San Miguel de Allende is a world-wide famous town in the center region of Mexico. Last weekend my boyfriend, my sister and me went there to meet our parents and had a family reunion.
San Miguel is located aprox. 4 hours driving from Guadalajara. The roads are excellent and have a very interesting landscape, mostly desert.
We arrive in San Miguel at night. We stayed at Hotel
La Ermita, a nice hotel located 5 blocks near from down. This hotel used to be the weekend house of the famous mexican comedian Cantinflas.
After refresh, we went walking downtown to find a place to have dinner. We walked first to Casa Payo but it was empty and then we went to a Oaxaqueño restaurant but it was closed. Tired and hungry, we found La Fragua, a restaurant besides La Parroquia. That night they have a singer who was performing covers of spanish hits (Miguel Bosé, Juan Gabriel, Yuri)... that music is not my favorite my any means, but the atmosphere was nice. By being that close to La Parroquia we had the chance to go out in the cold and see a wonderful show of lights, music and fireworks.
Then we finally ate something... we had some micheladas (beer with lemon, sauces and salt) and we ordered some snacks to share: Sopa del Patrón (tomato soup with tortilla, chicharron, avocado, onion and cheese), arrachera tacos, shrimp tacos, crab cake and a shrimp salad with avocado. The food was ok, but nothing relevant...
You are not missing anything if you don´t go to La Fragua, and even less if you don´t like the music they are playing there because is loud and you can´t even talk with the person beside you.
After this dinner we walked all the way up to the hotel and sleep to be ready for the next day.
We had breakfast in the hotel and then we had a walking tour. We went to La Casa de La Cultura, to some nice hotels, to Parque Juárez and visit an organic market (where we tried organic cheese, wine, bread and juices). We saw many beautiful places with gorgeous colours, trees and art everywhere. Last time I visited in San Miguel was almost 10 years ago, and this time I could appreciate much more the architecture of hidden places and I could also walk more and have a better view of this amazing place.
Then, we had lunch in Alborada, a small restaurant with vintage toys and mexican decoration. We had there mexican food: beans, flautas with chicken (cheers Damon!!), beers, tostadas de pata (pig leg), red rice, dried meat and guacamole.
After that we took a cab to
Fábrica La Aurora, an amazing place that used to be a textile factory and now is a place dedicated to art and design, with galleries and shops full of great articles and exhibitions. Here you would find textiles, ceramic, furniture, paintings, pottery, sculptures and even a coffee shop. It is a wonderful place to spend an entire day. I recommend to go in the morning because they close very early and it is so big that you can´t see all in two hours.
We had the chance to see a great exhibition from
Paloma Torres work. She is a young mexican artist, with a very interesting style (a fusion between architecture, pottery and functionalism).
We came back to downtown in the evening and went to the hotel to have some wine, with bread and cheese (all organic, bought in the organic market). After that we walked down to El Manantial (proclaimed the oldest cantina in San Miguel that became now La Sirena Gorda, but kept the famous name and the original fachade).
In that place we had delicious ginger margaritas (this recipe won a contest, so you better try it), listen to good music and have dinner with tuna sashimi (the best), tostadas de tiritas (a typical dish from Zihuatanejo, Guerrero made with fish cooked with lemon and purple onion), shrimp and bacon tacos, "al pastor" fish, fish "carnitas style" and many more margaritas!
For dessert we had cheese cake. After all those delicious dishes we walked again to the hotel.
In sunday we had to say goodbye to San Miguel. We had breakfast in San Agustín (a crowded place where you can eat churros and chocolate), bought some souvenirs in the Main Market and then we traveled back home.
It was just a weekend and it is too little time to explore this fantastic town, but we had a great time and this visit made us want to come back again.
