cathedral

Sidewalk Cafe

Part of the reason for creating this blog was to share snippets of life in Mexico that many Americans would not otherwise be aware of. For the most part we are not traveling to places where American tourists would normally visit. For example, we have never been to any of the coastal resort towns. San Miguel de Allende is a bit of an exception to that, as it does have a sizable expat population, but it is still less well-known than other places.

We had an amazing time visiting San Miguel for the weekend. We enjoyed great food in small cafes, three full days of cultural events, and, dare I admit it, a few trips to Starbucks for the first time while we’ve been in Mexico!

We look forward to a return trip to San Miguel de Allende in the future.

Notice the trees trimmed square like in our town!

Mayan Flyers

These Mayan performers climb to the top of the pole, wrap ropes around and around the pole, tie the other end of the ropes to themselves, then slowly descend to the plaza below. One member of the group remains seated at the top playing music while the others descend.

Note that we arrived the day before performances began. This pole, which must be at least 60 feet tall, was installed on the plaza the day before. They chipped a hole in the existing concrete plaza, inserted the pole, and mixed some cement to patch it up. Then they entrusted their lives to it!

Beginning their descent…
Continuing their descent…
Flying solo
About to touch down

Aztec Dancers

I gave some background on the celebrations in an earlier post. Here are some of the dancers who were participating. First there was parade that lasted at least two hours, with these and hundreds of other dancers performing along the whole route. They end up in a plaza near the cathedral, where some of the groups continued to dance for another couple of hours. This occurred all three days that we were in San Miguel de Allende. These performers are not looking for praise from the crowds of onlookers, they are truly passionate about what they’re doing.

Aztec dancers
Maricela with dancers
Maricela with dancer
Richard with dancer
Richard with dancers

Fireworks

Fireworks are very commonly used to celebrate here in Mexico. Here are photos of fireworks at the church in San Miguel de Allende. Some of the fireworks (like these) are designed to be a beautiful sight, and others are designed simply to produce a loud noise. The noise-making fireworks literally continued all through the night. Celebrations went on until at least 2 a.m., then started up again at 4 a.m.

Fireworks over the cathedral
Fireworks over the cathedral