Familiar Patterns

We are nearing the end of our "tourist" cycle in San Miguel. We have toured the top sites in SMA and have become sufficiently familiar with the city that we no longer check a map when we leave the house.

In our second full week here, the rhyrhm of life has settled into familiar patterns.

On Saturday, we both enjoyed breakfast gatherings organized by the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship for women and men. Helen enjoyed another breakfast at the Blue Bear Restaurant (Cafe Oso Azul) and Jay joined the men for another bread breaking morning at Mama Mia's.

Service UU Fellowship

We skipped the Sunday morning UU Fellowship sponsored breakfast (we went last Sunday), but joined other UUs later at the Sunday service held in the Atrium Sala of La Posada de la Aldea (Ancha de San Antonio 15, San Miguel de Allende). This UU Fellowship, established 30 years ago, is engaged in the community donating over half of the Sunday collection to local social justice projects. Sunday services are well arranged with either guest ministers or lay speakers. This Sunday's speaker was poet Judyth Hill, author of the famous poem "Wage Peace" that has been set to music.  Despite the fact that the materials she was going to use were in her luggage that had not arrived, she gave an engaging talk.

Music is also an important element of the Sunday service. This Sunday, in addition to the talented pianist Paula Peace, renown flamenco guitarist Javier Estrada was invited to provide a special musical performance. See the short video below.

Following the service we visited the Allende Museum (Museo de San Miguel de Allende). The museum is the 1769  birth home of Ignacio Allende. Allende was born to rich Spanish hacienda

Ignacio Allende

owners, but in 1810 became a local Mexican leader in the War of Independence from Spain.

The museum is a bit subpar, composed of rooms that display some artifacts augmented with long detailed historical descriptions in Spanish and English. Our decision to visit this Sunday was sparked by free admission on Sundays, our type of touring. The normal admission is 50 pesos ($2.75) per person.

We also visited the Church of the Immaculate Conception (Iglesia de la Inmaculada Concepción).  This church, just off the historic city center square, was built in 1511 as part of an extensive housing complex, and continues even today to serve as a convent for the sisters of the order of the Immaculate Conception Church. We have frequently seen nuns in traditional habits entering and leaving the church compound.

There are two striking elements of this church. A dome added in 1891 majestically rises just in front to the ornate altar. The second is life size figures of the scourging and crucifixion of Jesus. Both displays showed vivid, if not disturbing, representations of these events. This church truly takes its Catholicism seriously.

Our evening was a bit less travelogue like. We purchased a pizza from a nearby Domino's. We decided to heat up the pizza in our gas oven and promptly burnt the pizza. We were not about to spend another 85 pesos ($4.75) on another pizza.  Hey, every peso saved counts...right?