RIGHT OF WAY
I finally realized that there are no stop signs in San Miguel and then I realized why. Because it is an old city the streets are narrow so only one way traffic is possible. You either have to look left or right, not both ways, before crossing a street. But I soon noticed that even though there is a steady stream of one way traffic a pedestrian has only to show that she is crossing the street, even in the middle of a block, and the cars will stop. And that is when I noticed that there are no stop signs here. At every intersection cars take turns crossing with the alternate cars stopping as they also stop for pedestrians. There is no right of way.
In most places that I am acquainted with stop signs and traffic signals are a way of indicating who has the right of way. If you counter this right of way, either as a driver or a pedestrian you do it at your peril. But in San Miguel, as pedestrians do everywhere on the sidewalk, people feel their way along being careful not to run into anyone. The cobblestone street slow down traffic, go fast and the car will begin to vibrate violently. Plus, it seems that every hundred feet or so there is a hump in the road, a speed break, that forces cars almost to a full stop as they cross the hump. So traffic everywhere in San Miguel is forced to go very slow. Sidewalks are very narrow and it is impossible to see around the corner buildings at every cross road without a stop sign so drivers slow down at every corner. So there seem to be no accidents as every driver feels his way along gingerly and pedestrians cross the street through the traffic which is always ready to stop. Just as pedestrians maneuver their way past each other on the sidewalk without running into each other, cars seem to do the same thing here in San Miguel.
I stayed in all day, decided to go out at 5 p.m. and just as I stepped on the street Martha called and said she was nearby. So we had dinner together in a very nice restaurant and then walked through the wooded square in front of the cathedral, stopping to watch a mariachi band, which I videoed here, before she got in a taxi and I walked back to my airbnb.
MARIACHI BAND
https://share.icloud.com/photos/088sDP59IjD0C2lxomMny2plg
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 