Final Week in San Miguel
Our month in San Miguel de Allende went quickly. Time flies when you’re having fun!
We had arrived in mid-December, and had enjoyed the festive decorations and traditions during the days leading up to Christmas. Now it was January 6, Día de los Reyes (Three Kings Day). Kids in the United States open Christmas gifts on December 25, but kids in Mexico open gifts on January 6, so it was a special day in San Miguel. In the main plaza, the tall Christmas tree was gone, but the streets were still decorated with tin stars. We were amazed to see a huge Rosca de Reyes (Kings’ Cake), stretching all the way to the end of the block! A long queue of people snaked around two sides of El Jardín, patiently waiting for a slice. Those lucky enough to find a tiny figure of baby Jesus in their cake would have the “honor” of hosting a tamales feast on February 2, Día de la Candelaria. It was fun to watch the Three Kings mojigangas (giant puppets) posing for photos and spinning as they waited to kick off the cake festivities.
I decided that before leaving, I wanted to learn more about the historic buildings in Zona Centro. So we reached out to our friendly tour guide, Vail, for another walking tour. We peeked inside some of San Miguel’s sixteen churches. We were surprised to learn that the iconic pink church on the main plaza, Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel, is not a cathedral, but a Baroque facade added to a simple parish church built 200 years earlier.
Vail showed us Casa del Mayorazgo de la Canal, the beautiful mansion of the prominent Canal family with super-tall doors to admit carriages. And we returned to the Centro Culturál Ignacio Ramírez El Nigromante. It was formerly a convent, and later housed Instituto Allende, the art school popular with American veterans studying under the GI Bill. There were wonderful murals painted by students, and in a cave-like room, there was an unfinished mural by Mexican artist David Alfaro Siqueiros, an instructor at the institute.
Thanks to Vail, we discovered (or learned to appreciate) some other noteworthy things in Zona Centro:
The stunning mural in the gift shop of the Biblioteca Publica (public library), painted by local artist David Leonardo Chavez
The town’s first gasoline pump, installed in 1943, when gasoline was 25 cents per liter, and still standing
The town’s oldest bakery, Panadería La Colmena with its bright blue doors, selling bread and sweets since 1898
The town’s oldest apothecary, Botica de Santa Teresita, opened in 1852 and run by seven generations of herbalists and pharmacists
Time was running out, so we ate at our favorite restaurants one more time prepared to say goodbye to our lovely casa. I felt a little wistful as I unwound the string of colorful lights and packed up our tin trees and other decorations. (Vail would make sure they were put to good use.) Steve and I were both sorry to leave, and agreed that San Miguel is a place we both love and will return to for another month (or more).
