Adios San Miguel

We rose early to eat breakfast and finish last minute packing and tidying up the home we had rented in San Miguel de Allende. We were at the end of this stay and off for another adventure in Oaxaca southern Mexico.

To the Airport

Helen Calling Bajiogo Office 

Helen had previously arranged transportation for the 90 minute trip from SMA to the Del Bajío International Airport (BJX) airport near Leon. To confirm our transportation reservation made before we departed the States, we stopped by the local Bajiogo office in SMA the previous day to confirm our pick up time. It was confirmed that the driver would be at our house between 8:15 and 8:30. Well, given such assurances, you can only imagine what happened next?

When 8:40 rolled by and our transportation was nowhere in sight, Helen called the office. Yes, the driver is on the way, but there are many pick ups. When the shuttle van picked us up at 8:50, we realized that he was not yet driving to the airport. He was still scurrying about town picking up passengers. The last passenger boarded the van at 9:15. This last passenger shared that his pick up time was also 8:30 am.

Okay, 9:15 on we were our way to the airport. Everyone was checking their watches. A one and half hour drive. Arrival time should be 10:45. Close, but we will be okay for our 11:30 flight. Still time to check in, drop off bags, clear security and find the gate. Deep breath.

If we miss this local flight, we could miss our connecting flight from Mexico City to Oaxaca City. Deep breath.

As the van worked its way to the airport, the last passenger picked up provided real time "estimated time of arrival" by tracking the trip on Google Maps.

As it turned out, the driver put the pedal to the metal and completed the journey in just over an hour. We darted from van to airline counter and completed the check-in formalities without much fuss. Our discovery at check in was that the two free luggage check-ins afforded by our use of our Delta Amex card was not honored on this internal flight from Leon to Oaxaca. With a combination of pesos and credit card we paid the 500 pesos ($27) for each piece of luggage.

Okay, this time to pass through security and make it to the gate for our 11:30 flight. At the gate by 10:40.  We're good.

Gate at BJX

We then discovered our 11:30 flight has been re-scheduled for 11:15. One more deep breath and a startled look at each other for our good fortune and we were on our way.

The actual flights (Leon to Mexico City and then Mexico City to Oaxaca) were pleasant and rather short (45 minutes and 75 minutes). We deplaned at the Oaxaca City airport to discover that other than private planes, our small commercial puddle jumper was the only aircraft at the airport. Needless to say, gathering our luggage was pretty simple.

Luggage tags are checked by airport personnel before you depart so make sure to have your part of your luggage tags handy upon arrival.

To the AirBnB

We needed to catch a taxi to our AirBnB. The only information, other than the address, provided by the AirBnB owner was "it's a short ride" and "it should not cost much."

This airport, we learned, provided transportation via a shared shuttle van service vs. individual taxis. One pays for ride at a counter in the lobby based on the zone to which one is traveling. There is a per person charge for this service.

The clerk at the transportation counter determined that we were traveling to Zone 1.  We paid 80 pesos ($4.40) per person and took our receipts outside. We were then quickly directed to a white nine passengers van. Once full, off we went.

Addresses, Phone Numbers and Maps

As part of what we like to call our "savvy travel preparation",  we carry a printout with the address of our destination, a local phone number and a Google Maps printout showing the location of our destination.

Once in Thailand, the Roman lettering of our desired address was a complete mystery to our taxi driver. However, the local phone number had enabled the driver to get directions from a fellow native speaker. We thought, "What if there were no answer to that call?"  Ergo, carry a Google Map with the routine from our starting to ending location clearly marked.

Our driver at the Oaxaca City airport looked at both the printed address and our Google Maps printout and finally said, "Okay."

Arrival at the AirBnB

AirBnB Courtyard - Bedroom Top Floor in Background

Earlier as we collected our luggage, Helen had texted the AirBnB owner, Flilippe, to confirm our arrival.

He was at the AirBnB to greet us. After some instructions we were handed keys and wished a happy stay.

Let out deep breath. We arrived safely with our luggage and without incident.

Bring Out Your Dead

Painted Face

Our last night in San Miguel de Allende was November 1, 2017, All Saints Day in the Catholic calendar. As we noted in our Mask Museum blog post, Spanish priests co-opted indigenous native customs regarding Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos) to align with All Saints and All Souls Days.

