Learn Spanish Travel Spanish Blog

I like San Miguel. It has a long and interesting history, which it has managed to hold onto in spite of Globalization. It’s streets are busy but charming. All of those things so endearing and confusing about Mexico are intact here, despite a large foreign contingency.

There is almost NO graffitti. What a pleasant surprise that was. And very little litter. It’s a common site to see someone sweeping the street or the sidewalk with on of those long handmade brooms.

The weather, during the day, is perfect. Mid 70′s, mostly clear skies (this is being written in February. I understand summer is the rainy season). At night it gets a little chilly. It’s been getting down to the low 40′s, which isn’t so bad except that so many places don’t have heat or air conditioning. We got lucky this time with this wonderful place we found, since it has a gas space heater. But just one small space heater for the whole place, and the words air tight can’t be applied to this apartment in any way, shape or form. There are huge gaps around doors and windows (but gee, we like this place). Since we only turn the space heater on when we get up, mornings are chilly. And it’s chilly in the classrooms at school as well. Our 20 minute walk to school would be cold if we weren’t brisk walkers and if it weren’t mostly uphill.

The people have been almost invariably friendly and helpful. When we head off for school, all the kids in their uniforms are also heading to school, and it’s nice to walk among them and hear their laughter and their Spanish.

The architecture here is impressive. Churches, government buildings, the former homes of wealthy patriarchs. To really get a feel for a lot of the old  buildings, though, you have to go inside. It’s only when you get past the large surrounding walls that you really get to see the beauty of the place. Fortunately, many of the old places have been turned into restaurants, museums and shops, so you can go in and marvel at the beauty of these historic courtyards. We stepped into an art gallery yesterday, which seemed to be a large former home, and it’s courtyard was just stunning.

The food here is better than we thought it was going to be. We thought it might not be as good because of so many tourists (that’s often the case), but we were pleasantly surprised. It’s a little disappointing (and odd, I think) that there are so few Mexican restaurants near the historic area, but there are a few, and they’re good. Yesterday, we ate at Cha Cha Cha on 28 de April. First, no it’s not part of the chain, and second, it’s common in Mexico for streets to be named for historic dates (it’s a good way to teach history). Cha Cha Cha was small – 7 tables. It was about 4 – just after lunch hours, so we were the only people there. It’s really easy to not be able to find a place here, because you have these streets lined with high walls, and the sidewalks are only 3 feet wide or less, and the signs are small and are flat against the wall rather than sticking out, so the only perspective you have is of the other side of the street. Even if you have the address, it’s sometimes confusing. The even side of the street might say 22, 24, 26 and your side might be 79,81, 83. More than once we’ve gone up and down a street three times before we found the correct door. Anyway, Cha Cha Cha seemed to be run by a man and his wife, the restaurant part was outside in his courtyard, strung with festive silver banners that reflected onto the walls. You know, you wouldn’t think that a place that was, in effect, in someone’s yard, and was furnished with plastic tables and plastics chairs that said “Corona” would be charming, but this place was in fact charming. And the food was terrific. I had chile relleno and it was fresh and marvelous. And the host was warm and friendly. The place isn’t directly around El Centro, but it isn’t far from it, and it’s in a little neighborhood, which we enjoyed walking through. Cha Cha Cha.

We went to the Public Library. Public libraries aren’t that common in Mexico. This one is large and was fairly crowded, but the crowd was 90% American. There was a cafe inside, several courtyards and gardens with table for sitting and reading. We saw what appeared to be tutoring going on. The library has a theatre also, that show movies, presents plays and lectures, etc. Last night there was a play (sold out). From the look of the photos on the billboard at the front door the cast was mostly Anglo.

We also went into the National Cultural Center. Talk about impressive courtyards. It was huge, and lovely. There were large old murals, rooms for weaving classes, pottery classes and the like. We passed a room where we heard “Uno, dos, tres, quatro” being repeated. It was a ballet classe for children around 8 or 9. Parents lingered outside. That was nice.

There is a very large park (the Benito Juarez Parque) between home and school, and we often walk through it on the way home.  Not a park in the traditional sense, though.  A  good portion of it is filled with plant vendors.  Flowers of every sort and tons and tons of plants.  It’s really interesting.

  And right outside the park is a public washing area.  It’s for doing laundry. For free.  (See the photo below).   Rows of cement basins in front of a long water trough.  In a really pretty area.  It’s still in use, too.   There were people using it yesterday when we were there.  An odd juxtapostion, with the public laundry directly below what we think is a luxury hotel where, it wouldn’t surprise me, rooms are probably several hundred dollars a night.  If you stand in the laundry and look up, you can see Tai Chi lessons being given on the hotel grounds.   We think it’s a hotel. Not sure. 

There’s a pastry shop (Petite Four) at #99 Mesones. Very good. A French restaurant that we mentioned earlier (not very good) has a small movie theatre inside that has a different movie every day – 3 showings. French films: Wednesday was “Elevator to the Gallows” 1958. Tomorrow is “La Vie En Rose” 2007. We didn’t know it was French when we stumbled across it. There are a lot of French restaurants here. We pass a place sometimes that advertises a “Swiss trained chef from Sri Lanka”. Sounds interesting.

As you can tell, we’ve done more eating out here than normal. It just seems natural to explore right after class for a few hours, then to stop and eat. And even though it’s more expensive than other Mexican cities, it’s still cheap by U.S. standards. No way we could eat out every day at home.

Other than churches and museums and shopping, there isn’t much for a tourist to do here but visit restaurants and walk around. If you were here longer, I’m sure there are activities you could be involved in, and there are day trips all around. We like SMA, though it’s an odd mix.

 

 

 

 

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