Have you heard of San Miguel de Allende in Mexico?
We hadn’t either until Denny pushed hard for this to be the destination for his 50th birthday trip. We flew down on Thursday and were happy to find it took a short 2 hour flight and 1.5 hour drive to reach the lovely house that Denny had arranged for us.
San Miguel de Allende is situated at 6,200 feet and has a population of around 70,000. The mountainside location leads to plenty of uphill and downhill walking. Our house was about a 10 minute walk uphill from the main square and so our calves did get a reasonable workout. The weather was very pleasant during our stay with highs in the 80s and lows in the 50s.
We arrived around 3pm and Sean and Sheri weren’t due until later in the evening, so we set out to explore the center of town. The main square is dominated by La Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel, the current parish church of San Miguel, which is unique in Mexico and the emblem of the town. It has a Neo-gothic façade with two tall towers that can be seen from most parts of town. It is one of the most photographed churches in Mexico. The church was built in the 17th century with a traditional Mexican façade. The current Gothic façade was constructed in 1880 by Zeferino Gutierrez, who was an indigenous bricklayer and self-taught architect. It is said Gutierrez’s inspiration came from postcards and lithographs of Gothic churches in Europe, particularly the one in Cologne; however, the interpretation is his own and is more a work of imagination than a faithful reconstruction.
There is a plethora of rooftop restaurants to choose from and we chose Quince beside the church as our first stop. The food and views were excellent – we think it might be the best grilled octopus that we’ve tasted.
As we stopped at a wine shop to stock up for the weekend, a very interesting Mexican wedding celebration passed by. A procession through town led by a donkey carrying flowers and tequila, followed by very large human puppets of the bride and groom, a Mariachi band, and the wedding party. As the weekend progressed we realized that this is a very common occurrence with many weddings taking place on Saturday.
Sean and Sheri arrived safely on Thursday evening and we headed to another rooftop, SMA restaurant, just up the street from the house. We had a delicious dinner and several of the group sampled Casa Dragones Joven tequila (apparently a favourite of Oprah and Martha Stewart).
Friday began with a walking food tour. This took us to 6 restaurants around town and our tour guide, Pascal, provided a lot of cultural and historical information along the way. The town, so the story goes, owes its founding to a few over-heated dogs. These hounds were loved by a Franciscan friar, Juan de San Miguel, who started a mission in 1542 near an often-dry river 5km from the present town. One day the dogs wandered off from the mission; they were found reclining at the spring called El Chorro. The mission was moved to this superior site.
San Miguel’s favorite son, Ignacio Allende, was born here in 1779. He became a fervent believer in the need for Mexican independence and was a leader of a conspiracy that set December 8, 1810, as the date for an armed uprising. After initial successes Allende, Hidalgo and other rebel leaders were captured in 1811. Allende was executed, but on independence in 1821 he was recognized as a martyr and in 1826 the town was renamed San Miguel de Allende.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the town was in danger of becoming a ghost town after an influenza pandemic. Gradually, its Baroque/Neoclassical colonial structures were “discovered” by foreign artists who moved in and began art and cultural institutes. This gave the town a reputation, attracting artists such as David Alfaro Siqueiros, who taught painting.
This attracted foreign art students, especially former U.S. soldiers studying on the G.I. Bill after the Second World War. Since then, the town has attracted a significant number of foreign retirees, artists, writers and tourists, which has shifted the area’s economy from agriculture and industry to commerce catering to outside visitors and residents.
Now back to the food. Our first stop was La Parada, a Peruvian restaurant, where we enjoyed ceviche with leche de tigre (tiger’s milk) and excellent pisco sours. We liked this one so much that we returned for lunch later in the visit.
Next was Casa del Diezmo, a Yucatan Mexican restaurant where we enjoyed Pork Pibil Panuchos. This place was typical in that you wouldn’t know it existed from the street and on entry found a gorgeous courtyard with beautiful plants and flowers.
One of my favourite dishes from the tour, mole enchiladas, was next at La Cocina, Café del Viajero. There are many different recipes for mole sauce, typically including chocolate, chiles, sweet and sour ingredients, thickeners and spices. The sauce at our stop was absolutely delicious.