Commercial interests and local habits over time have converted Día de los Metros into a secular street festival. In SMA, for example, throngs of skeleton painted-face people mingle with their more mortally adorned amigos in an air of cosmopolitan festive celebration.

Grave in Catacombs

Based on recommenda- tions from full time SMA expat residents, we signed up for a tour this evening with a highly recommended tour guide. The tour included a 30 minute orientation lecture, a visit to the catacombs beneath La Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel (opened only during Día de los Muertos celebrations), a look at modern day crypts at the Church of San Francisco (Iglesia de San Francisco) and a walking tour to a local cemetery.

The tour was a bust! We had anticipated an English guided tour providing a behind the scenes understanding of the historical and current cultural significance of Día de los Muertos. Instead, we encountered a long-winded Spanish language "lecture" with English translation provided by Jesus on the history of SMA cemeteries and other historic academic tidbits. We did indeed visit the locations noted in the tour's description only to continue the long-winded Spanish to English lecture, which of course, took twice as long because of the translation. The worst part was at the end, we were left at a cemetery about 10 blocks from where we started and we had to find our own way back. In the dark. On cobblestone streets. On Day of the Dead. Eek!

Some tours are better than others.

Altar at El Jardin

Nonetheless, the day was not lost. In the evening, El Jardin (The garden) in the center of historic SMA was jumpin' and jivin'. Elaborate altars constructed of flowers, beans and other natural material surrounded the outer perimeter of El Jardin.

Street vendors were selling wares, restaurants were serving drinks and a short musical parade of skeleton faced-painted revealers strode down San Francisco Street.

And to add to the general sense of festival, kids in Halloween costumes mingled in the crowd collecting candy or coins from those more attuned this festival's newer rituals.

It was a great evening, but we needed to head home to complete our packing for an early departure from San Miguel de Allende to Oaxaca City the next morning.

Museo de la Máscara

Only the masks for sale can be photographed.

As we exchanged suggestions of sights worth seeing with fellow travellers in San Miguel de Allende, the Museo de la Máscara (Mask Museum) was typically included on the list of must-see venues.

The Mask Museum, unlike the nearby Toy Museum, is not housed in a public building. Rather, the Mask Museum is a private collection housed in a Bed & Breakfast called Casa de la Cuesta at Cuesta de San José 32. We called ahead (415.154.4324) to express our desire to visit the museum. Bill, the B&B owner and mask collector, answered the phone and warmly welcomed us to visit the next morning. 

Every mask has been in a ceremony.

About 15 people showed up for Bill's introduction to the museum. Bill talked for about a half hour telling us how he started collecting masks. Initially, he was a student accompanying more seasoned collectors as they went to country villages to buy masks. Bill then became more fluent in Spanish and culturally attuned. He traveled himself and learned of the ceremonial and personal connections of masks. In fact, all of the masks in Bill's extensive collection have been involved in some ceremonial event.  

Bill and his wife Heidi have lived in SMA for 28 years and built their seven room B&B and the mask museum that contains 600 masks. There is also a shop where masks and local artworks are for sale. Mask prices start at $85 USD and go up to ~$1,000 USD. Credit cards are accepted but cash, either US dollars or Mexican pesos, will net you a discount.

After our tour of the Mask Museum, we accepted an invitation to return the next day for a talk by Heidi about the altars constructed for Day of the Dead.

In a warm and caring way, Heidi explained that the Day of the Dead ceremony began long before the Spanish arrived in the 1500s. It was originally a 2 - 3 month celebration to beckon those souls who had departed to return and enjoy once again the company of those they left behind. Heidi noted that the scent of marigold flowers was used to help the departed find their way back to loved ones.

Additionally, altars are constructed to make the returning souls warmly welcomed. Altars are personal, reflecting the earthly pleasures or characteristics of the departed. Thus, altars may contain a bottle of a favorite tequila or a skeleton-like image of the departed holding a golf club or a cigarette dangling from the mouth. Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) can also be a solemn, privately marked occasion for a family.

