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| Across Presa Begonias to San Miguel de Allende |
Pulling out of Irapuato was not as easy as it sounded. Locating MEX45 east towards Salamanca on my way to San Miguel de Allende (SMdA) turned out to be a little bit of a challenge. Somehow I got turned around and was heading the wrong way. Once I figured that out, I turned around heading in the right direction only to miss the exit and proceeded 10km past the intended turn off. Getting back to where I needed to be was another story entirely. Long story short, I found my way back to MEX45 heading in the right direction towards Salamanca. Once I passed Salamanca I was looking for my next turn off at Villagran heading north to Sta. Cruz de J. Rosa.
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| Streets of SMdA posing young ballerina |
Exiting the off ramp I was blocked behind a large broken down truck with a dozen cars piling up behind me clogging the narrow ramp. Noticing that the truck was not going anywhere, I had only one option to move forward. To my left was a very large curb about 14" high and very little room to maneuver.
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| Cinderella's Castle SMdA |
Turning my wheel left against the curb I shifted into 4wd lo. I crawled up the driver side with my front and back wheels on to the curb as well as part of the retaining wall resting my rig at a sharp angle. I slowly maneuvered around the derelict truck bringing my rear left wheel down on the same angle with just a fraction of a inch to spare. (I could have used a spotter).
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| street in SMdA |
Driving through
Villagran put me on the back-road I wanted to take into
SMdA through the country of rolling hills around the river and enter from the south through
Presa Begonias. A beautiful winding drive among the rolling hills, cacti and mesquite.
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| cool bar SMdA stone anvil and wooden dugouts |
Crossing the bridge to
MEX57 20km south of
SMdA I entered the city
"Magico" at about 3pm. Back in the day this place would be truly
"Magico". Gripping the wheel in bumper to bumper traffic, negotiating the narrow winding one way cobblestone streets, against the steep terrain, you can't help but notice the abundant ornate colonial architecture staring down at you. After a bunch of twists and turns, I spotted parking in the shade and quickly parked. The ageless jardin in front of me was just one of many. Every where you looked was another pic to be taken. Grabbing a ice cold coke light I consulted my maps and got a feel for the lay of the city. Setting out on foot I walked around navigating the many narrow side streets discovering less traveled sights away from the conspicuous touristy crowd.
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| Monument in Parque Benito de Jardin |
Behind all this colonial architecture were over priced coffee shops (barista's), bars, accommodations, chi chi vegetarian/vegan restaurants and pizza joints. I swear the first thing that came to mind was
"chingon is this Disneyland in Mexico". People walking around in store bought costumes most had nothing to do with Mexico's rich culture sadly geared more on the commercial end of the spectrum. Hipsters with super skinny jeans, man-buns, oversized watches and ultra-bright neon Nike's. Artsy-fartsy types with multi-colored A-symmetrical bob haircuts sporting rose colored granny glasses wearing hemp fabric clothes from some high-end NY designer. But the Colonial architecture is
"holy out-of-control batman" amazing! Heck they even have Cinderella's castle plus fireworks day and night. I also saw more than once, someone dressed as Divine's character in John Waters film, Hairspray, can you say
"Chile Verde!!".
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| in good company RV park SMdA |
I had to get settled in a campsite close to town, laundry, shower, a shave, Internet and electricity were top of the list, plus catch-up on my blog activity. I found
San Miguel RV Park and Tennis courts at the edge of town. Just the ticket full blown clay tennis courts and campsites within walking distance to the many Disney attractions. Making camp I woke the next morning to rapid-fire booming explosions, fireworks at 5am continuing til 8am a bit over the top.
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| Canada de la Vlrgen |
After my coffee I set out on foot dodging the Madd Hatter, The Cat in The Hat, Mrs Potts and the tea cups plus a slue of Batman's taking pics while walking through the steep cobblestone streets and stairwells. I just saw Beetle-juice driving a Audi!! Now, I really have blisters on my feet.
Parque Benito de Jardin is a cool large old growth park that was empty accept for some lo-fi artists quietly selling their work displayed on benches in the park.
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| (top) House of the 13 heavens, (bottom) House of the longest night, the most complex architecturally space of the site |
A couple nights of catching up getting laundry and blog up to date I pulled-up stakes and headed to
Canada de la Vlrgen a
GTO site of ruins for a tour. About 27km south of
SMdA, for a couple of bucks it was a 2.5 hr 3km walking guided tour through the extensive ruins complete with ancient gardens of food and medicine. This amazing site was built with the moon and the sun as its architect.
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| Top of ruins looking over the gardens |
The tour was in Spanish so I only caught a few meanings but some of the signs were in English and I was able to get some of the translations. Totally well worth going the magnitude of the overall site was astounding as well as presentation and preservation.
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| pan cacti ancient gardens |
After the tour resting my blistered feet I had a lite lunch in the parking lot and to my surprises I had a unexpected visitor we snacked on chichrron with hummus and queso, jamon, jalapeno roll-ups.
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| Tour Guide ancient gardens |
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| unexpected lunch guest |
Backtracking through
Presa Begonias heading west I had my sights set on
Guanajuato a old silver mining town carved out of a mountains.
Hope to see you on the Trail!!....
🚙.......
