Thursday, October 16, 2008

San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato

October 14, 2008


View from our room facing east, to watch the moon and sun rise.


The road from SLP to SMA was free and easy and the drive took 2.5 hours. The town of SMA is known for its foreign community of ~12% (depending on who you talk to), mostly US citizens. It is a lovely Mexican town with your typical ornate cathedrals, markets, central gardens, however has more bars and restaurants than most towns. It caters to tourists of all nationalities. There is a somewhat obvious demarcation for upscale residents and “the other”.

We were told by a Brit transplant during Dec-May and June-September are the high seasons and we hit our visit just right. As usual hotels were empty hence many choices. We chose Hotel Posada “La Gloria” which had a room with a view and an American bed (soft - most Mex beds are hard) in a Mexican style home/hotel. Secure parking close by for 50 pesos/nt and we had a wireless connection, although not the hotels’. The caretaker happened to be a massage therapist and for 200 pesos (~17 USDs) you can get a relaxing one hour massage (yes, we did). Perfect location, very clean and comfortable large rooms, the caretaker did our laundry and dried them on a line (50pesos/load).

Photo above: Bruce with ranger on a small horse, photo right: clothes drying Mexican style (Washingtonians, eat your heart out!).

There is a lot to appreciate here; great weather, easy walking, Spanish language schools, restaurants about town and along the jardin. If you were to stay here for any length of time there is a tennis club and a couple of golf courses which are expanding and many volunteer or other proactive activities. US citizens and other foreigners have brought money into SMA. However, the prices of homes are no different than the US, but you can have a 42h/wk maid for 58 USDs and a driver/valet 6 d/wk for 70USDs. According to the Brit, home prices have stopped rising for the first time in 30+ years and you can offer 10-20% off real estate. Greater than 90% of home owners here do not finance, they pay in full.
We can see the attraction to this city, but we were ready to move on after 3 days.

Photo above: The Streets of San Miguel. Photo below: Bruce's hero.

2 comments:

Donna said...

Nice pix of our town! I especially love the "man and dog sleeping in the sun" shot.

If your readers would like to see/learn more about San Miguel de Allende, they can visit http://www.experience-san-miguel-de-allende.com for lots of info and dozens of photos.

Donna

Guanajuato Real Estate said...

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