Sam And Saundra's Year Long Adventure - Part 76

Sam And Saundra’s Year Long Adventure – Part 76

Mexico 

3/18/09 -  Guanajuato – Tour of San Miguel de Allende

Sam and I enjoyed our day off immensely, and we are now ready to go.  We hurry onto the bus, pick our seats and wait as the bus driver and guide take us from the Bugamvilla RV Parque to Sam Miguel de Allende.  The bus takes us on a windy, mountainous road to the Centro Plaza of San Miguel and drops us off.  We’re a little early and have time to rush to the Starbucks and get Café Lattes, a couple of small muffins and get back in time to meet the trolley that is our tour vehicle for this city. 

Laundromat

If you can stop thinking about the boarder towns of Mexico, San Miguel would be the ‘ideal’ that would come into your mind about Mexican villages.  It is stunningly beautiful.  The colors are the colors of Mexico.  The streets are narrow, but cobbled, many with eye-catching designs.  The trees in the main, and many of the surrounding plazas, are trimmed into shaded passageway and simple-elegant designs.  The buildings are well maintained and to own one, requires the owner to follow a strict code to maintain the colonial look of the town.  All doors are massive, carved wooden doors. The doors that face the cobbled streets have to be opened and entered before you can fully discover what is held inside, sometimes several businesses radiate from the ‘interior plazas’.  Restaurants for every palate. The today is well blended with yesterday. Statuary, fountains, great art works of all mediums, flowers, flowering trees, trees, bushes- all work together to please the eye.  Many churches, spires, towers – some with bells, are interspersed with other buildings making it difficult at times to choose what to focus on.  The trolley and very informative female guide, took us to a plaza that was used in the ‘old days’ as a laundromat.  The brightly painted cement rectangular tubs lined the outside of a small square and were about the size of a large present day laundry sink (about 4-5 gallon).  A trough carrying water runs around the outside of all of the tubs.  The water can be diverted into the tubs, cloths washed, and water emptied.  Our guide indicates that some people still use the system.  Near this area was a school for kids and up the hill was a university.  What caught my interest was an area just past that.  A bunch of tall trees contained white egrets.  They looked like they were trying to decorate the trees, making them egret trees instead of Christmas trees. 

Egrets Growing On Trees

Our guide indicates that about ¼ of the population of San Miguel are foreigners.  They are welcome in San Miguel and they have blended well into the community.  They try to incorporate the culture into their lives.  She even pointed out the church that was established for foreigners.  That explained the numbers of people I heard speaking English, French, German and even Japanese in the plazas and shops.  Yes, we shopped.  The other thing that is well blended here are the old world and new world shops.  We bought another drum and Sam had his leather sandals buffed.  We thoroughly enjoyed our stay here, eating a panini sandwich for lunch.  To top off our tour, we were taken to a high overlook spot and we were able to take in the city in one view.  Wow!! 

Sam's Leather Sandals Renewed

San Miguel de Allende!!!

We get back in the bus and head for home.  Our regular guide for this day is a new one, not very comfortable in his role yet and still needing practice in his English – but he is trying hard.  He informs us that we are going through the downtown area of Guanajuato, which Sam and I missed yesterday.  So after looking over Dolores Hidalgo, we go left and through Guanajuato.  It is also built in a hilly area, just more so.  The houses are built to the top, and I could not see roads.  The whole town was similar in feel to San Miguel, including that it was very clean.  I did miss the charm that exuded from San Miguel.  The bus even went through the mountain via the tunnel road.  Not too scary.  I took pictures.   We made it back to camp in time to start preparing for the next day’s travel.  Although not as fun as Paamul, we enjoyed learning more about Mexico today. 

Even The Evening Was Awesome