The Doll Lady

Many people make their living hawking their wares around the Jardin.

The Hat Guy

He was very entertaining and after a few days of being approached by him while we were eating at various restaurants around the Jardin Rick gave in and bought a hat from him. He balances all those hats on his head as he walks around the square. Pretty amazing! After Rick bought his hat I asked to take his photo. After I took it I showed it to him and he said "nice!" and patted me on the back.

The Balloon Lady

Very popular person! Parents were always buying balloons for their children. See those pointy ones sticking up? They are rockets and they bounce. Kids loved throwing these bottom down on the streets and had contests to see how high they could bounce them.

The Fruit/Juice Cart Ladies

Look at all that luscious fruit! We had papaya nearly every day with breakfast.

Laborers

What was actually amusing about this photo was that is was actually Labor Day (May 1) this day. Stores were open but only if they wanted to be. Maids and gardeners were off. If you look through the doorway you can see another man with a stone on his shoulder.

Street Hawker with Baby

She was selling something out of her orange bucket but I don't know what it was. Possibly pepitas.

P. S. Please stop by Rick's site as he has some great Lytro street photos up. It shows how truly bumpy the streets really are.

It was hard not to notice certain vehicles on such narrow streets. Here are a few that I enjoyed.

Matchy-matchy! (well ... almost)

Arsty! Or is that Arte's?

Impasse — sometimes cars get stuck. In this case it was a car and a bus. The cars on the right are parked. Fifteen minutes later when we went by they were gone so somehow they figured it out. Take note of the tangle of wires above the street.

Beer enthusiast. Either this guy likes his Corona or he owns a liquor store or a brewery. (Side note: Our Skipper-dog that we house-sat had a great dog toy. It was a stuffed squeaky Corona beer bottle with a lime on top but it said GRRRona instead of Corona. Way too cute. He chewed a hole in it and was tearing the stuffing out so we had to take it away from him and hopefully Juanita sewed it up.)

Photo taken sitting on a bench in the Jardin, framed by laurel trees.

Yesterday I talked about the Jardin, and what would the Jardin be without its cornerstone—the Parroquia. Even though it looks like a catherdral, it isn't. It's just a parish church. The original church was built in the 17th century with a baroque façadae and three tall towers. In the 19th century, Mexican architect Zeferino Gutiérrez drastically changed the façade to that you see today. It's rumored that he based his design on postcards of European catherdrals. 

From a distance it looks like a totallly pink confection, but up close you can see the mixture of pink and gray stones. It has many facets.

Here is peek inside:

And straight up while standing in front of it:

From the side:

The bells that can be heard all over town. They startled us awake many a morning and rang throughout the day although we could never figure out just why.

From a distance:

At night:

No matter how you look at it, it's a beautiful sight.

The Jardin, (pronounded Har-DEEN) the main park in the square surrounding the Parroquia, is the focal point of San Miguel. Both houses were only a short walk away this wonderful place. People hang out here: families with children, ex-pats, hawkers, and of course, touristas. It's pretty much the pulse of the city. It even has wi-fi, or it used to. We were not able to access the wi-fi this time, so maybe since so many people now have it in their homes they've discontinued it. But wi-fi and all that new gadgetry is not the reason people flock here. It's to sit and chat under the gorgeous impeccabley trimmed laurel trees. For children to play within the watchful eye of parents. Lovers meet here. Ex-pats come here to meet and greet. 

To shop.

To eat.

To just people watch.

Or perhaps just to relax.

It's the heart of this city and it's pulsing with life.

We are home once again, arriving around 10:00 p.m. last night. Our two flights home were uneventful and very fast. Not so fast were the multiple lines at customs that we had to go through and nearly missed our connection if not for the man with the little handicapped cart. I've never seen lines at customs like that before and even though Houston had a new system installed with kiosks that you scan your passport in and answer all the agricultural questions on first, it was still crazy. (By the way, even if the answer on those custom forms is "yes" for you -- always tick the "no" box.)

Our view no longer looks like the above photo which was taken at sunset from the upper patio of our first home in San Miguel. We also cannot walk down to the Jardin for a "whiskey rojo" to cap off the night and watch the little children and families have fun together, nor will the little man who waited on us wrap me up in a warm fluffy wrap when it's cold. 

In a few days our feet will adjust to not walking on cobblestone streets and uneven sidewalks, of which we usually step down from to let the local people have the narrow sidewalk. I was just settling in to picking up some new Spanish words when now all I hear around me is English. There are plenty of ex-pats from the U.S. and Canada living in San Miguel so that you hear English spoken all the time and you could probably get by without knowing Spanish, but I always like to try and speak the local language. It gives me a feeling of satisfaction when I am understood and they don't switch back over to English.

It was a wonderful vacation. For me, the best kinds of vacations are those taken to places completely out of your normal "comfort zone" and into something completely different. This was such a vacation. I have many photos to share now that we are home. Our second house did not have reliable wi-fi, so I wasn't able to to a last blog post from there. I hope you don't mind if I stay in Mexico (blog-wise) for the next week instead of switching back to boring New Jersy that hasn't even leafed out yet.

It's good to be home yet I will miss many things about San Miguel. More to come. I promise