothing to do with either Canada, or a virgin, nor is there any religious significance.

Canada - with the little squiggle over the n so that you pronouce it "ny", seems to be Spanish for either canyon or glen. Yes I know those 2 words have vastly different meanings in English, so I can't tell you more. There does seem to be a small canyon in the area, but our guide told us that the name has absolutely nothing to do with the site, it's just the name the area has always been known by.

The Canada has been open to the public only since February 2011.
There are 4 areas of this site but only 3 have so far been excavated.
This pyramid is the largest and best preserved.

You can climb the pyramid and check out the paintings found in the red chamber at the top.
A skeleton was found in this room, and tests have shown that the body was already dead and mummified more than 1000 years before it was buried here. A former king or leader whose remains had been brought with whatever civilization was here?

The site is well sign-posted in both Spanish and English, but the guides agree that there is still a lot they don't yet know about the people who inhabited this site.

Cut and colour for $9

Forgot to mention that I had a haircut and a colour put in my hair here in san Miguel. I wasn't really searching for a hairdresser although I did need a cut, but when I walked past a shop advertising cuts for 25 pesos ($2) I thought why not.
A young girl gave me a book so that I could choose my hairstyle, and when I was invited to sit in the chair I showed the woman the picture and off she went, glancing at the picture from time to time to make sure it was the same style. She seemed to do quite a good job on the cut and took plenty of time, so I decided then to have a colour done too. They were low on stock and didn't have the first 2 colours I chose, so it's quite a vibrant red, but I think it looks OK. What do you think?

Not too bad for a total price of $9 eh!

Oh Guanajuato WOW!

Yesterday I visited the city of Guanajuato, the capital of this state of the same name. It's about 1 1/2 hrs away from San Miguel.



Here I am at the Mirador looking over the city. It's a wonderfully colourful city, with the historic centre in a kind of valley and the houses rising on all sides.

There is a tiny street called The Alleyway Of The Kiss which has 2 balconies only 27" apart and bears the Mexican version of the star-crossed lovers legend.

This gorgeous spot on the left is called Peace Square. There is also a whole network of underground streets which are really interesting, the buses go from daylight to total blackness and when I arrived the bus let me off in the centre - of a tunnel. The driver told me just to go up the stairs, and there I was in the middle of town.

The local buses are very cute aren't they?

I visited the Hidalgo Market, said to be designed by Gustav Eiffel of the Tower fame.

I think you could have found everything you could possibly need in here!

This picture below is the Jardin, the main square where the locals gather. Like in San Miguel it is bordered by lovely clipped trees giving shade and a great sense of style.

I really liked Guanujuato, it seems like a very liveable city. I didn't hear a word of English while I was there, it's much more of the real Mexico than where I live! But I still love Playa best!

Good Friday in San Miguel

The tourist office told me the procession would start at 11am, so I got to the Jardin in front of the St Michael Archangel church around 10.45 and found a shady spot to sit. Good thing I did because it was at least 12 before anything started to happen.

By that time it was pretty crowded near the church.

First out were the angels, and what a cute lot!

This was the chance for the young san Miguelenses to shine!

Next out were the Romans

And some people carrying crosses

And some poor guy getting a beating

Various wailing women

And Mary of course.

After that there was nothing left but the cleaning up

And then the crowd dispersed to find somewhere to eat lunch. Surprisingly for a Catholic country, there was plenty of meat on the menu, at least where I went!

Easter Sunday - blowing up Judas

Yes you read it right. Today in San Miguel, about 20 or so "Judases" were blown up.

Here you see the "judases" strung across the road. (There were more, but my camera batteries died as I arrived and I had to run around to get spares.
They came in all shapes, colours, sizes and genders. They looked to me from a distance like the papier mache figures that people buy for kids' birthday parties and you have to hit it until it breaks and all the sweets come out.


The figures seem to be sponsored, and had names on them. Might be a good way to take out your frustration on a cranky shopkeeper - make a figure and blow him up!

