San Miguel does not have an airport, so you have to fly into Leon. It is only an hour flight from here, but the shuttle into San Miguel takes an hour and a half. Danielle (the daughter) told me to be sure to book the shuttle ahead of time or it would not be there. She sent me the web site and I easily made a reservation for a round trip on the shuttle (it was all in English). It was less than a week before I was to leave when I started getting stuff together for my trip. I then realized I have never received a confirmation for the shuttle. I went back to their web site, but without my confirmation number got no where. I did find a telephone number and was surprised to get a girl who spoke English (with a heavy accent). I explained my problem to her and sure enough she found my reservation but said the credit card denied the charge. Suddenly I realized that she was talking about dollars and I told her that the card I gave her was a Mexican credit card so she must bill me in pesos. She said she would take care of it.
I never did get an email confirmation, but the money did come out of my Mexican bank, so I assumed all was well. Then Kathie called to say she was cancelling her trip. It seems that L.A. was having terrific storms and Kathie said she could not even get out of the house to get to the bank Southern Californians never learned to drive in rain, because they get so little of it. Kathie has always been afraid of flying and she said that no way was she getting on a plane in that weather. I had to think what I was going to do. Then she sent another note saying she was trying to rebook the flight for the day before I left. That day, I got a message from Danielle that her father was gravely ill and she was flying back to The States. Did Kathie also cancel? It was one of her husbands, but then Kathie had a few after that.
Danielle told me that her boy friend would meet me and show me around, so did that mean I would be there by myself? Well, if I cancelled my flight I would lose the money. (I always buy the cheapest non refundable, not transferable tickets) Well, why not go? At 80 I could use a little excitement in my life and I always did like an adventure, so off I went. The first surprise was the shuttle. It is a small airport and I grabbed my bag and headed out looking for a bus or a van, There was a man holding up a sign with my name on it. I identified myself and he picked up the bag and went out to the parking lot and threw my bag in the back of a passenger car and I was the only passenger. It is a long drive and I did not know where he would drop me or if anyone would be there, but I had her address. I showed it to the driver. He studied it for a while and nodded. The next thing I knew he pulled up in front of her house. I could not believe it and for just $24.00.
There were workmen remodeling the lower floor so I shouted up to the top floor. Kathie appeared, but said she had no key to the gate as she had not been out since she arrived. Luckily one of the workmen let me in. Kathie had told me that Danielle had a three bedroom house. She does, but the third bedroom is for meditation and had only a prayer rug. Kathie and I were to sleep in the same bed (which we had done before) The boy friend was at some sort of meeting and I could find nothing alcoholic to drink so I went out to the nearest tienda. I also noticed that the freezer was so full of stuff there wasn't an ice tray in it. So I bought ice as well. It was so cold that the ice lasted for two days sitting on the counter.
Jorge (the boy friend) is a very tall and handsome man with no Mexican features at all. He looks Castilian Spanish. He was born in San Miguel where his family was very prominent and owned a lot of property. He had lived in the U.S. for many years and spoke perfect English. He told us to go in the morning to the the central park and pick up a tram that would give us a tour of the city. Armed with a map, I can get anywhere and easily found the spot. Kathie on the other hand has such a terrible sense of direction that if she says to go right, I do not even have to look at a map for I know it is to the left. (She could get lost in a closet). We opted for the bilingual tour which was not for another hour so we wandered to another park where there was a fiesta with Spanish dancers and music. The town is gorgeous. Some of the narrow cobble stone streets even reminded me of Paris. Unlike Vallarta where many buildings of historical nature are being torn down for ugly concrete condos, San Miguel has preserved its Colonial look. As far back as 1962 the government made it an historical site, The buildings are mostly stone with carved doors that open to beautiful patios. Every shop, every restaurant is just beautiful. We stopped twice on the tour, once on top of a hill where you can view the city with the tall Gothic church in the center. I wrote down other places I wanted to revisit.
The next day Jorge \had arranged for a guide to take us to the pyramids. Our guide was an American archaeologist who had been working on the site. It wasn't until 2006 that people even knew about the pyramids. Jorge said as a child there were rumors about them, but no one knew where they were. The site is on an 18,000 acre ranch owned by the granddaughter of the Krupp family. She is some sort of mystic who thought she got vibes off them and would let no one near them. The Mexican government finally took over a section of the ranch surrounding the pyramids, but access is very limited. The pyramids were built in 550 A,D. but over the past 1500 years much of the artifacts have been stolen. It was a two mile walk to get there (all up hill) and the altitude made it difficult and Kathie had to stop half way there. I went on, but the real challenge was climbing up the tiny stairs of the pyramid. They said that the steps are very narrow so the corpse of the sacrifice will roll all the way to the bottom (but so would I if I fell) You have to walk side ways and there are no banisters, so it is difficult. At the peak they found a skeleton. He was covered in armor and jewelry so obviously the chief. What amazed everyone is that when carbon testing was done they found he had died almost 1.000 years before he was buried in the pyramid. Speculation was that he had been considered a God and they had carried him from wherever they came from until they found the perfect spot to build it so it is perfectly aligned with the sun, moon, stars. They were definitely not Mayan, nor Aztec, but maybe related to the Aztecs. No one knows what happened to them.
The next day Jorge told us to go to the large park near where we were. There was some sort of a flower show so the paths were lined with thousands of potted plants for sale. It was just beautiful, plus artists had their painting for sale and Kathie bought one. We then wandered around the area and passed the Rosewood Hotel (the most expensive in the area) All the homes around it are gorgeous and everything is so clean. There is no garbage on the corner, there is no litter in the street. You do not even see a cigarette butt. The cobble stones are not round river stones like Vallarta, but cut flat stones. There are little boutique hotels everywhere and I checked and founds the rooms were very cheap.
San Miguel de Allende was founded in 1542 as a depository for the gold and silver that was mined from the nearby mountains. It was originally called San Miguel de Grande, but renamed for the martyr Allende after the war of independence. His family home is still there and you can go thought the entire place which has been furnished in the style of the 1800's. The Canal house is across the street and even more grand, but tours only include the interior courtyards. The Canal family owned much of the mining enterprises. All the buildings are stone with carved entrances and arches over the windows, with huge heavy wood doors that open into beautiful courtyards. I just loved the city and if it wasn't for the cold in the winter might consider moving there. Jennifer and I are going back in July or August.
Kitty survived my absence just fine. I had people coming by to make sure she had plenty of food, and when I got back she was waiting on the balcony. She would not let me out of her sight and screamed constantly unless I was holding her on my lap. I guess she missed me a lot. It is nice to be missed by someone, even if it is just a cat.
