San Miguel de AllendeFeb 17, 2007
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Bob eats a tamale -- great street food!
Convent church dome
Doorways
It's about 60 miles from our campground to San Miguel de Allende, which is a charming town that has been discovered by artists, photographers and others of an artistic bent, many of them Americans. We had heard of it from a number of people and were anxious to see what they were raving about. But not so quick! Our second day's organized tour was to San Miguel, but first we had to go to a pottery factory and shop, stop in Dolores Hidalgo, a politically important town with a very interesting church and ice cream stands with very strange (but good) flavors, stop at an old convent, and then, in early afternoon, get to San Miguel, with enough time only to go to lunch (again we disappointed our guide by voting as a bus to eat on our own and Blane and Sharon and we found a very elegant and good restaurant) and look around for an hour or so before we had to return. We went back the "fast" way, but still got back late enough that none of us felt like going out again.
San Miguel is a charming city and we would like the opportunity to look around it some more, but it has been "discovered" and is full of high-end shopping areas and Americans. It definitely has some very beautiful areas - and a church that is unique in that it is elaborate but not ornate on the outside and somewhat more plain and in more disrepair than those we've seen other places - and a central plaza that is, like those we've seen in other towns, that is full of life.
We've noticed that Mexicans seem to live much more of their life outside, on the plazas and at the small shops, than Americans. Perhaps it's because their homes are smaller than ours or maybe it's just a cultural thing, but it's an interesting and charming phenomenon. We like it.
