Cynful Musings: Arriving in Mexico

I have started downloading my trip photos, all 1600 of them. I told myself I wasn't going to photograph anything I took a picture of when I visited San Miguel de Allende last year and for the most part, I think I was successful in achieving that goal. Nevertheless, there was lots of prime subject matter. Here are some photos from the first day.

The flight down was uneventful, although getting on the plane took a lot longer than I have ever experienced before. My flight was at 6:30 am so I arrived at the airport about 4:40 a.m., expecting things would be quiet. Instead, there were lineups everywhere. Apparently, they had just started processing everyone at 4:30, so the backlog was huge. By the time I got through customs and security, it was 6:10 and they had already started boarding the plane! On the plus side, clear skies all the way to Dallas and then on to Leon, Mexico.

Our first stop after meeting our driver, Luis, at the airport was the drive-through liquor store (which is built very much like our car washes - you drive in and there are stand up glass fronted coolers lined up inside filled with all manner of bottled cold drinks, both alcoholic and non). I've only ever seen this type of facility in Australia. The only difference being in the land of Oz, you're just there to pick up supplies. In Mexico, they open the bottles for you and you can drive off consuming same if you so desire. Lucky for us, Luis only wanted a bottle of water. :)

But that's not the only thing that's different in Mexico. It always surprises me to see people riding in the back of pickup trucks, especially when they are young children.

The Xmas reindeer are already on display, lined up along the street as you drive through a certain small town, there to entice potential shoppers. These dogs certainly seemed to find them of interest!

I remembered this sign from last year's visit and tried hard to get a photo of it. As you can see, it's not easy to do from the back seat of a moving car, I wasn't overly successful.

My rudimentary knowledge of Spanish made me wonder exactly what a sign pointing to "Canada of the Virgin" might be but according to Wikipedia, it is a pre-Columbian archeological site. One of these days, I hope to visit there to see the ruins.

We arrived in San Miguel de Allende in time for dinner on a nearby rooftop terrace just as the sun was setting. The Parroquia looked just as beautiful as I remembered it in the setting sun.

Joey, Pat, Bonnie and Beatriz

After we ate (famished after as many as 12 hours of travelling with little or no food - when did they stop having food available on airplanes?!), we strolled over to the Jardin (pronounced "hardeen") to see what was going on. It was the start of a holiday weekend and the locals were out celebrating, socializing and enjoying the pleasant evening weather.

Then we headed back to Casa Carmen, where we were staying for the week, to enjoy a fiesta in the courtyard. The fountain looked beautiful, decorated with candles and flowers.