SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE, MX. DEC 2-23, 2017

I'm going to start this blog with a photo of what brought us to San Miguel for three weeks, our new adventure into pet and house sitting. I love checking the twice daily email updates for sits around the word and back in late September I saw this request for the month of December with two dogs and two cats in this beautiful colonial city about an hour and a half from Guadalajara, Mexico. 

Having been to San Miguel about 10 years ago, we already had an idea of what it is like and we knew we loved it! So, I applied and happy for us, we got the stay. It turned out that the kitties were outside cats so we rarely see them up close, just needed to fill their water and food dishes. That was easy. The little dogs were Coco and Sophia. Tiny, lovable and happy little ones. We walked them twice a day and then hung out at night with them joining us on the sofa. And as always, its easy to fall for these sweet critters.  

The house was built three years ago and had the most amazing brick vaulted ceilings in every room. I know it doesn't show well in these photos, but it is an architectural feat to see, how I'd love to watch how it is created. The U-shaped home had a lovely large kitchen with glass doors leading to a large outdoor patio and garden. The owners, Mark and Judith, are both artists and the home is filled with their work and also that of local artists. Baskets, pottery, sculpture and paintings surrounded us both inside and outside. 

 The weather was warm when we first arrived but that changed about six days later and a frost hit the area, so unusual for this part of Mexico. We didn't have a car but being less than two mies from the center of the town, we could catch the bus at the end of our street for about 70 cents for the two of us, or we could walk and learn about our neighborhood. That we did often. When the cold weather warmed a bit we started going into town for the evening so usually we'd take the bus in and grab a taxi for about $2.50 and bump our way home on the cobblestone streets. 

It seemed we never had the same bus or the same driver in the whole three weeks we were there.  The buses were often individually "decorated" inside so it was fun to see all the different looks. All we needed was to find Ruta 2 and off we'd go. great little buses, well used by the locals but we were usually the only non locals riding. Didn't matter to us, we loved living the culture. 

The Homeowner had made a wonderful guide book for the area and even included the route of bus 2 making it easy to find our way around its stops. We could ride for about 10 min and be in easy walking distance to El Centro or ride it all the way up the hills above the city to reach the larger shopping areas and markets.

With all the wonderful and very inexpensive restaurants and cafes, we ended up eating out for lunch and dinner, I did very little cooking, and I loved that! This darling cafe was located in a lovely renovated textile factory not far from us, Fabrica de Aurora. Breakfast or just a cappuccino and cake it was always fun to be sitting outdoors, the rest of the building was a collection of amazing art galleries. 

 And poinsettias EVERYWHERE we went.

 In San Miguel there is a wonderful library, La Biblioteca, which has a cafe and offers many lectures and concerts during the week.  We'd pick up the weekly Que Pasa newspaper each Friday morning and see what was happening.

 Or we'd just walk the streets

 The local Artisan's Mercado was always a delight to see.  I'd head right to the last hall and find gorgeous fresh flowers to carry home.

 When we did walk into town rather than ride the bus, we enjoyed these murals for blocks and blocks.

 This is still my favorite since it includes a huge shrub grown to create the hair around the face.  Amazing.

 Arriving on December 3rd, we had the chance to enjoy all the festivities of Christmas.  We watched this tree being created with dried flowers and branches before an evening lighting ceremony on Dec. 7th. Fun to be there when the tree was lit and all the hanging street lights went on with children's choirs singing in front of the cathedral.

And, of course this being Mexico, we were on the lookout for small signs of their opinion of Trump. We weren't disappointed. 

 I loved this tree in the empty lot right across from our home, so beautifully formed by nature.

 I think I must have taken a couple hundred shots of empty cobblestoned streets. Once we got to the other side of the town plaza the streets were less crowded and even more narrow.  Never could figure out how people drove them.

 We had a late Sunday lunch at this fantastic restaurant.

 After about a week we did find the local English speaking independent theater. Great fun! There were three small screening rooms, each no more than 20 seats. So, you actually stop by and reserve your seat for any of the movies you want to see that week.  For $6 pp we had a current feature film plus any drink from the bar to enjoy with it.  Needless to say we saw several great films especially on days when the temps dropped.

 Interior of the Cathedral

 My favorite store in town, Sindashi, an entire store of hand painted clothing for men and women. This one was stunning!

