San Miguel De Allende and Aguascalientes

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San Miguel was a dream! Our hosts, Eli & Miranda were the most loving, generous and welcoming people. They are long term residents of San Miguel, and know all the best places to see, eat and drink. They live in a gorgeous home which has been tastefully decorated and filled with amazing artworks which tell the story of their life together.

It is a truly charming city, cobbled streets, beautiful artisan shops carved into the sides of tuscan hued buildings. You never know when you´re going to stumble upon a place selling some unique treasure. The city is mostly bilingual due to a decent community of ex-pats and a well developed education system. They even have a pet adoption program which makes my heart swell!! It´s so distant from the gritty, raw Mexico of my previous experiences.

We went to Guanajuato, the capital of the state, which was just as beautiful. The town is built into the sides of a ravine where the original trade of mining was operated, and now a lot of the roads are in tunnels called ¨subterraneos¨which have entrances draped in vines and hanging mosses, simply beautiful.

We said farewell to Miranda and Eli, and are now in Aguascalientes for the Festival de Calaveras (Festival of the Skulls), and have discovered this is not a place where Gringos come very often. I get A LOT of looks, sometimes entire carloads of people driving past, gaping at me with their mouths open. I loom over everyone, being 6ft1 and blonde, and very few people speak english, which is forcing me to use my Spanish more. This is good, but I´m still not incredibly confident, so there are a lot of getures and blank looks happening. Rehgs and I discovered an awesome market up the road selling fresh fruit and veg (which our diet has been seriously lacking) and negotiated our way into some amazing fresh fish, chicken and veg to cook at the Hostel.

The Festival de Calaveras was just a Mexican version of the Royal Melbourne Show. Salespeople come from all over the state to showcase their unique products. There are fairground rides, parades and a giant statue of La Catrina. All revolve around the theme of Dia de Muertos, and it all made for some pretty cool photos.

Also, this city houses one of the best museums we have ever had the privilege to encounter. It's the National Museum of Death and houses pieces representing many centuries of this culture and its fascination with death. It is inspiring and beautiful.

Today we had a lazy day. We walked out to the Banos, the baths fed by the hotsprings after which the city is named. We ended up with a massive private "bath" (which was more like a big tiled swimming pool) with a giant hot tap feeding into it. We splashed about in there until we were completely wrinkled and then head back to the market to try the local specialities for lunch.

Tomorrow, a 5hr bus ride back to Mexico City for the night and then we fly to Quito, Ecuador where the lovely Miranda says the air sparkles.

I have to say, I'm looking forward to being somewhere where Gringos are not such a novelty.

Unfortunately, until I can access some software to convert my photos to the appropriate format (as I'm shooting in RAW for the best possible editing outcome), I am unable to post any pictures so you'll have to content yourselves with the random images that I'm posting on Facebook.

Stay tuned!!

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Comments

[anonymous]

But where's the vegemite, and the fritz sandwiches?