Tag Archives: tourists

photography, San Miguel de Allende

It’s official: With lights, fireworks, and song, the holiday season begins in San Miguel de Allende

With the lighting of the Christmas tree and street decorations in Centro, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, the holiday season is officially in full swing.

Hundreds of residents and families watched as the Christmas tree was lit at exactly 8 p.m. on Friday. Cheers erupted but they were quickly drowned out by the traditional fireworks display. The city had setup long lines on the opposite end of the park to distribute tamales and beverages to the people.

Along with the tree, hundreds of thousands of fairy lights in the Plaza Principal’s jardin lit up, as did the strings of bejeweled tin stars that hang overhead on all the streets feeding into the plaza.

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photography, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

Breakfast by the Jardine

They’re mostly gone now, the visitors, the tourists. Swept away by a late-season burst of rain and the chill in the air. Out with the marigolds and Catrinas and jacked-up prices — “make hay while the sun shines.” In with the hint of calm and solitude, if only for an eye-wink.

It is quiet for a moment. The so-called high season begins shortly, as the first dusting of snow transforms parts north and the occasional residents descend for the winter rounds of social gatherings, fine dining, concerts, and art exhibitions.

People coming and going in San Miguel are kind of like seasons all their own.

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photography, Reviews, San Miguel de Allende

Gallery: The walking dead are nothing if not punctual … when it comes to a parade

Who ever heard of a parade starting on time in San Miguel de Allende? Well, ALMOST on time.

Last night’s official parade of the dead got off within 20 minutes of its announced time of 6 p.m. By our standards, that’s awfully good. And it caught a lot of Catrinas and Catrines by surprise.

The first band and mobs of gaily dressed skeletal creatures were out of the gate on Cardo like it was the Kentucky Derby and not Dia de Muertos. All of a sudden, a hundred bystanders with iPhones and Nikon cameras were scrambling down the Ancha to get ahead of the parade.

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photography, Writings

Gallery: San Miguel’s Night of the Catrinas – not quite a parade, definitely a promenade

Gaily costumed and made-up men and women just sort of filtered into the plaza last night in twos and fours. If there was a grand parade from any of the private Catrina parties around San Miguel de Allende, it was after I left.

By 8 p.m., I’d seen enough. And what I saw was delightful.

(Catch up with Thursday night’s official parade here.)

There were lots of traditional Catrinas and Catrines but there were spinoffs, too. Like the two cowboys, the bishop, the woman in the illuminated cape, and the tyrannosaurus rex. Yes, a dinosaur. It is just that kind of year.

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Colonia San Antonio, San Miguel de Allende

Death becomes us this time of year

Parque Principal this morning where overnight the marigolds were hung with care in hopes that our ancestors’ spirits soon would be there.

Marigolds are everywhere in San Miguel de Allende this time of year. They are like a homing beacon for our departed loved ones. It is how we let them know we welcome their spirits back for a short visit. It is how we let them know that we have not forgotten them.

The marigolds are on ofrendas — the altars we build to remember our deceased loved ones and family. They are in our parks. and other public gardens. They hang from door frames of businesses and homes.

This year, the spirit of Dia de Muertos seems to be embraced more than ever. The list of events in hotels, restaurants, public squares, and cantinas is staggering. Everybody is in on the action and it seems to be working. The visitors are swarming to the city.

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photography, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

The evolving physics of the Parroquia

Every time I think that I’ve photographed the Parroquia San Miguel de Arcangel from every conceivable angle during the past five years, something new comes along.

It’s like in physics. Scientists were pretty sure that the Standard Model that addresses all “of nature’s known particles and forces” was The Overall Encompassing Answer to Everything.

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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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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, Rants and raves, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

Hey, buster, who are you calling the ‘friendliest city in the world’?

News item: Conde Nast Traveler names San Miguel de Allende the “friendliest city in the world.” It beats out Dublin, Lisbon, Bangkok, Copenhagen, Mexico City, and Bruges among others. The media company previously named San Miguel the “best small city in the world.”

This can’t be good.

I was asked to respond to all this by an otherwise sharp and responsible newspaper colleague. And so …

All right, the next guy who says San Miguel de Allende is the friendliest city in the world gets a punch in the nose, see?

A city with a reputation like that could get itself hurt, see? A city could pick up a rep-u-tation with talk like that, and not the good kind, see?

Other cities start thinking it’s a patsy and start aping all that friendly stuff and the next thing you know, you’ve got a six-way tie for the friendliest city. 

And that ain’t good for nobody, see?

Why, if everybody is friendly, then what’s this world coming to?

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Colonia San Antonio, photography, San Miguel de Allende

Humbling exercise in devotion, just a step beyond the front door — Our Lady of Guadalupe has her day

I’ve said it before: You want magic in San Miguel de Allende? Then just step out your front door.

Today, it was the arrival of the procession honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe. The cavalcade of the holy and horses turned onto Callejon San Antonio at noon sharp and proceeded to walk in stops and starts toward the Parroquia de San Antonio de Padua.

Progress was halting because there were hundreds of people attempting to fill the already busy square for the celebration of the Mass.

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