About a month ago when we thought it was as hot and humid as it could get in Mazatlan,* GB decided on a trip to higher (cooler, drier) ground. We took an 8-day loop by Primera Plus bus to explore the old Spanish Colonial towns of San Miguel de Allende, Atotonilco and Guanajuato. All are located up in Mexico's central highlands within easy bus-traveling distance of one another in the Mexican state of Guanajuato. Visit these places if you can: the climate is pleasant, the architecture and topography makes for a rich visual texture, and there's enough history to keep you studying for a long time. The Spanish Colonial period started about 450 years ago in these parts, and these towns were Ground Zero of Mexico's bloody 1810 revolution. So take a trip and get you some history.
Our first stop after transferring buses in Guadalajara was San Miguel de Allende. It has quite the norteamericano expatriate community but in August most of them seemed to have left for elsewhere. In fact, August seems to be the off-season for everyone hereabouts, but GB and I were thrilled to have cool, dry air to go with all the sunshine – for tourists like us, it's the perfect weather cocktail. Enough resident expatriates remained in San Miguel, though, for us to have a National Geographic moment one evening. We saw what appears to be a gringo hangout in the old town center – a Dolphy ice cream store with a Dunkin' Donuts inside. As if the local nieve and churros wasn't far superior. I just had to take the pic above:
Much has been written elsewhere about San Miguel de Allende, so I'll be brief: the city is a Mexican National Monument and because of the historical events that happened here and the good preservation of so much of the original Colonial architecture, it is on the United Nations' list of International Treasures to be Conserved. San Miguel has a well established arts community that arose in large part from post-WWII American veterans who went there to study art on the GI Bill. Which would have been a pretty sweet gig back in the day when San Miguel was very small. Nowadays, there are galleries, musical performances, and art exhibitions for every taste and budget. There is also a large artisans' market full of the artwork and crafts that make this area of Mexico famous. Bring pesos.
We arrived in San Miguel de Allende on a Sunday and the main plaza, aka El Jardin, was jumpin'. It stays jumpin' in the evenings, too. Balloon vendors, musicians, and entrepreneurs with their food carts. Check out this guy and his clientele in the middle pic – he's selling corn-on-the-cob (elote) and his cart was one of the most popular – he was still bringing them in after sundown:
The red-pink sandstone church on the Jardin central plaza is La Parroquia de San Miguel. It's as stunning as any big-city cathedral, but is actually much more modest: it's simply the main church of the parish of San Miguel. The original church was built around 1680 but in the 1880s a local stonemason freshened up the facade based, it is said, on picture postcards he saw of European cathedrals. Personally, I think he did pretty well – the Parroquia looks good day or night:
There are a lot of hyper-cool centuries-old Colonial houses in the old part of town around the Jardin; doors, windows and roof ornaments are works of art in
themselves. For example, on the left here is but one of many custom door knockers you see while walking around town; and on the right is the unique balcony/wall art of Casa Cohen, which presumably belonged at one time to a Jewish family in a neighborhood I'm guessing was predominantly Catholic. There must be some good stories about Casa Cohen, but in the short time we were there I couldn't find out anything. Pity.
The area around San Miguel is beautiful and rich, and the old town center is full of historical buildings; walking around San Miguel must be similar to the feeling a tourist of history gets in places like Philadelphia or Boston. Some of the revolutionaries of 1810, like the Allende brothers (Ignacio and Jose) lived right on the Jardin in San Miguel, and planned their revolt against the Spanish government here. People risked their lives – and lost them – here in the revolution. Nowadays San Miguel is such a pleasant place to visit, it's hard to believe how dangerous the times were here, 200 years ago. Here's hoping things stay nice, peaceful and prosperous for many centuries to come.
* Ha. What folly.
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