Greg's Guests in San Miguel
	Eating Out in San Miguel Allende
	Return to the Index for Our Mexico Trip

During the couple of weeks that we were here in San Miguel, Fred and I, usually with Greg or some other houseguests along as well, walked around San Miguel for various reasons. Whether it was to get to the market to lay in supplies, or just to see a park or other local feature, each walk was an interesting outing in itself, and each revealed something different about the city of San Miguel.

August 8: The Hacienda El Santuario San Miguel de Allende Hotel and Bar

As it was very close by, and because Greg wanted us to see the hotel bar in particular, we walked a couple hundred feet south down our street (Aldama) to the Hacienda San Miguel. It is located in a group of three old house full of history that have been combined to create the hotel. One interesting thing about the hotel is that all the public rooms and the guest rooms are finely decorated with beautiful pieces of Mexican folk art from the states of Michoacán, Oaxaca, Chiapas and Guanajuato.

The centerpiece of the hotel is its imposing central courtyard and event venue, covered by an impressive stand of bougainvillea ad a huge cherimoya tree that fruits for much of the year.

The courtyard is often used for guest functions, and quite a number of civil marriage ceremonies have been held here.

Click on the Image Above to View the Slideshow

I think it was the decoration of the hotel that Greg wanted us to see, and there was certainly a lot of it. apparently the hotel has a collection of more than 1,300 pieces of Mexican folk art, distributed throughout the hotel, and there was enough in the public areas for us to take lots of pictures. While the collection didn't rival that of the Atotonilco Gallery, it was impressive. To allow you to see much of this artwork quickly and easily, I've created a slideshow of many of our pictures.

To view the slideshow, just click on the image at left and I will open the slideshow in a new window. In the slideshow, you can use the little arrows in the lower corners of each image to move from one to the next, and the index numbers in the upper left of each image will tell you where you are in the series. When you are finished looking at the pictures, just close the popup window.

A particularly interesting-decorated area of the hotel was its beautiful bar- "La Sanmiguelada". I have no idea why the walls were all painted the way they were, but if you just look at some of the pictures below, you will see what I mean:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

August 8: The Rosewood Hotel and Luna Rooftop Restaurant

On the very first day we were here in San Miguel, we arrived too late at Casa Pina for either breakfast or lunch, so in the evening on that first day, after we'd met Greg's current guests (Richard and Penny; Mohamed and Chase), Greg, Mohamed, Chase, Fred, and I went out for a walk in the afternoon, intending to find a place to have a light supper.

Chase, Mohamed, Greg, and Fred at Luna

We walked the short distance down to the Rosewood Hotel, about five blocks from Casa Pina, and took the elevator up to Luna- their casual rooftop restaurant. (It sports a menu of classic and unusual cocktails and Mediterranean-inspired tapas.) This was our first rooftop experience here in San Miguel, and the views from Luna didn't disappoint.

Many consider Luna to have the best views; they are certainly expansive, featuring unobstructed views of the city's beautiful skyline. We got a table and some snacks, and took lots and lots of pictures (not realizing this would be far from our only chance to do so from various rooftops.

Here is a classic view of the centro, with the spires of the Parroquia featuring prominently just to the right of center.

The Hills Above San Miguel

We spent most of our time in Centro- old San Miguel de Allende. But like most places, the city has grown far beyond its original environs, creeping up and over the hills that originally surrounded the town. Luna offered good views of these hills to the east.

The colors and ever-changing light of the city below offered different opportunities every few minutes to get a picture in a different light.

This was a great place to watch the sunset and take in the fading lights across the city’s palette of burnt sienna, earthy pink, and warm yellow hues in the sweeping views of the city’s iconic Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel, bell towers, rolling hills, and beyond. Here are a selection of other pictures taken from Luna:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

August 9: A Neighborhood Walk

On our second day here, we all (Greg, Richard and Penny, Mohamed and Chase, and Fred and I) decided to walk from Casa Pina to the City Market (a large food store about a mile away).

On this particular walk this morning, we were really just getting used to the neighborhood between the Jardin Allende southward to the newer part of San Miguel. This is the southern part of the area known as "Centro".