 Coffee time at Lavanda Cafe

 or in beautiful courtyards.

 

 We happened upon several weddings during our three weeks, such festive occasions with Mariachi bands, decorated donkeys and sometimes even the giant puppets.

 On our second weekend, Juergen and Steffi, our sweet German couple drove over for Aquacalientes  to meet up with us. They had a lovely colonial hotel near the center of town and our first evening started with drinks at this beautiful rooftop bar. That evening was the first of twelve nights of La Posada so we joined the fun of following the Holy Family as they search the streets for a room to stay the night. Along the way, candy bags are given to children, music is played, whistles are blown and the walk ended about an hour later at the San Francisco church. We walked around town on Saturday, had dinner at Peru and visited the Toy Museum on Sunday before saying goodbye.

Always beautiful flowers everywhere; here at Juergen's Hotel de Sanctuario.

 Each morning when we'd walk down to the bus stop we passed about five different construction teams working on new homes in the neighborhood. Always interesting to watch

Another afternoon we connected with Erica who has lived in San Miguel for probably 30 years or more.  She is the sister in law of our friends in SLO, Linda and Peter, and we'd first met her on our previous trip so it was fun to see her again.  She still has a little VW bug and we drove outside of town a bit for lunch at one of her favorite little cafes and time to catch up on things. After lunch she drove us to the top of the city and the Botanical Gardens not far from her home. So glad she drove us there, I'd been planning to walk to the gardens but had no idea they were up such steep hills. It was a taxi ride home that afternoon, for sure.

 We could have gone to a music concert almost every night of the week.  Many restaurants had small combos or we just watched for details on posters.  We heard flamenco guitar, a Christmas Jazz concert, a violin, flamenco guitar, and even a classical saxophone band play "The Planets". Shows were at different venues; The Shelter Theater, Teatro Angela Peralto, or at the amazing Quetzal Salon.  One of our favorite evenings was outside of town in a large art gallery to hear the Ensemble San Miguel with fantastic singer, Maria.  Simply fantastic!

 For the Christmas season the central garden's bandstand had been transformed to the Nativity scene.

 More beautiful streets...

 Another wedding with the large puppets following the crowds through the street.

 This really cracked us up; the traffic policeman holds a red and green lantern to direct cars at a busy intersection.

 Time for a haircut

 and the more we walked the city, the more small gardens we found.

 Though we were scheduled to be house sitting for there weeks, the owners had a health concern and they returned 5 days early.  This could have been a bit of a problem, but they have a separate one bedroom casita on the upper level of their home with a private entry.  So, we moved into it and continued our stay. And then, somehow, our three weeks were done. We called for a taxi and with one more night at a lovely local hotel we had reserved months before.

 The Hotel Casa Liza was a perfect last night to celebrate the fun of our new adventures with pet and housesitting. Being on the opposite side of the city, our room had beautiful views of the hills.

 We had one last night out on the town and arranged for a driver to pick us up at 10am the following morning for our drive back to Leon's International Airport.  Our next segment of travels was from Leon to Denver for Christmas with my brother Kurt and his family. Flight plans this time didn't  go as planned so instead of arriving at 7 pm we didn't get to Boulder till after midnight. And such a change from the warmth of Mexico to the snowy cold of Colorado. But no better weather for Christmas.

And so, our 3rd Trusted Housesitters gig ends but with many more on our horizons.

* Just a few more special memories from our time in SMA...visit to the dentist for cleaning and finally getting an implant for PK, new camping tablecloth from the amazing fabric store, Tuesday Market, Cafe Juan's no Trump buttons, Geek Cafe computer services and food (Pks favorite chocolate cake), the organic grocery store with the awesome Neopolitan Pizza upstairs, handprinted blue bird at the mercado, practicing my Spanish, new boots San Miguel shoe company, being the only ones at the Italian restaurant for an awesome dinner, dried flower wreaths, meeting the wrong Erika, running into Judy Martindale and Mike at restaurant Hecho in Mexico not just once but three times, trees hit by freeze, PK's hours spent laying flat stones on the unusual fireplace and having them fall off, cleaning off counters, stuffing towels all at the gaps around the front door, housekeeper Irma, guard Jose Juan, removing all the tiny seeds from Coco's long ears, and a wonderful massage. A fantastic three weeks!