We had made reservations for Christmas at a campground in the town of San Miguel de Allende, so we said our goodbyes to our excellent hosts in Guanajuato and drove about an hour to San Miguel.

We got set up and headed out for a walk to get oriented in the new city.  We immediately noticed something that we haven’t seen much of since being in Puerto Vallarta….other non-Mexicans!  In addition to its tourists, San Miguel has a large American and Canadian ex-pat community.  Many people have chosen to retire here due to the pleasant year round climate (eternal spring), the beauty of the city itself, and a thriving arts scene.

The next day, the 24th, we took Piper to an off leash dog park that we had heard about.  There, we met a Canadian lady who first started coming to San Miguel in the 1960s.  She and her husband were part of the hippy movement and both taught at the art institute in town;  he painting, she weaving.  She told me a few stories about the crazy early days they had in San Miguel, stories of the young men getting rounded up and taken to the main plaza where the authorities shaved off their long hair, or of people getting arrested and taken to the jail in Guadalajara for smoking marijuana.

And there remains an atmosphere of peaceful protest in and around town….for example, we saw a chalk board sign outside of a restaurant that said “Smile, you are on the fun side of Trump’s wall”, or pin badges saying “Make America Mexican again!” and we saw lots of long gray locks tied back in pony tails.

We let Piper wear herself out at the park and then stashed her in the camper.  We headed out for a long walk around town, wandering the cobblestone streets with no real plan, turning in the direction of church spires or following our noses to a coffee shop.  We had decided that we would return to camp for a while and then come out again in the evening to see the main plaza at night with all of the Christmas lights lit.

When we returned to our campground, there down the centre aisle of the grassy lot was table after table, filled with food, cheer and our fellow campers!  We had seen posters for a potluck, but hadn’t recognized the name of the camp ground as the one we were staying in (goes by a few names, I guess)!  Although empty handed, we were invited to join the party and we sat and chatted with our neighbours for several fun filled hours.

Later, we headed out to see the Christmas lights.  Some of the pictures that follow are not great – I tend to use my phone when we are in a town as it attracts less attention and weighs a lot less, but it is hard to get good shots at night…but you can get the idea of how things looked.

Christmas day, we revisited the off leash park, and strolled around Juarez Park and climbed through steep narrow cobblestone streets to a mirador (lookout) for a great view of the city.  We decided to go for some appetizers before cooking ourselves a nice dinner.  The restaurant we chose was called 13 Cielos, which translates into13 Skies.  It is a reference to Aztec mythology, where the 13 Cielos represent 13 stages of life, the last being a heaven like afterlife.   The restaurant is in an awesome stone building that was originally used as a stable…very fitting for Christmas day, I think, having squash flower quesadillas and duck flautas in a former stable (you know, cause there was no room at the inn).

 

The campground in San Miguel was full of travellers.  Some have been living on the road for five or six or even more years!  We were with people from Canada, the United States, Switzerland, Germany and Argentina, and some of the rigs are pretty amazing.

We were walking past one traveller’s site, a man from Germany, and saw that he had a map of Mexico out.  The roads he had travelled on were highlighted in yellow….and there was a lot of yellow on the map.  He has been on the road for over five years, all over the world.  We got talking to him and told him we were thinking of driving down the coast of the Mexican states of Michoacan and Guerrero.  We looked down at his map.  There was no yellow on his map in either of those two states.

He told us that he knew of a few people who had been robbed in those areas in full daylight, and that he had chosen to not travel there due to safety concerns.  Earlier in our trip we met a very well travelled man from France.  If I have the story right (my apologies if it is a little off), in his twenties he had planned on spending two months on his motor bike in Northern Africa but beauty of the desert sucked him in.  He emerged two years later with some amazing tales of both North and West Africa.  He now lives in Mexico and he had also said that he had concern about those states…hmmmm….So, two different men, who obviously are not afraid of adventure in far off destinations, each independently tell us that they think an area may be too risky to justify the beautiful beaches….should we rethink this?

So, we have decided to alter our plans.  We have an AirBNB house booked for New Year’s Eve at Lake Chapala which is towards the west coast, but when we leave there we have decided to head back inland for more touring in the high country before returning to the coast in Oaxaca State.  Lots of travellers have driven the Michoacan and Guerrero coast with no issues, but we have decided that we are not going to risk it….crime can happen anywhere, but why knowingly go somewhere where it is more likely.   Since making the decision to alter our route we have done some research on places to visit on the updated route, and we are excited by what is on the horizon!