Centro is criss-crossed with cobblestone streets, small parks, odd intersections, and house after house behind its obligatory wall along the street. That's one of the things that takes some getting used to: the streets all look very sterile and closed-in, as each side is lined with a seemingly unbroken wall, punctuated only by color changes, a very few windows, and doors every so often.

But San Miguel is only really interesting and beautiful behind these walls- and our own Casa Pina was an excellent case in point. Behind our own plain door is a beautiful, multi-building house, courtyard, and garden. And all of that is invisible from the street. This is very unlike even city houses in the States, where the quality, size, and characteristics of the residences (or commercial establishments) are all visible from the street.

So when you look at many of the pictures from this and the other walks we took, don't assume that San Miguel is uniformly boring; the complexity of the various structures is hidden from the casual passerby.

So, the seven of us left Casa Pina (8 Aldama) and headed down the narrow street to the south:

And just a short way down our street, Fred stopped to look back up the street and got this view of the Parroquia. He caught up with us as we continued down Aldama.

One of the things that stuck me about San Miguel was the color palette for almost all of the walls and, where we could see them, the houses. With only rare exceptions, the colors were all "earth tones"- ranging from brown and tan all the way to orange and red. Missing almost entirely were blues, yellows, and greens (save for the green vegetation and the occasional tile accent). But even within that fairly narrow palette, there was a great deal of variety.

A Tree Grows...Through a Wall?

At the top of one particularly beautiful street we came across a rather plain wall and set of garage doors, with the odd thing being that the owners did not, apparently, want to cut down a tree, so they built the wall around it. I can only imagine that adjustments are needed occasionally.

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Incidentally, as I said above, the picture at left was taken at the top of our walk up a very nice street south of Juarez Park, and I filmed much of the walk up that street.

You should use the movie player at right to walk up the street with us.

As for the rest of the pictures we took on this particular walk, we had three photographers- Mohamed, Fred, and I- who contributed pictures to the collection, and so there were some duplicates. Even so, there were quite a few good pictures left, interesting for one reason or another.

Click on the Image Above to View the Slideshow

So, as I've done frequently in this photo album, I'll eschew the rows of thumbnails that you have to click on individually and instead put the dozen or so pictures into a slideshow, one that you can page through quickly and easily.

To view the slideshow, just click on the image at left and I will open the slideshow in a new window. In the slideshow, you can use the little arrows in the lower corners of each image to move from one to the next, and the index numbers in the upper left of each image will tell you where you are in the series. When you are finished looking at the pictures, just close the popup window.

August 10: A Visit to Iglesia San Francisco

On one morning of our first week here, Fred, Greg, and I were walking around the Centro just a block or so northeast of the square (Jardin Allende and the Parroquia) and we came across this church, set back from San Francisco street (the street was named for the church, not the other way around) with a park shaded by sculpted trees in front.

San Francisco Church

Around the time of the American Revolution, some towns in this area of north-central Mexico had found themselves sitting on deposits of minerals that were fast becoming very valuable raw materials for the new factories sprouting across Europe. Some of these towns were becoming quite wealthy (or at least many of their leading families were), and these towns and families competed with each other by building beautiful churches. Design talent came from Mexico city where architectural schools quickly embraced the latest fads from Spain. And one of the very latest styles in vogue was the Churrigueresque.

This style, while "in style" when construction on the church began, was, to put it mildly, excessive- particularly insofar as external ornamentation was concerned. Churches (and buildings) of this style were often completely covered with carvings, bas-relief, and other ornamentation.

Sadly, while the church of San Francisco was state-of-the-art for late 17th century central Mexican religious design, design is always a moving target, given that styles in Spain and Mexico City didn't stay the same. That was going to mean quite a bit for San Miguel's Church of Saint Francis.

This church wa built in the 20 years ending in 1799, and it was originally to be dedicated to and named for Saint Anthony. Saint Anthony was something of a role model for the new central-Mexican elites; he had been a rich man before he entered the Franciscan Order, and it was the well-to-do of San Miguel el Grande who paid to build this church.

Before we go into the church, we should talk a bit more about this "Churrigueresque" style. What was it all about, and what did buildings (particularly churches) in the style look like?

