This is probably my final post from Weber’s RV in beautiful San Miguel de Allende.
Both Jackie and I are despondent about leaving our beloved city of San Miguel. If there was any way at this point of delaying our departure, we would. Not possible, however: our tourist visa is almost out of time and we have to be home to file our taxes.
We’re already talking about next year. Considering our options. Imagining scenarios. Weighing possibilities. We’ll see.
For now, we leave SMA on Monday, April 1st, for Las Palmas RV Park in Matahuala, San Luis Potosi, about four hours north of SMA. We spend one night there, then drive three hours north to Saltillo, Coahuila. We’ll stay overnight at the downtown Hotel Imperial, staying in their rear parking lot designated for RVs. Then on the next day, Wednesday, we drive six hours to cross the border at the Eagle Pass bridge crossing. We’ll park for the night at Kickapoo Casino RV Park, Texas. From their we head north through Texas to New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and then onward home to Oregon.
So with that said, I’ll end with a few recent photographs:
Fruiterias are all over San Miguel, but one of are favorites is the one on Sterling Dickinson where the fruit is beautifully displayed. I’m sampling the local valencias. Note the huge bag of limóns.
I love this photograph of Jackie at Mama Mías, one of our favorite restaurants. Colonial patio architecture, talavera planter, and her traditional blusa Mexicana.
If I keep my eyes open, pay attention, I come across some amazing photographic subjects. Like this egret sitting atop this scraggly old tree. For some reason, egrets like this particular tree in this particular neighborhood.
Again, if I look closely I’ll find amazing architectural details like this detail inset above a doorway to a residential building. It’s rather ominous looking with a conquistador wielding a sword against an Aztec or Mayan figure.
I can’t be certain, but these weather-worn figures look like three musicians. Or maybe religious figures bearing religious scrolls. Catholic symbolism is ubiquitous in SMA.
Often I’ll find religious icons that have been incorporated into the corners of buildings where two streets come together. Though weather worn, the detail of the figures and architectural features is remarkable and, I suppose, go unnoticed for the most part. Perhaps, for the locals, just to know that something like this there is enough.
Some architectural features take on a fascinating whimsy such as this scupper. Scuppers carry the runoff from a heavy rain from the roof, over the sidewalk to the street below.
The curved horns may be a clue to identifying this weather-worn scupper.
One of a row of multiple gato scuppers along the length of the wall.
Tucked away into a street corner, a simple colonial style archway on the corner of Recreo and Hospicio houses this rather nondescript fountain.
Art, expressionism, sculpture is everywhere in San Miguel, even in the places where you least expect it. Like this parking lot in the center of the city. Third-eye, abstract expressionism is an integral part of the spirit and magic of Mexico.
Just to the right of the above Third-Eye, is a towering mural of a buck. In fact, the mural is the first thing that greets you when you enter the estacionamiento.
Along a wall on Sterling Dickenson, across from the Hotel Real de Minas, is this fascinating mural that depicts the cultural diversity of SMA.
I took four weeks of intensive Spanish languages classes at San Miguel’s Instituto Allende. All of the walls on the inside patio areas area covered in William Blake-like murals.
This particularly spectacular series of wall murals depict a variety of scenes and probably was painted by more than one artist.
Late in the afternoon, in the distance, sitting atop a hill above the Ancha is the Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel and its two domes
So this ends my final San Miguel blog post; anything posted later will be but afterthoughts. Tomorrow we head for Matahuala and the road home.
Call and Response 