My final stop in Mexico was San Miguel de Allende, a small colonial city a little north of Mexico City popular with U.S. expatriates. I arrived after a four hour bus ride on Wednesday, December 17 and got a large apartment with full kitchen for 200 pesos a night, less than $20, at the Posado El Mayorazgo. The downside was the apartment had no heat and, according to the people I talked to, San Miguel was having its coldest weather in years, getting down around freezing at night. When you are staying in an unheated room and you have packed for mild weather this is a problem. When I returned to the U.S. I had a nasty, lingering cold that I blamed on the smog of Mexico City and the cold of San Miguel.
San Miguel is a pretty city, but it is definitely an ex-pat city. A great many of the Americans who retire there speak little or no Spanish and get by fine. While there I spoke far more English than Spanish. The center of San Miguel was unusually full of gringos since the families of many of the retirees were visiting for Christmas. The place sort of felt like a U.S. city near the Mexican border, but without the crime. I walked around a lot, checked out the restaurants and bars, hit an arts and crafts show, and took pictures. First is the Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel, most of it dating from the 17th century. The pinnacles were designed in the nineteenth century by a local stonemason who saw a postcard of a Belgian church and thought it looked nice. Following that is the Iglesia de San Miguel. Both were side by side across the street from the central square, but I could not get a shot of the two together:
For unobstructed views I walked to the Mirador for a city view, and took a shot of narrow street on the way to get a picture of what the city looked like outside the ex-pat section:
The exterior and interior of the Templo de San Francisco:
I think this is the Oratorio de San Felipe Neri, my notes weren't very good:
That was it for Mexico. On December 21 I
returned to Mexico City and on December 22 caught a flight to
Atlanta Georgia and drove back to Tallahassee. I have a short
closing page wrapping up the site: