La Parroquia De San Miguel De Allende, Guanajuato, MX

En Route, Guanajuato to Dolores Hidalogo

Getting up at 8am and leaving Guanajuato with a certain amount of regret for not having stayed longer than four nights I drove the long route (unintentionally) to Dolores Hidalgo (‘the birthplace of Mexican independence’) and on to San Miguel de Allende.   The first part of the route was a beautiful calm ride through cold windy mountains covered in small trees and the occasional nopale cacti.

I arrived in Hidalgo about an hour later and had breakfast on the main square which was quite bleak under the overcast skies. After getting lost leaving Hidalgo I made my way back on the the highway 110 towards San Miguel.  The road flattened out and through cold desert-like valleys and then San Miguel de Allende appeared with it’s distinctive La Parroquia church on the principal plaza.

Eva and Zelina's Garden

Eva and Zelina’s house on Sabino is a nice example of a modern Mexican house designed in the traditional style with a blank looking exterior giving way to an outdoor passageway with outdoor rooms on one side and indoor rooms on the other, then opening up to a courtyard garden with fountain followed by another three story house with access to the roof.

Unfortunately it was too cold ((7,000 ft above sea-level and unseasonably cold for Mexico) to make use of the outdoor space and we we went to the market to buy food that Eva later turned into a good chicken soup.   The other good food was the chocolate truffles and tarte citron made by an expatriate Nelson, British Columbia

Posing against a wall

chef.   It seems and I’ve been told by others that San Miguel has lots of good restaurants and access to fancy international food that a lot of Mexico doesn’t (other than the three big cities).   I had a good though not quite authentic pan au chocolat as well this morning from the fancy Petit Fours cafe.

Skyline San Miguel De Allende, GTO, MX

Eva and I decided to wake up early to walk through the park and hike up through the rich neighbourhood overlooking the town.  The park paths gave way stairs and walking paths split by

Feels like a pedal bike

small gardens surrounded by traditional and modern mansions replete with high security gates, and cameras. These are mostly second/third houses of rich Mexicans and foreigners – mainly Americans.   In keeping with the multi-layered racism of Mexico the rich Mexicans look down upon the rich white foreigners and both groups look down on the lowly tourists such as myself.  Of the 80,000 residents of the town proper, 11-12,000 are foreigners.   San Miguel is dismissed largely by the authenticity-seeking Lonely Planet as a Mexican Disneyland due to it’s clean streets, orderly traffic, restored colonial buildings, and evolved restaurant scene.  My thoughts are that it’s a pleasant town although not typical of Mexico.

Guanajuato to San Miguel, GTO, MX GPX GPS File

Cathedral, Guanajuato, MX

After five days in the tiny hippie beach town of San Francisco I convinced Seamus that my wanderlust needed sating and we planned our trip to Guadalajara for a couple of days.  With Seamus riding pillion we drove up the hilly jungle highway 200 towards Compostela hoping to put Seamus on a bus there while I drove the rest of the way myself.

Compostela was a small town not to familiar with foreigners as we attracted a fair number of stares.  They helpfully told us that a bus to Guadalajara could be caught at the highway tollbooth (caseta de cobra). So, after ensuring that a Mexican family waiting for the bus would get Seamus on the right bus I drove on the free highway 15D towards Guadalajara.  It wound through a valley of of black volcanic rock formations before I decided I should get on the faster pay highway 15 to avoid arriving at dusk in rush-hour in Guadalajara ( 4-6 million inhabitants).

Cantina Drunk and Lance

The Hosteling International hostel didn’t have private rooms so I checked into Hotel Frances, a faded and crumbling once-grand hotel built in 1618 located next to the principal plazas and Cathedral de Guadalajara.  I was just about to drive my bike through the lobby and dining room when I saw a sweaty looking Seamus walking along the street.  We walked around for a while and had dinner, after which I went to bed feeling ill from the cold I picked up from Kephra in Puerto Vallarta.  Judging from the line on the tequila bottle, Seamus had continued the night somewhat elsewhere.

After two unsatisfying days in Guadalajara Seamus decided not to continue inland to Guanajuato so after a late groggy breakfast we parted ways and I drove to Guanajuato.  The town is beautiful, mainly car free and has tiny arty cafe’s, bars, multi-hued pastel houses, and cobbled streets – it feels like a European town.

Principal Plaza, Guadalajara, Jalisco, MX

Hummingbird Flowers & Houses (attribution: Lance)

I met Lance an Australian photographer in the Casa Bertha posada and we went to a cantina for a beer.  It was pretty authentic with a load of men drinking heavily and a metal urinal tub against one wall openly exposed to the rest of the bar.   Soon enough a heavy set very drunk Mexican man who introduced himself as Plantano (banana) sat down and menacingly insisted that we were amigos and he wasn’t going to rob us or do bad things – which was enough to make Lance clutch at his knapsack.   We both agreed we liked New York girls very much but Platano wasn’t satisfied with this and suggested we go to meet with some friendly women.  After the second round of enforced drinking I begged off with needing to go to sleep while Lance was to go to his hotel and then out for dinner.

Honey in Guad. market

I met Rick, Mike, and Mario – 3 very sound fellows from California who are riding around Mexico on KLR’s as well and hoping to make it to Guetemala – buena suerte.

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San Francisco to Guadalajara, to Guanajuato MX