Currently viewing the tag: "San Miguel de Allende"
To all our Canadian friends, we hope you enjoy your day off tomorrow. You may choose to spend it like our friend here in San Miguel de Allende.
We can’t imagine what it would be like to use this wheelchair ramp in San Miguel de Allende. Who were the brilliant engineers behind this? Talk about your wild ride!
Have a safe and happy weekend.
La Fiesta de los Locos (The Feast of Fools or Crazy People) is held in San Miguel de Allende every June, the first Sunday after the Feast of San Antonio, so around the middle of the month. A few years ago we were “lucky” enough to have the fuel pump go on our truck forcing us to stay an extra week in San Miguel waiting for a new part. It just happened to be while the “locos” was taking place.
San Miguel was and still is primarily a framing community. The festival originally began as an act of faith, a thank you for a year of good crops. During colonial times many people dressed as scarecrows. Slowly over the year the festival became the celebration of more than just good crops, it was combined with San Pascual Bailón’s day, Corpus Christi day and San Antonio’s day (there always seems to be a celebration in San Miguel) morphing into the fiesta it is today.
People turn their “sun” umbrella upside down to catch candy.
Politically incorrect costumes.
Our personal favourite, a good jabbing at the press.
During La Fiesta de los Locos the streets are packed with people in costumes, some politically incorrect. Those not in the parade, line the streets hoping to catch candy thrown by the parade participants. Family friendly: music, dance and candy are the main ingredient that makes for a good time.
Cholula to San Miguel de Allende
From Cholula we head to San Miguel de Allende. Much of the drive is on a new toll road called the Autopista Arco Norte which is very expensive, but totally worth it. The Arco Norte takes you around Mexico City and it is good fast moving highway. Before the toll road was put in, it used to take us 6 hours to drive what now takes 2.5 hours. The cost for a truck and trailer is $595mxn ($46usd).
La Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel
I first fell in love with San Miguel through Tony Cohan’s book “On Mexican Time”. This book should come with a warning: “may want to make you move to Mexico”. San Miguel has the art, people, architecture and history that first made me want to live in this country.
During the 1960’s, the likes of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Ken Kesey and Bob Dylan were said to hang out in this town which oozes with as much cool and charisma as they did. Every turn you make, every street you walk down is a photo op.
San Miguel de Allende has a large number of expats living in the community, which makes for an interesting mix of historic, modern and rural.
We have friends in this lovely city, so we always enjoy going back. We currently park at the Hotel San Ramon for $250mxn ($19usd)/night. This includes full hookups and WiFi. It is located just outside of town, a great jumping off point for exploring the city. We spent 3 days wandering around the city enjoy the amazing views.
This trip we celebrated Rob’s 50th Birthday there. Thanks to the New York Times: 36 Hours in San Miguel de Allende (why anyone would only want to spend 36 hours there, I will never know) we found a great little lounge with 2 for 1 wine, overlooking the city. A wonderful way to spend an afternoon.
Paper Mache Bride
We were recently in San Miguel de Allende at La Parroquia where there was a wedding taking place. This wedding was done with a ton of Mexican flare. As if a Mexican wedding isn’t spectacular enough, this bride and groom added larger than life paper mache figures and a large mariachi band to the festivities.
Mariachi in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
Mexican Papel Picado Banners in Playa Del Carmen
If it is party time in Mexico, look up, way up and you will see papel picado flying through the air. Papel picado or “perforated paper” banners are a traditionally a decorative banner made out of thin paper or more recently plastic,cut into elaborate designs.
Mexican Papel Picado in San Miguel de Allende
This Mexican folk art explores common themes includes birds, flowers and skeletons. They are hung during special occasions, such as Easter, Christmas, the Day of the Dead, weddings, quinceañeras, baptisms, and christenings.
