Mexico: Walking around San Miguel de Allende

It was a bit dark when we arrived in San Miguel de Allende, also in the state of Guanajuato. The bus ride from the city of Guanajuato was just a little over an hour. We had decided to spend the night in the Protective Town of San Miguel, another UNESCO World Heritage Site, so that we could begin our walking tour of the centro historic first thing in the morning.


Our hostel was behind the Templo de San Francisco which we could see from our balcony window. The rooftop gave us a good view of the old quarter with several bell towers hovering above the low structures that dominate the city. It's a good thing they have strict height limits and building codes in Mexico's old towns. Well, for whatever it's worth, the town sleeps quite early. So we did too.


The next morning, we made our way around San Miguel's centro historico. According to UNESCO, "San Miguel de Allende is an early example of a rational territorial and urban development in the Americas, related to the protection of one of the main Spanish inland roads. The town flourished in the 18th century with the construction of significant religious and civil architecture, which exhibits the evolution of different trends and styles, from Baroque to late 19th century Neo-Gothic. Urban mansions are exceptionally large and rich for a medium-size Latin American town and constitute an example of the transition from Baroque to Neo-Classic."


From our hostel, we made our way to the Templo de San Francisco and the adjacent Templo de la Tercera Orden. It reminded me of the same churches in Intramuros which shared the same plaza. I noticed that all structures were in various earthen colors from ochre, orange, yellow, brown and brick red which was a stark contrast to the bolder palette we saw in nearby Guanajuato.


In the center of town is the Parroquia de San Miguel de Arcangel, Templo de San Rafael and Torre del Reloj. The Neo-gothic San Miguel Parish Church has become a symbol of San Miguel de Allende.



The adjacent San Rafael Church seems to be a memorial to the passion of Christ owing to the many tableau altars depicting scenes from Semana Santa, including an elaborate one featuring the events at Golgotha.


Outside the church, I noticed several women sewing together muneca de trapo (traditional rag dolls) which are quite popular all over Mexico.


We also got to visit the Templo de la Inmaculada Concepcion, Oratorio de San Felipe and the adjacent Templo de la Nuestra Senora de la Salud.


San Miguel de Allende is quite easy to explore. In fact, we saw most of the major attractions before lunch. From San Miguel, we took a bus to Queretaro which we planned to visit for the afternoon.

More posts on Mexico here. Photos of San Miguel de Allende in the Ivan About Town FB page.

Mexico: Historic mining town of Guanajuato

The Historic Town of Guanajuato, another old mining town and UNESCO World Heritage Site, was our next stop. We took an early morning bus from Zacatecas to Guanajuato which was about 5 hours and arrived late in the morning. Like in most towns of Mexico, the bus terminals are outside the city center and we had to take a cab into Guanajuato. We actually didn't know where to go and we just told the cab to drop us off in the centro historico.



Several minutes later, we found ourselves in front of Mercado Hidalgo, Guanajuato's old market. And just at the right time since it was nearing lunch and we were sure the market had some great local fare. We were attracted to a stall selling carnitas, a choice we did not regret at all. We tried out both the tacos and torta de carnitas.


After getting maps from the nearby tourism kiosk, we made our way to the Guanajuato Basilica. From where we started, we thought Guanajuato was going to disappoint. After seeing a good number of Mexican towns already, we were yearning for something new.



As we moved further from Mercado Hidalgo towards the basilica, the interesting character of Guanajuato started to emerge. Its winding roads kept producing surprises at every turn, charming colonial buildings or old churches with pocket plazas with neatly-trimmed trees which looked like tall hedges forming a natural perimeter around the squares.



Then appeared the Plaza Mayor and Guanajuato Basilica or the Basilica of Our Lady of Guanajuato, painted in a vibrant yellow and red. Guanajuato definitely had a different architectural vibe which we very much appreciated.



There were actually more churches to visit nearby including the Templo de la Compania de Jesus and the Templo de San Francisco among many others. Behind the Templo de San Diego and Teatro Juarez is a funicular which takes you up a mountain that overlooks Guanajuato. A monument to local hero El Pipila was built with a commanding view of the city. Seeing the grand view of Guanajuato was definitely worth the trip up.



After taking photos, we took the funicular down again and continued walking around, making our way back to Mercado Hidalgo for a late afternoon snack before returning to the bus terminal.



We explored more of the market and enjoyed the colorful local culture that one can experience when visiting markets.



Although our plan was to eat in the market again, we ended up eating at a taqueria across the street called El Paisa. Those were among the best tacos I had during the trip. Of course, the best taquerias have a complete set of condiments which includes tomatoes, onions, cilantro, lime, guacamole and salsa rojo.

If you get a chance to visit Guanajuato, and have time to spare, you might want to visit the Museo de las Momias since Guanajuato's mummies are very famous; and the Casa Diego Rivera, the birthplace of Diego Rivera among other museums. The mines are also part of the UNESCO inscription and a tour there would be very interesting as well.

Guanajuato was literally a day trip for us since we decided to spend the night in San Miguel de Allende.