Day one in San Miguel

We were awakened first by the clang of the garbage truck beneath our window sometime before daylight followed shortly by several loud explosions announcing that it was the saint’s day honoring the Virgin of Loreto. Since we live on the corner of Cuesta de Loreto it is an especially auspicious celebration and they wanted to be sure no one in the neighborhood forgets it.

We walked first down the hill to our favorite breakfast, Ruth’s. She has run a B&B since the 30s and must be several hundred years old but she serves a mean 30 peso breakfast. Fill your plate with as much fresh fruit as it will hold, eggs “al gusta” and toast, plus endless coffee served family style so you can chat with mostly interesting people, all for about $2.75. After a quick stroll through town and a check of our email at our mail forwarding service, we took the bus back up the hill.

The plan of the day was to get the Suzuki started and grocery shop at the local Mega supermarket. Everything takes longer than planned, including picking up Sparklets type drinking water bottles.

Around 4 we walked to a favorite middle-eastern restaurant to eat kabob and then wandered into the center of town. We left our camera at home so you are going to have to imagine the gathering in front of the government building featuring the Queen of San Miguel and her court of wanna-be princesses surrounded by government dignitaries. This large gathering circled the central garden square lead by a spiffy military band playing spiffy military music. The band was followed by 6 young women in black miniskirted suits and very high heels (on cobblestones!) marching smartly and carrying a sign identifying the band as the Queen’s guards. After the band came photographers walking backwards, recording the court and dignitaries as they pasted large posters on boards located on each corner of the park announcing the schedule of the city celebrations for the next several months. Following this was another! band playing in a much less disciplined fashion. Did I mention the church bells ringing in the square? A very San Miguel moment.

Around midnight the wedding party at the hotel down the street celebrated with a full-on fireworks display which, fortunately, we were able to enjoy through our window from our bed. Apparently the celebration for the Virgin of Loreto continues into Sunday because from 6-6:30 am we were reminded with explosions, punctuated with puffs of white smoke. But that's another day...