Each figure had a sort of hula hoop around its waist, and when detonated, the figure would start to spin, first one way and then the next like a mad thing.

The usual fireworks whine accompanied the spinning, faster and faster until KABOOM, the figure exploded into 1000 pieces (no sign of any sweets).

I didn't realise how hard it is to take a picture of an explosion - by the time you hear the noise it's almost too late to capture it, but I reckon I did a pretty good job on this one to the right. You can see the pieces flying everywhere.

No problems with health and safety here, although we could not pass under the figures, we were certainly a lot closer than I think we would have been in other countries worried about possible lawsuits or someone getting hit by flying debris.

Hot Springs here I come!

There wasn't much on the calendar for Easter Saturday, so I decided I would check out one of the local hot spring spas. The one which caught my eye and got good reports on the travel blogs was La Gruta.

I decided I needed something in my stomach first, and popped into Cafe Contento for a caffe latte and a bagel with cream cheese and home-made jam - interesting combination but it works.
The tourist office girl had told me where to catch the bus, saying it leaves on the hour "en punto". Arriving at the street, there were people waiting all along. I hung with a sizeable group, never thinking I should ask where they were off to. I arrived at 11.44, and finally around 12.35 an ancient bus trundled along. Getting on, I asked for La Gruta, "no" the driver shook his head. Wrong bus stop! Reminder to self: ALWAYS ASK.
I walked a little further along the street and then saw another bus approaching. Yes this one was mine, but no, it didn't leave until 1.20. The previous one had left at 12.30, but because it had been parked there when I first arrived, I hadn't noticed it.
I was angry with myself for wasting an hour and a half of quality spa time, and decided I wasn't going to bother, I'd just check out the markets and maybe do it another day. I followed the market right to the end and ended up, of course, on the street where the bus leaves. It was by then 1.18 and I decided that was fate.

The hot springs are on the road from San Miguel to Dolores (pains) - quite appropriate to have soothing water on pain street. It was about a 10 minute walk from the bus stop, but once inside I forgot all the hassles.

There were 5 different pools, each a different depth and temperature. The last and hottest is reached through a tunnel, and it is completely enclosed except for a few small holes where the light comes in and steam escapes to the outside.
I visited this cave twice but wasn't able to stay long, the combination of the heat of the water and lack of air made me struggle to breathe. It was nice to hop between the various pools and cool off when you needed to. One of them had a spout of cooler water splashing into the pool; people took it in turns to stand under the spout and have it massage their back and shoulders. Cheaper than the massage I saw advertised at 250 pesos for 30 minutes.
The waters supposedly have minerals which help with all sort of rheumatism-type illnesses. I can't say I felt any miraculous results, but it was certainly a most pleasant way to spend an afternoon.

San Miguel Door Handles

Not only are the doors interesting, but there are some very cool door handles

Not all the good handles are on impressive doors, nor do all the gorgeous doors have great handles. It's just random. But fun wandering through the city finding good ones!

The doors of San Miguel

No it's not a new rock band.  San Miguel has some very interesting doors

Some of them are carved timber, some of them iron, and you come across them all over the place, not only on churches and public buildings.

Couldn't help photographing a few for you to admire.

Welcome to San Miguel de Allende!

San Miguel is right in the heartlands of Mexico. It is a highland town with a rich history, colonial architecture and cobbled streets (yes, leave those stilettos at home!). It was dedicated a World Heritage Site in 2008. Now it attracts expatriate artists, writers and musicians.

I spent my first day in San Miguel exploring the town: I walked for about 7 hours and was absolutely exhausted when I made it home. I saw a lot of the churches, including the much-photographed St Michael Archangel.

I sat for a while in the famous Jardin, a wonderful green space in the middle of town where everyone and his dog (literally) seems to gather to catch up on the latest news.

I checked out the cafes and shops along the Portales

And I saw the black saint with the dog and cat at his feet. Anyone have any ideas who this is?

The idea of Holy Thursday was to visit 7 churches - no idea why, but I did my best to keep up with San Miguelense tradition