Well, to show you, I've taken one of the pictures that Fred took of the main facade, blown it up, and put the blown up version in the scrollable window at left. The picture is so large that you can only see the top of one of the columns when this page loads, but you can use the horizontal and vertical scroll bars to see most of the facade above the main doors.

This is what the "Churrigueresque" style was all about, but as it turned out, the Saint the church was dedicated to, Saint Anthony, is also the patron of lost causes, which worked out well for this church as the architectural decoration style displayed here was about to become a lost art as the Spanish and Mexico city authorities declared the Churrigueresque to be passé. Unfortunately, San Francisco was in the process of being built.

What did get built using the Spanish Baroque decorative style Churrigueresque was the facade (the one in the scrollable window above) with its six terra-cotta like columns (called estipites) which ascend the entire height of the building. Like good Baroque, this facade "surprises" by contrasting the simple block frame of the sides with the explosion of saints and other stone carvings in the symmetrical center. This style was way over the top, but that seemed to be the point.

Actually, the ornamentation on the facade is extremely interesting, and there is a lot to see if you scroll around the whole picture at left. For example, the ornamentation around the central window depicts Saint Francis and (probably) Saint Anthony underneath the Crucifixion scene. This window is a bit unusual in that it is pretty much rectangular. Most Churrigueresque facades would have a more rounded central window as the baroque did not like things simple. Above this window, Saint Francis's statue crowns all. Elsewhere, you can find Mary ascending into heaven after smashing the evil snakes (or whatever) with her feet; she is helped in her endeavor by four cherubs.

But fashions changed in the twenty years it took to complete the church. Starting around 1790 in Mexico City, the excessive Churrigueresque faded and the restrained neoclassical came into vogue. But with the church not complete, it had to be finished in the style becoming the vogue at the time, so what San Francisco got in San Miguel el Grande (soon to become de Allende) was a neoclassical structure designed by Eduardo Tresguerras of Celaya who was brought in to "save" the church.

So what did Tresguerras do? Well, he finished the church in the neoclassical style coming into vogue. The problem was, putting this style right next to the rococo Churrigueresque of the facade would have been too jarring. So what he did was build the tower in the neoclassical style but put it on a very simple base that did not detract from the obviously beautifully intricate carvings on the facade. For balance, he added a similar simple structure on the other side of the facade, although there was no tower atop it (as there are in most European churches).

To see clearly what he did, I've expanded a view of just the tower and its base, and that view is in the scrollable window at right. You can see clearly how the simple base reduces contrast, and how the style of the bell tower, while still fairly intricate, is not so close to the different style of the facade as to look so very much out of place.

So we have here a church in two styles, an occurrence that is probably not uncommon, given how long churches once took to build. The new, simpler style continued to influence Iglesia San Francisco with the addition of another structure to the left of the main facade.

On the west side of the same square of the church of San Francisco, and abutting it along some of the nave, is the fortress-like chapel of the Third Order of Saint Francis with its simple bell tower above.

It was built in 1713 but looks much older- like some of the early Franciscan churches in the New World which were used for both worship and defense. Members of the third order (the first and second were friars and nuns, respectively) were laymen of Spanish blood who did not live in religious congregations. They got to wear religious garb in their caskets (after they died).

One can only imagine that the position was sought after as a way of ensuring the member's avoidance of anything unpleasant in the afterlife. Beyond the bell tower is a monastery now fallen into decay. Members of the third order did NOT live here, of course, because as a secular order, they lived in the real world.

Before we go inside the church, I have a few more pictures taken outside that I think are worth including here.

On one bright, sunny day when we walked by the church on our way somewhere else, Fred got an excellent picture of the church and the plaza/park in front of it- including its pretty fountain. Here is a better view of the fountain:

Finally, there was an interesting sign detailing some of the history of the Saint Francis religious ensemble, and I thought you might be interested in reading it. It is in the scrollable window below:

Now let's go inside Iglesia San Francisco and see whether the Churrigueresque style permeated the interior, and whether the ornamentation inside the church matches that on the facade.

Inside the Church of San Francisco, we found very high ceilings and lots of natural light, and we also found that the ornateness of the facade had not been carried through into the chapel. Indeed, the Church of San Francisco was less ornately decorated than, say, the church in Atotonilco (as well as the Parroquia and other San Miguel churches.

