San Miguel de Allende

Here I am in San Miguel de Allende. My bed is at Hostel Alcatraz a few blocks from the Plaza Jardin. There is a beautiful cathedral there, a park in the square with trees cut in corners, and many, many iron benches where people gather day in and day out. The ex-pats tend to hang out in the front, across from the cathedral. There are a few vendors that walk around trying to unload hats, colorful toys and brightly colored cloth dolls.

Morning and evenings are best here because, even in early March, it tend to get hot here. Besides that, the light is fantastic. There are a few cathedrals and an artisan market nearby and I've been haunting both with my camera. I think I am taking the same pictures over and over because I am so sure the light is better in this one than the last one I took. Silly me. Yellows and oranges are the theme in San Miguel, it seems. The streets are cobblesone and the sidewalks very narrow. I see a lot of big pieces of banded onyx used to pave them.

The bells go on and on. I hardly notice except that they wake me up at night. If they were synchronized it would help, but after one finishes ringing another chimes in. Now I recognize a new sound, that of a man hired to walk down the streets with a length of steel with a handle that he beats constantly. It is a higher pitch and ear splitting. This is the signal that the garbage truck is coming and all down the street I can hear a flurry of activity as people rush to put out the trash.

Part of another cathedral. Check out the concrete bock...it's almost criminal!

Plaza Jardin

Entering the market.