May 2022 - Colorful San Miguel de Allende

San Miguel de Allende – in a word, colorful. In two words, colorful and walkable. San Miguel de Allende / San Miguel / SMA is a nice, small city in the middle of Mexico. I use the word “city” because although it is very walkable, it is also quite a decent size, has a bit of a “ring road”, and a fair amount of traffic. It is probably the most colorful place we have been – we heard (unconfirmed) that there is palette of earth tones that people are supposed to select from to paint the outside of their homes and stores. There were also a large number of street murals scattered around and many homes had flowers, trees, and plants for decoration.

Parroquia San Miguel Arcángel

Street murals

Colorful street view

Plaza de la Soledad

We had learned about San Miguel de Allende while doing our original research about moving to Mexico. It was high on our list of places to visit, but its location in the middle of the country didn’t fit with our spring plans to explore the Pacific coastline. But it seemed like a good fit on our way out – who wouldn’t want to stop in a mountain town on the way from the coast to the U.S.? In hindsight, I should have researched the weather a bit more. It turns out that May is the hottest month in San Miguel, just before the rainy season starts in June. So, there we were, in a high mountain town, with weather in the 80s-90s, and no air conditioning in our condo. Most places in San Miguel don’t have AC installed, because it would really only get used for 2 months per year. Unfortunately, our condo also didn’t have screens on the doors and windows, but we hacked together a solution. We bought some screen material at a hardware store and taped it over some open doorways and windows. There were also no drapes, so we hung some of our travel blankets over the exposed glass and a bed sheet over the patio door. We also bought a small evaporative cooler that worked pretty well to keep us cool in the main room. Our modifications really made a difference, and, overall, it was manageable, but we’ll be sure to review the general weather forecasts before we pick our condos in the future.

Our condo was nice, relatively new, and in a decent neighborhood. It was actually much larger than we needed, with 3 bedrooms and 4 beds, but that gave us a good place to spread out our luggage and supplies. As always, we had tile floors in every room, though Gunner seemed to slide around more than in previous condos. In addition to no AC, we also did not have a washer or dryer. Instead, we took our laundry to a local “lavanderia” (laundry service), which provided full-service next-day wash/dry/fold for 22 pesos per kilogram (approximately 50 cents per pound). The kitchen was fully-furnished, we had a good-sized TV, and the wifi was very reliable. We used our Roku to access Netflix and mlb.tv, or my laptop with VPN to access US-Netflix and Sling. MLB was really the only “new thing” for us, and we enjoyed watching the Rockies almost every day.

Gunner's daily play area

The location of our condo was great. It was just north of the Centro, approximately a 20-minute walk. Being outside of the Centro helped for walks with Gunner. We had a small neighborhood park across the street, which was nice to quickly get him out on some grass a few times per day. We found a reasonable loop for his daily walks, which also took us by some local soccer fields. We would throw his bumper and let him run a little more on the fields every day. On most days, we would walk the short distance into town to find some new things to look at or new places to eat. There were some small rolling hills, but nothing significant to make the walk tiring. We would consider staying here again, or at our host’s other property just down the street, if we returned to town.

San Miguel has a good-sized expat population. We never found any actual numbers or statistics, but there were always a good number of gringos walking around. We also saw a lot of Mexican tourists in town – apparent from their style of dress, activities they were doing, etc. With all of the tourism and expats, San Miguel has done a nice job with their food scene. We tried a number of international options, including Lebanese, New Orleans Creole, Italian, Indian curry, burgers, sandwiches, pizza, and a pretty good micro-brewery. We also found some good local options, including a nearby torta shop, and a hidden gem called Ki’bok coffee, with a small lunch menu that included 2 styles of enchiladas that were the best Mexican dishes we can recall during our time in Mexico. There are also a number of street vendors around town, though the only ones we really stopped at were for the nieves de garrafa (ice cream). Two new favorite flavors – chile mango and yaka (jackfruit). San Miguel also has some candy shops carrying a local treat – chocolate truffles that they call “pedos de monja” which translates to “nun farts”. The history of these treats is that they’re based on an Italian truffle recipe and were originally called “pechos de monja” or “nun breasts”. Somehow the name was mis-heard, and they’ve been farts ever since.

