San Miguel

What a weekend!

This has been my overall favorite weekend so far! My sister’s roommate Triveni from NYC came to visit for the weekend. Triveni is in the same Global Health Program with Emily at Columbia. She is currently doing her Public Health Internship in Puebla, Mexico which is why we were able to meet up this weekend.

So anyways, Triveni got into GTO late on Friday night. We woke up early on Saturday morning and headed to the gorgeous town of San Miguel de Allende. San Miguel is about an hour and a half bus ride away from Guanajuato. We were so excited because we got a 50 percent discount on our bus fare because we are all students. The bus ride cost a little over 3 bucks…quite fabulous!

We arrived in San Miguel at about 11:30. Our first stop was STARBUCKS! Some of us took advantage of this unexpected opportunity. I have missed drinking coffee these past few weeks. Starbucks hit the spot!

After our quick coffee break we were off to explore the beautiful city of San Miguel. As I mentioned in earlier posts, my Uncle Bob lived in this town for several years. He married a Mexican woman and had a fantastic life living in San Miguel. San Miguel is a really laid back community and it is known as a stomping ground for retired Americans. The American population of the city is about 10 percent.

After Starbucks we went to the church where my Uncle was married. Upon entering, we saw about 10 babies in white garments being held by parents. A joint baptism service was about to begin. I have noticed that Saturday mornings are for Baptisms, and Saturday afternoons are for weddings. It seems like Catholic churches in Mexico have very busy Saturdays!

After this church, we walked to the nearby church where my Uncles remains are. Upon arrival at Templo San Francisco, we noticed that another Boda (wedding) was about to take place. Upon entering the church, I felt something wet fall from the sky. It was definitely a pigeon with a really good aim! I wasn’t the only one who got attacked either. A man dressed up in a beautiful black suit for the wedding got white Pigeon poo all over him. I am not a big fan of pigeons!

When we made it inside the church, we had to do some major exploring to find the masoleum. We finally ran into a nun who pointed us in the right direction. Her first question for me was where he was buried…in the “antiguas” or “nuevas”. I said the new ones because it has been only a couple of years. The church was really old, so it probably had people who had been enterred there for hundreds of years.

We finally made it down to the crypt and realized, “wow, there are a lot of names”. The way this works is that each family has a closed in box/ locker looking space that is numbered. Some of the boxes are just sealed, and some of them have a key so that they can be opened and closed. Some of the boxes have nameplates too. We probably skimmed 500 or so boxes looking for my Uncle’s name, however we were unsuccessful. We even found a woman who had records of the people whose ashes were in the masoleum, however she was not able to find out where he was in the room. The woman did though remember his name and was perplexed that she could not further help us. It was just special being there!

After that we went to my Uncle’s restaurant: Barbecue Bob’s. This restaurant was AMAZING! The food was so good…and it was all my uncle’s recipes. I hope that someone in the family has the barbecue sauce recipe! I promise that I am not being biased when I say this, but seriously, THE BEST barbecue sauce that I have ever had! Watch out Jim N Nicks!

Guadalupe has done a fabulous job expanding and running this restaurant. Uncle Bob had laid out plans for the restaurant before his death…he was in the process of running a deli/ small restaurant. She started the restaurant up and it is a really classy place! I know that Uncle Bob would have been so proud!

Later on in the day we went to the Market in San Miguel. I found so many cute things…I wanted to buy everything! I did however get some cool things. By the way, Congratulations to Kim Parker and Susan Cronier…they are the winners of the blog contest ☺ Your prizes will be in the mail shortly ☺

Okay, so I am going to get ready for my class. Hope that you have a great day!

Love, Katie

Friday night at an Irish Pub with Sarah, Laurel, Hector and Mary. I am going to miss my Texas friends!

The beautiful Starbucks in San Miguel.

Como se dice Caramel Machiato?

The Church where Uncle Bob and Guadalupe married. This church has French architectural influence.

The Church where my Uncle is. Also the location of a very nice wedding and the pigeon incident.

The market in San Miguel

It seems like almost every Mexican Casa has a bird. Anyone know the significance behind it?

Fruits made from Paper Mache in the market

Smushed in a taxi on our way to Barbecue Bob's. Pictured from left: Matt, Claire, and Monica

In front of the restaurant.

Lemonade is served in Mason Jars with straws. I think that is so cute and southern.

Some pictures of Uncle Bob in the restaurant

The inside to the restaurant. So classy!

The food was delicious! This is the pulled BBQ plate with greens and potato salad!

The bar

Gloria working in the kitchen. She knew Uncle Bob for 8 years.

Gloria and me. She is super sweet!

This was the scene from the street. Does anyone think that this is a little odd?

A gorgeous view from San Miguel

Courtyard

Random retired american woman who we met in the street. She knew exactly who my Uncle was. She said that he was always so kind and funny!

All of us after an eventful day in San Miguel.