The Spanish co-opted this native Indian custom and compressed/aligned the ceremony to be held on the Christian All Souls Day and All Saints Day. General commercialization has since subsumed the holiday into a raucous event of parades, face-painting and skeleton Catrinas adorned, displayed and configured in all sorts of imaginative poses.

Just for the record: La Catrina is officially a skeleton dressed in a beautiful long dress and a broad-brimmed hat, usually decorated with colored ostrich feathers. La Catrina was popularized by the painter Diego Rivera to make fun of wealthy Europeans. The not-so-subtle reminder was that regardless of one's status in life, everyone dies.

Día de los Muertos Pre-espectáculo

La Catrina Contest

This weekend before the celebration of Day of the Dead on November 1 and 2 provided us what can only be called the Día de los Muertos Pre-espectáculo (Day of the Dead Pre-show).

Catrina Family

The city has been in full swing preparing for Día de los Muertos.  Images of Catrinas are appearing with more frequency around town, marigold flowers border restaurant doorways, stages have been erected for evening musical entertainment near El Jardin and, of course, a La Catrina contest was conducted at Plaza Civica.

Stylized Catrina Face Painting

We have yet to appreciate the cultural impact of this Día de los Metros cele- bration. We attended a talk on October 31 regarding the altars that are erected in homes to honor those who have passed. We  will be taking a guided Día de los Muertos tour on November 1 through the catacombs and city cemetery.

Until, then we see the celebration in its more animated forms in the painted faces of celebrants and costumed Catrinas.

Jardin Botanico

Today we took a guided tour in English of El Charco del Ingenio, which is a 170 acres nature preserve in the northeast corner of San Miguel de Allende.

Getting there is Half the Journey

Free Van Service

We are pretty sturdy walkers and considered walking to El Charco. However, the actual entrance was not entirely apparent on our map. Hmmm. Fortunately, Helen discovered on the English language version of the garden's website that a free shuttle van departed at 9:30 am from Calle de Mesones in front of Plaza Cívica. The same shuttle van departs from the garden at 1:00 pm and returns its passengers to the plaza.

As the van worked its way up the ever increasingly steep cobblestone roads to the garden's entrance, we were very glad we discovered this free shuttle service.

The Tour

Norman

We were the only people who showed up that morning for the standing 2 1/2 hour guided walking tour given on Tuesday and Thursdays. Our guide Norman, an expat who has lived in San Miguel de Allende for eight years, was personable and had a knowledge that covered both the garden's flora and it winged inhabitants.

As birds landed nearby or butterflies flurried before us, Norman was quick to identify the species and added a bit of extra commentary.

Given the wide variety of plant life in the botanical garden, Norman spent a good deal of the tour discussing flowering plants, cacti and the many succulents, especially the broad leaf agave, that call the garden home.

Cacti vs Succulent

Agave

But first, let's resolve the "great cacti vs. succulent" battle! Okay, there is no battle, but there is general confusion or, in our case, a general ignorance on the difference between cacti and succulents.

"All cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are cacti," stated Norm at the start of our tour.

Cacti

After touring the garden and its wide variety of cacti and agaves, we achieved a greater appreciation for Norman's observation.

Succulents, we learned, are plants that store water in juicy leaves, stems or roots in order to withstand periodic drought. 

So cacti and agave are both succulents. But for a succulent to be cacti it must have areoles. Areoles are small, round, cushion-like mounds of flesh where spines, hair, leaves, flowers, and more grow from the cactus. Agaves do not have areoles so "ipso facto columbo," they are not cacti. Simple.  Right?

However, becoming cacti savvy observers was not the highlight of our discoveries. Learning the reproduction cycle of an agave was our big "we

Seed Pods (left) - Flower Spike (right)
Click to Enlarge

didn't know that" experience.

The entire life span of an agave (up to ~80 years) is spent maturing and storing enough energy to produce an enormous flower spike that looks like a giant asparagus stalk. For plants grown to make mescal (tequila), the plants are harvested before this tall spine (that takes about 10 months to mature) forms in the central part of the plant.

At the garden there were agave plants in various stages of the reproductive cycle. At its reproductive peak, a 12 foot or higher flower spike extends from the plant's base. Flowers form, seed pods burst open and winds help dispersed the seeds. Once the seed pods are spent, the plant dies.

