Last 3 Days in San Miguel de Allende

—Blogpost written by Bob 

In this blogpost, we continue our 6-month winter excursion in Mexico.  We arrived by car in San Miguel de Allende (SMA) on October 15, traveling from near Annapolis, Maryland where we live on our sailboat.  This blogpost described the end of our last week in San Miguel de Allende.  On Monday, January 31, we will be driving to Bucerias near Puerto Vallarta, on the Pacific coast, for our last two months in Mexico this winter season.

Friday, January 28

It felt a bit warmer today, particularly when we walked to the restaurant for lunch.  We tried a new, highly touted, restaurant, Inside Cafe--it was even better than expected!

The main dining area was on the third
floor of a very nondescript building
right across the street from the
entrance to the Biblioteca.

My lunch began with an excellent
craft beer produced in Queretaro.

The writing on the back of
the can of craft beer.

For lunch I had a delicious pulled
pork and grilled cheese sandwich!

Maggie at Inside Cafe.

After lunch we walked to the Artisan's Market again today in search of another colorful Mexican switch plate.  (They didn't have any more of the one we needed.)  At my urging, Maggie purchased a heart made from Jade--we haven't seen them anywhere else and they were relatively inexpensive--it seemed like the kind of thing we shouldn't pass up.

In-home Storefronts

In San Miguel de Allende and other cities and towns in Mexico, in-home storefronts must be a major source of personal income.

In-home storefronts can be as simple as opening
your front door and spreading our your items
for sale, in the above case, used clothing.
(This one was right next to
our apartment.)

In the above case, the in-home storefront
specialized in knitted slippers.

In-home storefronts are generally pretty
nondescript on the outside--this one
specialized in cleaning supplies.

Except for the occasional yard sale, one doesn't see in-home storefronts in the U.S.  (I wonder why not?) 

----------

We were back at our apartment by 3 PM, our day's outing completed but not completely fulfilled.

Saturday, January 29

Today we planned to do some major packing and loading things into our car-top carrier--our major objective for the day.  Our other major objective was going out for pizza at the Pizza Guy Restaurant for the last time.

----------

Maggie started out her day by doing laundry since it will take most of the day to dry, hanging on a clothesline on the roof.

----------

As I was packing up my clothes I had to wonder what in the world was I thinking when I originally packed for this trip to Mexico.  I have many more pairs of jeans than I used while here in San Miguel and I had no jacket or vest to keep warm in the cool mornings.  I also had packed about a dozen pair of shorts--so far, I only wore one pair and that was maybe for one day.  (Of course, Bucerias, which was not part of our original plan, will be different weather for sure.)

Packing for Bucerias

While here in San Miguel de Allende, I bought another pair of shoes (because I wasn't really equipped for walking on the cobblestone streets) and a (pre-owned) sweatshirt to keep warm.  I also bought another camera lens (a used one on eBay).  So, we were packing a few more things for our trip to Bucerias than we originally packed to come to Mexico.

----------

Back home, a bomb-cyclone level snowstorm created havoc in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic areas of the U.S., snow accumulating at the rate of 1 to 3 inches per hour!  (I'm glad that there is  no such thing as snow or freezing rain here!)

Kali and Lola cuddling with me in bed
for the last time in San Miguel
de Allende.

We had our last pizza (for lunch) at the Pizza Guy Restaurant (we're going to miss this place!).  Another minor thing on my agenda for the day was putting our upcoming destinations (our hotel location in Tonala and the address for our next housing in Bucerias) into the car's GPS.  I accomplished this after lunch while Maggie was in La Comer picking up a couple grocery items.

It’s been a challenge putting Mexican addresses into the car's GPS primarily because we are not familiar with the Mexican states and, of course, the house number is the last item of the Mexican street address and always the first item to go into our GPS.  After trying to input "Bucerias", it would only take "Bucerias Centro" for some reason.  In addition, the GPS couldn't find the address of our next housing--it simply said "the address could not be found," even though it could find the address just four doors away.  (Never having run into this problem in the U.S., I wondered what was in store for us at the end of this 2-day trip.)

Sunday, January 30

The weather on our last full day in San Miguel de Allende was sunny with a low of 42 degrees in the early morning and 75 degrees F in the afternoon--very typical winter weather the entire time we were here.  Our apartment still felt cold at 11 AM! 

----------

This morning, we loaded our luggage into our car top carrier--it took about an hour. (Tomorrow morning, we will load our pillows and our fleece blanket into the car top carrier just before leaving.)  What's left in our apartment were two big plastic boxes full of stuff (labeled "electronics" and "cat stuff")--the third big plastic box containing "household items" was already loaded into the car's trunk.

Kali in the hallway as we
were leaving for lunch.

We went out for lunch at nearby El Grandpa & Son (what a name!) for our last lunch out in San Miguel de Allende.  (I had a delicious cheese steak!)  We walked around the galleries in Fabrica La Aurora after lunch.

The main hallway in
Fabric La Aurora.

An old knitting machine still in
place at Fabrica La Aurora.

A blue agave plant
up close.

Our neighborhood taco stand
on Sunday afternoon.

After lunch we watched NFL playoff games and drank rum and tonic (we had to use up a partial bottle of rum that we didn't have space to pack) as we packed up the few remaining items from our living room.

----------

We expect to leave San Miguel de Allende tomorrow morning (Monday, January 31) for our hotel in Tonala (half way to Bucerias).  (I don't think we will be coming back to San Miguel de Allende--it was nice for the first month or so but then we started missing the water.  If we come to Mexico again for the winter, it will be somewhere on the coast.)  

Thanks for following our blog!