Monthly Archives: August 2019

San Miguel de Allende, Uncategorized

Before the football season even begins, Deportivo San Miguel Leones faces elimination

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The Deportivo San Miguel Liones scrimmage fiercely on a recent Sunday. (Photo by John Bohnel)

Don’t let your handicap limit you. Don’t let your disability define you. You are everything you want to be and nothing that others think they see.

The footballers of Deportivo San Miguel know this. They believe this.

They live this.

They are the mighty Leones of the State of Guanajuato and in their four short years together playing on the national stage of Mexico, they have the hardware to prove it.  Continue reading →

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Memoirs -- fact and fiction, Uncategorized

A hint of immortality comes in the mail

20190824_142504Immortality is mine!

Bwahahahaha!

Well, that’s the way the old newspaper joke went. Something about “as long as I am in print, I’ll live on forever ….”

Then you’d get a picture of fish wrapped in old newsprint. Or newspapers lining the bottom of a canary cage. There’s some immortality for you, chump.

Ok, wait a minute. Continue reading →

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San Miguel de Allende, Uncategorized

Hiking the Rio Laja to Antotonilco

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All it takes is to miss a turn and you end up on a quiet country road like this one, which leads to the long-ago abandoned hacienda Las Trancas, about midway into the first section of the trail and a fabulous spot from which to engage the river.

We did it! We found the off-road, Rio Laja trail from San Miguel de Allende to Antotonilco. Several weeks ago, when we walked to Antotonilco along the old highway it was pleasant enough but the road is narrow and pretty busy.

Here and there we’d catch glimpses of the chalky gray Rio Laja which flows south into the sprawling reservoir called La Pressa Allende. And here and there was evidence of a trail!

We’re still new at this hiking/walking thing and lacked the confidence to jump off the road and into the brush along a river we hardly knew. Who knew where we might end up? Continue reading →

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San Miguel de Allende, Uncategorized

The randomness of beauty in San Miguel

IMG_4863Beside the Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel today, a stunning Mexican senorita stood regally, poised between a mule skinner and a cowboy. Her flowing crimson gown was equally a match to her own beauty and that of the Parroquia.

Had we stepped back in time? Was there a movie being shot?

A fashion shoot, at the least. Maybe the cover of a glossy magazine extolling tourists to visit old Mexico, through magical San Miguel de Allende. Continue reading →

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San Miguel de Allende, Uncategorized

Curbing his enthusiasm

 

Our little yogi, dep in meditation.
Pigeon pose.
Updog pose.

This little guy was sitting all alone this morning on Calle Hiernandez Macias, or so it seemed. Half a block down was his mother, sitting against a wall in the shade offering Chiclets to tourists.

He was bored enough to topple off the curb and into a pigeon pose in the street, before switching to an updog pose. Our little yoga master!

 

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San Miguel de Allende, Uncategorized

Haircuts from the heart: A fresh start to the new school year from Hecho Hombre crew

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Hecho Hombre barbers cut a trio of youngsters at the community center Fundación Comunitaria Don Diego at Colonia Presa de la Cantera. Puma is behind him to the left and Nacho in back to the right.

This is how one thing leads to another.

I’m sitting in the barber chair in Hecho Hombre and Puma is warming up to bring my scrappy mange under control, my first haircut in months and it has become an embarrassing comb-over of the worst sort. The kind your uncle, the insurance guy, used to wear until he got that really bad toupe.
At the front desk, manager Nacho, the mustachioed son of Tijuana, is cueing up a song, a really good haunting, brooding, menacing song and I know it but I just can’t nail it down.
“Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds,” says Nacho.
“Ah, thanks,” says I. “Why do I know this one?”

Continue reading →

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Rants and raves, Uncategorized

Where ignorance is still bliss: MAGArians are the new Abecedarians

Inspiration comes from almost any direction — if you remain open to the process.

For example, around noon today, I was still deeply regretting the day-old creme doughnut that I ate earlier in the morning — about a half-hour before yoga, to be exact. 

I was marveling how at 2 a.m. I awoke with the startling realization that the Panio doughnut was still in my backpack into which I’d slipped it yesterday with plans to eat it on the way home from Centro. Long story short, I got distracted by a haircut and forgot all about it. Until 2 a.m.

Funny how the mind works. Continue reading →

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San Miguel de Allende, Uncategorized

San Miguel’s season of holidays: And so it begins

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Many of the tribal marching groups are lead by El Diablo, a delicious variety of devils. This one was the best, by far.

The procession to kick of the season of processions in San Miguel de Allende took place today. All month long there will be processions and parades (two very different things) and fiestas honoring — well, gosh, you name it.

Today’s “resena” was a preview of what is to come, and if the weather doesn’t cool down what is to come is some very overheated dancers. The Resena began as Calzada de la Extacion and came straight up the fairly steep (especially if you are dancing up the street) Calle Canal and into Centro. Continue reading →

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San Miguel de Allende, Uncategorized

La Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel: Where ever you may be, there it is

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Let the road lead you to where ever it may.

One sight around San Miguel de Allende that is inescapable — and delightfully so — is the curlicue confection-inspired spires of the Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel.

No matter where you walk, there it is: the pinkish-salmon spires of the city’s most iconic church. And, there, around it are the half-dozen aspirant church belfries and towers and domes.

The Parroquia is a big reason for San Miguel’s designation as a World Heritage Site and it is one of the most photographed churches in all of Mexico. And that is saying a lot. Churches here are like Starbucks in the United States, on every corner it seems. Continue reading →

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Memoirs -- fact and fiction, Uncategorized

For the record, I did not attend Woodstock …am I the only one?

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See those people clustered around the blue Volkswagon microbus? None of them is me. The reason being that, given the choice of going to Woodstock or spending the weekend in a remote Pennsylvania forest, I chose the latter.

I was 19 the summer of the Woodstock music festival and lived less than 275 miles from the Bethel, N.Y. site of the concert that shaped my generation.

So, it is important to note, as the 50th anniversary begins today, that I did not attend Woodstock.

No freaking way. Continue reading →

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