Other Stuff

We also learned of the cochineal insect that lives on the paddle of cactus plants. For centuries indigenous people created a deep red dye from the insects. The Spanish recognized the export value of this dye and cornered the world-wide red dye market until the introduction of synthetic dyes in the late 19th century.

Another Spanish remnant found is the park is the stone aqueduct constructed by the Spanish to drive

 Dam and Las Colonias Reservoir

a water wheel for milling grains. Only fragments of the aqueduct and the water wheel's stone brackets remain today. A 1580 map of the area clearly shows the water wheel and mill were indeed operational in this location.

Another more visible remnant of the past is the large dam and Las Colonias reservoir  built in 1902. The dam and metal sluice pipes were installed to generate electricity for La Aurora textile factory.  La Aurora long ago ceased being a textile mill and is now an upscale arts center.

We enjoyed our visit to El Charco and recommend a visit if your visit to San Miguel de Allende allows you sufficient time to savor this wonderful central Mexican botanical garden.

Guanajuato

We booked a tour with Discovery Tours to visit the city of Guanajuato. An hour to the west of San Miguel, Guanajuato is the capital of the Mexican state Guanajuato. We were the only ones on the tour today so we had a wonderful personal day tour with an equally wonderful and knowledgeable guide, Dalí.

History

El Pípila in Guanajuato

El Pípila in San Miguel

The city of Guanajuato has several claims to fame. It is the geographic center of Mexico and is deeply steeped in the history of Mexico's War of Independence from Spain. In 1810 insurgents overwhelmed the Spanish soldiers and loyalists who had barricaded themselves in the town's granary. El Pípila, a miner from the local silver mine, rushed the granary doors while carrying a stone slab on his back to protect himself from Spanish musket balls. He carried tar and a torch to successfully burn the doors open.

A huge statue of El Pípila dominates the heights over Guanajuato. In San Miguel de Allende (SMA) there is another statue commemorating his act of bravery in a traffic circle near our local hypermarket, La Comer.  

Tunnels

In Spanish colonial days, the Spanish extracted the abundant deposits of silver from the surrounding hills. They built Guanajuato in a narrow valley beneath the mine with a river splitting the city. Over time, dams were built to expand city space. These dams, however, broke several times in the late 1770's. 

Town fathers responded in two ways. Huge stone walls facing the river were built as protection from unleashed waters giving some streets a canyon like feeling. In 1883, the expertise of the nearby mineworkers was employed to build tunnels to divert river water. Tunnels continued to be built and built and built.

By the 1960's, any lingering flood concerns were gone and the tunnels were converted to underground roads. Since the roads on the surface are extremely short and narrow (barely wide enough for one car to pass in some instances) the underground roads provide easier and faster transportation through and across town.

You can see an 8 second video of our drive through one of these tunnels at the end of this post.

Our Tour

Click to Enlarge

Our tour hit the city's highlights. We started with a panoramic view of the colorful city from a vista point where the statue of El Pípila overlooks the city. We then drove down into the center of town, parked the van, and began our tour on foot.

The Diego Rivera Home/Museum was filled with many pieces of Rivera's different phases. One pencil sketch was of a Russian woman with whom he had a son who died when he was four years old. An oil portrait done in pointillism was of a daughter he had with another woman.

Dalí in Front of Mural

However, the most spectacular piece was a 50-foot long mural of many people in a park. Each person was identifiable, including many political figures, and next to Catrina, the skeleton, Diego as a child. Frieda Kahlo, his artist wife, appears right behind him.

The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception was spectacularly covered in gold leaf everywhere we looked, including the huge pipe organ on the second floor in the back of the church. Many chandeliers also contributed to an atmosphere of wealth and opulence.

On the way out we were able to speak with the bell ringer. We asked if there was a pattern to how the bells were rung to tell the time. No, he replied, he just rang the bell as many times as the spirit moved him!

See our video at the end of this post.

The Don Quixote Iconographic Museum was filled with many different types of pieces of art that were all winners of the annual Don Quixote art contest. There is also a small theater inside for performing artists.

We enjoyed a marvelous lunch in an outdoor café of the Hotel Santa Fe and then returned home.