San Miguel has a few nice grocery stores, including our typical Soriana, the nicer La Comer, and an offshoot of La Comer, named City Market. Sandy loved the City Market, and shot a number of videos inside to show her family back home. It has a very modern and upscale feel, carries a large selection of gourmet and international foods, a huge aisle of beer and liquor, and even has a restaurant and sushi bar inside. We mainly stuck with our typical fruit and vegetable snacks, but also got some guisos (stews) for at-home meals, and found a decent Centenario Reposado Tequila for about 350 pesos ($18) to mix with Fresca in the evenings. Overall, with so many food options within walking distance, we ate out a lot more than in Manzanillo and dropped our condo meals back down to about 20%.

We had a few touristy excursions during our month in San Miguel. On our first day in town, we went to an artist “village” named La Fabrica. It’s an old fabric factory that has been repurposed as a number of art galleries and a few restaurants. Many of the galleries are run by expats (and are priced accordingly), and we managed to eat at all of the restaurants during our stay, with no complaints. We also took a trip to a local pyramid complex called the Cañada de la Virgen. Our guide was an archeologist from the U.S. who spent a large part of his career excavating the site, before settling in San Miguel, where he now bases his business around guiding tourists at the pyramids and to other local sights. Early one morning, we went for a flight in a hot air balloon with Globo Balloon. Neither of us had ever ridden on a balloon before. The experience was quite nice – we met up as a group for pastries and coffee, then got a ride to the launch site before dawn. We watched the crews lay out and inflate the balloons, then got onto our pre-assigned balloon gondola. We then floated for about an hour, watched the sun rise, drifted right over the town of San Miguel, then over a number of fields and pastures northeast of town. Once back on the ground, the chase team quickly found us and began the process of deflating and packing the balloon, as we headed back to town in a van. Last, we visited El Charco – a local desert botanical garden. They have a very nice set of paths winding through a desert landscape, and a small café where we tried “garambullo” ice cream (garambullo is sort of a Mexican blueberry that grows on a cactus).

Cañada de la Virgen

El Charco botanical gardens

There are a number of small towns near San Miguel. The tiny town of Atotonilco is known for its hot springs, and we went to La Gruta Spa twice during our month in San Miguel. It’s a nice place to soak, with decent snacks and beer, and admission is only 250 pesos ($12.50) per person. There’s really not a lot to see or do in the town of Atotonilco, although they have a church with painted ceilings that has been compared to the Sistine Chapel. We also went to the nearby Pueblo Magicos of Dolores Hidalgo and Comonfort. Both have the traditional walkable historic centros, an array of churches, and lots of people working, walking, and enjoying the towns.

Amazing ceiling in Atotonilco

Street mural in Comonfort

We also took care of some business during our month in San Miguel. Our temporary residency requires an address to be registered with Mexican Immigration. We went to the local INM office, waited in line for an hour, then were able to make an appointment within a couple of weeks. When we returned, we waited for another hour and were able to process our address change form without much issue. Overall, it was good practice for us to interact with INM, as we’ll need to extend our temporary residency visa next December. We also learned how to vote in the South Dakota primary while in San Miguel. We were able to request absentee ballots, print them at the local Office Depot, make our selections, and then drop off our completed / sealed / signed ballots at the U.S. Consular Agency office at the local mall. They then transport them to Mexico City, then to the U.S., then into the standard U.S. Mail. We were able to confirm that our ballots were received in South Dakota in time to be counted in the primary election. Last, we took care of some medical items. We both got our teeth cleaned, I needed a couple of small cavities filled, and Sandy needed a crown replaced. The dentist was very accommodating – they quickly installed a temporary crown and pulled some strings to get the final crown constructed and installed within a week, since that’s all the time we had before heading back to the U.S. Overall, Sandy and I really liked the Grupo Nieto Dental office for their thoroughness, care, and gentleness. So much so, that we will likely try to stop in annually for as long as we’re living in Mexico. The cleanings cost a bit more than I paid in Ajijic - $50 each. The cost to fill 2 cavities was $80 and Sandy’s crown was $375. In addition to the dental work, Sandy had some blood work and a consultation done for her hyperthyroidism. Again, low cost, quick and thorough work, and likely she will continue to see her new doctor on an ongoing basis. I guess we’ll be returning to San Miguel de Allende!

A rare night out

So, yes, we enjoyed our time in San Miguel and would definitely return. It’s a very easy town to get around, with lots of amenities developed over decades of tourism to meet international expectations. Traffic isn’t bad, people are friendly, and we liked being able to walk to most of our destinations most days. Rent (Airbnb) was lower compared to our seaside destinations, but is said to be higher than other mountain locations. Food was on the expensive side. We purposely avoided the highest-end restaurants, but still had great meals for reasonable prices, including some bargains at the more local spots. We’d like to return during a more temperate time of the year (anything other than April or May) or we will look specifically for places with AC.