SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE
San Miguel de Allende is completely different from the little towns we drove through on the way from Leon. Most of the streets are black cobblestone, which makes for a bumpy ride but is beautiful. There are gardens everywhere, often succulent lined walkways. Most of the shops are painted vibrant pastel colors. There is one boutique shop after another selling pottery and weaving and clothing and art work of every kind. There are restaurants everywhere. We ate in a very nice outdoor Japanese restaurant, Chikitana, with a wonderful but pricey $8 meal but Martha assured me that there were chicken
places everywhere that were much cheaper.
San Miguel is as arty as the River Arts District in Asheville was before it got washed away by tropical storm Helene. And there is the same clientele in both places, here tourists from all over North America and well to do Mexican tourists from Mexico City. It turns out that my airbnb where I will be for the middle two weeks of my trip is right in the center of this colorful art district and only a block away from the huge cathedral on the tree shaded square in the center of town.
I come from a tourist town, Asheville, which is very different from the other towns of Western North Carolina. I can’t be critical of tourist towns. But I am well aware of the gap between the well to do people who visit Asheville and the people who work in the hotels and restaurants of Asheville who cannot even afford to live in Asheville. Much of what delights me about Asheville is either out of reach or not of interest to people who live in Swannanoa or other small towns around Asheville. My MAGA barber has great contempt for Asheville and the hoity toity people who work or visit there. And I’m guessing that something similar happens in attitudes toward San Miguel de Allende.
Of course, many people fly in, as I have done, from far away, stay for a week or two and overspend in order to have a marvelous vacation and then fly away. Many American expats on their American retirement incomes can afford to live comfortably here. English is spoken everywhere.
So there is something uncomfortable, even as I am having a great time, with staying in San Miguel de Allende. There is also an irony in the fact that so many in the United States want to build walls to keep the poor out of the United States, while rich Americans, not needing a visa, come to Mexico to live because middle class Americans can be much cheaper here because of the lower standard of living.
That said, Mexico seems to be a place, rich in culture and variety, where it is wonderful to live. And that said, I have only been here two days, everything is different, and first impressions can change with experience so, in a month, who knows how much I will agree with what I have written here.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 