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Even with the decorative restraint here in the church of San Francisco, there was still enough to admire, and I walked down to the center of the main aisle to look around. There, I made a movie panning almost 360° around the chapel. You can use the player at right to watch that movie.

As you can see, on both sides of the church the architect lined the walls with Ionic columns. This was a neoclassic touch that would enhance the simplicity of the interior. The natural light comes from a dome with lightly-stained glass that allows natural light to filter softly down past the chandelier.

The main altar is the focal point of the church, and of course features a sculpture of the Crucifixion in the center. On the left, we find that Saint Anthony of Padua, for whom the church was originally named, is still honored by the statue on the right. Anthony is traditionally shown holding the Christ Child. The statue at left is of Saint Francis who eventually got naming rights here.

The Main and Side Altars at the Church of San Francisco

This view looks back towards the entrance of the church, and show the choir loft.

The altar to the right of the main one is the largest of many that line the walls of San Francisco. Note the tile floor and the religious art, much of it from the better local artists. This region has many tile and pottery factories.

Right Side Altars at the Church of San Francisco

This View to the Main Altar

A Panoramic View of the Interior of the Church

Statuary in the Church of San Francisco

The Church of San Francisco is a popular church in San Miguel de Allende, but the small park right in front of it is also usually filled with people sitting under the sculpted trees.

People sit on the benches along two sides of the park.

The interior of the area is a sculpted, well-kept garden.

To the left of the park as you are walking to the front entrance of the church there is a cloister with a beautiful garden.

August 11: A Driving Tour of San Miguel Allende

As part of our tour to the Atotonilco Folk Art Gallery, the Church of the Nazarene, and the La Gruta Spa, we were driven through areas of San Miguel that we were not able to walk to.

Click on the Image Above to View the Slideshow

We took a good many pictures and movies as we were being driven around, although we made so many twists and turns that I would have a hard time placing most of the scenes.

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I made one movie as we were driving through San Miguel, that movie to give an idea of what it was like to negotiate the narrow cobblestone streets, many of which were quite steep. I was glad I wasn't driving, and it wasn't my car, because avoiding scraping a wall or another car seemed to me to be a major achievement.

As for pictures, we took quite a few of those, and many of them turned out well, even though we were in motion when most of them were taken. They don't tell some sort of continuous story, but each one is interesting in one way or another. There were enough good ones that a slideshow became the most convenient way to include them in this album.

To view the slideshow of the pictures we took while driving in and around San Miguel, just click on the image at the upper left and I will open the slideshow in a new window. In the slideshow, you can use the little arrows in the lower corners of each image to move from one to the next, and the index numbers in the upper left of each image will tell you where you are in the series. When you are finished looking at the pictures, just close the popup window.

August 15: A Walk from Casa Pina to the City Market

We have walked to the City Market (local big grocery store) once already, but on this walk we tok a different route, and so saw some different things along the way.

To get to the City Market from Casa Pina, we followed a simple route, going south on Aldama and then to the west of Parque Benito Juarez. A couple of side streets take us over to Zacateros, and then we just head south. All the pictures I took on the walk I took along this street.

When I find something odd, or interesting, or colorful, you can be pretty much sure that I will take a picture of it.

An example are these three typical buildings framed nicely by the two big trees in front.

At one point, I came across an interesting (and large) building with a gated entrance, and the gate happened to be open. Looking inside, it seemed to be the courtyard of a large home, but here it was on a commercial street. Luckily, there was a sign nearby. I would have put the sign in a scrollable window for you to read, but there was a good deal of graffiti on the glass covering the signs, and so I will transcribe them here:

"The history of this property is closely linked to that of its owner, Manuel Tomas de la Canal y Bueno de Baeza, a Spanish creole native of Mexico City, who arrived at San Miguel el Grande village around 1730. This after having embarked on a real political and commercial career, as alderman and trader in Mexico City, owner in Queretaro city, supplier of meat and broker of the rich miners in Zacatecas and Guanajuato cities.

The exact date of the construction of this beautiful colonial residence is unknown, but it can be inferred that it happened between the 1730s and 1740s, according to the moment when Manuel de la Canal appeared in San Miguel, and at the date of his death, which occurred in 1749, the year when the Viceroy Horcasitas granted him the license to found a mill of free people for which these facilities were adapted: that had been built in a place located in the limits of the village, investing more than 40,000 common gold pesos, both for its large dimensions and the diversification of its space, as for the quality of the materials that were used.

