Blogs from San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico, North America - page 12

Howdy y'all! Boy does it feel good to be able to say that. Actually, the language aspect of the trip has not been that hard. People really do speak English here in San Miguel de Allende. My family speaks some English depending on who you talk to. Most of my host siblings speak English. There is Verona age 30, Cecilia age 25, Demetrio age 16, and Jone or Yone (?) age 11. My parents are very accomodating although there are clearly differences in communication. For example my host mother, Adella, is very blunt- she definitely gets right to the point. But she also has a softer side. My host father is rather friendly and I think he knows English but he speaks to us in Spanish. Verona, the eldest daughter, has a one year old named ... read more

Semana Santa (holy week) On Good Friday locals and visitors crowded the streets of the procession route to watch the reenactment of the solemn occasion of the Holy Burial. 2000 people participated in the processional. An 18th century life size figure of the Virgin of Solitude and the figure of Jesus of Nazarene were the main but certainly not only old statues and figures from principal churches. The crowd was absolutely quite throughout the three hours it was spectacular. Uniformed Roman soldiers, young girls dressed in white as angels, women with black lace mantillas and black suited pallbearers…accompany carved statues of archangels. On Sunday they had a paper Mache live size Judas which they ceremoniously exploded! I hope to down load some pictures. In San Miquel de Allende (SMA) they boast 300 churches. This means at ... read more

The sun was fading fast when I finally arrived at my 17th century colonial apartment. The lady that I’ve come to know as Vera the housekeeper answered the door. She immediately starting speaking to me in Spanish - I told her I didn’t understand but this did not deter her. She went on and on showing me where I had access to and how things worked. Some of it I understood. She then summoned the senorita of the house Georgia. I was taken into a room at the back of the house to wait. Apparently electricity is expensive as it was completely dark in the house. I was surrounded by heads. Many paintings filled the walls. They were paintings of heads both male and female - portraits of a type that were popular in Paris in ... read more

We got on the bus, which was an amazing effort on my part. I could not eat the free ham sandwich proving how sick I feel right now. We left our lonely planet in the cab, I had every faith the cabbie would bring it back, San Miguel is only a small place, just in case anyone finds it, it was left in the front seat of a green and white cab the driver had a moustache and a beer belly. San Miguel is an old Spanish colonial wonderment, famous for its silver mining and natural spas, steeped in history. The wobbly cobbled streets gave me blisters that hurt like hell, thing is I did invest in some good walking boots for this trip which were worn in well before I came away, however they are ... read more