San Miguel de Allende

Right next to the place we ate lunch (inside a mercado), there was a mask shop. Ellie turned into Donkey! Bahaha!

This is a cathedral built in 1564. The inside architecture is as beautiful as the outside. Very cool. And the weather couldn't have been better. It rained almost the entire ride there, and stopped just before we arrive. It was overcast and felt like 65-70 degrees. Shweeet!Dos locas at the mercado. We're taking the first steps of teaching them Spanish--donning the sombreros!


Here's the parrot in the garden at our hotel (read below). This was a kick in the pants!

These ficus trees are trimmed so beautifully! Mom would really "dig" the gardens here! Lots of flowers, fountains, and neatly trimmed hedges, too. You can see Abuelitos in this pic.

Here we are walking around.

Today has to be the best day so far! We brought Abuelitos with us and met up with Mar (Maho's brother) and Kelly and family (who drove here from Michigan). They have 5 kids almost all the same ages as ours (and we all have a blast together). We went to a place North about 3 hours from Tula to a place called San Miguel de Allende. Wonderful little place!! I LOVE it! It's a small colonial village with cobblestone and brick streets, Spanish architecture (reminds me so much of Madrid), beautiful gardens, and an old world Latin flavor! It's simply charming and adorable. In fact, Maho and the ninas and I are staying in a hotel here tonight. It, too, is beyond charming. It is also surrounded by a lovely garden, in the middle of which is a talking parrot!!

When we arrived at the hotel we kept hearing someone whistling as if at a pretty girl. Later we realized it was a parrot in a cage in the garden! We got right up close to him, and he started talking to us, "Hola," he kept saying. We got a kick out of that and starting laughing. Then the parrot started laughing, mimicking us! It was hilarious!! Between "Hola," his cat call whistling, and laughing, the parrot was a riot. I took photos of it but I'm having serious camera problems. All the photos I'm posting today were taken on Maho's Blackberry. How can I be here without a camera?!?

Tonight we went to a cafe owned by a famous Mexican actress named Margarita Gralia. We'd never heard of her, but she showed up there and was signing autographs and letting people take photos with her. We were more excited about our churros and European-style hot chocolate! Yum! Even when trying to avoid sugar, one must make some exceptions. Hot chocolate and churros in San Miguel de Allende is an exceptional place to make that exception! =)

As we walked back to the hotel (a few cobblestone blocks away), there was a taco stand that Maho couldn't pass up. While he and some of the girls stood at the stand and ate some outstanding tacos, Tessy and Ellie and I danced to the music of a guitarist closeby that I spoke to. When he realized we were from the U.S. he played some Beatles music for us! Then we got to chatting. I told him we are from Utah and asked if he had heard of our state. "Si!" he said. "Utah Jazz!"

I could spend a week or more here! Makes me want to buy a place to rent out and vacation at. Another nice thing here is, since a tourist-y area, the bathroom accomodations are much nicer: you don't have to pay 30 pesos to go; there is always toilet paper, and the toilets have seats! Things we really take for granted in the states!

Tomorrow we are off to Guanjuato, which we are told is much like this place. It is about 30 min from here.