Towards 1743, when the primogeniture of the de la Canal was founded, this property was assessed with a value of 25,000 pesos, and it was described as a new house, orchard and adjoining plot, all protected by a stone and adobe rampart, that reached to the north part, in bounds with the brook called 'The Sprinkler.' At the front, there was also a huge vineyeard surrounded by a stone masonry enclosure, in a plot of one caballeria (over 100 acres), with good quality soil, composed of 8000 vines, and for irrigation a tank of 3 rods of depth (9 feet), 21 of length (52 feet) and 17 of width (43 feet); the ensemble was completed with a tannery.

Until the time when the textile mill was installed, the house was always inhabited by the family; however, in the face of the need to move its residence to the Main Square of San Miguel, it was necessary to find an economic profit to such an expensive residence, avoiding thus its ruin, as happened to those who were not inhabited. The size of the mill should had to have eight looms wide and two narrow, and it was described as, 'Free and earner people [who] go to work, and at their hours of eating and sleeping return to their homes...,' in such a way, it would be inhabited only by the administrator and butler. This mill strengthened the economy of the village by being one of the most productive in the region.

The location o fthis residence was privileged in the 18th century, being in the way from San Miguel to Chamacuero and Celaya, also, for its neighborhood with the important community of San Antonio de la Casa Colorada, which together with those who lived in the lands of the de la Canal, made a total of 65 families and about 500 inhabitants."

There was also a smaller sign advising that the buildings are now home to a remarkable school of the arts, incorporated to the University of Guanajuato and known as the "Allende Institute."

As I said, I am usually photographing anything and everything, but there has to be something of interest about the scene.

Just like in residential areas, unless it is an obvious storefront, you cannot sometimes tell what is behind a wall or, in this case, two automobile entrances. Fancy gate though.

I also have a habit of looking into doorways when they are open, and in small towns like this they usually are. Here we see a colorful display of ceramics, from the decorative to the useful (and other things as well).

This charming fountain on a corner marks the entrance to the Royal Mine Hotel, one of the nicest in San Miguel.

Although Mexico is the New World, its towns were built on the Old World model. This nursery is very small by American standards, but when it is in the older part of town, land is hard to come by.

We were about halfway to City Market when we began hearing music and lots of noise. Almost immediately we could see that there was a parade coming north into San Miguel. It was obviously not impromptu, as there were police at the front of it directing traffic, motorcycle police at intervals along the parade, and police vehicles bringing up the rear. The parade was moving slowly, and taking up both northbound lanes, so the drivers behind it much have been a little pissed off.

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From all I could tell from some of the banners being carried, a Padre Soble had either died or been reassigned, and people were showing their gratitude (there were a number of simple "Gracias" signs in colorful letters. Again, death or departure, I have no idea which.

What I did notice was that this was far from a solemn parade, with lots of folks just walking along in street clothes or whatever costumes they happened to have. I am pretty sure I saw Darth Vader at one point, and the last group in the parade was, inexplicably, a large group of mounted Mexican cowboys. Not caballeros in their traditional garb, but more like working cowboys from a ranch.

Anyway, I concluded that the good Padre had moved on, for I think if he had died the procession would have been much more restrained. I started my movie from the opposite side of the street, but when I could I crossed through the southbound traffic to film right alongside the parade as it passed by me. Use the movie player at left to watch some of this intersting parade.

This is a typical street scene, with little shops in the old buildings lining the street. You probably wonder why the picture was taken; it's because of the name of the establishment in the white building in the center. Click on that building's front door and I'll show you what I mean.

In my travels around the world, I've seen all kinds of construction techniques, from wooden scaffolding going ten and twenty floors up (Seoul, 1970) to this interesting way of protecting passersby from the construction (or vice-versa, perhaps).

In this typical scene, what I found interesting was the sign in front of this restaurant, which was apparently serving breakfast (as the yellow sign indicates). Whether the pink sign below it is an added inducement for customers, or a necessity due to the food served, I have no idea. Click on the signs and I'll enlarge them.

