Monthly Archives: June 2023

photography, San Miguel de Allende

Bonus: Closing night fireworks (now, with stunning video!)

After two weeks of festivities ramping up to the Feast of Saint Anthony and the Convite de Locos on Sunday, the closing night fireworks were spectacular. Flashes, flames, arcs of brilliant light, cascades of incandescence, strobes of white heat, yellow flamethrowers, whistles, and booms all danced around the Parroquia San Antonio de Padua in Colonia San Antonio.

A stunning display of pyrotechnics set to beguiling classical music.

Crank up the volume!

Click on any image to enlarge:

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photography, Reviews, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

Maybe they’re not so loco after all … what a parade!

They did it. The Loco marched, danced, walked, twirled, teased, sweated, tossed candy and rubber balls, waved, smiled, and consumed copious amounts of water and electrolyte drinks on Sunday morning.

And the thousands lining both sides of many downtown San Miguel de Allende streets loved every hot and sticky, broiling, joyous moment of the Contvite de Locos.

What an incredible day.

The city estimates that 130,000 people were in San Miguel for the parade, of whom 5,300 were Locos marching in the parade. Only 43 people required medical attention for heat, falling, tripping, or other maladies. Four individuals were arrested during this very family-oriented festivity.

It is worth noting that the city staffed a number of “hydration stations” along the parade route for marchers and watchers.

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Colonia San Antonio, photography, Reviews, San Miguel de Allende

One … more … time. Before things get really crazy … on Sunday.

Tonight’s pilgrimage to the Parroquia de San Antonio de Padua was the last before Sunday’s massive Confite de Locos parade.

It was probably the most poignant.

Tonight, pilgrims walked to the church on their knees. There were nearly a dozen. And it gets me every year.

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photography, Reviews, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

A rock concert in the park

You know that feeling? Like you are being watched by somebody in the park? Somebody you can’t see. But those eyes …

This morning while walking the gentle philosophy dog, Moppit, in Parque Guadiana I couldn’t shake the feeling there there were eyes upon me.

Well, I wasn’t completely wrong.

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Colonia San Antonio, photography, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

Surprise encore: For the Queen of the Night, beauty shall not be denied

And the Creator said, “epiphyllum oxypetalum, you shall be a cactus, though you do not look like one. Once a year and only at night, you shall bear forth beautiful flowers while the world sleeps. Before dawn your flowers shall wither away, but only before being ravaged by bats.”

The epiphyllum oxypetalum did not understand this curious fate but it knew better than to argue with the Creator.

Perhaps the Creator felt a little guilty because later, the epiphyllum oxypetalum was given a lovely and pronounceable name: Queen of the Night.

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Colonia San Antonio, photography, San Miguel de Allende

Dress rehearsal for Sunday’s Convite de Locos was crazy, man

Well, this explains so many things: Anthony de Padua is the patron saint of the insane.

Now the Dia de Locos — or Convite de Locos — isn’t so crazy after all.

Well, yes, it is. Crazy, I mean. Very very crazy. In so many delightful ways.

What better way to honor the patron saint of people who have lost their minds than to assemble thousands of people in costumes that suggest they, too, have indeed lost their minds?

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