The morning after our late night arrival in San Miguel we enjoyed coffee and the very pretty view of the hotel garden, the city of San Miguel and the mountains in the distance from elevated position of the porch of our room at Casa Rosada. The hotel is a lovely historic property in an excellent location, just one block to El Jardin and within a 5-minute walk of an impressive array of really excellent restaurants.
From arrival to our early morning departure 4-days later we enjoyed excellent friendly service from the entire hotel staff. While a little cool, we really loved having breakfast in the courtyard each morning.
There were only a few issues that kept this from being the “perfect” hotel. The WI-Fi in the room was a little on the slow side but that was really a minor problem. The suite was a nice sized but the room and bathroom would benefit from a makeover. Don’t get me wrong, we really enjoyed our stay and it’s hard to put a finger on the exact cause but the room just wasn’t as comfortable as we might have hoped for at the price paid.
We had arranged to spend that first morning on a Historical Walking Tour offered by Patronato Pro Niños (PPN) a charitable, non-profit organization providing dental and medical care to local children. Revenue from the tours represents a large part of the funding for the work of the organization.
Small group tours are scheduled on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays gathering in the Jardin across from the Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel at 9:45 AM at a cost of $300 MXN pesos. Private tours can also be arranged.
On our tour we spent a good bit of time inside the Parroquia, the iconic landmark of the city and learned a bit of the history of the town. We viewed Casa de Allende, the birthplace of Ignacio Allende, a hero of Mexican Independence, Casa Canal, the home of San Miguel’s most of prominent family, Bellas Artes, once a convent then San Miguel’s first school of art and now a cultural center, David Siqueiros’ famous unfinished mural “Vida y Obra de General Ignacio Allende” and the House of Conspiracies where the War of Independence from Spain was planned.
Our first recollection of ever hearing about San Miguel was its description as “an artists’ colony” and the story we heard on our tour for how it earned that name was fascinating. San Miguel was already home to Bellas Artes art school when after World War II it was approved as an educational institution for payments from the G.I. Bill for U.S. veterans.
That brought about an influx of American servicemen, just home from the war, many of whom were happy to stay on after their study grants were exhausted and integrate into the local community and others to return to the city upon their retirement from work in The States. And along with an interest in studying art the former soldiers brought along an appreciation for other arts and all forms of culture.
The center piece of the historical city center known in most Mexican cities simply as Zócalo is called El Jardin (The Garden) in San Miguel. It earns that name from the rows of well-trimmed laurel trees that cover the space. Both day and night this is the gathering place for locals and tourists alike. It’s bordered on one side by the Parroquia complex and others by restaurants with outdoor seating, various shops and bars. While a bit small for the main square of a city of this size, we never had a problem finding an empty bench to sit on and do some world class people watching.
By lunch time each day shoe shiners set up shop at a bench near one corner and food venders’ wheel in rolling carts some selling ice cream and others savory Mexican treats. One that we weren’t familiar with was a small bag of spiced corn chips that was slit down one side and filled with all sorts of wet & dry condiments. We watched in amazement one day as a couple spent close to 10 minutes of constant eating before the small bag was emptied. I’m not sure exactly what all was added to the chips but it must have been a lot of whatever it was!
In the evenings mariachi bands along with the ever present food and toy vendors vie for attention. With our hotel as close to the square as it was we found El Jardin a frequent and never ending source of entertainment during our stay in the city.
On our 2nd full day in the city we hired a taxi for the ride up to El Charco del Ingenio, San Miguel’s semi-arid botanical garden. It’s located in the hills above the city center and the ride both up to the garden and then back down again was worth the price of the cab ride. In fact on the ride back to town we asked our cab driver to stop more than once for buena vistas of some of the many colorful streets spilling out below our vantage point against the backdrop of the Bajio mountains in the distance.
El Charco is an expansive natural preserve full of large and varied cactus and other native plantings. Great care is taken in eliminating cultivated specimens that find their way into the space.
The tour we took covered a lot of ground and some hilly terrain but we were rewarded with some outstanding views of the valley and close ups of unusual insects and plants.
It’s not mentioned in the garden’s description of the tour but we were chastised for wearing sandals as we frequently shared the garden path with lines of marching ant, which make use of painful bites in defense of their colony. Fortunately, even though we were wearing “the wrong footwear” we didn’t suffer a stinging bite.
El Charco del Ingenio offers guided tours every Tuesday and Thursday (at a cost of $100 MXN pesos pp) and bird watching Tours every 1st & 3rd Wednesday of each month as well as other special events like The Spring Equinox concert and monthly Temazcal ceremonies (among others.)
We had spent some time visiting local crafts stores and found some textiles to our liking. There is some weaving being done in the state of Guanajuato and while we contemplated going on a side trip outside of the city to weaving villages like Dolores Hidalgo or Santa Maria del Rio, we decided against it.
However, on our 3rd and last full day in San Miguel we did make our way a few miles out of the city to Galería Atotonilco and saw some outstanding hand crafts from all over Mexico and Central America curated by owner Mayer Shacter.
Everything about Galería Atotonilco is awesome. Mayer and his wife Susan Page have created an inviting landscape, an architectural masterpiece in their home and gallery and an amazing inventory of folk art across a range of disciplines (like the Guatemalan jaguar pot shown here)that could only be assembled by someone with an artist’s eye.
On the day we visited we were the only two there and Mayer couldn’t have been a more cordial and informative host. If you have an interest or appreciation of folk art, this is a must see on a visit to San Miguel de Allende. I know that on any return trip to SMDA, a visit to Galería Atotonilco will a part of our itinerary.
Mayer does request that you make an appointment for your visit.
Galería Atotonilco / Camino Antiguo Ferrocarril #14 El Cortijo / San Miguel de Allende, Gto. 37893 (415) 185-2225, (415) 153-5365 Cell