We have reached the City Market and were crossing the parking lot to enter the store, when we encountered this odd graphic painted on the asphalt. Again, absolutely no idea what it is for. Greg surmises that it designates a meeting place during some emergency, but who knows?

August 18: A Crafts Fair at Jardin Allende

One Wednesday afternoon, we saw that lots of booths were being set up around two sides of Jardin Allende in front of the Parroquia, and the next day we found out it was a crafts fair.

Click on the Image Above to View the Slideshow

When we went over in late morning to have a look to see what had been being set up the night before, we discovered a major crafts show in progress. It was similar to the Fort Lauderdale Art Fair, except that here the items being sold were not decorative in nature, but ran the gamut from jewelry to rugs to ceramics to metalwork to clothing and numerous other categories as well.

I thought all the items were colorful and well-executed, so I photographed most of the vendor booths. There were way too many pictures to go the thumbnail route, so I have put them in a slideshow.

To view the slideshow, just click on the image at left and I will open the slideshow in a new window. In the slideshow, you can use the little arrows in the lower corners of each image to move from one to the next, and the index numbers in the upper left of each image will tell you where you are in the series. When you are finished looking at the pictures, just close the popup window.

Miscellaneous Pictures Taken Around San Miguel Allende

In this final section of pictures from our walks around San Miguel de Allende, I want to put some pictures that don't naturally belong anywhere else. They weren't take at some particular site we visited, or on a particular walk or tour that we made or took. No, they were just casual photos of anything and everything, but each of them has a quality that made me want to not discard them, but give them a place in the photo album. Some of the pictures have a common theme, and those will be grouped together.

The Doorways of San Miguel

Fred and I have been to other cities in other countries where great attention had been given to doors- from the ornate to the simple, we have seen a variety that boggles the mind. But here in San Miguel, it wasn't really the doors themselves (although some of them were indeed beautiful) but rather the door openings. Doors were frequently surrounded by colorful borders- mostly of plastic flowers- in an unending variety. Here are some of them:

A Corner Park near Casa Pina

We think of parks being greenspaces, even if they are small pocket parks, but not every park has greenery as its focus.

When you get to the top of Aldama (our street) and then jog left to go up one more block to the square, there is a little park area on the corner. There are some short trees, but mostly it is paved, with benches, a fountain, and, inexplicably, a large stellated dodecahedron. When I first saw this little park, it was shortly after arriving- in the daytime.

The little park had a few people sitting around, and the fountain was on, so it was a pleasant place to be. But the interesting thing was the large metal stellated dodecahedron sitting at one side of the park. Now, I would have thought that the geometrical shape would just have been someone's idea of an interesting sculpture to create, and the little arc-shaped holes all over the triangular flat surfaces of the star someone's idea of an interesting embellishment, but that was before I came back through this corner for the first time at night:

I discovered that the star had a high-intensity light inside, and at night, when it came on, the flower-shaped patterns made by the holes in the bronze played over the ground, the park, and the sides of the buildings all around. The effect was, as they say, magical.

Now, on our guided tour of San Miguel, and on many of our walks, we saw repetitions of this same shape being sold in big stores and small kiosks. I think you saw a picture I took in Atotonilco of all the sidewalk souvenir vendors, and all of them had multiple hanging copies of this same shape. This led me to think that the shape carried some significance here in Mexico, but I have searched diligently and cannot find any reference to either a religious or social significance.

Art Shops Just Off Jardin Allende

There were a number of galleries and shops where art of great variety could be purchased in San Miguel, and quite a few of them were located near the square where the Parroquia and Jardin Allende were located. One such collection of shops surrounded an atrium inside a building along the small street leading from the square to our lodgings. In the atrium there was a tinkling fountain against the back wall, and a large (fake) tree, branches made of metal and wood, with ceramic flowers and ornaments:

What I focused on in my photographs, however, were the amazingly colorful ceramic animals. Some of them depicted real animals:

and some of them depicted fake animals (I particularly liked the fake dog, and might have considered buying it, had not the price been well into the six digits. The price was in pesos, but even so, at twenty to the dollar...):

Looking Into an Art Gallery

Our Favorite Bakery

Sure, they had croissants and bread and rolls, but this bakery, one of the oldest in San Miguel, also had desserts!

