Tag Archives: tourism

Reviews, San Miguel de Allende, The Week in SMA

March 24-31: An Easter parade of things happening in San Miguel de Allende this week

What better way to kick off Holy Week than the sacred rivalry U.S.A vs. Mexico in the finals of the Concacaf Cup — again? Ok, there are better ways if soccer isn’t your religion. We’ve got them here! (Photo: Concacaf)

You can attend two magnificent classical performances on the same day, a spooky play reading, a night of expert storytelling, and learn how to read “Ulysses” for pleasure. Watch as the greatest soccer rivalry in the Western Hemisphere fires up again Sunday night. Take to the stage for a Live Mic night, watch an Oscar-winning documentary, or see one of the greatest movies of all time.

The toughest seat in town will be for the re-birth of the guitar-fueled Media Luna’s trio of concerts.

Probably most important of all is that all week long the Catholic faithful will be reliving the Passion of Christ in ceremony, pageantry, prayer, liturgy, and in the end pyrotechnics.

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photography, Reviews, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

Healing art of Bellas Artes: Know them by how they have suffered

On Wednesdays, I have about an hour between appointments, time I would normally spend sitting in the Jardin with a cup of coffee and a pastry, watching people pose in front of the Parroquia, marveling at how easily alliteration springs from my fingertips.

Not today. Something inside me said I didn’t need the coffee. (The previous three cups?) Or the pastry. (The spreading waistline?) As I reached Calle Hernandez Macias a decision needed to be made.

Ahead of me was the pastry, park, Parroquia, and people. To my left was the Centro Cultural Ignacio Ramirez El Nigromante — Belles Arte for the more mellifluously inclined.

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San Miguel de Allende, The Week in SMA

SMA Events, March 17-23: From Semana Santa to Carlos Santana

One thing is certain, San Miguel de Allende sunsets will always be there for you. Even if you can’t make all the other stuff that goes on every day and night.

We’re a busy little town. That’s for sure. This week we have Semana Santa and it started while you were probably still in bed. In the photos above, families help dress the streets for the arrival of the Lord of the Columns statue. This is the 201st year that it has been carried to San Miguel from Antotonilco.

More events leading up to Easter are on their way.

Meanwhile, there are two Santana events — a tribute concert and a documentary screening that will be attended by his drummer. There are two events for the Bomberderos, our mighty fire department for the past 40 years. There are also two events that find their inspiration in death — one in not being dead yet and one that faces the inevitability that death is coming. Pick your favorite.

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San Miguel de Allende, The Week in SMA, Writings

SMA happenings March 10-16: These are a few of your favorite things ……

The story this week is probably what I didn’t get to. Oh, well. There’s something here for everyone, especially the Lord of the Column procession at the end of the week. To repeat what I said below, the procession is moving and wonderful to watch — but — do yourself a favor and walk over to Independencia on Saturday evening and watch as scores of devotees create beautiful murals of colored sawdust in the streets.

In the morning, Roman soldiers, priests, acolytes, processioners and all will walk slowly through the sawdust, sending the art into oblivion. Following behind will be a legion of city sweepers with bags and brooms and within minutes it will all be the stuff of a dream. So, go see the dream being created on Saturday evening.

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San Miguel de Allende, The Week in SMA, Writings

This week in SMA: World-class bicycle races, concerts, jazz, International Women’s Day — and two Leonards to speak of!

Man, I’m exhausted just thinking about what’s ahead this week (March 3-9). As always, these are just some highlights. There are dozens of weekly shows by our own world-class musicians, performers, writers, painters, and the like.

To find out WHAT ELSE is going on, as usual, I recommend the Big 3:

DiscoverSMA: https://discoversma.com/events/events/

Lokkal Events: https://www.lokkal.com/

San Miguel Live: https://sanmiguellive.com/events/

Feel free to share this with your friends. Pick a night. Go out together. Have fun. Get out of my hair. Without further ado, let’s dig in. We’ve got some booking to do. (Click on any image to enlarge it.)

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photography, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

Lord, what a conquest

All day today, since sunrise roughly, colorfully costumed dancers, drummers, and musicians have been filing into the central jardin of San Miguel de Allende. They fill the four corners of the park in front of the Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel with trancelike dances to the steady beat dozens of drums.

For visitors and expats, the pageantry has been extraordinarily colorful and thrilling but there is a deeply religious foundation to it all that goes back 450 years. Centuries ago the statue called the Lord of the Conquest arrived in the region. Señor de la Conquista is a life-sized Christ and one of the most revered images in this World Heritage City, and not only because of its antiquity.

Many of these dancers began their journey on Thursday evening with an all-night vigil of music, ceremony, chanting in preparation for the grueling performances today. I will leave you with these images but if you want to know more, please visit the Facebook page of my good friend Efrain Gonzalez.

He has written extensively on this and the many other cultural events with which San Miguel is blessed.

Be sure to click on any image to expand it.

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San Miguel de Allende, The Week in SMA

Just some of the stuff going on this week in San Miguel

What the heck is going on?

We hear that a lot now that there is no longer a weekly newspaper in San Miguel de Allende. (Not that the newspaper was all that informative. But it was better than nothing.)

The other thing we hear is “I didn’t know that was happening? How did I miss it?”

Easy. Stuff to do is all over the place. Sometimes in your Facebook feed. Sometimes in your e-mail. Sometimes on websites dedicated to local stuff. Sometimes by word of mouth. Sometimes by a poster pegged to a local bulletin board.

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photography, San Miguel de Allende

Egrets over regrets, every time

Nesting season has begun for the egrets, in the public laundry park just above Parque Juarez, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

But, with their watering and feeding habitat in Pressa Allende bone dry, I wonder what impact that will have on the annual trek to the trees in El Chorro?

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Reviews, San Miguel de Allende

So much to do this week in San Miguel de Allende, my head is about to burst

Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle will be performed this week in San Miguel (See information below.)

Ah, that special time of the year when you ask yourself, “Why can’t I be in two places at once? Or three?” That time is now.

This is the time when people with money from the north pour across the border unchallenged and settle in for one month or several and begin to madly buy up tickets to a vast number of events – all of which we only see a hint of the rest of the year.

But few and far between though they might have been, you could reasonably trust that an empty seat could be claimed moments before a performance would begin.

You know the Season is here because – even though arts and cultural events have multiplied like sex-crazed rabbits – you will frequently hear that dreaded phrase, “Sorry. Completely sold out,” from a voice that actually sounds quite chuffed and hardly sorry at all.

Facebook, in a marvelous act of undercounting, posts a message to me on Monday morning: “Reminder: You have five events coming up this week.” It didn’t even get the right five.

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photography, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

How to look at flowers: A bird’s eye view of Candelaria

Today, I realized that I’ve been looking at the flowers all wrong.

The ones that have filled the wood aisles of Parque Juarez for the annual Candelaria Festival. Nearly every pathway is filled with flowers, succulents, cacti, saplings, herbs, seeds, soils, exotics, and verdant things indescribable by a casual traveler like me.

This isn’t my first Candelaria, bucko.

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