Where to even begin! Our day started with a 2 hour mini road trip through the pueblos of Mexico with 3 oh so very clean rental cars (I'm being sarcastic). Cars were full of friends and family, very excited to finally visit the much talked about famous "World Heritage site"; San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato. Finally all packed and on the road, of course not even 5 minutes from leaving our house our friends start sending the long awaited "I'm hungry" group chats. Josi, the designated driver for the day, quickly said "Oh I have this bomb spot we can stop by before San Miguel". So we text back the group chat and made it clear to everyone that Josi had "a spot" we were going to stop by before arriving to our destination. We failed to tell them however, that "the spot" was closer to San Miguel then to us. Haha, that will get them off our back for a little while so we can get to San Miguel as soon as possible; so we thought. For undisclosed other reasons we still ended up having to make not 1, or 2, or 3 but 5 back to back bathroom breaks before we even got to "the spot"!
"Almost there" Josi' kept saying. We quickly started to realize he had never been to this "spot" when we noticed how lost we were. Luckily, after begging him to just ask a few locals for directions (which they all hate to do) we finally, after an hour and a half arrived to "the spot" for some food! Let me keep this short and cute. Fifteen starving people, entered a small quesadilla establishment, ate and drank until they couldn't breath anymore, for 400 pesos; the equivalent of $25 dollars.....and back on the road we went, this time making sure everyone was relieved of their duties and with a molcajete big enough to feed guacamole to a whole stadium.
Well, let me quickly skip through the part about how once being in San Miguel de Allende, it took us about another hour to find parking, because it gets certain people mad just thinking about it (I swear I'm going to get it when everyone reads this!).
At last! After what was supposed to be to a 2 hour drive but was more like 5, the crew was out of their rentals and ready for a day in San Miguel de Allende. Right off the back, walking through the streets of San Miguel felt magical. It was simply captivating, a site to see!
The way the historic buildings were all aligned and with a matching color pallet instantly made it feel like being in another era. The rustic, black, wrought iron balconies were just the perfect pop of color to each house. We were overwhelmed with so many ideas on areas to take pictures for the Güariz site!
While strolling through the old, paved, brick streets on our way to El Centro, we couldn't help but stop at almost every little boutique, because how could we not? Their set ups are amazing, so eye catching, full of color and so many little things that grabs your attention and just lures you in. Streets are just erupting with cafes, art galleries, upscale restaurants and bars.
I personally just loved the way everything is decorated with such vibrant colors. Everything is hand-made, hand-painted & can be personalized for everyone. Not any two things are exactly the same! Such a unique experience to be able to see how everyone hustles for a little extra income right outside their homes. From selling sugar skulls, flower pots, balloons to selling food and snacks, pretty much anything you can imagine!
From a distance we finally started to see little pink pinnacles poking through the skyline of the famous "La Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel", the main church in San Miguel. We had no idea how breath taking the actual castle-like structure would be. The closer we got, the bigger it got just towering over El Jardin. Architect Zeferino Gutierrez designed this neo-Gothic design with influences of European lithographs from Belgian and German churches. Entrance to the church is free, still used for religious purposes and anyone is welcomed to attend.
After what seemed to be a mission to walk, we sat down for a while in El Jardin to endure the ambiance and relax for a bit. El Jardin is an area where people come spend time to hang-out, people watch a.k.a chismiar, eat some local vendor goodies and let the children run wild after a day in the near by shops and restaurants. There were so many people that day, you can tell everyone was in vacation-mode. Thankfully the weather was good, not too hot for being the middle of July.
Every where we looked there was something cool to see. From the hundreds of real dried flower crowns all the girls were buying and wearing, to the crowds of tourist surrounding the little entertainment show being put on by live, mannequin-like people.
Vendors would gather around you every chance they got to offer you their products. Let me just say this now, you CAN NOT be on a diet in Mexico. Food literally chases you around, from ice cream, to homemade churros and pan, and its dirt cheap! How can you not? It seemed as if Alesso apparently didn't have a problem struggling with his weight....
.....and apparently neither did I. We ended up choosing a local much suggested place to eat. Yes, it wasn't what we initially wanted. We thought "Pizza?". We could eat that in the states!", but since a few places we tried to dine in at didn't allow children (this was our fault for yelping 'bars' by the way) we decided, okay that's enough walking around, let's just give this pizza place a try! We ordered a few huge pizzas, literally asked for a drink every single time the waiter walked by and spent the rest of the afternoon there with the crew.
Overall, our day in San Miguel de Allende fulfilled that need to see El Pueblo Magico to the max. Hearts were happy, tummies were full & the adults not driving back were a little happier then usual (if you know what I mean). It was the end of the day, we were all beat by all the walking and ready for the mini, HOPEFULLY 2 hour trip back home.