The Interesting, the Quirky, and the Beautiful

For the remainder of the pictures on this page, they not being part of some larger activity or subject, I will simply show them to you with a title or short comment.

Vehicles aren't allowed in the square, but they can come down the street alongside the Parroquia and then turn east towards our favorite bakery.

We have wandered out at night, and at eight o'clock things are just getting busy, as at this restaurant just on the square.

Down the street from Casa Pina was a hotel, whose reception lobby was open to the sky. I am sure this is a testament to how rarely it rains here. We only had one rain event in two weeks.

This is the entrance from Aldama Street into the Parque Benito Juarez, about two blocks south of Casa Pina. It was a great place to sit and relax.

Hats were everywhere; it seems a tradition to wear one (at least for tourists). Here are some at a small shop.

Art was everywhere, too, and here I have peeked into another gallery a few blocks north of Jardin Allende.

This building, on the north side of the square, displays the old name of the area- "Conspiracy Square"- since much of the planning for the Revolution was done here.

Walking down the street by Iglesia San Francisco, I found this balloon vendor. Yes, there is a vendor buried under those colorful balloons!

Some blocks north of the square, I found what was apparently an old gas station. Greg told me he'd seen it and had been told it was the oldest station in this whole area of Mexico. Long out of service, of course.

Just up the street from the "stellated dodecahedron park" was a pottery shop, and I was impressed by the size and color of it. It isn't made right here, but rather sold here.

I am at the north end of the row of buildings on the west side of the square, looking south through the symmetrical archways. The part of the building nearest to me used to be the De La Canal mansion.

I passed this store on my way to buy liquor one day, and I was impressed by the colors.

Ah, the complexities of driving in San Miguel; I wonder who has the right-of-way. This isn't a Mexican Standoff; both vehicles are parked.

The San Francisco Hotel (actually more of a hostel) is just north of Jardin Allende.

I passed a hotel with someone parking cars and formally-dressed people going in. My guess is that it was a wedding.

The two buildings at left were near each other on a street a few blocks east of Casa Pina. We passed them on our auto tour, but I walked back to take pictures of them. At the far left is part of a small church, and at the near left is just an old commercial structure.

On our walks around town, we saw maybe five or six fountains like this one, usually in the street sides of various structures. I can only guess that at one time they were the water supply for the citizens, before water systems brought water to each home.

I don't know what the lady at near left was advertising, but she was colorful. At the far left is Jose Manuel Zavala (a figure in Mexican Independence); the statue's inscription translates to "He who lives to serve lives a useful life".

Motorcycles are big in San Miguel, as I guess they are in most more developing countries. One often saw long lines of parked bikes like this one.

Like residences, lots of little shops have entries that lead into open interiors, like this shop which, apparently, specialized in women's clothes, although you wouldn't know from the name.

On a street down from the square, there is a very popular bar and restaurant (in that order) and I peeked in as it was supposed to have an interesting interior. That it did.

Odd to see a young plein air painter, but I photographed one (far left) doing a scene looking up a street towards the Parroquia. And at the near left is the "hat guy" that Greg paid to provide a hat to each of his guests. You've seen Fred and I wearing ours in many of the pictures from Mexico.

Other than the fact that this little shop did an excellent job decorating outside (it was on the day of the craft fair in the square), there was no particular reason for the photo.

You know how restaurants just love to label their "facilities" in a way that reflects the restaurant's genre? (Cowboys and Cowgirls, Senors and Senoras, etc.?) Well, one particular restaurant had its own take on identifying the smallest room in the house. (see far right) And the photo at the near right reminded me a bit of the cover of the Beatle's Abbey Road album.

I saved the quirkiest photo for last. This was taken along the short street up to the square from Aldama. I have absolutely no idea why anyone was attempting to get a burro into a shop or restaurant, but pretty obviously that's what was going on. If I'd thought I could make myself understood in Spanish, I would have asked.

Well, I certainly hope you got a bit of the flavor of San Miguel from coming along on our various walks. It was immensely interesting for me just to stroll here and there; one could always find something interesting to take note of.

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	Greg's Guests in San Miguel
	Eating Out in San Miguel Allende
	Return to the Index for Our Mexico Trip