Tuesday, November 2, 2021

Dia de Los Muertos in SMA

—Blogpost written by Bob 


In this blogpost, we continue our 6-month winter excursion in San Miguel de Allende (SMA).  We arrived by car on October 15, traveling from near Annapolis, Maryland where we live on our sailboat.  This has been quite a change in our life style!  This weekend was the Dia de Los Muertos celebration.


Sunday, October 31



The outside temperature was expected to be as low as 43 degrees tonight (actually early tomorrow morning).  The afternoon high temperature was consistently 76 to 78 degrees over the past week and was expected to be the same for next week.


Today, we decided to go the the Bazaar of Alternative Design, featuring creative and artistic items.  From shoes to backpacks and from illustrations to paintings, everything was made in Mexico.

Wh
enever I attend artistic events like this I get inspired to take better photographs.  So, I carried my favorite lens on my camera--my 85mm f1.4D.  This required that I see in 85mm, rather than 50mm which represents close to normal vision. 


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Since the event was over a mile away, we decided to take a taxi there and back and save our energy for walking around the exhibits.


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During our travels today we realized that they already moved their clocks back by 1 hour here in San Miguel.  (This doesn't occur until next Saturday night in the U.S.)




There was between two and three dozen exhibitors in the long white tent.  Maggie looked at some beautiful hand-made (silver) jewelry and I found very neat hand-made pair of shoes (but they didn't have my size)--the exhibitor will be back in 2 weeks though.  We purchased a creative face mask which has a painted cat's face on it.  Maggie bought a pair of hand-made slippers.  For the most part, things were inexpensive by our standards.



The Alternative Design Bazaar
was held under a long
white tent.


One of the most colorful exhibits had
hand-woven rugs and runners-
-they were beautiful!

Beautiful hand-made shoes-
-I want a pair!  They cost
about $40 USD. (Sorry
for this image being
out of focus.)

El Centro was very busy today due the upcoming holiday weekend.  (We met a couple from Mexico City spending the long weekend in San Miguel de Allende.)  We spent a lot of time walking around El Centro before returning to our apartment.  



It seems like almost everyone was
taking cell phone pictures.

A beggar on the sidewalk in San Miguel
de Allende.  (This scene was not
typical of San Miguel de Allende.)



A man sits in a large doorway in
San Miguel de Allende.


When we arrived back on our street many
of the murals were being re-made.



Monday, November 1 (Dia de Los Muertos)



Today was Maggie's first day of Conversational Spanish class.  She left our apartment early, all dressed up in her teacher clothes.  We had arranged to meet each other for lunch at the Santa Ana Cafe within the Biblioteca (Public Library).


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Yesterday, a lot of face painting was ongoing in preparation for Dia de Los Muertos.



A young girl get her face painted along a
long line of others in the street.


It seems like everyone was into
getting their faces painted.


A Mexican family enjoys a holiday meal 
in a courtyard just off the street 
in San Miguel de Allende.



Marigolds (which symbolize death) and incense are used to lure the souls of the dead back for a visit.  They are used in headbands and crowns, on doorsteps, and in decorations around restaurants and businesses.


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We decided to go out for lunch at the Santa Ana Cafe in the Biblioteca.  We ate there once before and were very pleased.  Today's lunch was superb, as well as the atmosphere.


An empty seat in the sunshine
at Santa Ana Cafe.


A flutist entertains diners
at Santa Ana Cafe.


Once again we were very pleased with our relaxing and delicious lunch.  After lunch we waled downtown to do some people watching.  I was surprised at how many people were still lined up for face painting this afternoon.


An interesting dome near
the center of town.


A mural was being re-done on Calle Cancion
India when we returned from lunch.


Tuesday, November 2



We decided to go to the City Market (as opposed to La Comer) this morning for groceries.  The City Market is owned by La Comer Grupo and is an upscale version of La Comer (not that one is needed).  The strange thing about these grocery stores is that they are very close to each other--in fact, they compete with each other for business (which is not very smart).  The City Market was very similar to Wegman's, the high end grocery store chain out of Rochester NY.


When we returned from the City Market
our neighborhood makeover
was still underway.


Maggie's conversational Spanish classes were rescheduled to 3 PM in the afternoon starting today.  So, we decided to have lunch in our apartment, using some of the items we just purchased this morning at the City Market.


One of the most unusual things we bought
at the market was yellow watermelon.  
It tasted slightly sweeter than
red watermelon.  


One of the fruit counters in the market featured different types of watermelons--the yellow watermelon was particularly attractive to me--so, we bought half of a small yellow watermelon to try it.  As soon as we got back to our apartment, we tasted it--it was slightly sweeter (and no seeds) than the red watermelon we are accustomed to having.  (Later in researching it, I found out that yellow watermelon was very common, even though I never saw it or tasted it before.)

For lunch, we also each had two empanadas, one filled with a spicy meat mixture and the other with a spinach and cheese mixture--they were delicious after heating them up in the microwave.


Today's lunch consisted of two store-bought
empanadas with a small piece
of yellow watermelon.


The City Market was quite an experience for us, in the same way that Wegman's was quite an experience back home.

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There seems to be a lot of nice restaurants on the southern end of town (neighborhood of Guadiana) where La Comer and the City Market are located.  Twice, we have tried to find the top-rated seafood restaurant, Mario's Mariscos Frescos, in the same area as La Comer and failed.  (Fresh seafood is shipped in daily from Mazatlan.  One of these days we will find it!)

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Stay tuned for more of our land exploration in San Miguel de Allende...


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