48 hours in San Miguel de Allende.

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.

Sayulita, mon amour.

Every trip is special. But this one, was one that changed my life.
Last november 23 was my birthday and my boyfriend gave me a small orange box with a note inside saying: Vale x 1 Viaje. Viajes especiales para princesas (Special trips for Princesses) I knew he wanted to take me somewhere in the beach because the requirements he asked (swimsuit, light clothes, a book) but I didn't had an idea of where exactly we were going.
But on friday he picked me up at 7 am and we head to the beach.... somewhere in Nayarit. We arrived frist in Guayabitos, located in Nayarit. Guayabitos is a small town with beach and we stopped there to have a beer and a couple of fish pies. We decided to keep going and finally we arrived to our destiny: Sayulita and Villa Amor (http://www.villaamor.com)
Villa Amor is an amazing place located in one of Sayulita hills, just in front of the beach. Ricardo, a main character in this story and the concierge of Villa Amor, was waiting for us. He took us to our bedroom.. 100 steps up..
The room had a great view of the bay and it had palm-made roof, white courtains, shells... a paradise on the beach. And they were waiting for us with a bottle of cool white wine, a plate of cheese, salami and fruit skewers.

After we freshed up and unpacked we went to the town... and had dinner in El Costeño, a place in front of the beach..We started with mango and strawberry margaritas and we ate, with our feet in the sand, fish tacos, guacamole, and shrips with garlic... Sayulita gave us a delicious welcome.
Paco and I had a walk in the town and discovered a great shop with moroccan furniture.
We were tired and went to sleep with the sound of the waves invading our room.

Next day we woke up very early, had coffee in the bed and then we had breakfast at Break Fast, a nice place in fornt of the beach where the surfers practice (Sayulita is a well-known and famous place among surfers and you can see them all over the beach, from beginners to experts). In Break Fast we had burritos, smotthies (the best ones I have tried) and spanish tortilla. You have to visit this place if you are in Sayulita... it has great food, is cheap and you can see hot surfers walk all over the place.

After a good breakfast we went to explore the sea in kayaks... it is a very good option to spend the day and you can rent them quite easily in the shore. We row to Playa Los Muertos, a semi-deserted beach besides Sayulita. I was scared at the begining, because I felt so small and indefense in that small thing in the vast and inmese ocean, but after a while I started to feel more confident and enjoyed it.. until we arrived to Playa Los Muertos and a wave took us out of our kayaks and the ocean ate Paco's sunglasses, our camera and a towel.. but Poseidon listened to Paco's pray and gave us back our camera.. all wet and kaput.. but at least we could recover the memory stick with our photos.
I was scared again... but I knew I had to come back through the waves... we couldn't walk back to the hotel.. and we jumped into our kayaks and break the waves all the way back to the hotel's shore.

After all that excersice we had a couple of micheladas in front of the sea and read a book. And later we had a spa and massage session, sooo relaxing!

And at 6 o' clock we had an appointment.. a dinner Paco had arranged... and we had to be punctual.. but I didn't know why Paco couldn't wait.,. we dressed up and walk all the way down the stairs.. and we sat in the table that was asigned for us.. a very romantic spot in front of the sea... and the waiter brought two glasses of white wine.. and inside.. there it was... a ring!! Paco asked me if I want to marry him.. of course I say yes! It was so romantic.. with great music (Beth Orton, Creedence, Martin Gore, Joaquin Sabina, just songs that had meaning for us) and delicious food: salmon spring rolls, pear and arugula salad with goat cheese, mahi mahi with vegetables and caper and for dessert chocolate brownie with black berries, jamaica and star fruit. I could barely eat but still it was amazing.

Next morning I was starving and we woke up early and went to the beach to a restaurant we saw in Trip Advisor called Capitan's Cook. We ordered shrimp and octopus cocktail, fish tacos and shrimp tostadas. It was good, but quite expensive compared to the other places we were before.
That day we decided to explore the beach. We walked to the camping zone and buy a coconut in a colorful tent. Then we walked more and arrived to a wall of rocks.. we climbed ... and then we arrived again to Playa Los Muertos and stay there for a while. And after that we walked through the jungle to Playa Carricitos, a hidden paradise with very few persons and a very quiet place to be alone.
We came back at 4 pm, very tired.. and thirsty... so we decided to have a beer in front of the sea and after we went to have dinner in the town.
This time, after a long walked of indecision, we tried Tacos & Beer. They sell fish and shrimp tacos.. but oh god, they were the best fish taco's i have ever tried... the meat was grilled with soy sauce and lemon, and the tacos had purple cabbage, mexican sauce (onion, tomato and green chile), dressing and guacamole.. if you go to Sayulita, I really recommend you to try this place. It is cheap, clean and delicious.

This was our last night in Sayulita.

Next day we went again to have breakfast at Break Fast and this time we had a guava and mango smoothie and salmon and cream cheese bagels.. we went back to the hotel and start packing.. it was time to say hasta pronto to beaufitul Sayulita.

I really hope we can come back soon, because Sayulita is now carved deep in my heart.