After breakfast I headed out on a guided tour of San Miguel de Allende and Dolores Hidalgo, important historical sights for Mexican independence. The tour guide was a man named Juan, who had a grill in his teeth and a crucifix around his neck, but was very pleasant, and thankfully a wonderful driver. 
First stop was a cemetery in Dolores Hidalgo, where Jose Alfredo Jimenez, a famous Mexican mariachi, is buried beneath this ridiculous tombstone. Yes, that thing on the left is a tombstone. The coloured stripes contain the names of his songs, and the sombrero is the actual gravestone, I guess. Crazy Mexicans.
There was an ice cream festival in the centre of the city, and I was actually recruited to be a judge by a kind man who spoke English and wanted me to use my foreign expertise to sample all the ice cream from all the vendors (16 of them) and rate them from 5-10. All the ice cream I could possibly eat before vomiting, for free! But sadly, I only had half an hour, and it would have taken a whole hour. It would have been hilarious, but I was also a tad relieved...I like ice cream, but not to the extent that the job would have required.
Instead, I wandered around a bit, and ate a reasonable amount of ice cream (but I had to pay for it, damnit), and watched some sweet young girls dancing a carefully choreographed routine. They were so focused I was almost nervous for them.
On to San Miguel de Allende, which is notorious for its American expats, mostly women middle-aged or older pretending to be Frida Kahlo. Lovely, very beautiful city, but too many tourists....which also means everything is for sale and everything is pricey. It was nice to see, but I am glad I'm staying in Guanajuato.
The highlight of San Miguel de Allende was probably these adorable children I met in the park. The little girl was selling raffle tickets for a cell phone, a fundraiser for her school concert. Her and her mother asked me if I would buy a ticket, but it would have been hard for me to claim my prize so I just gave her money anyway. And her and her brother posed for this adorable photo.
It's getting dark and this cafe is going to close, so I should probably head home to watch bad American romantic comedies with Spanish subtitles. Okay, so I don't exactly have friends here yet. But I am as happy as can be.
One last pic: me, with beautiful Guanajuato in the background. The woman at Smart Set made me buy the fuchsia shirt, I know it's out of character.
Anyway, adios amigos!
1 comment:
Teo: You're beautiful...
(the pictures are nice, too)
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