Although the portions at each stop were relatively small, we were starting to feel pretty full at this point. The last stop before desert was Don Taco Tequila, a vegan restaurant where we enjoyed mushroom tacos.
The tour finished with ice cream from a street cart and delicious churros with caramel sauce. This was a wonderful way to explore downtown, the food variety, and to learn some history – thanks Anne for organizing.
After the food tour, can you guess what we did? Yes – another rooftop at Pueblo Viejo and then dinner downstairs. In between, Diana, Denny and I relaxed at the bar at a fancy boutique hotel called Beelia.
On the walk home we enjoyed several Mariachi bands with the Amistad band being a highlight. They were certainly the loudest with lots of brass and a sousaphone – sounded a lot like a New Orleans brass band.
Saturday started with a delicious traditional breakfast prepared by the housekeeper, Mar, who was lovely and welcoming and entertained us by trying to communicate in Spanish with no desire to slow down and help us understand.
The day continued with one of the more unique activities of our visit – a trip to Jimmy Ray McLaughlin’s art compound a few miles outside of town. This is the kind of special surprise only experienced when traveling with Denny and taking advantage of his prodigious research. Jimmy Ray has lived throughout the US and around the world and likes to go by Anado, a name he was given in India. Anado uses bottles, tiles, and other recycled material to create very colorful and detailed mosaic artwork. We enjoyed the tour of his art compound with several galleries, a large mosaic wall called “Kismet”, his house and studio, but mostly his colorful commentary on his art and life.
Saturday dinner was our one “fancy” dinner of the trip at, you guessed it, a rooftop restaurant. Zumo offered fantastic views of the city and a spectacular tasting menu and wine pairings. Everybody loved their meal. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves and just say that the foie gras mousse and the short ribs were the stand outs for me.
Back at the house after dinner began game night. Several rounds of heads up started the hilarity and were followed by Kahoot where I learned that I know nothing about current popular culture but quite a lot about classic rock.
Sunday brunch was at another Denny deep research find, Nicasio Comedor Mexicano. This was a small, simple restaurant with an open kitchen where we watched traditional Mexican breakfast fare prepared with great flair and attention to detail – tweezers used to place garnish and tiny jalapenos. The pet duck wasn’t in its bed in the restaurant but rather in the pond since it was starting to get hot.
After brunch we visited Fabrica La Aurora, an art market on the outskirts of town that is a converted textile mill and houses many individual art galleries. Denny and Anne tried hard to find some art for their redone living room but came away empty handed. Sean found a very unique poker chip holder and we found a fun gift for Patty’s birthday.
The afternoon ramble through town started with tapas and drinks at the Luna restaurant on top of the Rosewood hotel (the fancy hotel in town). This had amazing views all around.
Next on the ramble was a stop at a tapas restaurant where Denny heard interesting music. The music stopped right as we entered but was quickly replaced by Los Miguels, Miguel and his friend Miguel, who sang and played guitar beautifully. Miguel #1 tried very hard to explain the meaning of each Spanish song to us in English before he performed – and he did an admirable job. His passion for his music and for communicating really came through.
We briefly checked out the tapas restaurant rooftop but weren’t huge fans of the electronic music – a hard transition from Los Miguels.
Anne had been mentioning a visit to “La Sirena Gorda” (the fat mermaid)for a couple of days and so we finally made a visit there on our way to an evening snack at Quince (finishing the trip as we began).
A late night game of liars dice finished out our last full day in San Miguel de Allende.
Sean and Sheri had a very early departure (5am – ouch) back to the airport and the rest of us left a few hours later. You can tell Denny had a good trip from his snooze on the drive.
On the drive to the Leon airport I emailed David to ask him about the rumor I heard from my Mum and Dad of a new cousin in the family. He quickly replied with pictures of Penelope’s new cousin – a gorgeous red Porsche Cayman. I’m looking forward to meeting her in Scotland in the summer.
For the musical lagniappe this week I offer two great songs that I heard for the first time this week. “Good to Me As I Am to You” by Aretha Franklin featuring Eric Clapton on guitar and “Tennessee Blues” by Bobby Charles, who also wrote “Walking to New Orleans”.